JAZZSTANDARDS.COM - Key Persons
Anna Naegle, Victor Mature, Eve Arden, David Niven, Annabella, Tamara
Arthur Schwartz displayed musical interests early, teaching himself piano and harmonica. But his attorney father wanted him to go to law school, so Arthur graduated and passed the bar in 1924, all the time publishing songs. When he met Howard Dietz in 1928 they collaborated on "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" and "I've Made a Habit of You" which appeared in Broadway's The Little Show (1929).
Axel Stordahl is inextricably linked by all of his biographers with Frank Sinatra's initial success as a soloist. The arranger understood the importance of tailoring a setting for a particular vocalist, and this he did in presenting Sinatra the balladeer, providing lush string arrangements with woodwinds to highlight the romantic nature of Sinatra's songs.
When Sinatra left Tommy Dorsey in 1942, he took Stordahl with him to Columbia Records as his music director. Their successes included songs such as "You'll Never Know," "Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week," "They Say It's Wonderful," and "Mam'selle." In 1946 they recorded The Voice, the first "concept album," featuring eight ballads. It hit the Billboard charts at number one. Stordahl also oversaw Sinatra's radio and televisions shows over their ten-year association, which produced a string of hits.
Before joining Dorsey in 1935, Stordahl had played trumpet and was part of a vocal group associated with other bands, but clearly his talent lay in arranging. When Dorsey split with his brother Jimmy and took over the Joe Haymes orchestra, he hired Stordahl as his arranger. Their first big hit in 1935 was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," which became the band's signature song.
Stordahl was also a composer of note, writing "I Should Care" (1945), "Day by Day" (1946), and "Night after Night" (1949) with Paul Weston and Sammy Cahn, "Aint-‘tcha Ever Comin' Back" (1947) with Weston and Irving Taylor, and "Meet Me at the Copa" (1950) with Cahn.
In 1951 Stordahl married former Pied Piper, June Hutton, and made several recordings with her for Capitol records. He also worked with other singers: Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby, and Dean Martin, to mention a few. In 1961 Sinatra and Stordahl reunited for their final recording together, Point of No Return.
Job Titles:
- Editor and CD Recommendations
- Freelance Writer, Researcher and Editor
Ben Maycock is a freelance writer, researcher and editor. A fervent jazz fan he is a regular reviewer and contributor to Planet Jazz magazine. He spends his time shuttling up and down the Atlantic coast between Nantucket, Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, Canada. His wife Jennifer and a manic Jack Russell named Pipa keep him in line.
He may be contacted at:
Billy Rose was not only a successful nightclub owner (Diamond Horsehoe) but enjoyed a career on Broadway as a songwriter, producer, and theater owner. During the 1920's he collaborated on the novelty songs "You Tell Her I Stutter" and "Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?" also enjoying a hit with "Me and My Shadow," and "Clap Hands Here Comes Charley." 1929's Great Day! with Edward Eliscu and Vincent Youmans produced "More Than You Know" and "Without a Song." That same year he married Fanny Brice who starred in Sweet and Low (later Crazy Quilt) which featured "I Found a Million Dollar Baby." "It's Only a Paper Moon," written in 1933 with Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen, has been favored as both a popular song and a jazz standard.
While Rose has been described as small in stature he more than made up for it in largesse of ego and bravado. His nickname "The Little Napoleon of Showmanship" was well earned, and while his co-writers would sometimes dispute his contribution they were more than willing to allow him to negotiate with the music publishers on their behalf.
In 1935 Rose became a household name after producing the musical extravaganza Jumbo complete with circus acts, wild animals and a Rodgers and Hart score that included "My Romance." His 1943 production of Carmen Jones also received rave reviews. After the Second World War Rose wrote a weekly syndicated column called "Pitching Horseshoes" which ran in over 200 newspapers across the United States. The Billy Rose Theatre Collection of The New York Public Library is one of the largest and most comprehensive archives devoted to the theatrical arts. His divorce from the actress Eleanor Holm would be coined "The War of the Roses" by the press.
Job Titles:
- an American Master
- Lush Life
Billy Strayhorn was privileged to enjoy a classical musical education despite his disadvantaged childhood. While still in high school he wrote a revue that became a full-blown touring production starring the yet unknown Billy Eckstine.
