I posted a note similar to this on another forum that does not have a non-classical corner. I got almost nothing -- just one reply that was rather snippy, I thought.

Let me describe a type of piano music I have lately enjoyed playing. I have hit some estate sales and antique shops, and have purchased quite a few items of sheet music with popular songs of the 1930's. Some are "big band" pieces, and others could be described as old classics. Be ready with the scotch tape, since some of these old original printings are falling apart.

A few include:

Stardust
Over the Rainbow
So Rare
Tenderly
Moon River (more recent, I know)
Long Ago and Far Away
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
As Time Goes By

These are fun to play and sound very nice - IMHO. They are also nice to play when a mixed group of people are in the house, such as for a dinner party. Some guests understand classical, but many do not.

Some of these classic pop pieces are easy, but some are fairly challenging. It is possible to purchase this music for from $1 to $5 per item. My piano teacher likes to hear me play them. She thinks some of the arrangements are very well done.

As a senior citizen, perhaps I experience some nostalgia, bringing this music back to life that I used to hear on the radio when young. I have a mid-sized grand, and the sound is . . . "grand!" My wife loves it, and the cats love it.

Anyone else have enthusiasm for this sort of music?

Here's hoping I get more response than just one rather snippy reply, such as was the case on the other forum.

I love the same stuff.... I lean towards the Jazzy/bluesy stuff.
So I'll add some more great stuff to your list

In A Sentimental Mood (Ellington)
Solitude
Prelude To A Kiss
Avalon
I'm Beginning To See The Light
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Up A Lazy River
I Can't Get Started
Moonlight In Vermont
The Summer Knows
My Funny Valentine
Dancin' In The Dark
Georgia
Love Letters

Begin the Beguine, True Love, Love For Sale, Everytime We Say Goodbye, In The Still Of The Night and other Porter stuff

New York State Of Mind (Billy Joel not so old but it has the same nuances and flair)
Misty
Songbird
Imagination
I Love You For Sentimental Reasons
Always
In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
What'll I DO
Route 66
Fly Me To The Moon
Autumn In New York

Summertime; My Man's Gone Now; But Not For Me;
Someone to Watch Over Me and other Gershwin stuff

It is impossible to leave out all the great songs from the American Songbook ... so these are just a few that came to mind first

BTW you beat me to one of my favorites...Tenderly.

All these songs pull my heart strings....

*Sorry to hear you got a snippy reply at the other place.

I love anything by Romberg or Herbert, Kitten on the Keys, TV themes, big band music arranged for theatre organ or piano or Hammond organ etc.

A friend of mine snagged at auction, and shipped to me, 440 pieces of sheet music -- mostly from the 20's, 30's and 40's. Not only is the music fun to play and widely enjoyed by others, but the artwork on the covers is sensational.

From the collection, it is obvious that others have collected and protected these documents, and we have a responsibility to carry on that tradition!

--G

ps. I especially enjoyed "Why Did You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life" (!)

Ah yes. Tuxedo Junction. Sweetheart of Sigma Chi. Blue Tango. San Antonio Rose. Tho the only one I can play at the drop of a hat is Tuxedo Junction. But I love my mother's early 1940's piano books. And I, too, shop the thrift stores for sheet music, LP's, and piano books. It seems to me there is *lots* to learn about harmonies, voicings, rhythms, from even the *easy* arrangements, and people love to hear them.

One of the reasons I like this forum and the ABF here at pianoworld - folks play my kind of piano.

Cathy

Really enjoying the thread.

A couple others I forgot to mention are

Sentimental Journey
Night and Day
Till the End of Time (Chopin melody)
Full Moon and Empty Arms (Rachmaninoff melody)
Begin the Beguine

I'm not good at music theory, and am just an amateur, but when Cathy speaks of learning harmonies and rhythms, I agree.

These old transcriptions of "big band" songs have lots of interesting harmonies, like chords based on seconds and sevenths that are resolved at the end of the phrase. Lots of half-tone key shifts marked in with accidentals (signature doesn't change). Shifts between major and minor at unexpected places, often lasting only a measure or two. Syncopated rhythms that may just last for a phrase, or may continue at more length.

Anyone else have ideas of some harmonic and other techniques commonly used in this 1930s "American Songbook" type repertoire?

Incidentally, Rod Stewart's three CDs of his "American Songbook" -- which sold in the millions -- do much to re-popularize some of these songs, regardless of whether you believe he does an especially good (or poor) job.

Linda Ronstadt did recordings of these old classics also, with some success.

I love that band Rod put together for his CDs and have the 1st big band dvd he did.
Arturo Sandoval trumpet solo's were awesome.
I played it for some of my residents at the nursing home and they loved it; they even liked the Rod's oldies like "Hot Legs" LOL.

Michael Buble also is doing much to introduce the great American songbook repetoire to the new kids coming up.

Whenever my area has a highschool or college Jazz festival I try to attend; these festivals help to keep the American Songbook music going by passing down these wonderful songs to the younger generations.

