Results tagged “CDs” from Blogway Baby

I'll catch up if I can!

I apologize for not blogging more over the summer. It's just that it was hot, hot, hot in my office and when the house temperature reaches my internal body temperature (98 degrees), my brain ceases to function. That means my fingers won't type. Hence, no posts.

But looking back over those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, I seem to recall that lots of fun theatre-going was had by the Conns.

For example:

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN at The 5th Avenue Theatre!

DAS BARBECU at ACT!

Highlights:

1. Getting to see Anne Allgood and Billie Wildrick and Rich Gray in the same show! (Oh wait, I already did that with SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE)

2. Love that country music!

3. Now I can talk intelligently about the plot of THE RING with my opera-loving sister :)

4. Becoming members of ACT for only $25! Now I can go see shows as many times as I want for free!

WINNIE THE POOH at YOUTH THEATRE NORTHWEST!

SHOWBOAT at THE VILLAGE THEATRE!

Highlights:

1. Listening to the fabulous voice of Richard Todd Adams as Gaylord Ravenal.

2. Finally seeing this magnificent show in its entirety on stage, and not just the clips from THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!

3. Getting to meet Maria and baby Nate!

ORANGE FLOWER WATER at ACT

1,000 CLOWNS at INTIMAN

GILBERT AND SULLIVAN at THE SEATTLE REP!

One singular sensation of a movie!

Last night I went to the Landmark Harvard Exit movie theatre in Capitol Hill to see EVERY LITTLE STEP, the documentary about casting the revival of A CHORUS LINE.

FIrst of all, the Landmark Harvard Exit is one cool movie theatre! I'd never been before, and I almost drove right by it. The Landmark Harvard Exit is an old woman's club turned movie theatre.

From the theatre's website:

The theatre is located on a quaint, tree-lined street at the north end of Broadway, at Harvard and Roy on Seattle's Capitol Hill. The building in which The Harvard Exit currently resides was originally constructed as a clubhouse for The Woman's Century Club in 1925. The club continues to hold meetings in the lobby, although the building was sold in 1968 for conversion to a movie theatre. In the 1980s, a second auditorium was added in an unused ballroom space on the third floor of the building. One of the very first "art" theatres in Seattle, the Harvard Exit set the standard for the exhibition of independent film and foreign language cinema. Its large and glorious lobby retains a 1920s atmosphere, adorned with a fireplace, a grand piano and chandelier. A recent remodel adds a fully wheelchair accessible restroom on the main floor, expanded concession stand and an inside box office for those rainy Seattle nights.

I had seen the revival of A CHORUS LINE, so I was really excited to see the film. Also, a friend of a friend of ours, Natascia Diaz was figured prominently in the movie since it had come down to her and Charlotte D'Amboise for Cassie. I absolutely loved Natascia in JASQUES BREL at The Zipper.

What I didn't realize is how much footage we would get to see from the original 1975 production of A CHORUS LINE! As a "Hello 12, Hello 13" teenager I had lived and breathed that cast album (as a record of course) and sheet music when it was released, but had never seen the show until the revival in 2006.

Seeing Donna Mckechnie do The Music and The Mirror dance was unbelievable. She was other-worldly. Don't get me wrong, Charlotte D'Amboise was fantastic, but Donna Mckechnie defied description. You just have to see it. And she was just a wisp of a thing!

Believe it or not!

I just found out that one of my fav songs, Indiana Wants Me,was written and performed by a Canadian songwriter R. Dean Taylor. According to the Summer 2009 edition of SOCAN's Words and Music magazine, R. Dean Taylor was the Motown Records first white artist to score a No. 1 hit!

From Words and Music:

In the early 1960s Canadian songwriter R. Dean Taylor found himself at the right place at the right time: in Detroit working for Motown Records. He quickly earned a reputation as one of the label's best writers and producer, co-penning smash hits such as All I Need (for the Temptations) and Love Child (for The Supremes).

Who knew?

Indiana Wants Me is one of those songs that always gives me chills when I hear it. I mean, when those sirens start at the end of the song, and the gunshots....Someone should make a made-for-tv movie musical out of that song! Hmmmm....

For the record, songs that also give me chills are: In the Ghetto, Cats in the Cradle, and thought I hate to say it, Teen Angel (which was written as a gag and turned into a hit!) I guess I'm a sucker for the melodrama!

