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Organ Grinder Swing
''Organ Grinder Swing'' is a 1965 studio album by Jimmy Smith. It marked a return to the trio ensemble that Smith used on the Blue Note recordings earlier in his career. Reception AllMusic's Scott Yanow stated: The album was the second highest charting album of Smith's career, reaching a chart position of number 15 on the US Billboard 200 charts. It was on the charts for 31 weeks. Track listing #" Organ Grinder's Swing" ( Will Hudson, Irving Mills, Mitchell Parish) – 2:16 #"Oh No, Babe" ( Jimmy Smith) – 9:02 #"Blues for J" (Smith) – 5:19 #"Greensleeves" (Traditional) – 8:54 #" I'll Close My Eyes" ( Buddy Kaye, Billy Reid) – 3:19 #"Satin Doll" ( Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Billy Strayhorn) – 7:01 Personnel Musicians * Jimmy Smith – organ *Kenny Burrell – guitar *Grady Tate – drums Technical * Creed Taylor – producer * Rudy Van Gelder – engineer * Val Valentin – director of engineering * Chuck Stewart – photography * Holmes Daddy-O Dayli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Smith (musician)
James Oscar Smith (December 8, 1925 – February 8, 2005) was an American jazz musician whose albums often appeared on ''Billboard'' magazine charts. He helped popularize the Hammond B-3 organ, creating a link between jazz and 1960s soul music. In 2005, Smith was awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honor that America bestows upon jazz musicians. Early years There is confusion about Smith's birth year, with sources citing either 1925 or 1928. Born James Oscar Smith in Norristown, Pennsylvania, he joined his father doing a song-and-dance routine in clubs at the age of six. He began teaching himself to play the piano. When he was nine, Smith won a Philadelphia radio talent contest as a boogie-woogie pianist. After a period in the U.S. Navy, he began furthering his musical education in 1948, with a year at Royal Hamilton College of Music, then the Leo Ornstein School of Music in Philadelphia in 1949. He began exploring the Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz Standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be standards changes over time. Songs included in major fake book publications (sheet music collections of popular tunes) and jazz reference works offer a rough guide to which songs are considered standards. Not all jazz standards were written by jazz composers. Many are originally Tin Pan Alley popular songs, Broadway show tunes or songs from Hollywood musicals – the Great American Songbook. In Europe, jazz standards and "fake books" may even include some traditional folk songs (such as in Scandinavia) or pieces of ethnic music (such as gypsy melodies) that have been played with a jazz feel by well known jazz players. A commonly played song can only be considered a jazz standard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Strayhorn
William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger, who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the 'A' Train", "Chelsea Bridge", "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing", and " Lush Life". Early life Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio, United States. His family soon moved to the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, his mother's family came from Hillsborough, North Carolina, and she sent him there to protect him from his father's drunken sprees. Strayhorn spent many months of his childhood at his grandparents' house in Hillsborough. In an interview, Strayhorn said that his grandmother was his primary influence during the first ten years of his life. He became interested in music while living with her, playing hymns on her piano, and playing records on her Victrola record player. Return to Pittsburgh and meeting Ellington S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallichs. He is best known as a Tin Pan Alley lyricist, but he also composed music, and was a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as songs written by others from the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s. Mercer's songs were among the most successful hits of the time, including " Moon River", " Days of Wine and Roses", " Autumn Leaves", and "Hooray for Hollywood". He wrote the lyrics to more than 1,500 songs, including compositions for movies and Broadway shows. He received nineteen Oscar nominations, and won four Best Original Song Oscars. Early life Mercer was born in Savannah, Georgia, where one of his first jobs, aged 10, was sweeping floors at the original 1919 location of Leopold's Ice Cream. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's " Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed multipl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satin Doll
"Satin Doll" is a jazz standard written by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Written in 1953, the song has been recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, 101 Strings, Terry Callier, and Nancy Wilson. Its chord progression is well known for its unusual use of chords and opening with a ii-V-I turnaround. Background Johnny Mercer was often asked to write lyrics to already popular songs. Lyrics to "Satin Doll" were written after the song was a hit in its instrumental version. Ellington used "Satin Doll" as the closing number in most of his concerts. Other versions * Duke Ellington – ''Capitol Sessions 1953–1955'' (1953) * The Gaylords – 1958 * Bill Doggett – ''Salute to Duke Ellington'' (King, 1959) * Peggy Lee / George Shearing – ''Beauty And The Beat!'' (Capitol Records, 1959) * The Coasters – ''One by One'' (1960) * Harry James – ''Harry James...Today'' (MGM, 1960) * Ella Fitzgerald – ''Ella in Hollywood'' (1961) * McCoy Tyner – ''Night ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Reid (British Songwriter)