More songs I am thinking of now...
Moonglow
In The Mood
Black Coffee
The Midnight Sun
Sway (Love Michael Buble's recording)
Fever
Temptation (Diana Krall does it well)
Skylark
I let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
(Love Ella's rendition)
Outta This World (Another Ella # I love)
Hush Now, Don't Explain
East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon
Stars Fell On Alabama
Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?
A Nightengale Sang In Berkeley Square
Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me
I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
That Old Black Magic
Between The Devil And The Deeep Blue Sea
It Had To Be You
Call Me Irresponsible
Autumn Leaves
All The Things You Are
The Very Thought Of You
Isn't It Romantic
It Could Happen To You
I Didn't Know What Time It Was
Besame Mucho
I Remember You
Java Jive
Crazy He Calls Me
Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?)
No Moon At All
Come Rain Or Come Shine
My Melancholy Baby
That's All

OK... my brain is hurting again from too much thinking of my favorites. LOL

Oh yeah. Not really old but I love this...
CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE

PS I got Ronstadts Big Band Recordings also
(With Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra)

With a Title 'User Name' 'Swingal' what else could I say? All I have on the music desk is a list of 80 odd swing numbers including most of those above. I play them with a jazz style and that's it folks.

I just adore the pop songs of yesteryear but played with a solid beat and harmonic vatiations.

Wolfindmist, There are a few more that Diana Krall recorded in your list above. Such as; East o the Sun. Come Rain come Shine and many other good recordings. I like her style, most of the time. I have not got all her recordings. So Wolf do you play all the numbers in the list and by ear or sheet ?

Mine is ear solely . You have a good selection and I play about 14 of them. I cannot remember some others enough to play them.

Alan

PS everytime I get on this website I want to jump away and play the piano. Thanks to all for your contributions, it's like having a silent friendship.

Sometimes diffrent chord changes can alter the feel of a tune..so standards by artists not always the same..

I Thought About You(dinah washington)
sounds more bluesy sad compared to Sinatra's
Here's another..A Cottage For Sale..sad by Sinatra
but uptempo swing by Nat King Cole!

Bob Newbie

Repeat

I think all my posts over there are getting rather snippy lately, Glyptodont. The Audition Room is good though.

In fact I used to play a great deal around melodies from that era because my teacher's professional style was very much oriented toward it and he incorporated it in his lessons. Every so often I used to take a trip through the Alberts 1001 fake book (out of print now - why I cannot imagine, as it was a particularly good one) and stuff them all full of weird and wonderful embellishments.

However, as I get older I feel that many of the melodies are spoiled by removing their simplicity in this way. Many of the tunes of that era seem peculiarly built for the (to me) endearing type of syncopated swing which belonged to their time. I tend to reach a sort of cut-off point where trying to do any more complications starts to detract from their sentiment.

So these days I tend to just play them in a very simple swing manner, admittedly strongly syncopated, usually tenth bass, sometimes filled or broken in different ways for variety, against full octave chord right hand, with just an occasional exotic run, twist or chord sequence at special moments.

Come to think of it, the sample from the Pianoworld CD, in this case one of my own tunes, demonstrates the type of simplicity I mean better than talking about it. Scroll down to my name and try the mp3 sample. That's the way I like to play most of those old tunes.

Elegance on Federal Street

I usually play by ear or improvise from either fake books/leadsheets/sheetmusic. I can play all of these songs listed. I get bored sticking to just a few songs. Fortunately there is so much material to choose from with regards to pop music of this era; it would be hard for me to get bored with this stuff.

Yesterday I sat at the colleges piano and just went from one song to another in some of my fake books; at times I pick a song and would try out different ways to play the same song (messing around with intros, endings, fills, rhythms etc.) I did this for about an 1 1/2 hours and never got bored.

When the digital radio is on I keep my dial on the vocal standards section. And the regular radio dial is set for the local college's PBS radio station that plays lots of Jazz/Blues.
I try to buy Jazz CD's recorded by my favorite singers (my latest purchase is Ella Swings Brightly/ The Nelson Riddle Orchestra). The more music I listen to the better my playing seems to evolve.

BTW I love D. Krall's East Of The Sun. The opening 6 note hook she adds to the piece really freshened the song up. I have most of her albums.
I would love to learn Diana's version of Blvd. of Broken Dreams.

I can't get enough of these wonderfully crafted songs; and at times I feel inspired to write songs with the same sort of feel.

So many times the songs I hear on the popular music stations don't offer too much to a listener. Some songs are just plain stupid... like Fergie's "London Bridge" song. There is nothing to it IMO; yet she is getting big bucks for it. Yet there are talented musicians and singers who get less money and less promotion. Go figure.

BTW I was disappointed to hear Rod Stewart is not going to make any more American Songbook Albums. I thought he was doing a great thing to help introduce the old 30-40's popular music to the kids out there.

I DVR'd the AMA awards last night and on so many song performances I just zipped right through after hearing just a few bars. I just can't stand listening to songs that just keep repeating the same words over and over again; with uninteresting or absent memorable melodies.

I like others check out thrift stores , garage sales, and such used book stores for songs from this era.
JMO

------------------------------

I have that "Million Dollar Library" of about 20 spiral bound fake books with an additional spiral index and I've just gone crazy from there.

Amazing to see how many bad fakes there are out there and how fun it is for an amateur like me to "fix" them.

The Johns Hopkins online sheetmusic archive is a great place to source oldies too.

When we compare those old 1930's classic pop tunes to many of the current production, it's a joke.

I've been playing a number of pieces with Jerome Kern as either composer or co-composer. Wasn't he great?

I've been playing "over the rainbow" lately and you will see that there are at least three separate melody lines. This tune's really a rather complex product. Ditto for "As Time Goes By" and others.