In 1938 Strayhorn met Duke Ellington who immediately hired him. The following year they recorded their first collaboration, "Something to Live For," with Strayhorn on piano. In 1941, following Duke's written subway directions to his house, Strayhorn composed and wrote the lyrics to "Take the A Train" which became the band's theme song. He worked as arranger, composer and second pianist for Ellington until his death, which left Ellington devastated. Their telepathic relationship makes it difficult to decipher where one begins and the other ends in their collaborations. "Swee' Pea," as Ellington called him, thrived in the Duke's shadow where he found the security to vent his musical gifts and cultivate his artistic interests.
While still in his teens Strayhorn composed "Lush Life," a sophisticated work with mature, world-weary lyrics. He played it for friends but did not publish it until 1949. Among Strayhorn's other gems are "Chelsea Bridge" (1941), "Rain Check" (1942), "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing" (1944), and "Lotus Blossom" (1947). His collaborations with Ellington produced "Day Dream" (1941), "Something to Live For" (1939), "Satin Doll" (1958) and many larger works.
Strayhorn participated in the civil rights movement, making a 1963 trip to a large NAACP rally in the South with his good friend Lena Horne. When Ellington was honored at the White House on his 70th birthday in 1969, he read Billy's four articles of moral freedom to the embarrassment of President Nixon.
Chick Webb was hugely admired by drummers such as Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, and Art Blakey for his power, clarity and impeccable rhythm. Unfortunately, the primitive recordings of the time make it impossible to hear his genius.
Webb was born with spinal tuberculosis which left him a hunchback and led to his early death. He took up drums on the advice of his doctor as a way of loosening up his limbs. He saved money from menial jobs and bought a drum set with custom pedals to accommodate his small stature. He left Baltimore for New York at 17 and, on the advice of Duke Ellington who was struck by his talent, formed a quintet that would become the famous Chick Webb Orchestra, the house band at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. In legendary cutting sessions there, Webb's crowd-pleasing style and power overwhelmed such bands as Count Basie's, Fletcher Henderson's and Benny Goodman's. Although Webb could not read music, he memorized everything and cued the band with his drums from a raised platform.
He introduced "Stompin' at the Savoy" in 1934, co-written with Benny Goodman, Edgar Sampson and lyricist Andy Razaf, and had hits with "If Dreams Come True" and "Blue Lou." In 1935 he hired a young, unknown vocalist, Ella Fitzgerald, with whom he recorded over 60 songs, most notably "A Tisket, A Tasket" (Fitzgerald's own composition) which went to the top of the charts.
As Webb's health began to deteriorate, he continued to perform with indomitable spirit, often passing out after a set. Upon his death Fitzgerald took over the orchestra for two years until it became too much for her, and the orchestra disbanded.
The much-loved Webb was eulogized by Fitzgerald singing "My Buddy" at the funeral which could not accommodate all of the mourners.
Chris Tyle is a multi-instrumentalist performing classic jazz; that is, jazz music from the very beginnings in New Orleans up until the bebop era of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. For ten years, six nights-a-week, from 1992 until 2002 he led his Silver Leaf Jazz Band at the Can Can Jazz Cafe on Bourbon Street, New Orleans.
Tyle has researched the history of jazz music for more than 30 years and is termed "An expert on early jazz," by Scott Yanow, author and editor of the All Music Guide to Jazz.
For JazzStandards.com he has written the Jazz History in Standard Time pages and the Jazz History Notes for the top 200 standards.
One of the CD's by Chris Tyle's Silver Leaf Jazz Band, New Orleans Wiggle, has been given a four star rating and a special "crown" by the Sixth and Seventh Editions of the Penguin Guide to Jazz. Out of approximately 10,000 CD reviews in the Guide, only 152 recordings have received this rating (see our home page for more on the review).
Cliff Burwell was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He studied piano during high school and later received formal training in composition, counterpoint and harmony. Burwell played piano with popular orchestras, most notably with Rudy Vallee and His Connecticut Yankees. He is best known for his composition "Sweet Lorraine" (1928) which was fit with lyrics by Mitchell Parish and popularized by Vallee's earlier group Rudy Vallee and His Heigh-Ho Yale Collegians.
Edgar Sampson was touring with Duke Ellington's band by the age of eighteen. Between 1928 and 1932 he played violin with Charlie Johnson's Paradise Ten at Small's Paradise in Harlem and saxophone with Fletcher Henderson's band. It was during this period that he perfected his skill as an arranger.
