by Steven Blier | Jul 11, 2017 | Song of the Day
To close the benefit program this week I grabbed a song Amanda Bottoms offered: “Sing Happy,” from the 1965 Flora the Red Menace. The musical is famous for a few things: it marked the first collaboration of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, who would soon go...
by Steven Blier | Jul 10, 2017 | Song of the Day
I write from my perch in Long Island, but when this hits the web this I shall be in San Francisco doing double duty: teaching at San Francisco Opera’s Merola program, and preparing a concert for a Saturday-night fundraiser. For the last few years I’ve been offering a...
by Amy Asch | Jun 30, 2017 | Song of the Day
June 30 is close enough to July 4 that I’d like to conclude this week with “Ballad for Americans,” a patriotic cantata for soloist, chorus and orchestra. All through my childhood my father played the Paul Robeson recording on Independence Day. Between Robeson’s...
by Amy Asch | Jun 29, 2017 | Song of the Day
It was not consciously planned, but the songs I chose to start and end this week are both idealistic. By contrast, today’s pick involves serial murder and cannibalism. For those who don’t know: Sweeney Todd is a vengeful barber who intends to slit the throat of a...
by Amy Asch | Jun 28, 2017 | Song of the Day
“April in Paris” was recorded by all the big mid-century pop singers; secondhandsongs.com lists more than 60 versions. But my favorite recording omits the lyric. Here is the Count Basie Orchestra, swinging hard in a 1955 arrangement by Wild Bill Davis. I don’t...
by Amy Asch | Jun 27, 2017 | Song of the Day
In this April 1926 recording (made in London for English Columbia), George Gershwin plays and Fred Astaire sings and taps. To paraphrase the Passover Haggadah: if George Gershwin plays and Astaire sings and taps, dayenu. It would have been enough. But this...
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