Rod Stewart in his three American Songbook albums has some terrific instrumental back-up, as well stated by wolfenmist. Surprisingly, quite a few of the nicest pieces on these CDs are based on a piano background.

Some of these songs are swing, but some are lounge singer classics, like "A Nightingale Sang in Barkley Square."

It was nice of all you folks to make this such a lively discussion.

lol, I've bookmarked this page for future reference. I love the standards listed (those that I recognize). Their deceptive simplicty allows a beginner like me to jump in right away, but also contain plenty of potential for future embellishment and growth. The golden era for piano solo/improv was during this time period, so no surprise that alot of these pieces seem ideal for solo piano performance and improvisation. Another thing is that these standards have all stood the test of time, and yes, even to my relatively inexperienced ears they still sound lovely and grand.

Fortunately I've got hundreds of the songs ready to go lying in my steadily growing fake book collection. Unfortunately, my biggest difficulty is my general unfamiliarity with many of the songs beyond the first few bars...thank goodness for the internet.

Consider subscribing to digital cable radio or to the satellite radio services (both if you can "swing it"--- pun intended) .... commercial free music of all sorts of genres almosts takes you back to that time. I usually play the vocal standards, & the big band/swing channel when I am online here.

Go to your local library and check out CD's of the great singers and songwriters from the 30-40's .

The key to getting intimately familiar with the songs from back then is listening to them often.

My favorite singers of all time is Ella Fitzgerald; but I love Billie Holiday also.
There are many other great female singers I also love (like Diana Krall). But nobody comes close to Ella and Billie in my book.

On the male singers side the favorites I love I love Louis Armstrong; Michael Buble (exciting young male singer); Tony Bennett; Frank Sinatra.
I dearly miss Ray Charles may he RIP.

If I were to have to live on a deserted Island and only have one artist's entire library of recordings to listen to for the rest of my time on earth.... I would want all of Ella's recordings with me.

To get familar with the great repetoire from this area all I can say is listen, listen, listen to the greatest recordings by the greatest singers from that era. Then try to sing what you are listening to.

One of my all time favorite duet vocal recordings is of Ella and Louis singing Gershwin's "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off".
I haven't heard anyone do it better than than Louis and Ella imo.
==================================
Listening to: "I Wished On The Moon" sung By Ella
====================================

It's very interesting to read all this because I have recently become enamored of the "American Songbook" myself. I subscribed to XM Satellite radio last year, and someone rcommended station 73, "Frank's Place." It's 30s-early 50s songs, some done by current singers but mostly originals.

While I believe that everyone thinks the music of their teen years is absolutely the best--it must be the hormones that really make us feel the music deeply then--I've often thought how powerful it must be to have been a teenager when these songs came out. To have this absolutely gorgeous music be associated with years of exploration, young love, etc. must make it especially beautiful to hear now. Maybe even almost too hard to hear.

By the way, my teacher gave me a great arrangement of "In the Mood" that I've been playing. I have really enjoyed it, though it took quite a while to get it up to speed.

Nancy

Glyptodont pointed out some of the harmony techniques used in this music and asked if anyone had other examples, and while the following may be old hat to many of you, I got a kick out of discovering it. I've been hosing up some new tunes with my "use as many 7 chords as possible" experiment, but I found a new take on it.

I had figured out that many pop/jazz/whatever songs/tunes use what I call the "V of the V" chord for variety - in the key of D, the A chord is the V chord (D-E-F-G-A is 1-2-3-4-5), and many times it's an A7, and sometimes you'll find an E7 chord leading into the A7 chord, which then cadences back to the D, the tonic, even tho E7 is not a chord in the key of D. That happens because in the key of A, E is the V chord, so you can throw it into D before the A in some places to give it a more "pop" feel.

But I was "analyzing" San Antonio Rose, which is in Bb, and the first three measures go / Bb __ / Bb7 __ / Eb __ / and I couldn't figure out what a I7 ("one 7") chord is doing there! So I transposed the chords to D, which is a key I'm much more familiar with , and they become / D __ / D7 __ / G __ /, or generically, / I __ / I7 __ / IV __ / But it's much more obvious to me why the D7, or the I7, chord is there - in the key of G, D is the V chord, and D7-G, or V7-I, is pretty common. So the D7 can be used in the key of D to lead into the G chord sometimes. Which is the same progression as Bb7-Eb in the key of Bb. So I tried this I7-IV (which has the sound of a V7-I in the key of the IV of the original scale, if that's not getting too wordy) trick on several other tunes I play and it was pretty "cool"!

And then serendipity struck again, and there's a short discussion of this "V of the V" progression in the Schubert analysis discussion stickied at the top of the Pianist Corner forum. Do you suppose Schubert would have liked San Antonio Rose?

Cathy

Now that I have this new machine I am discover the joys of high speed internet and youtube.

Oh boy! I found some great video clips of Ella.
Here is Ella doing one of my favorites "Angel Eyes". The pianist is doing a wonderful job also.

Here is a link to "Angel Eyes" sung by Ella in 1957; Dresden Germany Concert. I wish I could have been there.Wow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m6vtHIXzF8

Youtube is as addictive as PW too! Yikes. My addiction is taking over now....

Oh boy! S'more Ella. Here is a nice medley of songs put together by Ella. Berlin 1968 concert video.
Blue Skies, A Foggy Day, On A Clear Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvM_d90vff0

Enjoy!

