Jerome Kern / Dorothy Fields:  Pick Yourself Up

Jerome Kern / Dorothy Fields: Pick Yourself Up

I once said that one of my favorite singers was Fred Astaire. Steve Blier muttered, “that explains a lot”. You’ll have to ask him what it explained, but it might have been that I like things simple, unaffected, and with good diction. In the 1936 film Swing Time, Fred...
Cole Porter:  Too Darn Hot

Cole Porter: Too Darn Hot

Thinking back on my years living in New York City, I remember how sweltering the summers could be. I’ll try to send NYFOS and NYC a Mediterranean breeze from my home in Barcelona, but in the meantime, here is Ms. Fitzgerald once again, telling us that it’s “Too...
Gershwin:  Summertime

Gershwin: Summertime

I’m honored to be invited to contribute to NYFOS’s Song of the Day for a second time. As summer gets into full swing, this week I wanted to feature a few songs that celebrate the season. Here to start us off are the incomparable Louis and Ella with...
George and Ira Gershwin:  Boy Wanted

George and Ira Gershwin: Boy Wanted

Ella Fitzgerald sang the way the rest of us breathe.  Her vocal production, phrasing, diction and interpretive choices were so natural and effortless that it’s easy to take her work for granted.  A natural talent who had little if any formal musical training, she was...
George and Ira Gershwin:  The Lorelei

George and Ira Gershwin: The Lorelei

Who doesn’t love the famous Liszt song about the Lorelei?  There she is, that infamous temptress, combing her flaxen hair, singing her siren song to lure hapless sailors to their deaths upon the rocks… Well, long before I sang that great work (with Steve Blier at a...