Kenny Barron Trio - The Only One

Click on link (audio only):
www.strathmore.org/media/wm/Kenny%20Barron%20Trio_The%20Only%20One-1.wax
Kenny Barron (piano), Ben Riley (drums), Ray Drummond (bass)
Recorded in 1990, from the album titled “The Only One.” This track pays tribute to Thelonious Monk’s “Hackensack.”

Philadelphia born Barron, the younger brother of tenor sax man Bill Barron, rose to prominence in the 1960s when he became the pianist in Dizzy Gillespie’s quartet. Today he teaches jazz at the Manhattan School of Music, after a 25 year stint teaching piano and keyboard harmony at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he mentored student David Sanchez, Terence Blanchard and Regina Bell. Barron also has a penchant for Latin and Caribbean jazz and heads a Brazilian jazz ensemble known as "Canta Brasil."
www.last.fm/music/Kenny+Barron/_/Sambao?autostart

Barron, who is on everyone's short list of the greatest living jazz pianists, has collaborated with such legendary jazz figures as Buddy Rich, Yusef Lateef and Stan Getz. He has released more than 40 jazz albums.

Autumn Leaves

Performed by pianist Keith Jarret (Tokyo 1996)

Composer Joseph Kosma and poet Jacques Prevert created one of the songs for the 1946 film “Les Portes De La Nuit” by setting a Prevert poem to music, “Les Feuilles Mortes.” In 1949 Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics for the tune changing the original French title (The Dead Leaves) to “Autumn Leaves."



In 1956 Columbia Pictures produced a film titled Autumn Leaves starring Joan Crawford and Cliff Robertson. It is a tale of a spinster marrying a young man who has mental problems as a result of his ex-wife’s (Vera Miles) affair with his father (Lorne Green). Nat King Cole sang his hit version of “Autumn Leaves” during the credits.

Blame It on My Youth

Keith Jarrett Trio
In this sensitive performance by pianist Keith Jarrett, the influence of Bill Evans is obvious.



This song, composed by Oscar Levant in 1934, has a remarkable lyric by Edward Heyman:

If I expected love when first we kissed, blame it on my youth.
If only just for you, I did exist, blame it on my youth.
I believed in everything, like a child of three.
You meant more than anything, all the world to me.

If you were on my mind all night and day, blame it on my youth.
If I forgot to eat, and sleep and pray, blame it on my youth.
If I cried a little bit, when first I learned the truth,
Don't blame it on my heart, blame it on my youth.

UPDATE:
Jazz stylist, composer, singer and acoustic guitarist Kenny Rankin lost his life to lung cancer in Los Angeles on June 7, 2009. He was 69 years old.

In the following audio clip, Kenny Rankin injects the trademarks of his laid-back vocal style: portamento and condensing the timing of a phrase (rushing notes ahead of their rhythmic placement as originally composed). Like a true jazz singer, he abandons the printed melody more often than not, adding his distinctive mark to the entire track.

After You're Gone: an Errol Garner tribute

Peter Cincotti – a tribute to stride pianist Erroll Garner
Live performance at New Morning Jazz Club, NYC (2004)



After You’ve Gone (1918)
Words by Henry Creamer, music by Turner Layton

This song was introduced by Al Jolson at the Wintergarden Theater (NYC) in 1918. It was originally conceived as a ballad, but gained popularity as an up-tempo number. Shirley Horn recorded it in 1963 as a slow ballad and made it convincing. Gene Krupa’s 1941 performance has become a jazz classic.

Another rendition by guitarist John Pizzarelli and his trio:

Sway - Peter Cincotti

Peter Cincotti (piano & vocals)


Sway is the English version of "¿Quién será?", a 1953 mambo song by Mexican composer and bandleader Pablo Beltrán Ruiz. In 1954 English language lyrics were written by Norman Gimbel and recorded by Dean Martin, whose rendition reached number fifteen on the Billboard magazine best-seller chart.

The English version begins:
"When marimba rhythms start to play, dance with me, make me sway".

The Spanish version begins:
"Quien será el que me quiere a mi? Quien será?, quien será?".

Native New Yorker Peter Cincotti is a 25-year-old singer, songwriter, and jazz pianist (born 1983). In 2002, at nineteen years old, he reached No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Charts, the youngest solo artist to do so. Several of his songs have been featured in movies, and he won an award at the 2000 Montreux Jazz Festival for a rendition of Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia."