It's time to see WICKED again!

Usually WICKED isn't on the top of my list of shows to see when I'm in New York. Don't get me wrong, I love the show, but I have seen it twice -- once on Broadway with the original cast, and once in Chicago. As well, we did the backstage tour, bought the t-shirts, sheet music, and the CD! Finally, you have the feeling it will run forever, so what's the rush?

Maria Eberline, a friend and extremely talented musical theatre performer, is making her Broadway debut in WICKED in July! Maria was previously in the first national tour as understudy for Elphaba and Nessa. She took a quick break to get married to Rick Todd Adams and have a baby, and now she is back to work in WICKED (ensemble/Elphaba and Nessa understudy) on Broadway! And she looks as gorgeous and svelte post-baby as she did pre-baby. How is this possible?

Congrats and break a leg Maria!

Those were the days!

I was out browsing in Easy Street Records while my daughter Myrna was tapping away at Kristin Culp's Advanced Tap 3-Day Event and I happened upon

this CD in the Children's section, filed under comedy! What a gem!

Is it a coincidence that the name of the store is the same as one of the songs that Carol Burnett sang in the film version of ANNIE? I think not! But I digress...

Carol Burnett, Featuring If I could Write A Song is a combination of a record released in 1971 plus three bonus tracks that were originally released as singles -The Christmas Song, Love's The Only Game in Tow, and You're My Reason.

Other tracks include:

If I Could Write A Song, It's Too Late, Those Were The Days, Rainy Days and Mondays, Who's Sorry Now, Saturday Morning Confusion, For All We Know, Rose Garden, Try To Remember, Sunrise, Sunset and Guess Who/Turn Around, Look At Me

The Carpenters, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, THE FANTASTICKS, Carol King...sheesh, what a great collection. Boy, I do so miss the early 70s.

And what a great singer she is. I've always associated her voice with her comedy, but listening to an entire of Carol Burnett just singing? I loved it! It's called easy listening, because it is so darn easy to listen to! Duh!

From the original liner notes by Morgan Ames:

It was not until about four years ago that I realized what a lovely singer Carol Burnett is. It took that long because she doesn't make a big deal out of her singing. She doesn't hurl her voice at us dramatically, insisting on its impact. Instead, she comes over with natural sweetness and simplicity, as if to say, "Here is a song; would you like to hear it?

And as only liner notes from the seventies can say:

But the first thing this lady is...is just that: a lady - warm, real and in full flower.

One of my favorite tracks on the CD is Saturday Morning Confusion, written by Robert Russell. It reminds me of Saturday mornings when I was a kid!

From the re-release liner notes:

Saturday Morning Confusion is a charming evocation of parenting woes that Burnett, the mother of three daughter, delivers with knowing wisdom. The tune was written by Robert Russell, whose best known composition, The Nights The Lights Went Out In Georgia, was a #1 hit for Vicki Lawrence in 1973 (at the time, Lawrence was both Russell's wife and a featured performer on The Carol Burnett Show.

Mack David and Hal David -- Legendary Songwriting Brothers!

Wow, talk about songwriting talent running in the family!  Mack and Hal David are brothers (Mack was older by nine years). Hal David is probably most famous for his collaborations with Burt Bacharach (“What The World Needs Now”, “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” just to name a couple!).

Now, I knew Mack David was a songwriter, but I never knew just how extensive and famous his song catalogue was, and that he sued Jerry Herman over “Hello Dolly”, claiming that it was partially taken from David’s “Sunflower”;  they settled out of court.

Here is Mack David’s impressive bio off the fabulous Songwriters Hall of Fame website

Mack David was born in New York City on July 5, 1912. He originally thought of becoming an attorney, and attended Cornell University and then St. John's University Law School. When his younger brother Hal David was considering careers, Mack advised his brother against becoming a songwriter and urged him to take up a more stable profession. However, he failed to follow his own advice, and instead of following a career in law, Mack David began writing songs on Tin Pan Alley.

His song "Moon Love", written with Mack Davis and Andre Kostelanetz, and based on a theme by Tchaikovsky, was a hit in 1939. In 1945, he wrote the words for Duke Ellington's "I'm Just A Lucky So-And-So," and in 1947, he had a hit with a novelty number "Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba", written with Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman.