He joined Chick Webb's band in 1933 and really came into his own as an arranger and composer, collaborating with Webb on the perennial jazz favorite, "Stompin' at the Savoy" (1936), and writing the tune "Blue Lou" with Irving Mills in 1935, which became one of the band's features. Much credit is given to Sampson's arrangements, which contributed to the distinctive sound of the Webb band.
In 1936 Goodman hired Sampson as his arranger, and at the Carnegie Hall concert in 1938 Goodman included two of Sampson's songs and arrangements, "If Dreams Come True" (1934, with Irving Mills) and "Don't Be That Way," in this now legendary performance. Many of Goodman's hits during the '30s were arranged by Sampson.
Fred Ahlert was born in New York City and completed his education at Fordham Law School. Switching from law to music, Ahlert began work as an arranger for composer and bandleader Fred Waring. He eventually transitioned to full-time composing, producing two major hits. The first, "I'll Get By," sold over a million copies of sheet music. In 1928 he became convinced he should start his own publishing company and in 1929 he published his second major hit, the top jazz standard "Mean to Me." Ahlert was Director of ASCAP for twenty years, and the Fred Ahlert Music Corporation is still in operation today.
Songs in the Ahlert catalog include "I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)" (1928), "Walking My Baby Back Home" (1930), "I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)" (1931), "Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day" (1931), and "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" (1935).
Guy B. Wood came from England in the 1930's to the United States where he first worked in production at Hollywood studios and later led a dance band in New York, playing saxophone. His output of some dozen songs, for which he either wrote music or lyrics, contains several hits. "My One and Only Love" (1953) written with Robert Mellin and first recorded by Frank Sinatra, has become a jazz standard. "Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy," a folk tune for which Wood wrote lyrics with Sammy Gallop, became a popular novelty tune recorded by artists as diverse as Dinah Shore and June Christy with the Stan Kenton band. "Till Then," written in collaboration with Sol M. Marcus and Eddie Seiler, enjoyed several decades of success in different incarnations-as a hit for the Mills Brothers in 1944, for the Hilltoppers a decade later, and for the Classics in 1963. Wood also wrote music for the popular children's program, Captain Kangaroo.
Jimmy Sherman was a jazz pianist, composer and arranger. For over 40 years he played piano for swing groups, most notably with Stuff Smith, Lil Armstrong, and the Charioteers (with tenor lead, vocalist Billy Williams.) His major songwriting credit is as a collaborator on "Lover Man."
JazzStandards.com was developed by Jeremy Wilson, a jazz fan and information management specialist. When looking for documentation on jazz standards in 1999, he found the documentation was available, but spread out and in need of centralization and preservation.
Using newspaper archives, liner notes, websites and books, many of which are out of print, he documented the origins of the top 100 jazz standards. With help, 200 more have been documented and more are on the way.
Jimmy Van Heusen was a favorite composer of both Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, who recorded more than 70 of his songs. As a teenager he adopted the more sophisticated name of the shirt manufacturer when he began singing and playing piano on a Syracuse radio station. In college he wrote a song with Jerry Arlen (Harold's brother) which was recorded by Cab Calloway. He wrote "Oh! You Crazy Moon" (1938) and "Deep in a Dream" (1939) with lyricist Eddie De Lange and came up with two hits from a failed Broadway show in 1939: "Darn That Dream" with De Lange and "I Thought About You" with Johnny Mercer.
The following year he formed a fruitful partnership with lyricist Johnny Burke. Writing for Hollywood movies, they produced a string of hits for Bing Crosby--"Moonlight Becomes You" (1942), "Sunday, Monday, or Always" (1943), the Academy-Award winning "Swinging on a Star" (1944) and "Personality" (1946). Three films in 1944 produced "Suddenly It's Spring," "It Could Happen to You," and "Like Someone in Love." Two more of their hits to be picked up by jazz musicians are "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" (1940) and "But Beautiful" (1947). "Here's That Rainy Day" (1953), introduced by Dolores Gray in Carnival in Flanders, was popularized by nightclub singers and recorded by a host of jazz artists.