What a Wonderful World

George Adams (tenor sax)
Ben Sidran (piano)



Written by Bob Thiele (using the pseudonym George Douglas*) and George David Weiss**, What a Wonderful World was first recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1968. Intended as an antidote for the increasingly racially and politically charged climate of everyday life in the U.S., the song also has a hopeful, optimistic tone with regard to the future, with reference to newborn babies having much to look forward to. The song was not initially a hit in the United States, where it sold fewer than 1,000 copies, but was a major success in the UK, reaching number one on the singles chart, becoming the biggest-selling single of 1968. The song made Louis Armstrong the oldest male to top the UK charts, at sixty-six years and ten months old.

The song gradually became something of a standard and reached a new level of popularity. It was re-released in America shortly after Armstrong's death in 1971 and became a top ten hit. It is also a jazz standard, ranked number 945 at Jazzstandards.com.

*Some of the songs Thiele wrote are credited to George Douglas or Stanley Clayton. These are pseudonyms Thiele used, made from the names of his uncles, Stanley, Clayton, George, and Douglas. Thiele was a record producer and husband of singer Teresa Brewer.
**Weiss was president of the Songwriters Guild of America; among other notable songs he penned was Lullaby of Birdland.

Another rendition of this classic tune:
Duet by K.D. Lang & Tony Bennett
http://www.last.fm/music/Tony%2BBennett%2B%2526%2Bk.d.%2Blang/_/What+a+Wonderful+World?autostart

Billy Taylor & Ben Webster

This 10-minute video documentary by Bret Primack (Jazz Video Guy) recounts the first time Washington DC based pianist Billy Taylor worked with tenor sax legend Ben Webster in NYC. Webster was known for his distinctive breathy lip-vibrato, especially evident on ballads.



In 1994, Billy Taylor was appointed to the position of artistic adviser on jazz for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where his knowledge, expertise and influence are still in demand. In 1997, he was responsible for the launching of the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, where free jazz concerts are often featured.

I Got Rhythm

Performed by pianists Billy Taylor & Ramsey Lewis
(video excerpt from Billy Taylor’s show Jazz Counterpoint)

Everyone would want to play piano if it could be this much fun!



"I Got Rhythm" was composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin in 1928 (published 1930), and became a widely-known jazz standard. It comes from the stage musical Girl Crazy, which yielded another hit song, "Embraceable You." Ethel Merman sang the song in the original Broadway production of the show. I Got Rhythm is iconic of the Gershwins, of swing, and of the 1920s.

Trivia: I Got Rhythm was originally published in the unusual key of D-flat major.

Marian McPartland

In a Mist, composed in 1927 by cornetist Bix Beiderbecke

Since April 1979, pianist Marian McPartland has welcomed a stellar line-up of musicians for one hour of conversation and jazz improvisation on her award-winning radio program. Each week, McPartland, with her engaging personality and improvisational savvy, hosts a variety of performers in her radio living room. She has recently reached the 90-year-old mark, yet remains active as a performer and radio personality.

Piano Jazz is a forum for jazz legends and influential performers as well as up-and-coming talents. Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck, Diana Krall, Max Roach, Cassandra Wilson and Tony Bennett are among the 500+ guests who have joined McPartland to create dynamic duets and discuss their lives and music.

A production of South Carolina Educational Radio and distributed nationally by NPR, Piano Jazz is the longest-running national performance program on public radio and was called "an oasis of intelligence and grace and probably the best hour of jazz on the airwaves" by The Washington Post.

For Ms. McPartland's radio program (spring, 2000) about Bix Beiderbecke, go to:

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98960166

For audio streams of dozens of her other Piano Jazz programs, visit:

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=24

Sophisticated Lady

Music by Duke Ellington (1932); lyrics by Irving Mills & Mitchell Parish.
Chick Corea (piano) & Gary Burton (vibes)



Note: The attribution to Billy Strayhorn, as labeled in the video, is incorrect (Strayhorn did not meet Ellington until six years after this piece was written). Also, Irving Mills (lyrics) was the manager of the Duke Ellington Orchestra until 1939; whether or not he actually wrote the lyrics for which he is credited is widely disputed. The issue was one of royalties. Ellington frequently took credit for music he didn't write; he paid a flat fee for compositions, then credited himself, so that he could collect royalties. Sadly, Billy Strayhorn, who willingly lived his life in the shadow of Ellington, was often on the losing end of many such transactions. Strayhorn, an openly gay black man in the era of extreme homophobia and prejudice, was Ellington's "right hand, left hand, and all the eyes in the back of my head", as stated by Ellington himself. Strayhorn was, however, accurately credited with composing "Take the A Train," Ellington's theme music.