While primarily a lyricist, David sometimes also contributed to a song's music, and he wrote both words and music for 1948's "Sunflower" (years later, he filed an infringement of copyright lawsuit over resemblences between this song and Jerry Herman’s “Hello, Dolly").



In 1948, David moved to Hollywood, where he became active in film and television. His songs were featured in the score for the Disney animated featureCinderella (1950), written with Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman. These songs include "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes", "The Working Song", and the film's hit song "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo", which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1950. For another Disney feature Alice in Wonderland (1951), the same team wrote "The Unbirthday Song".

The nomination for "Bibbidy Bobbidi Boo" was the first of eight Academy Award nominations David would receive. The other nominations came for his songs "The Hanging Tree" (1959, title song, with Jerry Livingston), "Bachelor In Paradise" (1961, title song, with Henry Mancini), "Walk On The Wild Side" (1962, title song, with Elmer Bernstein), "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1961, title song, with Ernest Gold), “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964, title song, with Frank De Vol), "The Ballad of Cat Ballou" (1965, from Cat Ballou, with Jerry Livingston), and "My Wishing Doll" (1966, from Hawaii, with Elmer Bernstein.).



Another great success came in 1950, when he wrote the English-language version of "La Vie en Rose" (French lyric by Edith Piaf, music by Louigny). And in 1961, the Shirelles had a hit with his song "Baby, It's You", written with Burt Bacharach (whose collaboration with Mack's brother Hal David has become legendary) and Barney Williams. Mack David and Jerry Livingston wrote theme songs together for many successful television series, including Caspar the Friendly Ghost, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Bourbon Street Beat and Surfside 6. Their theme song “This is It” for 1960's The Bugs Bunny Hour also became a hit. In addition to those already mentioned, Mack David's collaborators included John Green, Jimmy Van Heusen, Alex Kramer, Joan Whitney, Count Basie and Franz Waxman. Mack David died on December 30, 1993 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California.

Boy, I'm really glad he decided not to become a lawyer!

CALL IT HOME – Susannah Mars sings the music of Richard Gray

Tuesday April 14, 2009 was the official drop date of Rich Gray and Susannah Mars’ new CD – CALL IT HOME. I’m not sure where the term “drop” comes from, but I’m guessing that it is probably  hold over from the old vinyl days. It is now available on Itunes, Amazon, Tower and LML Music.

I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of CALL IT HOME a while ago, at a performance of A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (starring Rich Gray) at the Kirkland Performance Centre. I’ve always loved CDs of vocalists who sing “the music of” (such as the Jennifer Warnes/Leonard Cohen FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT), because you feel like you get to know two people, the writer and the vocalist.

This is one of those great (but rare) CDs, where you want to listen to every track. My personal favs are Holiday Letter, Food Court Love and Leading Man. Leading Man is the only song on the CD sung by Rich. Rich performed Holiday Letter and Leading Man at a cabaret (I REMEMBER SKY) at ACT THEATRE. Rich is great on the CD, and even more fun to watch perform live! Now that I mention it, it would be great for Susannah and Rich to do a live performance of this CD!

So go out and but yourself a copy! And if you still can’t get enough of Rich and Susannah, they are both appearing in the 5^th Avenue Theatre’s production of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE (April 21- May 10)

Hmmm, maybe I can finally get them to autograph my CD...

Shout out to my friend and composer extraordinaire Seth Weinstein who has just released a new CD!

Here is the email I received from Seth:

I'm delighted to report that my CD of solo piano music, CONVERSATIONS WITH CHAGALL, is now available at CD Baby.

The 62-minute CD contains two of my original compositions: CONVERSATIONS and THE CHAGALL SUITE. CONVERSATIONS, a musical meeting between the Belarusian painter Marc Chagall and Elvis Presley, is a synthesis of Russian-style classical themes, Jewish klezmer music, romantic ballads, rock, blues, and gospel. THE CHAGALL SUITE is an eight-movement contemporary classical piece inspired by eight different themes of Chagallian artwork.

