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Dexterity (George Shearing Album)
''Dexterity'' is a 1988 live album by the jazz pianist George Shearing recorded at the second Fujitsu-Concord Jazz Festival. The singer Ernestine Anderson appears on two tracks. Shearing and Anderson would later record the album '' A Perfect Match''. Reception Scott Yanow reviewed the album for Allmusic, describing it as "A well-rounded and consistently enjoyable program". Track listing # "Dexterity" (Charlie Parker) – 5:17 # "You Must Believe in Spring" (Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Jacques Demy, Michel Legrand) – 7:53 # "Sakura Sakura (Cherry Blossom)" (Traditional) – 5:13 # "Kjo No Tsuki" ( Rentaro Taki) – 3:00 # "I Won't Dance" (Dorothy Fields, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, Jimmy McHugh) – 5:08 # "Long Ago (and Far Away)" (Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern) – 5:03 # "Can't We Be Friends?" ( Paul James, Kay Swift) – 3:08 # " As Long as I Live" (Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler) – 4:19 # " Please Send Me Someone to Love" (Percy Mayfield) – 6:49 # Duke Elling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Shearing
Sir George Albert Shearing, (13 August 1919 14 February 2011) was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. Shearing was the composer of over 300 titles, including the jazz standards "Lullaby of Birdland" and " Conception", and had multiple albums on the '' Billboard'' charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. He died of heart failure in New York City, at the age of 91. Biography Early life Born in Battersea, London, Shearing was the youngest of nine children. He was born blind to working-class parents: his father delivered coal and his mother cleaned trains in the evening. He started to learn piano at the age of three and began formal training at Linden Lodge School for the Blind, where he spent four years. Though he was offered several scholarships, Shearing opted to perform at a local pub, the Mason's Arms in Lambeth, for "25 bob a week" playing piano and accordion. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Fields
Dorothy Fields (July 15, 1904 – March 28, 1974) was an American librettist and lyricist. She wrote over 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films. Her best-known pieces include "The Way You Look Tonight" (1936), "A Fine Romance" (1936), "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (1930), " Don't Blame Me" (1948), "Pick Yourself Up" (1936), "I'm in the Mood for Love" (1935), "You Couldn't Be Cuter" (1938) and " Big Spender" (1966). Throughout her career, she collaborated with various influential figures in the American musical theater, including Jerome Kern, Cy Coleman, Irving Berlin, and Jimmy McHugh. Along with Ann Ronell, Dana Suesse, Bernice Petkere, and Kay Swift, she was one of the first successful Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood female songwriters. Early life Fields was born in Allenhurst, New Jersey, and grew up in New York City. In 1923, Fields graduated from the Benjamin School for Girls in New York City. At school, she was outstanding in the subjects of English, drama, and baske ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ted Koehler
Ted L. Koehler (July 14, 1894 – January 17, 1973) was an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. Life and career Koehler was born in 1894 in Washington, D.C. He started out as a photo-engraver, but was attracted to the music business, where he started out as a theater pianist for silent films. He moved on to write for vaudeville and Broadway theatre, and he also produced nightclub shows. His most successful collaboration was with the composer Harold Arlen, with whom he wrote many famous songs from the 1920s through the 1940s. In 1929 the duo composed their first well-known song, " Get Happy", and went on to create "Let's Fall in Love", " Stormy Weather", " Sing My Heart" and other hit songs. Throughout the early and mid-1930s they wrote for the Cotton Club, a popular Harlem night club, for big band jazz legend Duke Ellington and other top performers, as well as for Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. Koehler also worked with ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz'' (lyrics by Yip Harburg), including " Over the Rainbow", Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the RIAA and the NEA. Life and career Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned to play the piano as a youth, and formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer before moving to New York City in his early twenties, where he worked as an accompanist in vaudeville and changed his name to Harold Arlen. Between 1926 and about 1934, Arlen appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records by The Buffalodians, Red Nichols, Joe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
As Long As I Live (Arlen-Koehler Song)
"As Long as I Live" is a song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Ted Koehler, it was written for their last show at the Cotton Club Parade, in 1934. It was introduced by Avon Long and Lena Horne. Notable recordings *Lew Stone and His Band (vocal: Al Bowlly) (1934) *Red McKenzie and Spirit of Rhythm - recorded September 11, 1934 for Decca Records (catalog 302B). * Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, recorded May 14, 1934 for Columbia Records (catalog No.2923D). * Benny Goodman and His Sextet, recorded November 7, 1940, with Count Basie on piano and Charlie Christian Charles Henry Christian (July 29, 1916 – March 2, 1942) was an American swing and jazz guitarist. Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar and a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained nat ... on guitar. This charted briefly in 1941. * Lena Horne - recorded for RCA Victor (catalog No. 20-1626) (1944). * Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1955 for use on his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kay Swift