Liza (piano duo)

Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea light a fire under Gershwin's LIZA. It's rare to hear a jazz performance that does not utilize drums in any way. An amazing performance!



Liza is the only surviving number of the 27 Gershwin items furnished for the hastily improvised musical, Show Girl. In mid-June 1929, Florenz Ziegfeld pressed a reluctant Gershwin to compose the score in a scant two weeks, to which Gershwin responded that he couldn't. "Mr. Ziegfeld smiled up at me and said, 'Why, sure you can -- just dig down in the trunk and pull out a couple of hits.'" The upshot was more a scrappy revue than a musical which, despite a run of 111 performances, aggravated critics and lost money. During the Boston tryout, Ruby Keeler, backed up by 100 leggy chorines, launched into Liza when Al Jolson, from the audience, rose and sang the chorus to his visibly startled bride. This electrifying effect was replicated for the New York première, and thereafter Liza became a virtual Jolson property. As Gershwin remarked, "It caused a sensation and gave the song a great start!" The lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn are pure fluff --

Liza, Liza, skies are gray, but if you'll smile on me,
All the clouds'll roll away...

-- but the surging, harmonically piquant music to which they are set is irresistible.

All the Things You Are

An amazing dialogue between Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau, performing at the 2007 San Sebastian Jazz Festival (Spain).



All the Things You Are is a song composed by Jerome Kern to lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was written in 1939 for the musical Very Warm for May. Recordings by Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw (with vocalist Helen Forrest) earned the song its initial popularity. The song, which has a unique harmonic structure, is a favorite with singers and jazz musicians. The song’s success was surprising, because it was unusual for its time in the way it shifted tonal centers and alternated from major to minor. Kern wrote it to satisfy his own creative urge and felt it was far too complex for popular appeal.

The chorus is 36 measures long (not the standard 32), in an altered AABA form. The second A section is transposed down a fourth (both melody and chords!), and the final A section adds four additional bars. The modulations in this song are unusual and present challenges to a singer or improviser, including a semitone modulation that ends each A section (they start with measure 6 in the first two A sections and measure 9 of the final A section, and a striking use of enharmonic substitution at the turnaround of the B section (last two measures of the B Section), where the G# melody note over a E major chord turns into an A-flat over the F minor 7th of measure 1 of the final A section. The result is a tune that in the space of every chorus manages to include at least one chord built on every note of the Western 12-tone scale. Amazing!

Charlie Parker was quoted as saying this song had his favorite lyrics. He used to call it "YATAG" which is an acronym for the words "you are the angel glow" in the B section.

A classic rendition from Ella Fitzgerald:

My Foolish Heart

Supreme jazz pianist Bill Evans performs with his trio (from the 1960s). Pianist Marian McPartland said that, after Evans' death, she could not bring herself to perform "My Foolish Heart."



My Foolish Heart is an Academy Award-nominated song published in 1949. The music was written by Victor Young with lyrics by Ned Washington. The song was introduced by the singer Martha Mears in the 1949 film of the same name. The song became a popular success, with two recordings of the song listed among the top 30 on the Billboard charts in 1950. Gordon Jenkins's recording of My Foolish Heart reached #22 and Billy Eckstine's version reached #28.

Later recordings were made of this standard by numerous artists, including Bill Evans, Joe Williams with George Shearing, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, Carmen McRae, Elkie Brooks, Astrud Gilberto and Mel Tormé. More recently, "My Foolish Heart" has been covered by pianists Liz Story and Keith Jarrett, guitarists John McLaughlin and John Abercrombie, Charlie Haden's Quartet West, singers Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau, Jane Monheit, Ann Hampton Callaway and (a capella quartet) The Idea of North.

To hear the lyrics, listen to this straight-forward vocal rendition by cabaret singer Margaret Whiting:



The night is like a lovely tune, beware my foolish heart!
How white the ever constant moon, take care, my foolish heart!
There's a line between love and fascination,
That's hard to see on an evening such as this,
For they give the very same sensation.
When you are lost in the passion of a kiss.
Your lips are much too close to mine, beware my foolish heart!
But should our eager lips combine, then let the fire start.
For this time it isn't fascination, or a dream that will fade and fall apart,
It's love this time, it's love, my foolish heart!

I was privileged to hear Kurt Elling perform this song at the Montreal Jazz Festival in July, 2007. Interestingly, he incorporates a 7th-century poem by Rabi'a of Basra (the first female Suni Muslim mystic saint) in the middle of his rendition.