More information about the CD, including sound samples, track listings, and explanations of the music:

http://sethweinstein.com/chagall

Get the CD now - only $15!

http://cdbaby.com/cd/sethweinstein

Also, I'll be performing the Chagall pieces this fall in Germany, Wisconsin, and New York:

9/18 - Osnabrueck, Germany - Lutherhaus

9/23 - Mainz, Germany - Erbacher Hof

9/26 - Siegburg (Bonn), Germany - Siegburger Stadtmuseum

10/25 - Appleton, Wisconsin - Appleton Art Center

10/30 - New York City - Museum of Biblical Art

Road trip to Germany! (I guess technically it would be a boat or plane trip…)

Congratulations Seth!

The Songs of Kander and Ebb - now that's HAD!

John Kander and Fred Ebb certainly have the market cornered on what I llike to call "Had". That's because all their songs are "happy/sad". Don't let that bouncy vamp fool you kids, there's real pain in there! Liza Minelli is the queen of happy/sad (sometimes mostly sad…) and nobody sings a Kander and Ebb song quite like her. Maybe it's like the chicken and egg question…which came first -- Kander & Ebb or Liza? But I digress…

I went to the library and checked out the cast recording of AND THE WORLD GOES 'ROUND THE SONGS OF KANDER & EBB. It's fun to spice up the CD collection in the car (I also checked out CHEETAH GIRLS 2, and BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL) since I'm driving so much these days (both my daughters are in rehearsals for summer shows…)

AND THE WORLD GOES 'ROUND THE SONGS OF KANDER AND EBB opened on March 18, 1991 at the Westside Theatre, New York City. It was conceived by Scott Ellis, Susan Stroman and David Thompson, and starred Bob Cuccioli, Karen Mason, Brenda Pressley, Jim Walton, and Karen Ziemba. It was directed Scott Ellis, and choreographed by Susan Stroman (does she get all the great gigs or what?)

I didn't recognize a very young Karen Ziemba or Bob Cuccioli or Jim Walton in the picture of the cast that was in the CD sleeve. It was only after listening to the CD that I figured out they were in the cast, duh.

It's a fabulous compilation of Kander & Ebb songs, from "Coffee in a Cardboard Cup" to "Kiss of the Spiderwoman" to "New York, New York" (sung in many different languages!). Some of my favorite cuts are "I Don't Remember You/Sometimes a Day Goes By", "Colored Lights" , "Coloring Book", and "Arthur In the Afternoon" (I can just imagine how great Karen Ziemba was dancing in that number!). Just when you think all Kander & Ebb do are bouncy uptempos, they hit you with unbelievable ballads, like "Coloring Book" and "A Quiet Thing". What a writing team!

This celebration of Kander & Ebb's work was before the hugely successful revival of CHICAGO (now in its 150th year…), before the revival(s) of CABARET and new shows STEEL PIER, FOSSE, THE VISIT, and CURTAINS.

I think it's time for another revue!

Shout out to my friend Seth Weinstein, who wrote the music for HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD AND FIND TRUE LOVE IN 90 MINUTES. I met Seth when he did a fabulous job musical directing my show PLANE CRAZY at NYMF in 2005. I loved HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD AND FIND TRUE LOVE when I saw it in New York. I saw Hollie Howard (who played Holly Banks in PLANE CRAZY) in the role of Violet Zipper and she was amazing. It's really a great show, so go get your copy today!

From an article on Playbill.com:

A cast recording of How to Save the World and Find True Love in 90 Minutes, which played Off-Broadway's New World Stages/Stage 5 Nov. 4-Dec. 31, 2006, is now available.

The recording features the original Off-Broadway company, including Michael McEachran as Miles Muldoon, Anika Larsen as Julie Lemmon and Nicole Ruth Snelson as Violet Zipper with Stephen Bienskie, Natalie Joy Johnson and Kevin Smith Kirkwood as The Greeks.

The CD, which was recorded January 2, 2007, at Avatar Studios in Manhattan, also features conductor Seth Weinstein on keyboards, Jonnah Speidel on piano, James Bettincourt on bass and Greg Germann on drums.

The complete track listing for How to Save the World follows:

Prologue


Love or Fear


I'm Afraid of Everything


The Country Song


The Melon Ballet


Why Are All the Good Men Unconscious?