Johnny Burke had his first big success with "Pennies from Heaven" (1936), written with Arthur Johnston and performed by Bing Crosby. In 1939 he wrote lyrics for "What's New," an instrumental crafted by bassist Bob Haggart in 1938 as "I'm Free." In Chicago he had written novelty tunes for Fats Waller and plugged songs for the Irving Berlin Publishing Company, but his career took off when he moved to Hollywood to work with composer Jimmy Van Heusen.
Job Titles:
- Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond / Rio Bravo
John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Ben Johnson, Claude Jarman Jr., Harry Carey Jr., Chill Wills, J. Carrol Naish, Victor McLaglen, Grant Withers, Peter Ortiz, Steve Pendleton, Karolyn Grimes, Alberto Morin, Stan Jones, Fred Kennedy, Karl Farr, Barlow Simpson
Juan Tizol came to the United States in 1920 from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to play in the pit band at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C. where he met Duke Ellington. Tizol had studied both valve and slide trombone with his uncle and was a master of both. Most players preferred the slide because of its sound and greater tonal accuracy. But the valve trombone offered greater fluidity and was favored by Tizol. He joined Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1929 and became the soul of its ensemble section over the next 15 years. He frequently rehearsed the band for Duke, who wrote arrangements that took advantage of Tizol's mastery of his instrument, pairing him with saxes and trumpets.
Two of Tizol's compositions, written while with Ellington, became jazz standards: "Caravan" (1937) and "Perdido" (1942). While Billy Eckstine had the first vocal hit of "Caravan" in 1946, the tune is a favorite of drummers for its rhythmic possibilities. "Perdido" has been more successful as a vehicle for vocalists. Tizol's penchant for exotic themes seemed to inspire Ellington who performed Tizol's other works but without the same success.
In 1944 Tizol joined the commercially successful Harry James band where he remained for seven years. He returned to Duke's band in 1951 for the first of two short stints, the last in 1960. Tired of traveling, he settled in Los Angeles in 1953 where he found studio work with, among others, Nelson Riddle who was recording then with Sinatra.
K. J. McElrath has worked in jazz performance, musical theatre and music education for over twenty-five years. A composer of several works for winds and orchestra, his pieces for jazz ensemble have been published by Kjos Music Co. of San Diego. He holds a Master's Degree in Composition and Theory from Central Washington University, where he studied with Professor John Moawad. His unique approach to both jazz piano performance and arranging involves the frequent use of counterpoint.
For JazzStandards.com he has written Musical Analyses for the top 200 standards.
Kurt Weill was a musical prodigy from a family of distinguished rabbis. He studied in Berlin, presented his first opera in 1926, and was acclaimed as a leading modernist composer. With left-wing poet Bertolt Brecht he developed a distinctive style of opera, integrating political material through popular song. In 1928 The Three Penny Opera, rife with jazz and blues and starring Weill's wife, Lotte Lenya, was a sensation. Weill's strident melodies captured the nihilism and corruption of 1920's Germany. A 1933 U.S. production flopped, but a successful revival (1954), with new lyrics by Marc Blitzstein, made a hit of "Mack the Knife" which won Grammies for Bobby Darin (1959) and Ella Fitzgerald (1960). Happy End (1929) produced "The Bilbao Song," a later hit with Johnny Mercer's lyrics. Mahagonny, their satire of capitalism set in a mythical American city, premiered in 1930 but was not seen in the U.S. until 1970. Its "Alabama Song" is full of ribald humor.
In 1933 Weill and Lenya fled to Paris and then America in 1935, the same year that Nazis closed Weill's last German production. In the U.S. Weill worked on a film history of the Jews and on an anti-war satire with the influential Group Theatre. 1938's Knickerbocker Holiday established Weill as a new force in American theater and captivated audiences with "September Song." Lady in the Dark (1941, lyrics by Ira Gershwin) produced "My Ship," and the musical comedy, One Touch of Venus (1943, lyrics by Ogden Nash), gave us "Speak Low." Weill's last work dealt with racial intolerance. Lost in the Stars (1949) with its touching title song, was adapted by Maxwell Anderson from Alan Paton's book on South Africa, Cry, the Beloved Country.
Louis Armstrong is synonymous with jazz. One of its first proponents and shapers, his technical superiority, spontaneity, and creativity gave life to the music and influenced everyone that came after him. He grew up in New Orleans where he learned to play cornet in reform school and absorbed all of the music around him in the port city. He played around New Orleans in several bands and joined "King" Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in Chicago in 1922. In 1925 he recorded his famous Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions.
