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The Carmen McRae – Betty Carter Duets
''The Carmen McRae-Betty Carter Duets'' is a 1987 live album of duets by the American jazz singers Betty Carter and Carmen McRae. Originally released on American Music Hall Records, it was reissued in 1996 by Verve under the title ''Duets: Live at the Great American Music Hall'' with three previously unreleased tracks by McRae alone. Track listing #" What's New?" ( Johnny Burke, Bob Haggart) – 4:20 #" Stolen Moments" ( Oliver Nelson) – 3:36 #" But Beautiful" (Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) – 5:55 #"Am I Blue?" ( Harry Akst, Grant Clarke) – 6:45 #" Glad to Be Unhappy"/" Where or When" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)/(Rodgers, Hart) – 5:33 #" Sometimes I'm Happy" ( Irving Caesar, Clifford Grey, Vincent Youmans) – 7:54 #" Isn't It Romantic?" (Rodgers, Hart) – 2:57 #" Sophisticated Lady" (Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Mitchell Parish) – 3:34 #" It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (Ellington, Mills) – 6:10 #" I Hear Music" (Burton Lane, Frank Loesser) â ... [...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] |
Oliver Nelson
Oliver Edward Nelson (June 4, 1932 – October 28, 1975) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. His 1961 Impulse! album '' The Blues and the Abstract Truth'' (1961) is regarded as one of the most significant recordings of its era. The centerpiece of the album is the definitive version of Nelson's composition, " Stolen Moments". Other important recordings from the early 1960s are '' More Blues and the Abstract Truth'' and ''Sound Pieces'', both also on Impulse!. Biography Early life and career Oliver Nelson was born into a musical family in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. His brother was a saxophonist who played with Cootie Williams in the 1940s, and his sister sang and played piano. Nelson began learning to play the piano when he was six and started on the saxophone at eleven. Beginning in 1947 he played in "territory" bands in and around Saint Louis before joining the Louis Jordan band where he stayed from 1950 to 1951, playing alto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Youmans
Vincent Millie Youmans (September 27, 1898 – April 5, 1946) was an American Broadway composer and producer. A leading Broadway composer of his day, Youmans collaborated with virtually all the greatest lyricists on Broadway: Ira Gershwin, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Caesar, Anne Caldwell, Leo Robin, Howard Dietz, Clifford Grey, Billy Rose, Edward Eliscu, Edward Heyman, Harold Adamson, Buddy DeSylva and Gus Kahn. Youmans' early songs are remarkable for their economy of melodic material: two-, three- or four-note phrases are constantly repeated and varied by subtle harmonic or rhythmic changes. In later years, however, he turned to longer musical sentences and more rhapsodic melodic lines. Youmans published fewer than 100 songs, but 18 of these were considered standards by ASCAP, a remarkably high percentage. Biography Youmans was born in New York City, United States, into a prosperous family of hat makers. When he was two, his father moved the family to upp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clifford Grey
Clifford Grey (5 January 1887 – 25 September 1941) was an English songwriter, librettist, actor and screenwriter. His birth name was Percival Davis, and he was also known as Clifford Gray. Grey contributed prolifically to West End and Broadway shows, as librettist and lyricist for composers including Ivor Novello, Jerome Kern, Howard Talbot, Ivan Caryll and George Gershwin. Among his best-remembered songs are two from early in his career, in 1916: " If You Were the Only Girl (In the World)" and "Another Little Drink Wouldn't Do Us Any Harm". His later hits include "Got a Date with an Angel" and "Spread a Little Happiness". For 35 years after 1979 it was widely believed that Grey secretly competed as an American bobsleigher, under the name Clifford "Tippy" Gray, in two Winter Olympics, in 1928 and 1932, winning gold medals, but it was finally shown that the sportsman was a different person. Life and career Early years Grey was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irving Caesar
Irving Caesar (born Isidor Keiser, July 4, 1895 – December 18, 1996) was an American lyricist and theater composer who wrote lyrics for numerous song standards, including " Swanee", "Sometimes I'm Happy", "Crazy Rhythm", and " Tea for Two", one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written. In 1972, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Biography Caesar, the son of Morris Keiser, a Romanian Jew, was born in New York City, United States. His older brother Arthur Caesar was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. The Caesar brothers spent their childhood and teen years in Yorkville, the same Manhattan neighborhood where the Marx Brothers were raised. Caesar knew the Marx Brothers during his childhood. He was educated at Chappaqua Mountain Institute in Chappaqua, New York. In his career, Caesar collaborated with a wide variety of composers and songwriters, including Rudolf Friml, George Gershwin, Sigmund Romberg, Victor Herbert, Ted Koehler and Ray Hender ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sometimes I'm Happy
