Danny Boy, sung by John Brancy

Danny Boy, sung by John Brancy

Steve Blier introduced me to the 19 yr. old John Brancy ( a Juilliard underclassman) about a decade ago. Since then, we’ve helped, and watched “Brancy” (he’s become a one-name star) go from success to success. Most recently, he won a number of prizes in the biggest...
Dave Frishberg: My Attorney Bernie

Dave Frishberg: My Attorney Bernie

Yesterday, I was going on about Dave Frishberg, and mentioned “My Attorney Bernie”. I don’t expect anyone actually looked it up, so I’ll make it easy for y’all. Here’s Dave performing that song on the Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was the host. I first heard this...
Dave Frishberg: I Want To Be A Sideman

Dave Frishberg: I Want To Be A Sideman

Dave Frishberg. Urbane, pianist extraordinaire, a real lyricist, and a musician who gets us other musical cats. Here is “I Want To Be A Sideman”. At NYFOS, we bring in sidemen all the time. Clarinetists, guitarists, percussionists, whatever the music calls for. And...
Leonard Bernstein:  What’s the Use?

Leonard Bernstein: What’s the Use?

Oh It’s Summer! And time for all of our many summer music festivals! I’m in Santa Fe where they are offering up Candide, Madama Butterfly, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Dr. Atomic, among other goodies. Their production of Candide is closer to Voltaire than the Americanized...
John Corigliano: May You Be Forever Young

John Corigliano: May You Be Forever Young

The 2017-2018 season was (is) our 30th at the New York Festival of Song. We’ve managed to cover quite a bit of ground. There were early celebrations of Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday in the fall and the winter (the Lenny celebrations officially began on his 99th...