William Gordon Reid (19 September 1902 – 12 December 1974) was an English songwriter, bandleader, pianist and accordionist. He was the first British songwriter to reach the top of the US music chart, with The Ink Spots' 1946 recording of " The Gypsy", and was known for his close association with the singer Dorothy Squires, for whom he wrote that and many other songs. Biography Born in Coronation Terrace, Southampton, England, Reid worked as a riveter in the docks in the city. He taught himself the piano and piano accordion, and played in local clubs before becoming a professional musician and forming the Ariste Dance Orchestra. He played accordion in the Noël Coward show '' Bitter Sweet'', and his band played each week on a Radio Luxembourg programme, ''Stars of Luxembourg''. In the early 1930s, he formed a tango band with violinist Eugene Pini, and led the London Piano-Accordeon Band, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddy Kaye
Jules Leonard "Buddy" Kaye (January 3, 1918 – November 21, 2002) was an American songwriter, lyricist, arranger, producer, and author. His songs were recorded by top performers, including Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, The McGuire Sisters, Glenn Miller, Sammy Kaye, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Charles Aznavour, Tony Bennett, Cliff Richard, Pat Boone, Harry Belafonte, Bobby Darin, Little Richard, Barry Manilow, Karen Carpenter, Diana Krall, and Dusty Springfield. He scored number-one hits on the Billboard charts in 1945 with " Till The End Of Time", recorded by Perry Como, and in 1949 with " 'A' You're Adorable (The Alphabet Song)", recorded by Como and the Fontaine Sisters. Among his most recognizable tunes in pop culture are the theme songs to the Famous Studios theatrical cartoons Little Lulu and Little Audrey; the international hit song "Speedy Gonzales", recorded by Pat Boone; and the co-written theme song to the television series ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I'll Close My Eyes (song)
"I'll Close My Eyes", first published in 1945, is a song written and composed by the English songwriter and bandleader Billy Reid. This song is usually performed with altered lyrics by the American songwriter Buddy Kaye. The song has become a jazz standard. Composition and recordings The original version of the song had both music and lyrics written by Billy Reid. In this original version, the song is a song of regret, with a verse introducing the theme in words which include: ''"Love was mine, you gave me a chance; But my heart was not content and I lost my romance.."'' The main song refrain then begins (as it does in the later version) ''"I'll close my eyes"'' but continues ''"and make believe it's you"''. The song then continues on the theme that the singer has foolishly lost his love and can now only close his eyes and imagine her in his loneliness. It was recorded with the original Billy Reid words by the English singer Dorothy Squires, who had a close association with Bil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traditional Music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that. Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk reviv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greensleeves
"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song. A broadside ballad by the name "A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves" was registered by Richard Jones at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580,Frank Kidson, ''English Folk-Song and Dance''. READ BOOKS, 2008, p.26. John M. Ward, "'And Who But Ladie Greensleeues?'", in ''The Well Enchanting Skill: Music, Poetry, and Drama in the Culture of the Renaissance: Essays in Honour of F. W. Sternfeld'', edited by John Caldwell, Edward Olleson, and Susan Wollenberg, 181–211 (Oxford:Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1990): 181. . and the tune is found in several late-16th-century and early-17th-century sources, such as ''Ballet's MS Lute Book'' and ''Het Luitboek van Thysius'', as well as various manuscripts preserved in the Seeley Historical Library in the University of Cambridge. Form "Greensleeves" can have a ground either of the form called a ''romanesca''; or its slight variant, the ''passame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitchell Parish
Mitchell Parish (born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky; July 10, 1900 – March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist, notably as a writer of songs for stage and screen. Biography Parish was born to a Jewish family in Lithuania, Russian Empire in July 1900 His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901, aboard the '' SS Dresden'' when he was less than a year old. They settled first in Louisiana where his paternal grandmother had relatives, but later moved to New York City, where he grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and received his education in the public schools. He attended Columbia University and N.Y.U. and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He eventually abandoned the notion of practicing law to become a songwriter. He served his apprenticeship as a writer of special material for vaudeville acts, and later established himself as a writer of songs for stage, screen and numerous musical revues. By the late 1920s, Parish was a well-regarded Tin Pan Alley ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
