1. Say It with Music
On behalf of The Concert Singers, I welcome you to our 2004 Summer Program of Jazz and Swing Favorites, which we are titling "Say It With Music". We thank Pastor King and the staff and people of Covenant Presbyterian church for making their Fellowship Hall available to us. So sit back and enjoy some great music, and ice cream, which I see some of you already are.
You just heard Say It with Music by Irving Berlin (1921), which we have chosen as the theme of our concert today. This arrangement is by Roy Ringwald. (MF: Music Box Revue; MT: Mayfair and Montmartre [1921]; MT: Alexander's Ragtime Band [1938]; theme song of Jack Payne)
Next we present another Irving Berlin song (arranged by Roy Ringwald), which bears a slight resemblance to Chopin's "Polonaise in A-flat". It was first used in the musical film Top Hat [1935], which starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and celebrated the romantic art deco mode of close dancing: Cheek to Cheek (1935).
2. Cheek to Cheek
In my not-so-humble opinion, if the same individual writes both the lyric and the music of a song, one or the other suffers. The two greatest exceptions to this notion are Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Presenting one song of each are our duet of Harris & Andy with You're Just in Love (1950: wm. Irving Berlin) and Friendship (1939: wm. Cole Porter; from DuBarry Was a Lady; used in the 1987 revival of Anything Goes).
3. Duet: Harris & Andy
Followers of The Concert Singers may remember back to our 2001 jazz show when we presented Steve Zegree's arrangement, of "On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever)" from the 1965 show (and 1970 film) of the same title; words by Alan Jay Lerner; music by Burton Lane. We now present another of Steve Zegree's arrangements of Broadway songs. Here is I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face from the 1956 Lerner and Loewe show My Fair Lady.
4. I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face
In 1975 there opened on Broadway the musical show Chicago, based on a 1927 play of the same name, about an aspiring chorus girl named Roxie who murders her lover, but parleys her notoriety to fame, but soon discovers how fickle a mistress fame really is. The show was eclipsed for the major awards that year by A Chorus Line, but was successfully revived in 1996. We present And All That Jazz (1973: w. Fred Ebb; M. John Kander; arr. Kirby Shaw), the opening number from the show in which Velma, twice the murderess, introduces us to the slinky world of jazz, sex, and bootleg liquor.
5. And All That Jazz
In 1927 Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh were eavesdropping on a poor couple window shopping at Tiffany's, and hearing the near title of this next song, rushed home and completed it in less than one hour. We now present I Can't Give You Anything But Love.
6. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
Our next selection, Jeepers Creepers: words by Johnny Mercer; music by Harry Warren; arranged by Pete Schmutte; was used in the musical film Going Places, and sung by Louis Armstrong to a racehorse named Jeepers Creepers, which enables him to steal the show. The film also featured Dick Powell and Ronald Reagan. You may also remember it was quoted in the film Yankee Doodle Dandy, the biopic of George M. Cohan.
7. Jeepers Creepers
Harold Arlen was born February 15, 1905, in Buffalo, New York, son of a cantor named Samuel Arluck. He was given the name "Chaim Arluk", eventually taking the name Arlen based on his father's name and his mother's maiden name of Orlin. He wrote revue songs for the Cotton Club in Harlem (1930-4), blending forms from Tin Pan Alley with blues and popularized black music. Arlen attempted to introduce the 12-bar harmonic structure of blues into popular songs. And he was among the first to help provide a mass commercial market for black entertainment.
Stormy Weather (1933: w. Ted Koehler) was originally written for Cab Calloway by Harold Arlen for the 1933 musical show Cotton Club Revue. It became the theme song of Lena Horne and Ethel Waters. This arrangement is by Jay Althouse.
8. Stormy Weather
Sweet Georgia Brown (1925) wm. Kenneth Casey & Maceo Pinkard; authorship erroneously credited to Ben Bernie; introduced by Ben Bernie and his orchestra; played at Harlem Globetrotters games; used in the musical films Broadway (1942); Follow the Boys (1944); Some Like It Hot (1958; featured Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis); used in the musical show Bubbling Brown Sugar (1976) which tells of Harlem in its golden years, including many of the best songs of the era.
9. Sweet Georgia Brown
Georgia on My Mind was written in 1930 by composer Hoagy Carmichael with his good friend lyricist Stuart Gorrell. Gorrell was not credited in the published versions, so every royalty check Carmichael received he sent a portion to Gorrell. Even though the song was written with a woman named Georgia in mind, when it was revived in 1960 with a best-selling record by Georgia native Ray Charles Robinson, it was made the official state song of the state of Georgia. When the bill passed, Ray Charles sang it on the floor of the legislature. His recording was the winner of award for "Best Rock & Roll Recording, and "Best Solo Performance--Male"). Ray Charles, you will be missed. This arrangement is by Gene Puerling, edited by Phil Mattson.
10. Georgia on My Mind
A song first entitled "Make Me a Star", by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, originally written for Jean Harlow, was cut from the movie it was intended for. It was reworked in 1934 as Blue Moon. This arrangement is by Ruth Artman.
11. Blue Moon (Artman arrangement)
A cappella singing was quite popular in the late 1950s, in a form known as doo-wop. In 1961 an interracial quintet from Pittsburgh called the Marcels recorded a cover of the song we just sang. It was a huge hit, topping both the pop and R & B charts.
The expression "once in a blue moon" has been around for awhile, without a precise meaning. So some astronomers gave it the meaning of "a second full moon occurring in the same calendar month". It just so happens that there will be a "blue moon" this month, on July 31. (The first full moon was on the 2nd.) What better to mark the event than by singing a second arrangement of Blue Moon? We now present Blue Moon, as performed by the Marcels.
12. Blue Moon (Marcels)
At this point, we are taking a break. See you in 10.
INTERMISSION
Thank you, and welcome to the second act. We now present selections from "A Gershwin Portrait", songs composed by George Gershwin, with most (but not all) lyrics by his brother Ira, as arranged by Mac Huff. See how many of these songs you can recognize.
Thank you very much. You have been a wonderful audience. First let me introduce the soloists from that last medley whose names didn't get in the program: Linda Winters, Peter Bird, Rita McGreevey, John Christie, and Barbara Miller. (In "Gershwin In Love" - Suzanne Lawrence, Tom Gerhold, Joanne Rachford, and Harris Levey.)
In our band: on trumpet Seth Zwerling; on Bass, Bill von Ravensberg; on drums, Ken Park; and returning on keyboards, Stephanie Hutchinson. And, of course, directing, David Simmons.
You want more? Great! In 1954, Richard Adler & Jerry Ross put together a show based on a story of 1950s labor vs. management issues called 7½ cents. The show was The Pajama Game, and it was the eighth Broadway musical to run more than 1000 performances. This song has little to do with the plot, but it should be appropriate to today's weather. Here is Kirby Shaw's arrangement of Steam Heat.
Steam Heat (1954) wm. Richard Adler & Jerry Ross; Arr. Kirby Shaw; from the musical show The Pajama Game; used in the 1957 film The Pajama Game, which featured Doris Day and John Raitt.
Notes compiled by T. McQuilkin, 1995 July 1 to 2004 July 18
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