The Voices in My Head


I'm in Love With a Terrorist


Who I Am Matters Not (I)


Love Is Violet


Yoga Class/Fifteen Minutes


I Want to Know You/Read My Mind


He's a Pussy


When the Music Played


We Can Save the World and Find True Love


Save the People


Who I Am Matters Not (II)


Oh, God The Company


Read My Mind

With book and lyrics by Jonathan Karp and music by Seth Weinstein, How to Save the World. . ., according to press notes, is set at the United Nations and concerns "a cowardly bookshop clerk, a sexy diplomat and an idealistic slacker [who] confront their deepest fears when an office romance leads to international crisis."

Christopher Gattelli directed and choreographed the Off-Broadway run. The creative team comprised Beowulf Boritt (set design), David Murin (costume design), Jeff Croiter (lighting design) and Peter Hylenski (sound design).

The CD, priced $14.95, includes a 16-page color booklet with lyrics and photos. For more information visit www.howtosavetheworldandfindtruelove.com.

From this article in SFGate:

After building a musical reputation playing with a big name like West, Thompson got his big break in 1958 with a record deal from RCA. Signed alongside Esquivel, Billy May, Nelson Riddle and a crop of other musicians destined to be Hollywood stars, Thompson was asked to be the answer to Ray Conniff, on rival label Columbia. There was just one problem.

"Bob hated Ray Conniff," says Spenser Thompson. "My father thought Ray Conniff was a total square. You see, Bob was hip. Bob had soul."

Thrilled just to be playing music, Bob Thompson kept quiet and started making his records. It was the beginning of what was a somewhat badly marketed and mismanaged career. While Esquivel and Mancini easily carved niches in movies and on bachelor-pad record players, Thompson's music went largely misunderstood and underappreciated by RCA.

"Bob will tell you that they just didn't sell," says Spenser, who for years also took the LPs for granted, like an overlooked decoration in the family home. "But a lot of it had to do with Bob not having a management, no agent and no marketing, to direct his career."

Clearly ahead of his time, Bob Thompson brought new sophistication to studio technology, and the right people took note, says Van Dyke Parks, who produced Brian Wilson's classic album "Smile."

"Bob's records always had that snap, crackle and pop," says Parks, who befriended Thompson in 1969. "He was one of the first to create sounds in true stereo, like having a train sound as if it were traveling from your left to your right. This was new to the ear. And it was exciting."

For his final LP, "The Sound of Speed," and in a sort of orchestral punkish act of rebellion, Thompson made an album entirely based on the noises of modern transportation. But it would be many years before the album, filled with jazz harmonies and swing arrangements, would be fully appreciated and understood.

Thompson's most successful music was heard by millions of people every day, even though most of them never knew who he was. From 1961 to 1978, Thompson recorded the scores to more than 3,000 television commercials, from "Get That Great GM Feeling" and "Go-Go Goodyear" to "King Cobra -- Silver!"

(via this post in BoingBoing)

Well, as I predicted I heard the song "Artificial Flowers" for the third time! But maybe it doesn't count because it was Kevin Spacey singing, not Bobby Darin. Last night I was feeling a little bummed, so I did what I always do.

I went out and bought butter tarts and rented a movie musical. I should have loved this Bobby Darin biographical movie, (co-written and directed by and starring Kevin Spacey) but I didn't.

I enjoyed it and glad I saw it but I don't think I'll need to see it again. According to the note at then end credits, it wasn't "strict" re-telling of the Bobby Darin life story, but a creative reenactment. I found out all sorts of stuff I hadn't known before (but to be honest I didn't know much about his personal life to begin with).

The woman he thought was his mother was actually his grandmother and the woman he thought was his sister turned out to be his mother. For some reason I'd had the impression he was a "bad" guy, beating up Sandra Dee etc., but the movie shows exactly the opposite. According to the movie, he had a real relationship with Sandra Dee, with real love and he was a "good" guy, if not perfect.

Apparently Sandra Dee never remarried -- and remained in love with Bobby until she died on February 20 of this year (Bobby Darin died in 1973 after heart surgery). His early death stemmed from the rheumatic fever he'd had as a kid (he wasn't supposed to live beyond 15.) Again, for some reason I thought it was hard living that did him in! So I was glad to get all this new information.

Two things bugged me about the movie.

