Ed Mascari

Conversations at the Piano

Some songs are just plain fun to play. I Won’t Dance is a great example of this. The easiest way for you to understand what I mean is to think of the feeling you get from watching a romantic comedy. It seems that there are films and TV shows for every generation that capture this character. From Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Annie Hall to Pretty Woman to When Harry Met Sally to The Devil Wears Prada just to name a few.

In light of this mood, jazz vocalist and former WICN-FM disc jockey, Carol Sloane teamed up with trumpeter/vocalist Clark Terry to create a wonderfully enjoyable performance. Their recording is reflective of the light-hearted earlier rendition created by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Keeping to the duet format, three other vocalists managed to capture a similar mood by combining their talents with excellent pianists. Susannah McCorkle’s recording with English pianist Keith Ingham features the latter’s stride piano style during the instrumental interlude. French singer Isabelle Georges offers yet another example in combination with pianist René Urtreger. A more modern version follows this same model: California’s Nina Blade joining forces with the wonderful pianist Bill Mays.

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In addition to Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (featured in my 6-22-10 post), Jerome Kern composed Yesterdays with lyricist/librettist Otto Harbach (1873-1963) for the 1933 operetta Roberta. As we found in the former standard, these collaborators created a song that left performers plenty of room for creative expression. How could Mr. Kern have missed this? He insisted that his pieces should be performed within the context of their shows and in the style in which they were composed. Thankfully, pianists, vocalists and other instrumentalists have ignored this decree!

Yesterdays, like many of Jerome Kern’s other compositions, contains a great deal of harmonic (chords) and melodic repetition. As a matter of fact, Yesterdays is a 32 measure song which is made up of two identical 16 bar sections. Because of this, there is an extra measure (bar 33) needed so that the song will actually end on the tonic (principal chord of the key). So as I mentioned last time in my Dearly Beloved post, when it comes to improvisation and interpretation, simpler is better. The great thing about Yesterdays though, is that it is written in a minor key.

One of my adult students and I have often discussed the difference between songs written in major keys (happy in character) and those written in minor keys (sad in character). She has been drawn to learn pieces in minor keys because she senses a depth to them which communicates to her. These have included such selections as Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Autumn Leaves. Yesterdays certainly would fit into her concept of depth.

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When I was 39 years old, I felt a strong urge to expand my musical horizons. This desire was the result of two major projects that had taken place during the first six months of 1988. First was the planning and recording of a solo piano album appropriately called I’m Beginning to See the Light, which I sold at my gigs. The second venture was organizing, arranging and directing the Second Annual Jazz Worship Service at the Hartford Street Presbyterian Church (where I have been the Music Director for the past three decades). This program featured selections from Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts.

Somehow, by the time June arrived that year, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I wanted to continue developing as a composer, pianist and teacher, I needed more musical training. One name instantly popped into my head: William Thomas McKinley. About 14 years prior to that, I had heard Tom perform with a jazz quintet at a concert in Worcester. His piano style was so unique and impressive, that his performance had remained etched in my mind for all those years. Knowing that he was also a classical composer, I promptly located and contacted him to inquire about taking lessons.

By now, you are probably wondering what this story has to do with today’s featured selection, Dearly Beloved.

Read on…..

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When I was a student at Stepinac High School in White Plains, NY, my exposure to music increased tremendously due to my participation in the Glee Club. What a wonderful way for your sons and daughters to enjoy the thrill of performing some terrific material as part of their educational experience! Some people (you may be one of them) continue choral singing in college and then later in life as a member of a church choir and/or a community chorus. The great thing is that the process of performing pieces of music requires a deeper relationship with the details of the material.

Why is this important?

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As I was preparing to write this blog post featuring Jerome Kern’s The Last Time I Saw Paris, all sorts of Parisian musical pieces came to mind: George Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Vernon Duke’s April in Paris, John Lewis’ (Modern Jazz Quartet) Afternoon in Paris and of course, Cole Porter’s I Love Paris, which I wrote about in my October 20, 2009 post. As a jazz pianist and classical composer, I have wonderful memories of my first exposure to the music that emanated from France during the 20^th century.

When I was an undergraduate music student at the Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA , I took a music history course in 20^th Century Classical Music taught by pianist Susanna Waldbauer. I couldn’t have asked for a better connection with that musical world. Though I had become much more interested and knowledgeable in the earlier periods of music, it was during this semester that my passion for composing was born.

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It seems to me that the 1958 hit record by The Platters was the only version of Jerome Kern’s beautiful classic Smoke Gets in Your Eyes that played in my mind for many years. The Platters’ singing style was defined as Doo wop. You can see the influence of this genre every time you catch one of those late night paid program advertisements of music collections for sale. You may have also noticed Doo wop’s influence on many high school and college a cappella vocal groups.

I feel fortunate to have personally seen, heard, met and even spoken with some of the great performers of music from the American Popular Songbook. Let me roll back the clock to 1972 for a minute. Here I was a young keyboard player working as full-time professional musician six nights a week. As you can imagine, I was wide-eyed and enthusiastic. One of our gigs was at a club called Yesterdays in Kenmore Square in Boston. On our breaks, we’d go next door to the large lounge where we’d watch the show bands perform. One time, we saw Herb Reed and the Platters. Boy was I impressed! Five stylishly dressed soulful singers backed by an ensemble of seven musicians singing none other than Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.

