Larry Kart Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Dig Harry's bluesy variations and Helen's blend of reserve and intimacy. What musicians they both were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free For All Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Link? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.A.W. Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 (edited) The Complete Helen Forrest with the Harry James Orchestra - Collectors' Choice Music CCM 81 Edited February 27, 2009 by J.A.W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free For All Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 I really like the way Anita O'Day sang the song back in the 40's. Just beautiful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted February 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Link? Sorry -- I'm a forgetful idiot sometimes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUwfzy9In8I Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Very nice indeed. Thanks for that. (I've got to dig up the Anita O'Day version.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free For All Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 One of Hoagy's best IMO. Helen and Harry in their prime & some nice laid-back ensemble figures after the vocal chorus. Thanks Larry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted February 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Forrest's "The Man I Love" with Benny Goodman (Eddie Sauter arrangment) is f------- exquisite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVCqX0v6U6A...feature=related though Forrest was among the many who couldn't stand the "self-absorbed, rude, impossibly tightfisted" B.G. ("The twenty or so months I spent with Benny felt like twenty years"). She finally quit ("Find another singer, and find her fast") while the band was playing the Sherman Hotel in Chicago, this leading fortuitously to the hiring of Peggy Lee, who was singing at The Buttery at the Ambassador East, where Benny and his wife to be Alice Hammond were staying (it was she who saw Lee first and told Goodman he should check her out). In a typical B.G. move, he then required Forrest, whose contract still had a month to run, to sit alongside Lee on the bandstand every night for the duration, without singing a note. When asked why the popular Forrest wasn't performing, B.G. would say, "She's got laryngitis." But we still have "The Man I Love." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free For All Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 The Buttery Not sure if I'd go into that place..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted February 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 On the other hand, there's Lee Wiley with Condon, Hackett, Teagarden, Ernie Caceres et al: I don't have to choose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free For All Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 (edited) Helen does have a wonderful voice and her own niche, no question. It sure sounds like she's checked out a lot of Billie*. Larry, you forgetful idiot, you've done it again! * phrasing, time Edited February 27, 2009 by Free For All Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 (edited) I had the pleasure of twice playing in a group that backed Helen Forrest, 1982 & 1983 in Albuquerque. She still sang superbley, and not in a "for her age" type way either. On top of that, she was a real sweetheart too. My folks came into town to hear her the first time, and I told her that my dad was a big fan from back in the day and would really appreciate having his picture taken with her. She accommodated that request with no small enthusiasm, and later that night gave me a solo spot on "The Man I Love", going so far as to announce my parent's presence in the audience afterward. A "class act" all the way if ever there was one. Edited February 27, 2009 by JSngry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted February 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 The Buttery Not sure if I'd go into that place..... I was there several times to review things. A nice little lounge. Most memorable visit probably was to see comic Carol Leifer. Opening night was Passover; I was one of three people in the audience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Forrest was blessed to be w/Goodman when Eddie Sauter was cranking out one gem after another. Great band, great singer, great charts, each as good as they could be. Check out "Perfidia": I mean, DAMN! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted February 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 I had the pleasure of twice playing in a group that backed Helen Forrest, 1982 & 1983 in Albuquerque. She still sang superbley, and not in a "for her age" type way either. On top of that, she was a real sweetheart too. My folks came into town to hear her the first time, and I told her that my dad was a big fan from back in the day and would really appreciate having his picture taken with her. She accommodated that request with no small enthusiasm, and later that night gave me a solo spot on "The Man I Love", going so far as to announce my parent's presence in the audience afterward. A "class act" all the way if ever there was one. Speaking of late-in-the-day encounters with female singers of that era who were still in fine form, I caught Frances Wayne (of Woody Herman's sublime version of "Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe," Ralph Burns arrangement) with Harry James in maybe 1980, and she was ... in fine sultry form. Wayne was Mrs. Neal Hefti. Can't find a link to "Happiness," but on this 1944 novelty number, "It Must Be Jelly," with Herman (they share the vocal), her floating time is something else: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted O'Reilly Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 "...female singers of that era who were still in fine form..." Bea Wain is still with us, coming on to her 92nd birthday! She was a good one, and I understand still sings... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted February 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Forrest was blessed to be w/Goodman when Eddie Sauter was cranking out one gem after another. Great band, great singer, great charts, each as good as they could be. Check out "Perfidia": I mean, DAMN! Forrest's voice is like a sensuous laser beam. Glad to know that she was such a nice person, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Forrest was blessed to be w/Goodman when Eddie Sauter was cranking out one gem after another. Great band, great singer, great charts, each as good as they could be. Check out "Perfidia": I mean, DAMN! Forrest's voice is like a sensuous laser beam. Glad to know that she was such a nice person, too. Indeed she was. She didn't have to be either, I mean, the group that hired her both times was the type that was so struck with hero worship that she could have been Queen Bee The Super Bitch and they'd have been more than happy to play along, but...she wasn't, not even slightly. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't take at least a little bit of a lesson from that... But did you check out that chart? Again, DAMN! There's a synergy going on between band, singer, and arrangement that bespeaks a whole lot of people at the top of their games coming together on the same wavelength to produce both magic and greatness. I've heard Forrest w/Goodman, Shaw, & James (as well as a nifty little latter-day date on, I believe, Stash?), and she herself is fine all the way around. but the Forrest/Goodman/Sauter stuff.....WHOA. You just don't get that level of collective greatness every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 HIGHLY recommended: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 The Stash album: I'VE HEARD THAT SONG BEFORE I DON'T WANT TO WALK WITHOUT YOU HAPPINESS IS A THING CALLED JOE BUT NOT FOR ME I CRIED FOR YOU I HAD THE CRAZIEST DREAM YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU YOU'LL NEVER KNOW MORE THAN YOU KNOW Hank Jones on Piano, Frank Wess on Tenor Saxophone and Flute, Grady Tate on Drums, George Duvivier on Bass, Jim Mitchell on Guitar, Bob Zottola on Trumpet and Flugelhorn and Clint Sharman on Trombone. And what, prithee, is this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 (edited) in the middle 1970s (yeah, I know, I've told this before) I was writing for some jazz mag and Neal Hefti was living near me in Brookline, Mass. He very kindly invited me over for an interview and introduced me to Francis Wayne, who was gorgeous and, sadly, just diagnosed with the cancer which killed her a few years later. He told me she had hated Hollywood and had finally talked him into leaving and coming back East, but just as they did this her health problems intervened. Very gracious lady, though she died in '78, Larry - maybe you were seeing another one of those damn Francis Wayne impersonators. Not as good as the Elvis clones, but better looking - Edited February 27, 2009 by AllenLowe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted February 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 in the middle 1970s (yeah, I know, I've told this before) I was writing for some jazz mag and Neal Hefti was living near me in Brookline, Mass. He very kindly invited me over for an interview and introduced me to Francis Wayne, who was gorgeous and, sadly, just diagnosed with the cancer which killed her a few years later. He told me she had hated Hollywood and had finally talked him into leaving and coming back East, but just as they did this her health problems intervened. Very gracious lady, though she died in '78, Larry - maybe you were seeing another one of those damn Francis Wayne impersonators. Not as good as the Elvis clones, but better looking - I could have seen her as early as 1976 or '77, at the Mill Run Theater (with a revolving stage) in a shopping center in suburban Niles. I remember feeling sad when I heard of her death. From the way she sang you would never have know she was ill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 I've been to the Mill Run Theater (repeating myself a lot today) - she had a great voice - I like her Atlantic Album, though every pressing I've ever owned was noisy and almost defective Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 I had the pleasure of twice playing in a group that backed Helen Forrest, 1982 & 1983 in Albuquerque. She still sang superbley, and not in a "for her age" type way either. On top of that, she was a real sweetheart too. My folks came into town to hear her the first time, and I told her that my dad was a big fan from back in the day and would really appreciate having his picture taken with her. She accommodated that request with no small enthusiasm, and later that night gave me a solo spot on "The Man I Love", going so far as to announce my parent's presence in the audience afterward. A "class act" all the way if ever there was one. I got all verklempt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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