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At The Great American Music Hall
''At the Great American Music Hall'' is a 1976 live album by Carmen McRae, recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. McRae is joined on several tracks by the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and backed by her jazz trio of pianist Marshall Otwell, bassist Ed Bennett, and drummer Joey Baron. McRae was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 19th Annual Grammy Awards for her performance on this album. Reception Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Stephen Cook wrote that McRae "Couched in that stellar Blue Note sound, McRae ranges far and wide on a set of standards...The whole recording is remarkable, for that matter...A must for McRae fans". ''Billboard'' described the album as an "Accompaniment is a bit skimpy with Diz Gillespie and three others but McRae's still-powerful pipes register effectively on standards.". Joseph Vella interviewed McRae's trio for the ''Huffington Post'' on the occasion of the album's digital re-issue in 2014. Vella describ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretation of lyrics. Early life and education McRae was born in Harlem, New York City, United States. Her father, Osmond, and mother, Evadne (Gayle) McRae, were immigrants from Jamaica. She began studying piano when she was eight, and the music of jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington filled her home. When she was 17 years old, she met singer Billie Holiday. As a teenager McRae came to the attention of Teddy Wilson and his wife, the composer Irene Kitchings. One of McRae's early songs, "Dream of Life", was, through their influence, recorded in 1939 by Wilson’s long-time collaborator Billie Holiday.Brian Berger"Carmen McRae" HiLobrow, April 8, 2015. McRae considered Holiday to be her primary influence. Early career In her l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maceo Pinkard
Maceo Pinkard (June 27, 1897 – July 21, 1962) was an American composer, lyricist, and music publisher. Among his compositions is "Sweet Georgia Brown", a popular standard for decades after its composition and famous as the theme of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. Pinkard was inducted in the National Academy of Popular Music Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984. Biography Pinkard was born in Bluefield, West Virginia to Mary Ellen Jimerson, educator, and G. Pinkard, a coal miner. He was educated at the Bluefield Colored Institute, class of 1913, and wrote his first major song ("I'm Goin' Back Home") one year later. He was one of the greatest composers of the Harlem Renaissance. In his early career he formed his own orchestra and toured throughout the US as the conductor. In 1914, at age 17, Pinkard founded the theatrical agency in Omaha, Nebraska and eventually founded Pinkard Publications, a music publishing firm in New York City. In 1917, he formed his own publishing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Bock
Jerrold Lewis Bock (November 23, 1928November 3, 2010) was an American musical theater composer. He received the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Sheldon Harnick for their 1959 musical ''Fiorello!'' and the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for the 1964 musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' with Sheldon Harnick. Biography Born in New Haven, Connecticut, and raised in Flushing, Queens, New York, Bock studied the piano as a child. While a student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he wrote the musical ''Big As Life'', which toured the state and enjoyed a run in Chicago. After graduation, he spent three summers at the Tamiment Playhouse in the Poconos and wrote for early television revues with lyricist Larry Holofcener. One of their songs, the three-part "The Story of Alice," was performed by the Chad Mitchell Trio on their ''Blowin' in the Wind'' album of 1962. Career Bock made his Broadway debut in 1955 when he and Lawrence Holofcener co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Too Close For Comfort
''Too Close for Comfort'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from November 11, 1980, to May 5, 1983, and in first-run syndication from April 7, 1984, to February 7, 1987. Its name was changed to ''The Ted Knight Show'' when the show was retooled in 1986 for what would turn out to be its final season, due to Ted Knight's death. The original concept of the series was based on the 1980s British sitcom '' Keep It in the Family''. Knight plays work-at-home cartoonist Henry Rush, whose two adult daughters live in the downstairs apartment of his San Francisco townhouse. The family moves to Marin County for the show's final season, where Rush becomes a co-owner of the local weekly newspaper. Synopsis Henry and Muriel Rush are owners of a two-unit house at 171–173 Buena Vista Avenue East San Francisco, California. Henry is a conservative cartoonist who authors a comic strip called ''Cosmic Cow'' with a hand-puppet version of "Cosmic Cow." Muriel is a freelance pho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, Porter defied his grandfather's wishes for him to practice law and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs. After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 1930s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, ''Kiss Me, Kate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miss Otis Regrets
