When you find two people who ask the eternal question with such passion, with such tenderness and longing, is it fair to keep them apart? Rather than posting two videos, I thought I would at least join them lyrically as best I could into one … and ask Diana Krall and Seth MacFarlane to convey my sincerest wishes for a most healthy, happy and prosperous New Year! By the way, What Are You Doing New Years Eve?
Harlem Nocturne was written in 1939 by Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers for the Ray Noble Orchestra, of which they were members at the time. It quickly became a jazz standard and has since been recorded by nearly 100 artists! Here are just 5 different versions, including the very first recording of the tune on Columbia Records by Ray Noble. Then there was a recording by The Viscounts that ran up the Billboard charts, not once but twice … in 1959 and again in1966. Lyrics were eventually added and in 1963 Mel Torme painted a lonely picture of nighttime in New York. While many of the others smack of a certain “stripperesque” quality, the fourth arrangement imparts a certain elegance we’ve learned to expect from Duke Ellington. Finally, a treatment of Harlem Nocturne by Illinois Jacquet that makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand at full attention!
On New Years Eve everybody sings this tune but most people don’t know what it means. Actually, it’s an old Scottish folk song and the phrase “Auld Lang Syne” roughly translates to “Times gone by”. While no one seems to know who wrote it, a Scotsman named Robert Burns was the first to put it on paper and so is most frequently credited with its composition. Meanwhile Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and a few friends use it here to help us welcome in 2019 with this compilation of TV and movie scenes … and extend my wishes to you for a very HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR!
SNOWFALL
A live performance of the arrangement from their best selling “The Christmas Album”. It’s a rich blend of mellow harmonies that smoothly combine all four voices into one as only The Manhattan Transfer can do.
SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN
A swingin’ start to the Christmas season that celebrates the upbeat mood, magic and merriment of the jolly old elf … as if he is just around the corner. Actually, he is!
But Beautiful features the unlikely pairing of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. It’s from their DVD “Cheek To Cheek – Live” and is, in fact, a beautiful stylistic blending of the old and the new into the traditional!
It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) is a lively performance of the classic Duke Ellington tune, also from the Cheek To Cheek video, featuring Tony Bennett and highlighting Lady Gaga’s surprising jazz virtuosity.
Clifford Brown, also known as “Brownie”, is often regarded as the finest jazz trumpet player to ever perform on the American music scene. Certainly he is the benchmark against whom all others are judged. Brownie died tragically at the age of 25 in a car accident on a rainy night in Pennsylvania, leaving behind a recorded legacy that spans a mere four years. He profoundly influenced later jazz trumpeters including Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, and the great Lee Morgan. He was also a composer of note, with two of his compositions, “Joy Spring” and “Daahoud” becoming jazz standards.
Oscar Peterson performs “Body and Soul” with John Williams and The Boston Pops Orchestra. His ability to play ‘more notes per measure’ than nearly anyone else was one of the defining characteristics of his destinctive style.
As jazz crosses over and influences other musical genres, so artists from those other genres sometimes dip their toes into the cool waters of jazz. For all of her ‘pop’ success, it turns out that Linda Ronstadt, has a marvelous voice for the standards. What’s New? Listen and find out!
Reminiscent of the Andrews Sisters era, Linda is joined by vocalists Liza Edwards, Elizabeth Lamers, Rita Valente and pianist Red Young for their rendition of the old Glenn Miller classic, I’ve Got A Gal In Kalamazoo.
Linda turns away from her top 40 stylings in favor of the ever popular Lover Man (Where Can You Be). When Nelson Riddle is behind you, the result is as good as guaranteed to be terrific!
James Moody was a jazz saxophonist and flutist from Newark, New Jersey, celebrated for his virtuosity, his versatility and his onstage ebullience. This is a gentle solo with strings, from Eastwood After Hours, recorded at Carnegie Hall in NYC on October 17, 1996.
Andre Previn is a pianist, composer, conductor and arranger masterfully standing astride two musical genres … both classical music and jazz. Many fans don’t realize that he had one foot in jazz before his other became firmly planted as a classical musician. Here we sample a touch of his conducting, arranging and piano artistry with “Rhapsody In Blue” before stepping back a few years into a swinging performance of Lerner and Loewe’s “Get Me To The Church On Time.”
To join our Mark Of Jazz Facebook discussion group.
For more posts and to leave comments on Twitter.
As well as follow and download the Jazz Scene Podcast on iTunes, too!