Great links. Wow, I loved that medley, utterly beautiful...thanks, Wolf.

youtube is a pretty useful resource, I found some really awesome Bill Evans performances a while back.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bill+evans

I found some nice free video piano lessons on it too! One was on Blues/BLack Gospel (some of it was pretty basic but there were some good tips on blues playing in the lessons).

I am afraid I have another addiction to add to my piano addiction and music in general addiction. I am seriously addicted to youtube...
stayed up until almost 2am last night. Caught a video of Billie Holiday I really liked also.

youtube is awesome! I am so happy I have high speed internet now and a new machine; next project is setting up a way to make piano recordings myself.

I will have to check out the Bill Evans videos.

Longlive youtube.... way too much good stuff on it.
Wolf

Wolf,

OK, now you've got ME going

Here's Louis Armstrong doing Mack the Knife...gosh I was looking for this since forever but didn't think to look for it on utube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZRQFGy2ThI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPTqYi7LicE

Still the best mack in my opinion...have started fooling with this song but can't do it justice yet...

I tried to find a youtube of Ella & Louis.... I'd love to see them do the "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" by Cople Porter.

I bet somewhere on the web there would be a video clip to see it.

Now; I'm gonna check out the Louis Armstrong clips above.

BTW I found some great Duke Ellington clips there; many with Ella together with him.
The youtube search engine is most helpful... just plug in a name of any artist or song... and away you go. A great resource for those of us into popular songs from 30-40s.

See you all later... gotta get another youtube fix. LOL

The Mack Knife video of Louis is great. I'm listening to it now as I type this.

Some nice piano comp work going on in the orchestration also.

"Oh the shark dear... has such teeth dear... and he shows them... pearly white..."

Yum.

Now I wanna just go and grab my trumpet...

I think youtube is taking the internet to aanother higher. Lot of music gems there... it is like visiting a museum of music or a college music library (only better).

Sorry for the double post... I was driving under the influence of youtube and lack of sleep.

Now... who else should we hunt for over there?
What songs might we try to find?

So many videos and so little time...
What to do?

Lots of vocal musicality going on in this video on youtube even if it isn't strictly piano related.... between Ella & Andy Williams.
Feast for the ears. It is a very fast swingy jazz duet with scatting, and some rather high tweets by Andy. If you like birdies; the tunes is about singing and tweeting like a birdy. Lawd... I don't know the name of it and I forgot to look it up. It is late I guess. Enjoy!

The link to the video is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN6L4diXrSI

Actually it is a melody starting out with Sweet Georgia Brown.... by the end of the video they are singing of birdies... really.

Man, they were really jamming, holding nothing back, lol, I had a big grin on my face by the end of it.

..It seemed some of their best work was in Europe.

You've got me hooked on Ella now, I just knew her name before, that shows how ignorant I am...


Ella in Italy 1960 - Tenderly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbcF96qMC2o

Ella in Berlin 1968 - For once in my life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl4z_QHlnmk

Ella sings "Desafinado" Sweden 1963

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zPUNoKAz68

Ella sings "Cry Me a River" with Joe Pass 1975 German TV (I love this song!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHVMxBkW0CQ

Ella doing Mack the Knife, what a lovely woman and singer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouF4J45Mn5s

One as a musician can really learn a great deal about making music from watching Ella; even non singers can learn from watching what she does with a song.Ella had so much musicality it whenever she treated a wonderful song her way, it's like one cannot see Ella doing anything ordinary. Music and Ella are two words that seem to naturally go together.

---------------
NOW If you loved Ella you may also love this gal froma more recent era.

Well this gal singer is a good one... Eva Cassidy. This gal grew up listening to Ella and Billie Holiday. Unfortunately she died at 32 of Skin Cancer; but had a chart topper in the UK with her Songbird Album (bird themes tonight?).

A Blues Alley Live Concert (this tune is CHEEK TO CHEEK) with a really nice piano solo in it played on a Steinway Grand. Sorry I don't know who the pianist is but he looked like he was really having fun.

Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRxfOYFVjP4

youtube has a video of the nightline piece about this singer; I think if Ella had heard she would have liked her too.

That will never be another Ella; but this girl has some Ella like qualities in the way she treats songs like "Over The Rainbow" and "Cheek To Cheek".

*Warning one fellow choir member I played Evas CD went and bought all of Eva's CDS the next day!

I glad you are hooked now on to Ella; she is my biggest inspiration as a singer. Vocalists can learn from instrumentalists and vice versa. Ella once said something like; almost everything good she has done she had stolen from the horns. She is one of the best when it comes to scat singing; and when she does those fast tempo scats you'd swear that'd be some trumpet part.

If I were exiled to some deserted island--- and could only have one thing as a luxury item; I'd take all of Ella's complete body of work.I never get tired of listening to Ella's singing.

I think I found the name of Eva Cassidy's pianist on the Cheek to Cheek video... Lenny Williams. Night Line Show about Eva Cassidy (3rd part of 3 segments; they (ABC-Nightline) did a whole show on her one Friday night).

Wolf, thanks so much for this musical education (I think now I studied all the wrong things in college), wow! Heavenly, and yet another song on my to do list...

Eva singing the piece I'm working on, autumn leaves (devastating):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7-haKkFnT8&NR

Here's one of my favorite Ella songs.
The recording on the Verve album The Best of Ella Love Songs Album is even better; but it is nice to see her singing the song.