Katharine Faulkner "Kay" Swift (April 19, 1897 – January 28, 1993) was an American composer of popular and classical music, the first woman to score a hit musical completely. Written in 1930, the Broadway musical '' Fine and Dandy'' includes some of her best known songs; the song “ Fine and Dandy” has become a jazz standard. " Can't We Be Friends?" (1929) was her biggest hit song. Swift also arranged some of the music of George Gershwin posthumously, such as the prelude "Sleepless Night" (1946). Biography Katharine Faulkner Swift was born to English American Samuel Shippen Swift, a music critic, and Ellen Faulkner of England in New York City. Her father died when she was 17. Swift was educated at the Veltin School for Girls and then trained as a classical musician and composer at the Institute of Musical Art (today the Juilliard School), where she studied piano with Bertha Tapper. Her teacher of composition was Charles Martin Loeffler, while harmony and composition were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Warburg
James Paul Warburg (August 18, 1896 – June 3, 1969) was a German-born American banker. He was well known for being the financial adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt. His father was banker Paul Warburg, member of the Warburg family and "father" of the Federal Reserve system. After World War II, Warburg helped organize the Society for the Prevention of World War III in support of the Morgenthau Plan. Biography Born in Hamburg, Germany, he was educated at Middlesex School and Harvard University. He served in the Navy Flying Corps during World War I before entering a career in business. He was at the First National Bank of Boston between 1919 and 1921. Between 1921 and 1929 he was Vice President at the International Acceptance Bank. He was president at the International Manhattan Company from 1929 to 1931, then president of the International Acceptance Bank from 1931 to 1932. He was Vice Chairman of the Board at Bank of the Manhattan Company between 1932 and 1935. While at the B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Can't We Be Friends?
"Can't We Be Friends?" is a 1929 song with lyrics by Paul James and music by Kay Swift, introduced on Broadway in ''The Little Show'' by Libby Holman. It was later recorded by many artists including Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra. Recordings * Red Nichols & his Five Pennies (recorded 9/6/1929 and released on Brunswick 4510). * Ray Ventura & his Collegians (recorded 10/19/1929) *Smith Ballew (recorded 11/11/1929, and released on Okeh 41304). * The Georgians (recorded 11/22/1929) *Bing Crosby (recorded 9/27/1929, and released on Columbia 2001-D) *Libby Holman (recorded September, 1929 and released on Brunswick 4506). * Sam Wooding & his Chocolate Kiddies (recorded 12/1929) *The Imperial Dance Orchestra (1929) *Al Bowlly with Ray Noble & his Orchestra (recorded 1/16/1931 and released on Decca F2220) ( Al Bowlly Discography) *Frank Sinatra (''In the Wee Small Hours'' album, 1955) (recorded February 8, 1955, with orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle) *Illinois Jacquet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 20th century. With George, he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", " The Man I Love" and " Someone to Watch Over Me". He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to George's opera ''Porgy and Bess''. The success the Gershwin brothers had with their collaborative works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. His mastery of songwriting continued after George's early death in 1937. Ira wrote additional hit songs with composers Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Harry Warren and Harold Arlen. His critically acclaimed 1959 book ''Lyrics on Several Occasions'', an amalgam of autobiography and annotated anthology, is an important source for studying t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long Ago (and Far Away)
"Long Ago (and Far Away)" is a popular song with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics about nostalgia by Ira Gershwin from the 1944 Technicolor film musical ''Cover Girl'' starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly and released by Columbia Pictures. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1944 but lost out to “Swinging on a Star”, from ''Going My Way''. The song was published in 1944 and sold over 600,000 copies in sheet music in a year. In 2004 it finished #92 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In the film it is sung by Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Martha Mears) to Gene Kelly, and later briefly reprised by Jinx Falkenburg. Charting versions were recorded almost simultaneously by Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest, Bing Crosby, Jo Stafford, and Perry Como. The Dick Haymes-Helen Forrest recording was released by Decca Records as catalog number 23317. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on April 27, 1944 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy McHugh
James Francis McHugh (July 10, 1894 – May 23, 1969) was an American composer. One of the most prolific songwriters from the 1920s to the 1950s, he is credited with over 500 songs. His songs were recorded by many artists, including Chet Baker, June Christy, Bing Crosby, Deanna Durbin, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Adelaide Hall, Billie Holiday, Beverly Kenney, Bill Kenny, Peggy Lee, Carmen Miranda, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, and Dinah Washington. Career McHugh began his career in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut [Massachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət],'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ..., United States, where he published about a dozen songs with local publishers. His first success was with the World War I song "Keep the Love-Light Burning in the Window Till the Boys Come Marching Home", and this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
