Alyn Shipton talks about his new Jimmy McHugh biography

[Lazaro Vega]

The BBC's Alyn Shipton spoke with Lazaro Vega on October 5th about his new biography of songwriter Jimmy McHugh, "I Feel a Song Coming On." That week Shipton flew to New York for a concert of McHugh's music at Merkin Recital Hall by singer/pianist Michael Feinstein, then a book signing at the Manhattan Barnes and Noble (which featured music by pianist/vocalist John Proulx, who's originally from Grand Rapids and a former Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp camper). Please join Blue Lake Public Radio this Sunday evening from 7 to 10 p.m. for the interview with Shipton as well as McHugh's music played by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Johnny Hodges, and Earl Hines and others; or sung by Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Rushing, Aretha Franklin, Armstrong, Waller, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Chet Baker and others.

www.bluelake.org

From The National Ledger:

A LOVELY WAY TO SPEND AN EVENING: The descendants of Jimmy McHugh are planning to turn out Wednesday night (10/7) for Michael Feinstein's Carnegie Hall tribute to the American songwriting great, creator of such immortal tunes as "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street." The event also coincides with the launch of "I Feel a Song Coming On," Alyn Shipton's new biography of McHugh, and there'll be a very elaborate book signing at the Barnes & Noble store at Lincoln Center on the Friday (10/9) reports McHugh's grandson, noted photographer Jim McHugh.

While the tunesmith certainly is worthy of such fanfare, the McHugh family deserves lots of credit for keeping his name and work in the spotlight.

As Jim sees it, publicizing his grandfather now has a lot of similarities to the late McHugh's own efforts toward "song plugging" back in the day. "When coast-to-coast radio came in and NBC broadcast across the United States, it was just as revolutionary in his time as the Internet is now. For the first time, you could do something in New York and people in California could hear it. The difference now is that the individual can be quite effective," he says. "Now we do Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and all that. We're using YouTube and in New York, we're going to be doing a podcast. And it's not something that ends, either. You have to keep rolling forward. The family has been very aggressive in grasping new technologies."

According to Jim, his grandfather's estate -- the family -- "holds one of the largest archives of standard music ephemera in the world. My grandfather kept everything. Every note of correspondence, memos, extensive interviews." Around 10 years ago, "Because I'm a photographer, and was very aware of the digital revolution, we started photographing and scanning everything, so we don't have to go into those fragile old paper files, and Alyn Shipton was able to do his work at home in England."

Edited October 28, 2009 by Lazaro Vega

[ghost of miles]

This sounds great, Lazaro. I posted it to the Yahoo Songbirds listserv--I think there'll be some interest in it there as well.

Edited October 28, 2009 by ghost of miles

[AllenLowe]

McHugh's a favorite - particulary "I didn't Sleep a Wink Last Night." Didn't he also write "Too Young to Go Steady" ?

or am I wrong on both?

[Lazaro Vega]

Right on both. Wink for Sinatra; and, of course, Nat Cole's version of Too Young....

And thanks Ghost!

Edited October 28, 2009 by Lazaro Vega

[fasstrack]

The BBC's Alyn Shipton spoke with Lazaro Vega on October 5th about his new biography of songwriter Jimmy McHugh, "I Feel a Song Coming On." That week Shipton flew to New York for a concert of McHugh's music at Merkin Recital Hall by singer/pianist Michael Feinstein, then a book signing at the Manhattan Barnes and Noble (which featured music by pianist/vocalist John Proulx, who's originally from Grand Rapids and a former Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp camper). Please join Blue Lake Public Radio this Sunday evening from 7 to 10 p.m. for the interview with Shipton as well as McHugh's music played by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Johnny Hodges, and Earl Hines and others; or sung by Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Rushing, Aretha Franklin, Armstrong, Waller, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Chet Baker and others.

www.bluelake.org

From The National Ledger:

A LOVELY WAY TO SPEND AN EVENING: The descendants of Jimmy McHugh are planning to turn out Wednesday night (10/7) for Michael Feinstein's Carnegie Hall tribute to the American songwriting great, creator of such immortal tunes as "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street." The event also coincides with the launch of "I Feel a Song Coming On," Alyn Shipton's new biography of McHugh, and there'll be a very elaborate book signing at the Barnes & Noble store at Lincoln Center on the Friday (10/9) reports McHugh's grandson, noted photographer Jim McHugh.

While the tunesmith certainly is worthy of such fanfare, the McHugh family deserves lots of credit for keeping his name and work in the spotlight.

As Jim sees it, publicizing his grandfather now has a lot of similarities to the late McHugh's own efforts toward "song plugging" back in the day. "When coast-to-coast radio came in and NBC broadcast across the United States, it was just as revolutionary in his time as the Internet is now. For the first time, you could do something in New York and people in California could hear it. The difference now is that the individual can be quite effective," he says. "Now we do Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and all that. We're using YouTube and in New York, we're going to be doing a podcast. And it's not something that ends, either. You have to keep rolling forward. The family has been very aggressive in grasping new technologies."

According to Jim, his grandfather's estate -- the family -- "holds one of the largest archives of standard music ephemera in the world. My grandfather kept everything. Every note of correspondence, memos, extensive interviews." Around 10 years ago, "Because I'm a photographer, and was very aware of the digital revolution, we started photographing and scanning everything, so we don't have to go into those fragile old paper files, and Alyn Shipton was able to do his work at home in England."

Every day someone talks or writes about good songwriters is a good day...........

[Lazaro Vega]

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuar/.ar...of.Jimmy.McHugh