Ella on:

I'm Beginning to See The Light
Dianah Shore TV Show/ Lucille Ball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k_r0ELjFp8

I was trying to remember who was the person working on Autumn Leaves... there is a really pretty piano solo in the middle of that.

I have the book... I had to order it from the UK.
I heard there is a wonderful CD with the backup tracks tom all the songbird songs (karaoke type)--- I'd love to have that cd and plug it into my PA and sing along to it.

Have you also noticed how well Eva plays fingerstyle guitar? We lost her at too young an age; such musicality in her.

Be sure to check out the nightline videos on Eva (3 parts at youtube). Bluenote really missed the boat by not signing her when she wanted to not just stick to one genre.

Isn't this fun? Youtube is like Christmas... so many musical gems there to find and listen to.

I continue to really enjoy this thread.

My wife is out of town for a couple of weeks, and I needed something to occupy my time, so I tripped back down to the antique mall and ... voila!

I picked up the following:

Stomping at the Savoy, by Benny Goodman.

The End ("... at the end of a rainbow, there is a pot of gold . . .") (1950s Sam Cooke type item)

I'll be Around (Mills Brothers hit, 1950s)

Song of India, Rimsky-Korsikoff (classic, I know)

----------------

Since I graduated from High School in 1959, "The End" and "I'll Be Around" were both played at all the HS dances, and were Top 10. So naturally I warmed up to them.

"Stomping at the Savoy" is going to be great fun. I'm already toying with it. This piano solo is about 5 pages of music -- price $1.00. In good shape, too.

The pricing on this old sheet music is weird. The dealer says he checks a reference price-listing book. Some wonderful stuff is very cheap, while some weird old stuff no one ever heard of is as much as $8 for two (facing) pages of music.

Some of this looks a little hard, like the Benny Goodman, but when I play it, it lays down under my hands real nice. Not a problem. I think those composer/songwriters worked a lot with the piano, and they wrote scores that are sensitive to a pianist's fingers.

Any comments?

Billy Taylor playing In A Sentimental Mood... one of my favorite Duke Ellington song to sing.
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY89ewAx4wU

You are going to be busy.
Some great finds! Stomping At The Savoy is wicked... hope you are able to send a recording when you feel it is ready for the world.

The library of congress has many resources. One archive is at http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/

But you can also go to the main page loc.gov, and put "sheet music" in the search box to find other collections.

Hopefully this link you sent wont be as addictive as the youtube one.... I am hooked and need (but don't want an intervention for this new addiction of mine).

I admit... I might have a problem

Isn't that sort of the first step....
Now I'm going to have to check that archive out.

Thnx for sending it.

OK, a couple more

Ella, with count Basie 1979:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-RLphgSRYs

Ella sings Misty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQouJdvB80U

...looks like I know what I'll be getting myself for the holidays

Yes; you are now in the throes of an addiction (or maybe you have multiple addictions like I now do). Don't fight it... enjoy the ride.

Go Ella!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EmqxZW9-OI

Ok here is another one... this doesn't fit what I have up to here.

Ell singing... Keeping Out Of Mischief (Fats Waller Tune)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR5KUowp95o

Nat King Coles recording of Tenderly is at this link. The person who posted the video added this note : " In this clip we see the last tune of Nat King Cole's 1957 TV show featuring Oscar Peterson and Jazz at the Philharmonic.
Nat introduces the tune about like this:
It's not only a privilage to sing with the Oscar Peterson Trio, this is also the finest piano treatment of Tenderly.
Not bad, when an announcemt like that comes from Net King Cole. The Orchestra of Nelson Riddle is the studio band, a wonderful Cole vocal and then Oscar swings a chorus."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJnxTexb7g4

Music doesn't get any better than this...

Here is a link to some more background info. on Eva Cassidy's version of Autumn Leaves recorded at Blues Alley/ Pianist Lenny Williams

http://evacassidy.org/eva/al.htm

I compared this version to the one link otf Tenderly posted earlier which was sung by Ella... I do have to say I think Ella did it better. Her version to me seemed more tenderly, I like the slower tempo and the less busy piano playing on it.

For those who are finding Ella...here at the link given is a Cute duet by Ella & Dianah Shore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLZxMZqqC6Y

Enjoy!

Must tell a story of seeing a Paladium show in London in the year dot ... 2/6 bought a seat way up in the gods ... the first three acts were stunning ... then came the main course with a stage set for drums, double base and honkey-tonk piano ... a brief pause and in sauntered a thin
American chappie dressed in a white tuxedo ... came up front and suggested that some of the audience might like to stay on ... ‘cus me
and the boys are a gonna slap a few tunes around’ ... I had paid my money
and thought I’d stick around ... what an experience!

Didn’t take long before the drummer started tish-tishing and the double base syncopated a rhythmic beat ... and then the thin guy lounging at the old Johanna started tinkling the ivories ... which gave way to the spare gravel-voiced Southerner transfixing the audience with his singing of ‘Georgia On my Mind’ ... that home-spun drawl in that nostalgic caress of Georgia still brings a tear to the eye ...

‘Georgia, Georgia, the whole day through,
Just and old sweet song keeps GEORGIA ON MY MIND

It was of course the one and only Hoagy Carmichael. We wouldn’t let him go and so got to hear amongst others

The Nearness of You
Little Red Monkey
Lazybones
Skylark
Up A Lazy River
Small Fry

and of course the show-closing blockbuster “Star Dust”. ‘Sometimes I wonder why I spend the lonely night ... Dreaming of a song?’