By 1929 Armstrong was a big star, touring the U.S. and the continent with his bands. His singing style became as popular as his trumpet playing. He appeared on Broadway in Swingin' the Dream (1938) where he and Maxine Sullivan introduced "Darn that Dream." In 1947, as public tastes in music changed, his big band was disbanded and the small group, Louis Armstrong Allstars, was formed and toured the world for 20 years, earning "Pops" the honorary title of "America's Ambassador."
Armstrong was a frequent guest on TV specials and made two dozen films, one of his most charming with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, High Society (1956).
Marty Symes was a lyricist with a relatively small output, but almost every tune was a hit in its time, and at least three have entered the jazz standards repertoire. "Under a Blanket of Blue" (1933), written with Jerry Livingston, was first popularized by Glen Gray and his Casa Loma Orchestra. That same year "It's the Talk of the Town," written with Livingston and Al J. Neiburg, was a hit for Bing Crosby. "(There Is) No Greater Love," written in 1936 with Isham Jones, joined the top 100 standards.
"Darkness on the Delta" (1932), Symes' first hit with Livingston, was first recorded by Mildred Bailey. "I've Got An Invitation To a Dance," another collaboration with Livingston and Neiburg (1935), was introduced by Kate Smith, and their "Born to Be Bored" appeared in Hollywood Revels of 1936. "Somebody's Thinking of You Tonight," with music by Teddy Powell and Ira Schuster, appears in several collections of hits from 1938 and is sung by Sam Browne.
Nacio Herb Brown left New Mexico, where his father was sheriff, to attend the LA High School of Musical Arts and UCLA. Music was secondary to his successful real estate career until he met lyricist Arthur Freed. Together they scored the Academy Award winning Broadway Melody of 1929 and throughout the ‘30s wrote a series of hits for Broadway musicals and films, including "Should I" (1930), "Temptation" (1933), and "All I Do Is Dream of You" (1934).
When Freed turned movie producer, Brown found other collaborations. He wrote "You Stepped Out of a Dream" with Gus Kahn for Ziegfeld Girl (1941) and the rousing "Love Is Where You Find It" with Earl K. Brent for The Kissing Bandit (1948). He partnered again with Freed to score a movie, which took its title from a song they had written in 1928 for a Hollywood revue. Singin' in the Rain (1952), which was nominated for Best Original Score, is considered by many the quintessential Hollywood musical.
Ned Washington began his career in vaudeville in 1922 where he was an emcee and actors' agent. His first two songs appeared in Vanities of 1928, and his first big success was with composer Victor Young's "Can't We Talk It Over" (1931). "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," written with George Bassman, became Tommy Dorsey's theme song in 1932. The next year several of Washington's songs were interpolated into musicals, and "Smoke Rings," with H. Eugene Gifford, became the theme song for Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra.
Washington went to Hollywood, where he remained and enjoyed a string of hits. In 1938 his first song to make the Hit Parade was "The Nearness of You," written with Hoagy Carmichael. 1940's Pinocchio won two Oscars for Washington and Leigh Harline: Best Score and Best Song, "When You Wish Upon a Star."
Job Titles:
- Editor and CD Recommendations
Pianist Noah Baerman earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Jazz Studies from Rutgers University, studying under Kenny Barron. Noah's widely acclaimed 2003 release Patch Kit raised funds and awareness for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder with which he was born. The album, featuring bassist Ron Carter and drummer Ben Riley, gained substantial press and radio airplay nationally and led to an appearance for Noah on Marian McPartland's NPR program Piano Jazz. Noah's fourth album, Soul Force was released in 2005 and is a tribute to the life and message of Martin Luther King. "Soul Force" features his trio alongside a wide array of guest musicians including trombonist Robin Eubanks and saxophonists Steve Wilson, Jimmy Greene, Wayne Escoffery and Claire Daly. Noah is active as an educator, teaching privately and at several institutions including Wesleyan University, Central Connecticut State University and Charter Oak State College. He has written eight books for the Alfred Publishing Company. His most popular books are the three-volume Complete Jazz Keyboard Method and the Big Book of Jazz Piano Improvisation and in 2005 Alfred published Noah's first instructional DVD. He is a prolific composer as well and in 2006 earned First Prize for jazz in the Billboard Song Contest.
