Last week I played a trio gig in Temecula, California which featured a number of title tracks from post-war movies–‘Days Of Wine And Roses’, ‘Sunday In New York’ etc. (I posted original title sequences of several of them last week). Our opening number was ‘The Tender Trap’, by Sammy Cahn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4QgGxcsFSEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtXm0qhlMVE Last night my jazz trio played a concert in Temecula California consisting of songs from movies. The opening set concentrated on mid-century themes–‘Tender Trap’, ‘Wives and Lovers’, ‘Two For The Road’, ‘Sunday In New York’ etc. By far the most beautiful of the songs, and the the one that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usEo5XsgSGghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ7WT02wFOk I’ve been playing the Burt Bacharach/Hal David standard ‘Wives And Lovers’ for years as a jazz waltz. I always assumed that the 1963 song had been written for the 1963 movie of the same title. (A safe assumption, one would think). Now I find out–one day before I’m to
On this coming Thursday, May 25th, my jazz trio will be performing at a lovely venue in the fascinating town of Temecula, CA. called ‘The Merc’. Our first set of music will feature title track songs from mid-century Hollywood movies. Among them will be ‘The Tender Trap’, ‘Days Of Wine
Apropos of yesterday’s post featuring Tom and Jerry in ‘Mouse in Manhattan’, here’s a student orchestra in Moscow performing the ‘Manhattan Serenade’ soundtrack while a silent print of the cartoon is screened. The Chamber Orchestra is apparently called “Affrettando”. This was recorded at the Rachmaninov’s Hall of Moscow Conservatory on March
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp2J4YHuJ9Ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujZP6UfkFe0 In 1928, composer Louis Alter created ‘Manhattan Serenade’, an art-deco orchestral piece designed to be recorded on what was then a long-playing Victor 78rpm disc (four minutes and forty-five seconds–almost two minutes longer than standard 78 RPM records). The piece is very much of its era–a 20s ode to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X9UEu1qJRo To my intense frustration, some self-important copyright upholder has removed all traces of the musical numbers from The Marx Brothers maiden cinematic effort ‘The Cocoanuts’ (1929) from the wilds of YouTube. Why? Why why why? Is it an Irving Berlin estate kind of thing? (Possibly). A DVD reissue kind
Today lets have a restful few moments staring at an unchanging opening graphic for Merv Griffin’s long-ago TV talk show and listening to its famous theme song. A lovely big-band ballad apparently titled ‘Hello, Hello’ (according to the copyright held by Merv Griffin Enterprises), it was written by the protean
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCf5VsRTp9U Here’s another clip from the mysterious Dean Martin Special I previously posted clips from at the top of the week. In this one he’s joined by the seventeen-year-old Fabian in a duet featuring four very of-the-moment chorines. I can’t say there’s much chemistry going on here between the two
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0syJQgFSzI4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uUTWLNBl2k “The Sandpiper” (1965) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton is best known today for its theme song, Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster’s immortal ‘The Shadow Of Your Smile’. The film has generally been dismissed as weak-tea soap opera with pretentious thematic references to the bird the film is