Firstly, Kevin Spacey was too old and lacked the performing charisma to carry off Bobby Darin. I longed to hear the original tracks. Ironically Kevin Spacey's insistence to sing and perform all the songs really highlighted what a talent Darin was, since Darin didn't have that amazing a voice, but had "it". This is well described by his son, Dodd:

"Not to denigrate other artists," Dodd Darin says of his father, "but other people of that early-Sixties era, they just faded, because they really were kind of homogenized. This artist, my dad, was different. He came from the gut. Because he didn't have a great voice, he didn't have Fabian or Presley's looks. But what he had was the desire and charisma and talent. When you saw him on the stage, he was ten feet tall. All that came through in the music."

The second thing was the artificial/fantastical construction of looking back over his life. This worked beautifully in De-Lovely, but in Beyond The Sea, seemed forced and overly constructed. Go figure.

I think I'll go listen to "Artificial Flowers" and get my real third time in...

I'll be with them in CD Blossom Time! Boy does this sound like an absolute BLAST ! I just got this email inviting me to:

SWING ROSIE's CD Release SWING DANCE PARTY!

You are invited to a special celebration:

The Mod Club Presents

SWING ROSIE's CD Release and Swing Dance Party!

Tuesday, July 5th

Dance to the girls' signature three-part harmony swing with Guest Star Christopher Plock and the Swingin' Outlaws

Tickets $10
Doors at 8pm
722 College St. W.
416-588-4663

We'll have lots of great music to dance to on that big dance floor, starting with a solid hour of swing featuring Guest Star Christopher Plock and his Swingin' Outlaws, and then of course, the main event: SWING ROSIE in concert! Invite all your friends and every Swing Rosie fan you know, to help us celebrate this great occasion and for ONE NIGHT ONLY, you can take home Sing Cool, Swing Hot for just $10. Don't miss it! Come and Dance the night away!

I've already said how great their CD is in a previous post and now -- what a bargain -- only $10! Check out Swing Rosie's website atwww.swingrosie.com and then jive on down to the Mod Club on July 5!

See you all you hep cats there!

Whenever I'm in New York I love going toColony Records in Times Square (Broadway and 49th) to browse through the amazing CD, and more importantly, sheet music/vocal score selections. They have the best Broadway piano/vocal score selections I have ever seen (no disrespect meant to Song and Script in Toronto).

I just bought the piano/vocal selections to Schoolhouse Rock at Colony, which I've been looking for everywhere! The Broadway connection is that some of the tunes ("Interplanet Janet", "No More Kings") were written by Lynn Ahrens, whose latest Broadway effort was Dessa Rose.

They also have a great selection of Karaoke CDs of Broadway shows (they claim to be the world's largest karaoke dealer and I believe them!) I've always been curious about those CDs. Obviously the producers of these CDs have the rights to the music and the arrangements are pretty good (we have theWicked Karaoke CD), but the artwork on the covers is bizarre. All the CDs look like they held a high school drawing/art contest and the winner got to be on the cover. I understand why they want to make them different from the cast recordings, (So people won't get confused and buy the wrong ones...) but the artwork is so amateurish it really makes you wonder. For example, theChicago karaoke CD cover shows an amateur rendering of the Dreamgirlslegs! What's with that?

OK, that's enough on the Tonys...for now...

Back to my latest favorite obsession:My Fur Lady. I now have a couple of albums whisking my way, I can't wait to hear it and give everyone my feedback. I'm also looking forward to re-aquainting myself with my turntable...I hope it still remembers how to turn!

A Blogway Babyreader also sent methis link to more material on My Fur Lady in the McGill Archives. Good for the McGill Archives...it's important to preserve this kind of stuff.

What a great Mother's Day!

Last night the whole fam-damily went down to the REX to see Swing Rosie at their first "May at the Rex" performance, and the launch of their first CD, named Sing Cool, Swing Hot

It was great to see Swing Rosie in concert again: Composed of Kira Callahan, Shannon Butcher, and Chantelle Wilson.,

Here are some quick bios:

Toronto jazz singer Kira Callahan is the founder of Swing Rosie. As a solo artist, Kira has performed on stages from Toronto to Paris and her CD Kira Callahan Live at Glenn Gould Studio can be heard on CBC Radio, Jazz FM 91.1 and CIUT 89.5. Kira brings passion and a natural soulful swing to the trio. Her warm mezzo tone is the perfect fit for the songs of the Andrews Sisters era. Visit Kira Callahan's website at www.kiracallahan.com.