Thanks for the fondest of memories guys ... there are not many of the Tin Pan Alleys songs not on my shelf ... aren’t we fortunate to have lived through an era when they really knew how to write a good song.

OMG! You got see Hoagy Carmichal perform.
He has written some wonderful songs music.

I have never heard "Small Fry" or "Little Red Monkey"... I wonder if youtube has something ....

Oh look at me as here I go again.... I sense I will be taking another trip on over to youtube LOL

Skylark is one of those songs that I melt when I hear it sung and played well. I love to sing it and play along. Lovely ballad. I think I have at least one recording of Ella doing it.

Hoagy's been in a number of movies..he plays piano in " To Have And To Have Not"..with Bogie and Bacall.. Bob Newbie

OK. Now I know what to put in the youtube search engine. Gotta go. Thanks for the search tip.

Really injoying reading this post and especially listening to wonderful film clips of Ella singing all those wonderful songs. I don't play much classical, but mostly all of the standards. I have a drum machine hooked up to an amp, so when I play a song like foggy day or Satin Doll, it really makes the song swing and makes it easy to play in time. Henry Mancini composed some good jazz songs like Mr Lucky from Peter Gun. Has anyone on this post played a song called Invitation by Bronislau Kaper?, it has some really great sounding chords in it and I like to play it with the rumba beat on the drum machine. After listening to Ella, I hear my Pramberger JP208 calling me to play!

I've been working on a version of his nearness of you, it's a really pretty song..

For the Hoagy Carmichael fans ... here’s a treat.
Try http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/hoagy/index.html
for all Hoagy’s music
Browse/Music to reach the alphabetic list of works
Then click your favourite at the right with Display item
The view mode of the pages is small/large
Select page and you can download a print of each page

In the case of “The Nearness of You” the music is on pages 3-5.

Thanks for sharing this link; I am going to put it in my bookmarks. I have the centennial songbook of his with all his songs and autobiography and pictures; but I haven't had time to really sit down with it.

This website you sent the link to is wonderful. I found this already.

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/hoagy/intro/collec_high/2.html

OK for the Frank Sinatra fans....
At Long Last Love by The Chairman of the Board; Frankie Sinatra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCIU1nymA_c

I just found this one at you tube; a nice swingy version.

"High Hopes"... This video really brings back memories.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTohJdsTYHU

I love riding Merry Go Rounds and even though I am still all grown up I ride them still.

Thanks for the link. Fun!

Just digging around and found this...
Sing, sing, sing! B. Goodman Orch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mJ4dpNal_k

Here is another musician of today who is able to do music the way it used to be done...
Wynton Marsalis--- trumpet playing son of Ellis Marsalis. Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k605DBgJpic

The band in the Marsalis link is Lincoln Center Jazz Orch. and the tune was Symphonic Raps.
A good description is given by the person who submitted the video file to youtube.

Hi again. I am the guy who posted the initial message on this thread.

Was at my music lesson today and played a piano score for "Stomping at the Savoy" written by Benny Goodman.

My second piece was "Till the End of Time," a pop song of the 1930s (I think) based on a melody from a Chopin polonase (sp?).

It was fun to play a song actually written (with others) by Benny Goodman himself.

I was out of town on a five-day trip, so could not practice for much of the week. Even so, the teacher thought that "Savoy" went very well.

Usually more practice time buys me more speed and more smoothness. I don't have to slow down for the hard parts.

Only disappointment-- I play at home on a beautiful 5'8" grand, and have to go to the lesson and play on a Young Chang upright. I will say this -- they do keep it properly tuned.

Keep the good postings flowing--

Best--

I like this thread and love the old standards. I really like it when an artist puts a new twist on a familiar song.

Can I add a favorite of mine?
"You Go To My Head": Words & Music by Haven Gillespie & J. Fred Coots

I just LOVE the chord progressions. Can't get enough of that song.

"I just LOVE the chord progressions. Can't get enough of that song."

When you play these popular songs, you get a much better idea of the structure, and how they go together, and how they achieve the effects they achieve.

Gillespie & Coots also wrote "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town".

I love the lyrics on "You Go To My Head".

I continue to find this thread topic enjoyable;
there are just so many great songs from the Am. Songbook. I can't pin down a favorite song.

Ella swinging "I Won't Dance" at youtube... B&W vintage.... I love this tune!! Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EmqxZW9-OI

Time to give it a bump...
too cool a thread to let it linger in the nether regions. Here are some links to make this post sort of legit/on topic etc.

Easy Living--- youtube piano lesson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JoJ0x3BqU

Prelude to a kiss----youtube piano lesson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmrXKflz84k&mode=related&search=

Does anyone know if many of these old classics are still in print?

I know there are books of arrangements (collections) of old show tunes, film themes, and the like. But oftentimes they may not be the original scores. I'm thinking of something that is more similar in appearance to the original sheet music. Or even and internet source for download. I am not adverse to paying something.

Right now, I would like to find "Deep Purple," which was available as a piano score in days of yore. In fact, it is advertized on the back cover of my copy of "Stomping at the Savoy."