Paul Francis Webster may not be a familiar name, but his credits as a lyricist indicate it should be. After college, Navy service, and a stint as a dance instructor, he began his career as a lyricist. His first success was "Masquerade" (1932), written with John Jacob Loeb and popularized by Paul Whiteman's Orchestra. This song should not to be confused with "The Masquerade Is Over," written in 1939 by Allie Wrubel and Herb Magidson.
He went to Hollywood in 1934 and freelanced on several pictures, but his big successes were independent tunes: "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)," written with Duke Ellington (1941); "Baltimore Oriole (1942) and "Memphis in June" (1945), music by Hoagy Carmichael; and 1948's "Black Coffee," written with Reginald "Sonny" Burke, which was a hit for Sarah Vaughan, Julie London, and Peggy Lee.
Job Titles:
- Music for Dreaming / Music for Memories
- Music for Easy Listening ( the Original )
- Music for Romancing / Music for the Fireside
Paul Weston led a band at Dartmouth, and after graduating with honors, he worked as an arranger for Rudy Vallee's radio show. He joined Tommy Dorsey's orchestra in 1936, and in 1940 Bob Crosby brought him to Hollywood to arrange for his band, featured in brother Bing's film Holiday Inn.
In 1942 Weston joined fledgling Capitol Records as musical director. With his orchestra he pioneered "mood music." His 1944 album, Music for Dreaming, featured romantic tunes, lush strings, a big band feel, and noted jazz soloists. He also recorded with the top vocalists of the day, including Jo Stafford, whom he married in 1952. In 1950 he went to Columbia Records and had his own radio show in 1951-52. During his tenure at both labels some two dozen of his recordings made it into the top ten, some of them million-sellers.
In 1954 he began work in television and throughout the ‘50s, as Musical Director for NBC-TV, he worked for many of the major shows, from specials to comedies. As a freelancer, he backed Ella Fitzgerald on her Irving Berlin Songbook in 1958. He and Stafford recorded several satirical records as Jonathan and Darlene Edwards--he as the inept pianist and she as the off-key singer. They won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 1960. In 1963 he settled down for four years with the Danny Kaye Show followed by stints with Jonathan Winters and Jim Nabors.
As well as being an in-demand arranger, Weston was also a composer of classical, religious and popular music. In 1945, with Axel Stordahl and Sammy Cahn, he wrote "Day by Day" and "I Should Care." And in collaboration with Paul Mason Howard, "Shrimp Boats" became a pop hit for Stafford in 1951 and "Gandy Dancers Ball" for Frankie Laine in 1952.
Peter Spitzer is a saxophonist, educator and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a performer, he he has played countless engagements, in many musical genres. He has taught both privately and in classroom settings for over 30 years, at all age levels. He is co-owner of Hope Street Music Studios in Mountain View, California. Peter received an MA (Music) from San Jose State University, and has studied privately with Paul Pone, Eddie Flenner, and Joe Henderson.
He is the author of the Jazz Theory Handbook and the Easy Classics series (Mel Bay Publications).
For JazzStandards.com he has written the Jazz Theory pages.
Robert Sour was a composer/lyricist whose major contribution to jazz is his collaboration on the lyrics to one of the greatest of all tunes, "Body and Soul."
He had an interesting collaboration with Una Mae Carlisle who was a pianist/singer/composer who performed at the Cotton Club. Fats Waller hired her for his band around 1933, and she recorded "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" with him. She enjoyed an international reputation and led her own group in 1940-41, which included Lester Young and Benny Carter.
Carlisle and Sour came up with a couple of songs that are still being picked up by today's artists, "Walkin' By the River" (1940) and "I See a Million People" (1941). Both of these songs made the Hit Parade, a first for a female, African American composer. Several well-established jazz musicians recorded them, and Carol Sloane included the latter in her 2002 CD, I Never Went Away.
Roy Turk began his career writing for vaudeville performers such as Sophie Tucker and Nora Bayes. "Aggravatin' Poppa" (written later in 1933 with composer J. Russel Robinson) became a feature of Tucker's act. But ultimately Turk contributed a host of songs to the standards repertoire. One of his early hits, "Gimme a Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh?" written with Jack Smith and Maceo Pinkard, enjoyed popularity years after its creation when it was picked up by both Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Another early hit, written with Lou Handman in 1926, was "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" which many people will associate with Elvis Presley, who recorded it in 1960.