Shannon Butcher is a graduate from the University of Toronto's Music Faculty, and she is a regualr solo performer in Toronto's jazz scene. Shannon's youthful and energetic persona, along with her versatile soprano voice help bring to life Swing Rosie's playful and intricate harmonies. Visit Shannon Butcher's Website at www.shannonbutcher.com.

Chantelle Wilson can be found performing around the world on cruise ships, and singing, dancing and acting in productions both on screen and on stage. Chantelle brings her rich alto vocals and charismatic stage presence, as well as her talents as a choreographer to the trio.

The new CD is fantastic! We listened to it all the way home...and again the next day. It's a fresh Jazz CD with a live performance sensibility. Plus, it's classic The Andrews Sisters style with fresh arrangements of classic songs. Where else are you going to find that today?

Here's my wishlist for the next CD: "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else But Me)", "Elmer's Tune", and "Pennsylvania 6-5000".

Swing on, girls!

I've been listening to the movie soundtrack of the 1956 movie version of Cole Porter'sAnything Goes. The movie stars Bing Crosby,Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Phil Harris, and Jeanmaire.

I know this movie is not considered one of the better stage-to-screen musicals ever made. However, as a youngster skipping school to watch old movies on TV, it made a huge impression on me. Especially when Donald and Mitzi sing "De-Lovely" and dance. That's why Mitzi was on the short list of names for my youngest daughter Trinity!

In this remake of the 1936 version (with Bing and Ethel Merman) Paramount messed around with the score, commissioning new songs from Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, and an entirely new plot which retained the essential idea of Cole Porter hits on a ship.

The liner notes go on to say:

Though certainly a bit on the garish and kitschy side, the 1956 Anything Goes is great, colorful fun. It also represents the fullest manifestation of the famous "Crosby Clause" whereby the great singer-actor insisted on sharing his above-the-title billing with a couple of co-stars.

Now, to the point of this post.

In the title song Ms. Gaynor sings:

"Good authors who too once knew better words now only use THREE-letter words writing prose, anything goes..."

But, Cole Porter's ORIGINAL line was:

"Good authors who too once knew better words now only use FOUR-letter words writing prose, anything goes..."

I'm guessing that they did this because four-letter words were considered too risque for the innocent ears of the mid-1950s? Or is there another reason? If it is blatant censorship then shame on them! It's not so much the censoring, but I vehemently object to messing with the Master's lyrics!

Here's a neat bit of follow-up from my childhood, courtesy of BoingBoing.

Apparently, Dolores Erickson, the cover model on the Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass album Whipped Cream & Other Delights is alive, well, and making impressionist paintings.

She has a really cool site at whippedcreamlady.com for anyone into the '60s, including all her record album covers (she was also on the cover of Guantanameraby the Sandpipers), and a link to the book Hal Lifson's 1966 (subtitled as "A Personal View of the Coolest Year in Pop Culture History"), described by Billboardmagazine (February 5, 2003) as a "mind-boggling collection of visual trivia, from Sno Cones and Goofy Grape drink packets to Sting-Ray bikes and Gumby flexes."

She was gorgeous in her younger years, and still looks great today.

As far as I can tell, the album Whipped Cream & Other Delights was issued en masse to all adults in the '60s. My parents had a copy which they played over and over again, and I remember staring at the album cover, wondering how they got all that whipped cream to stay in place...

WOW! I just ran across the most amazing resource for Broadway show CDs. I recently ordered the CD for Oh! Calcutta! fromAmazon.com, and when it arrived, it had a price tag on it...sometimes Amazon.com will buy old stock from stores and feed it into their system.

When I opened the CD, it contained a flyer saying:

We hope you enjoy this recording and that it will occupy a proud place in your library. Whether this is the first CD you've ordered from DRG, or your twentieth, we want you to know how much we appreciate your support.

Visit our website at www.drgrecords.com / e-mail: drgrecords@aol.com

So I checked out the DRG Records Web site, and I was blown away at some of the stuff they have listed. Here are some of my favorites:

Flahooley: This "tuneful, extraordinarily beautiful and delightfully imaginative musical" premiered in 1951 and was the Broadway debut of the legendary Tony Award-winner Barbara Cook. The songs are by the Oscar-winning composers E.Y. "Yip" Harburg and Sammy Fain. With a touch of Babes in Toyland, a smattering of The Wizard of Oz and a suggestion of Finian's Rainbow, it is a child's show, but never childish. This package features a full color eight-panel color folder with synopsis and liner notes from Barbara Cook.