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This post begins my series featuring the music of composer Jerome Kern (1885-1945). Kern’s career spanned four decades and included a catalog of more than 700 songs, used in better than 100 musicals and films. Perhaps due in part to his musical training at the New York College of Music and then in Heidelberg, Germany, Kern’s music included some important stylistic innovations, including his use of jazz chord progressions, dance rhythms and syncopation. Needless to say, these are the very qualities that have attracted jazz musicians to his music since the beginning. You’ll be amazed to discover, as was I, that despite the fact that so many of Kern’s tunes have become standards in the American Popular Songbook, he despised jazz arrangements of his songs.

You’ve probably noticed that I often comment about how much I continue to learn both as a piano teacher and in conjunction with writing these blog posts. Capturing my thoughts about, and recording my solo piano rendition of All the Things You Are to share with you today, has been no exception to this process of musical growth. Whether your creative process involves photography, landscape design, writing poetry, gourmet cooking or playing the piano, you’ll notice how much enthusiasm, excitement and energy you have as a result of investing your time in your avocation. Why Jerome Kern disliked having musicians embrace and personalize his songs is beyond me. I certainly never gave it a thought when I featured I’m Old Fashioned in a former blog post.

Nevertheless, for as long as I can remember, All the Things You Are was considered one of the most popular and important standards for the aspiring jazz musician to learn. Over the years, I’ve heard it played and performed it myself in a variety of musical styles. For some reason, this time I was spontaneously drawn to treat it as a jazz waltz. You may find it helpful to revisit last year’s jazz waltz blog post series if you want a bit of background on the subject. Anyway, little did I know that between the time I did the recording of All the Things You Are and the writing of this article, I would experience a wonderful breakthrough in my efforts to help my piano students learn how to play a jazz waltz.

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Between their first hit, Get Happy (1929), and two more sensational standards, Stormy Weather and Let’s Fall in Love (both from 1933), came yet another musical masterpiece. In 1932, the songwriting team of Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler provided the Cab Calloway Orchestra with I’ve Got the World on a String for the 21^st edition of the Cotton Club Parade. Reaching #18 on the charts that year, this swinging selection climbed to #19 the following year later when Bing Crosby recorded it with the Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra. Twenty years later, Frank Sinatra’s version beat them both by achieving the rank of #14 on the pop charts.

Needless to say, I’ve Got the World on a String proves once again that a terrific tune can transcend music’s and society’s transitions for decades. After all, it still swings nearly 80 years after its debut at New York’s Harlem Cotton Club in 1932. Like so many other classics by Harold Arlen, you can’t help but feel good when you listen to a great performance. In the case of I’ve Got the World on a String, you’ll probably be tapping your feet, bobbing your head or simply swaying to the beat as well. As soon as I start listening to pianist and vocalist Diana Krall performing her version of this Arlen classic, I find my mood transformed from the mundane to the optimistic image of “sittin’ on a rainbow.”

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One of the reasons that so many talented people ended up collaborating on standards for the American Popular Songbook was because they seemed to travel in the same circles. After all, who could have imagined that the author of In Cold Blood would have written a Broadway musical?  Well, that’s exactly what happened. Truman Capote (1924-1984) began working in the Broadway show and film industry in the early 1950s. After adapting his 1951 novella, The Grass Harp, into a play, he wrote the book and lyrics for the 1954 musical, House of Flowers. Again, Capote based his Broadway creation on one of his novellas. As we have seen with several of the other great standards, A Sleepin’ Bee, originated from a show which was not very successful.

Despite this fact, Harold Arlen once again created a musical masterpiece that provided a wonderful vehicle for yet another songwriter’s lyrics to transcend their theatrical context. As I have shared with you over the course of these Harold Arlen featured composer blog posts, the composer so well known for writing Over the Rainbow had a unique writing style. So it came as no surprise to me to discover that the musical score for House of Flowers was praised for its mixture of blues and calypso elements in conjunction with its dance oriented rhythms.

Speaking of dance rhythms……

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Last week, I expressed my gratitude to my website consultant and musical collaborator David Summer for introducing me to When the Sun Comes Out. This terrific tune turned out to be a new favorite of mine (and yours as well, I hope). Well, today’s featured selection, My Shining Hour, also reached me through this same resource. Thanks again, Dave, for another gem!

Although I can’t remember the source(s), I have often read that what is most personal is most universal. I do recall (and you may have seen this too) noticing the bumper sticker a few years ago that said: “think globally, act locally”. After reading some of my blog posts that featured songs with words by Johnny Mercer, you may have noticed that this lyricist was extremely sensitive to his surroundings. Perhaps this is why he liked to take the composer’s music with him to work on in private. Like most creative artists, he had his own way of working. And boy, was it successful!  Recently, I was listening to an audio book by Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) called How the Mighty Fall. Jim spent several minutes drawing parallels for how companies can be great; then descend into the depths of near failure and finally rise up again to excellence. One of his examples is that of Sir Winston Churchill’s life and career.

It’s funny how life works, because this week’s featured selection turned out to be My Shining Hour. Read on and you’ll see what I mean. When Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote this standard in 1943, World War II was at the midway point. According to the Wikipedia article about this song, there is a theory that the title My Shining Hour as well as the opening phrase of the lyrics, “This will be my shining hour”, was inspired by Winston Churchill’s famous quote, ´This will be our finest hour.” As I mentioned above, there is an inherent relationship between the personal and the universal. As a result, it would seem that Johnny Mercer had the Churchill reference in mind when he wrote lyrics with a very personal message. Yet, you could imagine that a soldier away from home during the World War II could have certainly related to the words to this very timely standard.

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