Turk met songwriter Fred Ahlert in 1928 and together they enjoyed a string of successes, beginning with "I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)" which continued in popularity through the ‘40s when it was number two on the 1944 Hit Parade, recorded by Harry James. In 1929 they wrote their most famous song, "Mean to Me," which was a hit for Ruth Etting and a favorite of jazz musicians. Their 1930 collaboration with Harry Richmond produced "Walkin' My Baby Back Home," which enjoyed a revival in the ‘50s when both Nat "King" Cole and Johnnie Ray recorded it. It was number one on the Hit Parade in 1952.
Bing Crosby collaborated with the songwriting team in 1931 on "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" which became the theme song for his radio show. That same year the pair wrote "I Don't Know Why (I Love You Like I Do)" which enjoyed a second round of popularity when it was recorded by Tommy Dorsey in 1946. "Love, You Funny Thing!" was a hit for Louis Armstrong in 1932.
Turk's career was cut short when he died in 1934, but his songs have lived on in the Broadway hit, Ain't Misbehavin' (1978) and in its 1988 revival.
Sammy Cahn is one of the most successful of lyricists. He won four Academy Awards: The title song from Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), "All the Way" from The Joker Is Wild(1957), "High Hopes" from A Hole in the Head(1959), and "Call Me Irresponsible" from Papa's Delicate Condition (1963), received 22 other nominations and won an Emmy for "Love and Marriage" (1955). He also took his one-man show to Broadway in 1974.
Cahn began writing with Saul Chaplin. They wrote Jimmie Lunceford's theme song, "Rhythm Is Our Business" (1935), "Until The Real Thing Comes Along" (1936), and "Bei Mir Bist du Schoen" (1938), adapted from a Yiddish song, which put the Andrews Sisters on the charts.
Cahn's next collaboration was with Jule Styne writing for movies. 1944 alone brought "There Goes That Song Again," "I'll Walk Alone," and "Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week." "I Fall in Love Too Easily," "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow," "The Things We Did Last Summer," "Time After Time," and "It's Magic" represent the next four years.
Cahn had partnered with Jimmy Van Heusen on "It Seems I've Heard that Song Before" (1942) and the Broadway show, High Button Shoes (1947). Frank Sinatra reunited them for television's Our Town in 1955, and Cahn enjoyed his most rewarding period, including the Oscars and Emmy. The Cahn/Van Heusen songs revived Sinatra's career: "The Tender Trap" (1955), "Come Fly with Me" (1957), "Only the Lonely" (1958), "The Second Time Around" (1960), "My Kind of Town" (1964), and "September of My Years" (1965).
William Zinsser points out in Easy to Remember that Cahn was highly adept at tailoring lyrics to the singer. For instance, his emotionally obtuse lyrics perfectly suited Bing Crosby while he wrote up-front, emotionally bold lyrics for Sinatra.
Cahn is survived by his son, jazz guitarist Steve Khan.
Job Titles:
- Editor in Chief
- Editor of Sing Your Story
Sandra Burlingame is the editor of Sing Your Story by Jay Clayton, Metaphors for the Musician by Randy Halberstadt, and Tapping the Source by Brenda Bufalino. She also contributed to Jackson Street after Hours by Paul de Barros. She is a former member of Earshot Jazz Board of Directors, editor of its magazine, and publisher of 5/4 Magazine.
For JazzStandards.com she has written hundreds of biographies, book reviews, and edited nearly everything else.
Spencer Williams was born and educated in New Orleans, Louisiana. He moved to Chicago in 1907 and began his career as a piano player in saloons, eventually graduating to more sophisticated venues. In 1925 Williams moved to Paris where he accompanied and composed songs for Josephine Baker in the Folies Bergere. He returned to the States for awhile but moved to England in 1936 and spent most of the ‘50s in Sweden, returning home again shortly before his death.
Williams wrote or co-wrote over 100 songs, including "I Ain't Got Nobody (and Nobody Cares for Me)" with Roger Graham (1915) and "Royal Garden Blues" with his brother Clarence Williams (1919). "Careless Love" (1921) was penned with W.C. Handy and Martha Koehler. "Everybody Loves My Baby" (1924) and "I've Found a New Baby" (1926) are both hits written with Jack Palmer. Williams wrote both the words and music for "Basin Street Blues" (1928) and collaborated with Benny Carter on the beautiful ballad, "When Lights Are Low." His "Tishomingo Blues" (1917) serves as Garrison Keillor's theme for A Prairie Home Companion.