By the Beautiful Sea: This 1954 classic makes its way to DRG's Broadway Collector Series. This amiable old-fashioned musical is a charming memento Oscar and Emmy-winner Shirley Booth at the peak of her great theatrical career.

Noel Coward at Las Vegas: Noel Coward At Las Vegas was recorded in actual performance at the Desert Inn, Las Vegas on June 27th, 1955. Piano Accompaniment & Arrangements by Peter Matz. Tracks include such classics Coward numbers: "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "If Love Were All", "Alice is at it Again", "A Room with a View", "Let's Do It", "Uncle Harry", "Loch Lomnd", "A Bar on the Piccola Marina", "World Weary", "Nina", "Matelot", "The Party's Over Now" and a medley of eight others.

Plain and Fancy: This 1955 Broadway hit related the adventures of two sophisticated New Yorkers visiting a farm near Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. Here they find a charming and picturesque Amish community...with complications both humorous and romantic.

Top Banana: In 1951, Phil Silvers starred in this Broadway musical comedy satirizing the then-champ of TV, Milton Berle -- his ego, his drive, his anything-for-a-laugh desperation. It only ran a year on Broadway, but the show was later filmed at a Los Angeles theater, with audience-reaction shots in and given a limited release.

Oh Captain!: This 1958 musical became one of the biggest hits of the season. The cast was led by Tony Randall, Jacquelyn McKeever & Susan Johnson and featured songs by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans -- the only songwriting team ever to win three Academy Awards ("Buttons and Bows," "Mona Lisa" & "Que Sera, Sera") and music for over 70 other films. Director Jose Ferrer molded a gloriously improbable story (based on the 1953 screenplay The Captain's Paradise starring Alec Guinness & Yvonne DeCarlo) into an enormously entertaining evening -- all captured on this brilliant Cast Album.

Tovarich: Two-time Oscar winning actress Vivien Leigh won a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical in this adaptation of a warm, old-fashioned, sentimental fairy tale. Based on a 1933 play and subsequent 1937 film (starring Claudette Colbert & Charles Boyer), this musical also starred Jean Pierre Aumont and opened on Broadway in March 1963 and features a book by David Shaw (co-librettist of Redhead) and a score by Lee Pockriss & Anne Croswell.

Ben Franklin in Paris: DRG presents the Original Cast Recording of Ben Franklin in Paris -- which premiered at New York's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1964. Starring the incredible Robert Preston (fresh from his groundbreaking run as The Music Man) as Benjamin Franklin, he had the opportunity to portray a bravura character, larger than life, a Renaissance man who could do anything. Written by playwright-lyricist Sidney Michaels (Dylan), with music by Mark Sandrich, Jr., the entire production was staged by the legendary Michael Kidd. The original Capitol album has been digitally remastered.

Roberta: Available for the first time on CD, Roberta is the show that launched Bob Hope on Broadway in 1933 and had Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers leaping for joy on film. Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach's classic score highlights this ultrasophisticated and amusing tale of an American college football player who inherits a Parisian dress salon. Roberta was frequently revived throughout the forties and fifties. This Studio Cast Recording from 1952 features Joan Roberts, Jack Cassidy, Kaye Ballard and Portia Nelson. Highlights from this upbeat and well-known score include "I Won't Dance," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and the flirtatious 'challenge' song "Let's Begin."

The Gay Life: Based on Schnitzler's The Loves Of Anatol, this turn-of-the-century musical (from the early '60s) starred Barbara Cook, Walter Chiari & Jules Munshin and features a score by the first rate team of composer Arthur Schwartz and lyricist Howard Dietz ("Dancing in the Dark", "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan"). Popular songwriters Schwartz-Dietz' biggest hit, "That's Entertainment" from the film The Band Wagon was awarded the ASCAP Award for Most Performed Feature Film Standard in 1990. This re-issue features an eight-panel color folder with new liner notes from Barbara Cook.

And the list goes on and on...me wantey...ALL OF IT...