I have an actual transcription from a recording in a Billie Holiday Collection of "Easy Living"

Ella Fitzgerald was discovered in 1934, when she competed on Amateur Night at the Apollo theatre. The first song she sang was "Judy", written by Hoagy Carmichael. The Boswell Sisters' rendition of the song was one of her late mother's (died 1932) favorite songs.

Saxaphone great Benny Carter was playing in the house band that night, was impressed with her singing and approached her. They became close friends, and Benny introduced her to key individuals who helped Ella start her professional career.

Growing up, Ella's favorite vocal group was the Boswell Sisters. Connee Boswell was her idol and primary singing influence.

Here are the Boswell Sisters singing "Heebie Jeebies" in 1932, with Martha Boswell on piano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Afn3Z-BWI

The Boswell Sisters singing "Sleepy Time Down South" (1932):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwByDFAHB74

Touching slide show, with the Boswell Sisters singing "Goin' Home" (1934) as background music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIIZ4XvCNfw

Music Lover knows
The one key to my heart now,
Ella, a queen of swing

Ella with her sweet voice
Ella melts my heart, pulls its strings
Makes me wanna just sing! :3hearts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnG9dCx9YuI
A rare clip of Art Tatum playing at the 3 Duces!

Song Title: **Tiny's Exercise**
Written By: Tiny Grimes, Connie Hayes
Year Recorded: 1943
Archival film: Outtakes from a March of Time newsreel

Art Tatum's Diatonic Devices... lesson at the tUBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEl87kax7_Y&NR

I checked the Lester Levy Collection (at Johns Hopkins? - at any rate, just Google Lester Levy) for Deep Purple, and, not surprisingly, they have it. But the copyright dates are 1934 and 1939, so it's definitely not out of copyright yet, so they haven't posted the scans of the sheet music, tho goodness knows you can find a lot of stuff there - I got the scan of Black and White Rag, for instance. I don't know if anything is back in print, but the rag timers over at Elite Syncopations keep track of sheet music being sold on e-bay to find old originals, if that's an option. I've never tried e-bay for anything, Luddite that I am, but some folks have found some real treasures. I'm still haunting thrift stores, myself, and my friends' mothers' collections - that's the way I got Teddy Bears Picnic.

As for playing them and learning the chord structures and how they function, etc, I'm increasingly of one of my original opinions - there are no such things as wrong notes! But the inversions in which the chords are used, so that the base line walks, and the root of the chord is left out, etc, are most likely, it seems to me, figured out *before* a chord name/label is put on for the guitar/mandolin/uke tabs above! Not that I think Leroy Anderson in Blue Tango didn't know exactly what he was doing, but I suspect he heard it before he formalized the chord names, if in fact he was the one that put the chord names in, rather than a copy editor of some sort. But it sure is fun to figure it out -

Cathy

<-----still has his Verve! label albums.

But while on the subject, who can forget the classic sounds of the incomparable Jonathan and Darlene Edwards doing their unique rendition of "Autumn in New York?"

Great tune by these Boswell Sisters.... I am gonna sing that one after I learn it.

Thank you for passing it along....
I'll see if I can get my sister to duet with me.

Love the scat harmony going on!!!!!

You can really hear their influence in the way Ella swings and scats, and the way they phrase their tunes. Ella had good taste early on.

These gals are really good; how come we don't hear much about them. Tight harmony and nice blend, every word in text is clearly sung and understood.

I certainly will have to get together with my sister and learn to do a tight duet of these tunes.

Their harmony is ""as tight as the Sons of Pioneers doing Blue Prairie" on that slide show... and don't knock those "sons" you cats out there. They can really blend and sing harmony.

So sad and mournful a tune.

Loved the picture with the big tall upright, and 3 legged piano stool. I wonder where that piano is now?

I was looking for pictures of the Boswell Sisters on google and found this interesting website.... check it out!

http://www.jazzage1920s.com/index.php

Boswell Sisters Radio show link I found...
http://www.jimmiejazzarchive.com/jimmiejazz04.php

The Boswell Sisters started recording in the mid-20's, but didn't hit the "big time" until 1930. They broke up in 1936, because two of the sisters wanted to settle down and have families.

Besides Ella, the Boswell's were also a major influence on the Andrews Sisters, who had their first hit record the year after the Boswell's broke up.

The Andrews Sisters with the Supremes in 1965:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PK0u9SDXNw

The Andrews Sisters sing their signature song, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". Patty (in the middle) was the youngest, and also the lead singer of the trio. I believe she is still alive, but her two older sisters are deceased.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJbytAiGQPY

Merry Christmas to all at Piano World! Eartha Kitt sings "Santa Baby":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZUPLtvWsEU

Can you find a link to this...
I'd love to hear it. I love that song; love the way Ella does it with Louis Armstrong especially.
Fun song to play and sing to.

Music Lover... these links are great finds. Thanks for sharing them. You keep on pulling my heart strings with these song links... stop it.
I can't keep up!!!

Just kidding.... fire away!

I cannot wait to see the movie DREAMGIRLS...
Going to try to see it tomorrow.
Thanks again this video is cool... I'm bookmarking it now.

They not only sing nice... they look as good as they sing. Love this look. Top knotch musical professionalism in what they did. Andrew Sisters really were a tight group to listen to. The Sandman tune reminds me of Barbershop harmony.

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and Mr. Sandman are great tunes. But it took me awhile of practicing to even be able to do a decent enough job on the piano part of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy; that bass part on my recording is hard to keep going.