Ted Shapiro is best known as the pianist and musical director for Sophie Tucker. His association with Tucker began in 1921 and lasted for 40 years, during which time he wrote one of her signature songs, "Nobody Loves a Fat Girl, But Oh How a Fat Girl Can Love." Tucker, a big, proud woman, gave it her self-deprecating humor to great applause. The song was even picked up by modern day troubadour/pop singer Jim Croce, who died at 30 in a 1973 plane crash. It is included in the home recordings released by his family in 2003. Shapiro also co-wrote much of Tucker's bawdy material such as "The Older They Get the Younger They Want ‘Em" (1944).
Despite his long-term commitment to Tucker, Shapiro wrote songs with several collaborators. His best-known standard, "If I Had You," was written in 1928 with Reginald Connelly and James Campbell. In 1927 he and Gus Kahn wrote "Waitin' for Katie," which was picked up by the popular Ben Pollack Band, and "Little Mistakes." "To You" and "This is No Dream" were written with Benny Davis and Tommy Dorsey in 1939. "(I Love the) Winter Weather" (1941), for which Shapiro wrote words and music, was recorded by Fats Waller and by Peggy Lee with Art London in her first session with Benny Goodman.
Another of Shapiro's songs to enjoy longevity is "Handful of Stars," written with Jack Lawrence in 1940. It became the opening theme for radio's "The Big Show" and was recorded by Glenn Miller Orchestra's with vocalist Ray Eberle. The song was used in the 1940 film Hullabaloo, recorded by both Nat King Cole and jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and most recently by jazz guitarist Russell Malone on Heartstrings (2001).
Terry Perkins is a freelance writer based in St. Louis, Missouri. Terry has been writing about jazz for more than two decades for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Downbeat magazine, AllAboutJazz.com and other publications and websites. He also writes and produces corporate communication videos. When he isn't listening to music or writing about it, you can usually find Terry somewhere near a trout stream, at a Cardinals baseball game or rooting for his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Victor Young was a child prodigy who began his professional career as a concert violinist. In later years he would serve as a conductor, arranger, and as music director for such radio singers as Al Jolson and Smith Ballew. For years he led a successful band, Victor Young and His Orchestra, producing a number of hits and accompanying such greats as the Boswell Sisters and Judy Garland (including her recording of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow").
Young worked on hundreds of films, scoring, arranging, conducting or contributing songs, and was nominated for over 20 Oscars. He posthumously received an Academy Award for the score of the 1956 film Around the World in 80 Days. Other Victor Young songs include:
Vincent Youmans was as esteemed in the ‘20s and ‘30s as his contemporary, George Gershwin. The son of a prosperous hatter, he left college to join the Navy at 17. The bandmaster, John Philip Sousa, encouraged his music and had every Navy band play Youmans' "Hallelujah."
In 1919 Youmans worked as the pianist assisting Victor Herbert in rehearsing singers, which he sites as an incredible learning experience. He wrote his first Broadway show in 1921 with young Ira Gershwin, Two Little Girls in Blue. By 1924 he enjoyed enormous success with No, No Nanette, which became the first Broadway show to tour the world, and produced "I Want to Be Happy" and "Tea for Two" with Irving Caesar's lyrics.
In 1927 Leo Robin and Clifford Grey added lyrics to "Hallelujah" for Hit the Deck. The show also featured "Sometimes I'm Happy," a song from a failed 1925 show, given new lyrics by Irving Caesar. 1929's Great Day! produced "More Than You Know" and "Without a Song" with Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu. Two of Youmans' most beautiful songs are "Time on My Hands" (1930), written with Harold Adamson and Mack Gordon, and "Through the Years" (1932), written with Edward Heyman. In 1933 he scored the film Flying Down to Rio, with its lively title cut, "Orchids in the Moonlight," and "Carioca," lyrics by Gus Kahn and Eliscu.
Youmans contracted tuberculosis, but he loved the night life and did not slow down, contributing to his early demise. His output was small, but each tune was expertly crafted.