Moon River
Home from the Isar, this song still on our lips. Audrey Hepburn sang “Moon River” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s“, the film based on the book by Truman Capote. Mercer and Mancini wrote the song for her limited vocal range — which is why we can sing it together. Hepburn plays Holly Golightly, the glittering socialite, […]
Gershwin: Summertime
Summertime is an aria by George Gershwin from his opera, Porgy and Bess, first performed in 1935. I saw the Houston Grand Opera’s production of Porgy and Bess in 1976/7 which revived Porgy and Bess as a complete opera. This lullaby unites the original Ukrainian folk melody with jazz and opera. Here are a few […]
Sly and the Family Stone: Thank you
This tune by Sly and the Family Stone from 1970 marked a turning point in music. The band had played inspirational pop songs in the 1960s, but then after 1970 things got very funky.
The Staple Singers: I’ll take you there
One of the classic bands to come out of Stax Records, the Staple Singers had a no. 1 hit with this song in 1972. This is the real stuff. Take me there.
Jack Johnson: Upside Down
Curious George was one of my favorite children’s books series. A monkey who gets in and out of trouble? A monkey who, strangely enough, lacks a tail? Now that is something a child can identify with. The series was written and drawn by Hans A. Rey and Margret Rey, Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who […]
Stevie Wonder: Free
In the late 1980s it felt as if the world was sorting itself out. The Berlin wall came down in 1989, and Nelson Mandela was released after 21 years in 1990. Mandela turned 90 this past week, so here is Stevie Wonder’s pretty gospel song “Free” of 1987 in a video that seems to be […]
Cassandra Wilson: Death Letter
“The blues is the healer”, sang John Lee Hooker. Well, jazz witch Cassandra Wilson casts a healing spell in “Death Letter” – a powerful womanly take on Son House‘s raw blues classic. It’s about hearing that the man/woman you love is dead and being faced with the dead body and the funeral. Listen to that […]
