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."

Max Roach

Max Roach, who died in 2007, was one of the most accomplished and influential drummers of the 20th century, a master of poly-rhythms and unpredictable beats. He was the pioneer and grand master of "melodic drumming," teaching the world of jazz that drums could make musical statements, and not just keep time in the background.

He played with jazz legends, notably Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and helped father the style of jazz called Bebop. His innovative way of playing defied expectations and elevated the drums from background instrument to lead.

An NPR special about Max Roach, hosted by Nancy Wilson:
www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=12847242&m=12851569

Caravan, performed by Max Roach and Randy Weston

But Beautiful -- Charles McPherson, alto sax

The jazz ballad But Beautiful has music by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Burke.

Charles McPherson – alto sax
Steve Kuhn – piano
David Williams – bass
Leroy Williams – drums



Charles McPherson was born in Joplin, Missouri, but moved to Detroit at age nine. McPherson started playing jazz professionally at age 19, moving to New York in 1959. He performed with Charles Mingus from 1960 to 1972, collaborating frequently George Coleman (tenor sax).

McPherson was recently featured at Lincoln Center showcasing his original compositions and arrangements with a seven piece ensemble. McPherson has recorded as guest artist with Charlie Mingus, Barry Harris, Art Farmer, Kenny Drew, Toshiko Akiyoshi, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Charles was also the featured alto saxophonist in the Clint Eastwood film "Bird," a biography about Charlie Parker.

McPherson remains a strong, viable force on the jazz scene today. He is at the height of his powers. His playing combines passionate feeling with intricate patterns of improvisation. Throughout his four decades of being an integral performer of the music, Charles has not merely remained true to his BOP origins, but has expanded on them.

The distinctive lyrics, with their clever rhymes, come through clearly in this interpretation by Nat King Cole:



Love is funny, or it's sad,
Or it's quiet, or it's mad.
It's a good thing, or it's bad,
But beautiful...

Beautiful to take a chance
And if you fall, you fall,
And I'm thinking,
I wouldn't mind at all.

Love is tearful, or it's gay,
It's a problem, or it's play.
It's a heartache either way,
But beautiful...

And I'm thinking, if you were mine,
I'd never let you go.
And that would be but beautiful,
I know.

Know What I Mean? - Cannonball Adderley

Composed by Bill Evans


www.last.fm/music/Cannonball+Adderley/_/Know+What+I+Mean%3F+%28re-take+7%29?autostart

Bill Evans, Piano
Cannonball Adderley, Alto Sax
Percy Heath, Bass
Conny Kay, Drums

Know What I Mean? was created in 1961 in the recording studio by Evans, at Adderley's special request. Its modal style suggests the days when he and Bill were with Miles Davis (Kind of Blue), and its title derives from a phrase Cannonball was fond of using (!).

Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye

Words & music by Cole Porter (1944)


The Seven Lively Arts was a Broadway revue starring Beatrice Lillie that featured songs by Cole Porter, ballet music by Igor Stravinsky, scenery by Salvador Dali, and a pit orchestra conducted by Benny Goodman. The show played at the Zeigfeld Theater, which had a foyer decorated by Dali to illustrate each of the seven lively arts: architecture, painting, sculpture, dance, drama, music and literature.

Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye, a haunting ballad, is the only song from the overwrought production to survive as a standard, and this composition is often used as an example of words and music in a perfect marriage. It begins with an unusual feature – a single note repeated eight times, and the harmonies that follow are constantly shifting. Most critics maintain that this is among the very finest of Cole Porter’s songs. The words are particularly evocative, expressing the sentiments of lovers parting.

Ev'ry time we say goodbye, I die a little.
Ev'ry time we say goodbye, I wonder why a little.
Why the gods above me, who must be in the know,
Think so little of me, they allow you to go.
When you’re near, there’s such an air of spring about it,
I can hear a lark somewhere begin to sing about it,
There’s no love song finer, but how strange the change from major to minor,
Ev’ry time we say goodbye.

Natalie Cole

Satin Doll -- Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington & his orchestra
Ellington on piano, 5 trumpets, 3 trombones, 5 saxophones, drummer and bass.



The tune was a collaboration between Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. A few years later Johnny Mercer penned lyrics (1953) that are clever, hip and infused with slang through and through.

Cigarette holder, which wigs me
Over her shoulder, she digs me.
Out cattin' that satin doll.

Baby, shall we go out skippin?
Careful, amigo, you're flippin',
Speaks Latin, that satin doll.

She's nobody's fool so I'm playing it cool as can be.
I'll give it a whirl but I ain't for no girl catching me,
Switch-a-rooney!

Telephone numbers, well you know,
Doin' my rhumbas with uno
And that'n, my Satin Doll.

Nancy Wilson

This Bitter Earth – Gladys Knight

This philosophical ballad was composed by Clyde Otis in 1959 for Dinah Washington. This rendition by blues singer Gladys Knight is remarkable for its jazz style (click on the link).

www.last.fm/music/Gladys+Knight/_/This+Bitter+Earth?autostart=1

This bitter earth, what fruit it bears,
What good is love that no one shares?
And if my life is like the dust that hides the glow of a rose,
What good am I? Heaven only knows.
Lord, this bitter earth can be so cold.
Today you’re young, too soon, you’re old.
But while a voice within me cries,
I’m sure someone may answer my call,
And this bitter earth may not be so bitter after all.

I’ll Close My Eyes -- Dinah Washington

I’ll Close My Eyes (1945)
Performed by Dinah Washington (1962)
Music by William Gordon Reid; lyrics by Buddy Kaye

www.last.fm/music/Dinah+Washington/_/I%27ll+Close+My+Eyes?autostart=1

Heaven sends a song through its doors
Just as if it seems to know I'm exclusively yours
Knowing this, I feel but one way.
You will understand it, too, in these words that I say:
I'll close my eyes to everyone but you,
And when I do, I'll see you standing there.
I'll lock my heart to any other caress.
I'll never say yes to a new love affair.
Then I'll close my eyes to everything that's gay
If you are not there to share each lovely day
And through the years in those moments when we're far apart,
I'll close my eyes and I'll see you with my heart.

Tragically, Dinah Washington (1924-1963) died from an accidental overdose of diet pills and alcohol at the age of 39 in December of 1963. She had been a successful blues, jazz and gospel singer. Her penetrating voice, excellent timing, and crystal-clear enunciation added her distinctive style to every piece she recorded.

She made a strong impression at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958, but the 1959 release of “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” was the track for which Washington won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance; the song was her biggest hit, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

She was married seven times, and divorced six times while having several lovers, including Quincy Jones, who was then her young arranger. She was known to be imperious and demanding in real life, but audiences adored her. In London she once declared, “…there is only one heaven, one earth and one queen…Queen Elizabeth is an impostor”, but the crowd loved it!

An up-tempo instrumental version:

Performed by guitarist Dave Wilkinson, drummer Caspar St. Charles and organist Abel Boquera at the Bel-Luna Jazz Club, Barcelona (Spain), July 13, 2006.

Here's That Rainy Day

How times change -- Frank Sinatra sings under an open tasseled umbrella and smokes his way through this poignant ballad about a love that turns into a cold, rainy day. From the pen of Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke, this song was the only success from a 1953 Broadway musical titled "Carnival in Flanders," which closed after just six performances.



The song has sophisticated, complex harmonies and an unusual bass line, but the melody is perhaps its most distinctive feature; it never goes where one would expect.

Solo piano version from pianist Bill Evans (album was called "Alone"):

www.last.fm/music/Bill+Evans/_/Here%27s+That+Rainy+Day?autostart