Synopses & Reviews
Led by Frank Sinatra, the generation that emerged during and after World War II raised the performance of the popular song to the level of art form. This book examines some of the most gifted of these singers--people like Sinatra, Dick Haymes, Peggy Lee, Jo Stafford, Sarah Vaughan, and Andy Russell.
_____Far from being the simple intuitive performers the public thought it knew, these people emerge as intelligent, skillful, and fully conscious artists dedicated to their work. Lees's insights and anaylsis reveal Sinatra in particular as we've never seen him before. Calling him "our poet laureate, the best singer we've ever heard," Lees points out Sinatra's technical virtuosity--his extraordinary breath control and ability to link one phrase to another, his exquisite enunciation (especially the way he can brilliantly sustain consonants like m, n, l, and r), his uncanny ability to sing into a microphone so that it seemed as natural as speech. As Julius LaRosa said, "He was able to turn a 32-bar song into a 3-act play."
_____But the book is not just about singers. It is also about composers, including the great film composer Hugo Friedhodfer, and the supremely talented lyricist Johnny Mercer. It is about language: a fascinating chapter compares English with French, revealing the implications for lyricists (for example, only four words rhyme with "love" in English while 51 rhyme with "amour" in French!). It is about the social history of twentieth century America, seen through the mirror of popular music. And it's about war--a theme that runs through the book, from the Viking conquest of northwestern France through World War II to the present. Humanity's creative impulse--the yearning to raise our voices in song--is contrasted to mankind's increasing destructivenss.
_____ The book's themes are linked at the end in the story of the making of one extraordinary album created by an international group of figures, with Lees himself as lyricist translating and adapting poems of Pope John Paul II, and Sarah Vaughan as the featured singer.
Review
"If the words 'They don't write songs like that anymore' have ever crossed your lips, this book is for you."--The New York Times Book Review
"Each of these profiles is filled with personal details and anecdotes that could only come from a true insider."--The Nashville Times
Synopsis
Gene Lees is probably the best jazz essayist in America today, and the book that consolidated his reputation was Singers and the Song, which appeared in 1987. Now this classic volume is available in an expanded edition that retains a number of famous pieces from the original volume, including his marvelous essay on lyric writing, his piece on the art of Edith Piaf, and his admiring look at the genius of songwriter Johnny Mercer. In addition, this edition offers seven new essays that are no less accomplished. Here readers will find a wonderful tribute to "the sweetest voice in the world," Ella Fitzgerald; a moving interview with Jackie and Roy Kral; Lees's account of his involvement with Bossa Nova music and his collaboration with Antonio Carlos Jobim. We also read about Julius La Rosa, the lyrics of "Yip" Harburg, Harry Warren's unforgettable compositions, and the elegant Arthur Schwartz, writer of "Dancing in the Dark" and many other memorable songs.
Synopsis
Gene Lees is probably the best jazz essayist in America today, and the book that consolidated his reputation was Singers and the Song, which appeared in 1987. Now this classic volume is being rereleased in an expanded edition.
The new edition retains a number of famous pieces from the original volume, some in expanded form, such as Lees's classic profile of Frank Sinatra. Lees has also retained his marvelous essay on lyric writing, his piece on the art of Edith Piaf, and his admiring look at the genius of songwriter
Johnny Mercer. The expanded edition offers seven new essays that are no less accomplished. Here readers will find a wonderful tribute to "the sweetest voice in the world," Ella Fitzgerald; a moving interview with Jackie and Roy Kral; Lees's account of his involvement with Bossa Nova music and his
collaboration with Antonio Carlos Jobim. We also read about Julius La Rosa, the lyrics of "Yip" Harburg, Harry Warren's unforgettable compositions, and the elegant Arthur Schwartz, writer of "Dancing in the Dark" and many other memorable songs.
Here then is an engaging volume that weaves together colorful portraits of major performers and insightful glimpses into the art of singing and songwriting.
About the Author
About the Author - Gene Lees is the author of And Sleep Until Noon and The Modern Rhyming Dictionary, and editor and publisher of the influential Jazzletter. A lyricist whose songs include Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars and Yesterday I Heard the Rain, he has also written extensively for such publications as High Fidelity, American Film, and Down Beat.