Hey Music Lover and all reading this thread now).
I just started a spin off thread on the non classical board on "dreamy girl groups" and the "Dream Girls Movie" just released... post some of these great girl groups on it, please, please, please Mr "post"man (pun intended). Or nowadays, Mr/Mrs./Miss/Ms. "Post"person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p10sTQ_1OH8
Come Softly Darling.... Delta Rhythm Boys ... doo wop tune , a little later down the road from the 30-40's. But listen to the harmonies.
Fun stuff.

Another great Ella video on the tube, from later in her career. Nice and smooth treatment of High The Moon at beginning of the video; makes it a nice ballad. Some of these Days also on clip. Great comping going on by accompianist. 1974 German studio recording unissued. Enjoy this link....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRNY8Nmt0PU

http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/
Official website for Ella Fitzgerald

New postage stamp tribute for Ella comes out 2007 in February. Article link.

http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/about/viewheadline.php?id=4120

Louis has his own stamp too... nice thing about snail mail is cool stamps like these ones.

The Mills Brothers singing "Lazy River":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0fzVWhwyhM

The Mills Brothers singing "Paper Doll" (1943):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGB6RkU8Vls

Bing Crosby, the Mills Brothers, Dorothy Collins and Charles Aznavour sing a medley of pop hits from 1966 (Skitch Henderson on piano):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6ZlHzOTXIg

The Mills Brothers singing "I Ain't Got Nobody":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK9rbM0jEcE

Just a bump for these goodies Music Lover sent us on to this cool thread that should not be buried too deeply on the board.

Wait a minute Mr. Postman!

Here is the Ella stamp due to come out for Black Heritage month 2007.

Oh oh! I found another cool video sharing place.... lol.

Ella & Nat King Cole doing a duet melody...
The Wrong Time & The Wrong Place, It was Just One Of Those Things

http://www.dailymotion.com/visited/searc...d-nat-king-cole

Duet of Ella and ol' Blue Eyes... The lady is a Tramp

http://www.dailymotion.com/visited/tag/F...he-lady-is-a-tr

Keep those old video gems coming, Wolfie!

Mia says I need to not post so much as she wants some of my time too.

I let you take the ball for awhile, as Mia wants me to throw her a ball or ten balls at least.

BTW Check out the new Porter Vocalist Abersold book... I want it bad to plug into my PA and belt some songs out.

http://aebersold.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=JAZZ&Category_Code=SINVOC

I love Cole Porter stuff!

Bummer this one got cut off...
I'll have to find another one somewhere of this duet. It is good.

Ella and Ray Charles
Route 66 duet..
http://www.dailymotion.com/group/9300/video/xe5tw_ray-charles-ella-fitzgerald

Ella and Ellington "Lush Life" 1965

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbc2x_ella-fitzgerald-duke-ellington

Eubie Blake (over 90 years old in this clip!) playing his composition "Love Will Find a Way":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsTSCPK86Uc

The Dave Brubeck Quartet playing their classic tune "Take Five" in 1961. Great solos from alto saxaphonist Paul Desmond and drummer Joe Morello!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDOgYw5-pNs

What are trying to do to me .... keeping me up all night watching great videos like this.
Good find! I'll watch the rest tomorrow... right now I need to sleep, my eyes are blurry.

Oh, sweet! I never thought I'd get to actually see this, awesome drum solo, thanks!

Your welcome, Sid! Sharing great music/musical performances is ALWAYS my pleasure!

This Eubie video is really great. I hope I do get to a ripe age and still play half as well as he does here. His voice is still there also.
Thanks to Music Lover for sharing this find.

Low Down Blues
Eubie Blake & Gregory Hines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTiCdi6KKvY&mode=related&search=

I'm glad to see somebody else give the great Eubie Blake a mention. Considering his age, I thought his playing was excellent, and his voice definitely better than one would expect of someone past 90. An impressive performance for a person that old.

I recall a humorous true story he told during a television interview many years ago. I'm not sure of the exact location, but he was in a room with several "high society" type white women, who had no idea he was a very accomplished ragtime, jazz and pop pianist.

There was a piano in the room, which Eubie walked over to admire. A couple of the women immediately started making condescending remarks toward him, because they didn't think a black person could possibly know how to play a piano very well, if at all. So the sly, good-natured Eubie pretended to be extremely ignorant, asking loudly--"Is this a Pie-Anna?!"

He sat down at the piano, banged on a few random keys---then started belting out some of the finest ragtime piano pieces you've ever heard in your life. Of course, the jaws of the women practically dropped to the floor. They became quite embarrassed when they realized he could play circles around any of them, and had made them look completely foolish. Classic Eubie!

Eubie Blake has his own stamp also. Sweet!

Kewl link on Eubie Blake here:

http://library.thinkquest.org/10854/blake.html

Billie Holiday singing "Please Don't Talk About Me (When I'm Gone)" in 1959. Sadly, she died only about five months later at the tender age of 44.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PqtQbJR02g

Billie Holiday singing "Fine and Mellow". Also featuring legendary jazz instrumentalists Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldridge, Ben Webster and Vic Dickenson. From a 1957 television appearance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I2a5AJUk7M

The Dave Brubeck Quartet playing "Sounds of the Loop" in 1964. This song showcases Brubeck's piano skills better than "Take Five", and Joe Morello's drum solo is ASTOUNDING! Enjoy!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XED9VI2cg