"Sometimes I'm Happy" is a popular song. The music was written by Vincent Youmans, the lyrics by Irving Caesar. The song was originally published in 1923 under the title "Come On And Pet Me," with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and William Cary Duncan. Background It was originally intended for the Broadway musical ''Mary Jane McKane,'' but was cut before the show opened. The music was subsequently used, with new lyrics and title, in the short-lived 1925 musical ''A Night Out,'' and in the musical '' Hit the Deck,'' starring Stanley Holloway and opening in April 1927. The song was performed in '' Hit the Deck'' by Charles King and Louise Groody, who also made a recording for Victor Records, catalog number 20609. The best-selling versions were by King and Groody and by Roger Wolfe Kahn (with vocal by Franklyn Baur), also issued by Victor (catalog number 20599). Two other versions, a duet by Baur and Gladys Rice on Columbia Records (catalog number 998-D) and a vocal by Vau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Milton Hart (May 2, 1895 – November 22, 1943) was an American lyricist and half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include " Blue Moon", " The Lady Is a Tramp", "Manhattan", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", and "My Funny Valentine". Life and career Hart was born in Harlem, New York City, the elder of two sons, to Jewish immigrant parents, Max M. and Frieda (Isenberg) Hart, of German background. Through his mother, he was a great-grandnephew of the German poet Heinrich Heine. His father, a business promoter, sent Hart and his brother to private schools. (His brother, Teddy Hart, also went into theatre and became a musical comedy star. Teddy Hart's wife, Dorothy Hart, wrote a biography of Lorenz Hart.) Hart received his early education from Columbia Grammar School and entered Columbia College in 1913, before switching to Columbia University School of Journalism, where he attended for two years. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most well-known American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music. Rodgers is known for his songwriting partnerships, first with lyricist Lorenz Hart and then with Oscar Hammerstein II. With Hart he wrote musicals throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including ''Pal Joey (musical), Pal Joey'', ''A Connecticut Yankee (musical), A Connecticut Yankee'', ''On Your Toes'' and ''Babes in Arms.'' With Hammerstein he wrote musicals through the 1940s and 1950s, such as ''Oklahoma!'', ''Flower Drum Song'', ''Carousel (musical), Carousel'', ''South Pacific (musical), South Pacific'', ''The King and I'', and ''The Sound of Music''. His collaborations with Hammerstein, in particular, are celebrated for brin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Where Or When
"Where or When" is a show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical ''Babes in Arms''. It was first performed by Ray Heatherton and Mitzi Green. That same year, Hal Kemp recorded a popular version. The song also appeared in the film version of ''Babes in Arms'' two years later. Babes in Arms "Where or When" is the first number to appear in the original Broadway production of ''Babes in Arms''. The musical opens in Seaport, Long Island on a hectic morning that finds most of the adult population embarking on a five-month vaudeville tour. Soon after his parents' departure, 20-year-old Valentine LaMar (played by Ray Heatherton) discovers at his doorstep a young hitchhiker named Billie Smith (played by Mitzi Green). Instantly smitten, he engages her in a discussion of movie stars, self-defense maneuvers, and Nietzsche's theory of individualism, at which point Val impulsively steals a kiss. Both admit to a powerful sense of déjà vu and sing "Where or When" as a duet. MGM bought t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glad To Be Unhappy
"Glad to Be Unhappy" is a popular song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. It was introduced in their 1936 musical ''On Your Toes'', sung by Doris Carson and David Morris, although it was not popular at the time, as there was only one recording of the song. In the 1937 London production, it was sung by Gina Malo and Eddie Pola. The song was performed in the 1954 Broadway revival by Kay Coulter and Joshua Shelley. The Mamas & the Papas Originally recorded for an appearance on "Rodgers and Hart Today", an episode of ''ABC Stage 67'', the Mamas and the Papas' version of the song was released as a single at the end of 1967, reaching #26 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. It was issued to keep the group in the charts while awaiting the completion of the group's fourth album, The Papas & The Mamas. However, the song does not appear on that album; it was instead used to promote the group's second greatest-hits package, entitled ''Golden Era Vol. 2''. It is the l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grant Clarke
Grant Clarke (May 14, 1891, Akron, Ohio – May 16, 1931, California) was an American songwriter. Clarke moved to New York City early in his career, where he worked as an actor and a staff writer for comedians. He began working on Tin Pan Alley, where he contributed music to films such as ''The Jazz Singer'' (1927), ''Weary River'' (1928), '' On with the Show'' (1929) and '' Is Everybody Happy?'' (1929). He wrote the lyrics to the show '' Dixie to Broadway'', and also contributed to the 1921 ''Ziegfeld Follies'' and ''Bombo''. Later in his career he became a charter member of ASCAP and was successful in the music publishing business. Clarke was the author of the lyrics to many popular songs of the 1910s and 1920s, working with composers such as George W. Meyer, Harry Akst, James V. Monaco, Al Piantadosi, Fred Fisher, Harry Warren, Arthur Johnston, James Hanley, Lewis F. Muir and Milton Ager. Selected songs A list of Clarke's most prominent works: * "Dat's Harmony" (1911) * "Ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Akst
Harry Akst (August 15, 1894 – March 31, 1963) - accessed November 19, 2011 was an American songwriter, who started out his career as a in accompanying singers such as , Frank Fay and |
