by Alex Mansoori | Nov 11, 2019 | Song of the Day
To start the week off, I’ve chosen a song by Marc Blitzstein, one of the two composers featured on our NYFOS concert next week. Blitzstein garnered national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle will Rock was shut down by the Works Progress...
by Joseph Li | Nov 8, 2019 | Song of the Day
Though this song isn’t a Donny Hathaway original, I agree wholeheartedly with Jack Gulielmetti’s sentiment in his earlier piece for NYFOS on “Someday We’ll All Be Free” – I really, REALLY love him, and likely could have made the entire week about him and his songs. I...
by Joseph Li | Nov 7, 2019 | Song of the Day
The original Rodgers and Hart tune from their mostly-forgettable musical Jumbo (featuring a flightless elephant unlike the one featured some years later in Disney’s 1941 animated film Dumbo) is a lovely tune. Nina Simone made it irreplaceable 23 years later....
by Joseph Li | Nov 6, 2019 | Song of the Day
“But you promised black artists, Joseph.” Yes, yes, I did. And as much as I love and adore Blue Eyes, he’s not the steam engine of this song – Count Basie is, along with his orchestra and the legendary Freddie Green. The arrangement by Quincy Jones is a match made in...
by Joseph Li | Nov 5, 2019 | Song of the Day
The original version of this song was called “Death Letter Blues” – it was written and performed by Delta blues artist Son House in 1965. The two versions each give me very different types of chills – the Son House original feels like a declamatory primal sob, whereas...
Recent Comments