"Miss Otis Regrets" is a song about the lynching of a society woman after she murders her unfaithful lover. It was composed by Cole Porter in 1934, and first performed by Douglas Byng in ''Hi Diddle Diddle'', a revue that opened on October 3, 1934, at London's Savoy Theatre. Background The song began during a party at the New York apartment of Porter's classmate from Yale, Leonard Hanna. Hearing a cowboy's lament on the radio, Porter sat down at the piano and improvised a parody of the song. He retained the referential song’s minor-keyed blues melody and added his wry take on lyrical subject matter common in country music: the regret of abandonment after being deceitfully coerced into sexual submission.Schwartz, Charles (1979). ''Cole Porter: A Biography'' Da Capo Press, Instead of a country girl, however, Miss Otis is a polite society lady. Friend and Yale classmate Monty Woolley jumped in to help Porter "sell it", pretending to be a butler who explains why Madam can't keep a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre both for the stage and on film. He won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, among other honors. Early life and education Born in New York City, he was the son of Edith Adelson Lerner and Joseph Jay Lerner, whose brother, Samuel Alexander Lerner, was founder and owner of the Lerner Stores, a chain of dress shops. One of Lerner's cousins was the radio comedian and television game show panelist Henry Morgan (comedian), Henry Morgan. Lerner was educated at Bedales School in England, Choate Rosemary Hall, The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, (where he wrote "The Choate Marching Song") and Harvard University, Harvard. He attended both Camp Androscoggin and Camp Greylock. At both Choate and Harvard, Lerner ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burton Lane
Burton Lane ( Levy; February 2, 1912 – January 5, 1997) was an American composer and lyricist primarily known for his theatre and film scores. His most popular and successful works include '' Finian's Rainbow'' in 1947 and ''On a Clear Day You Can See Forever'' in 1965. Biography He was born Burton Levy, in New York City; his father was Lazarus Levy. At some later time he became known as Burton Lane. One source erroneously gives his birth name as "Morris Hyman Kushner". Burton Lane studied classical piano as a child. At age 14 the theatrical producers the Shuberts commissioned him to write songs for a revue, ''Greenwich Village Follies''. At the age of 18, he contributed the music for at least two songs for the revue, ''Three's A Crowd'': "Forget All Your Books" and "Out in the Open Air." He was known for his Broadway musicals, '' Finian's Rainbow'' (1947) and ''On a Clear Day You Can See Forever'' (1965). He also wrote the music for the less remembered Broadway shows, '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
''On a Clear Day You Can See Forever'' is a musical with music by Burton Lane and a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner based loosely on ''Berkeley Square'', written in 1926 by John L. Balderston. It concerns a woman who has ESP and has been reincarnated. The musical received three Tony Award nominations. Productions The Broadway production opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on October 17, 1965, and closed on June 11, 1966, after 280 performances and 3 previews. The production was directed by Robert Lewis, choreographed by Herbert Ross, and starred Barbara Harris as Daisy Gamble/Melinda, John Cullum as Dr. Mark Bruckner, Clifford David as Edward Moncrief, Titos Vandis as Themistocles Kriakos, and William Daniels (Harris's co-star in '' A Thousand Clowns'') as Warren Smith. Louis Jourdan was the original leading man when the show had its tryout at the Colonial Theatre in Boston but was replaced by Cullum before it reached Broadway. Scenic design was by Oliver Smith and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leon Russell
Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and roll, country, gospel, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, southern rock, blues rock, folk, surf and the Tulsa Sound. He collaborated with many notable artists and recorded at least 31 albums and 430 songs. He wrote "Delta Lady", recorded by Joe Cocker, and organized and performed with Cocker's '' Mad Dogs & Englishmen'' tour in 1970. His " A Song for You", which was named to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018, has been recorded by more than 200 artists, and his song "This Masquerade" by more than 75. As a pianist, he played in his early years on albums by the Beach Boys, Dick Dale, and Jan and Dean. On his first album, '' Leon Russell'', in 1970, the musicians included Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. One of his early fans, Elton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Song For You
"A Song for You" is a song written and originally recorded by rock singer and pianist Leon Russell for his first solo album '' Leon Russell'', which was released in 1970 on Shelter Records. A slow, pained plea for forgiveness and understanding from an estranged lover, the tune is one of Russell's best-known compositions. Russell not only sings and plays piano on the recording, but also plays the tenor horn that is accompanying. It has been performed and recorded by over 200 artists, spanning many musical genres. Elton John has called the song an American classic. One of the first versions of the song that brought it broader attention was by Andy Williams, whose single peaked at number 29 on the adult contemporary chart and number 82 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1971. Ray Charles recorded a version that earned him the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Other notable versions were recorded by the Carpenters in 1972 and Herbie Hancock in 2005. On January ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ned Washington
Ned Washington (born Edward Michael Washington, August 15, 1901 – December 20, 1976) was an American lyricist born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Life and career Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962. He won the Best Original Song award twice: in 1940 for " When You Wish Upon a Star" in ''Pinocchio'' and in 1952 for " High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin')" in '' High Noon''. Washington had his roots in vaudeville as a master of ceremonies. Having started his songwriting career with ''Earl Carroll's Vanities'' on Broadway in the late 1920s, he joined the ASCAP in 1930. In 1934, he was signed by MGM and relocated to Hollywood, eventually writing full scores for feature films. During the 1940s, he worked for a number of studios, including Paramount, Warner Brothers, Disney, and Republic. During these tenures, he collaborated with many of the great composers of the era, including Hoagy Carmichael, Victor Young, Max Steiner, and Dimitri Tiomkin. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
