My Gig FlyersMy Favorite Songbook Composers

My Gig

• I have a steady gig playing at the Q Bar in Albuquerque

• My repertoire rests heavily on the great pre-rock composers, before popular music became mostly guitar based compositions

• These are piano based compositions

• These pre-rock pop tunes seem to be more open to interpretation and not intrinsically tied up with the original performer.

• Check out my website www.jjcousinspiano.com

• Like my Facebook page JohnCousinsJazz

Great American Songbook Composers

• The “Great American Songbook”, sometimes referred to as “Popular Standards”, is the uniquely American collection of popular music from Broadway and Hollywood musicals prevalent from the 1920s to 1950s.

• Jazz artists continue to perform these songs.

• These composers are my inspiration and represent a core aspect of my repertoire.

Rodgers and Hart

• Lorenz Hart wrote some of the most touching and profound lyrics. He was a tragic character in his personal life.

• Richard Rodgers had a second great writing partner in Oscar Hammerstein II.

The Gershwins

• The Brothers Gershwin

• A remarkable family team

• Ira is a witty and urbane lyricist

• George was one of the great composers of the 20th Century

Ira Gershwin

• Wrote wonderful lyrics and collaborated with others besides his brother George

• Kurt Weill– My Ship

• Jerome Kern– Long Ago and Far Away

• Vernon Duke– I Can’t Get Started

• Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, Burton Lane, Aaron Copland, Arthur Schwartz

Cole Porter

• Cole wrote both lyrics and music

• Unusual for the time; most compositions were by a team of lyricist and composer

• Lived in NYC, Paris and Venice

• Cosmopolitan• Was permanently injured in a

horse riding accident and suffered pain much of his adult life.

• Check out my version of Begin the Beguine on iTunes

Harold Arlen

• Born Hyman Arluck• Worked with lyricist Ted

Koehler– Stormy Weather– I’ve Got the World on a

String

• Yip Harburg– Somewhere Over the

Rainbow

• Johnny Mercer– Come Rain or Come Shine

• Truman Capote

Victor Young

• Born 1900 in Chicago

• Spent childhood in Poland

• Concert violinist, conductor, and arranger.

• 1936 moved to Hollywood: major player conducting and composing at Paramount and Columbia Pictures

• 20 Oscar nominations

• Scores include Shane

Dietz and Schwartz

• Dietz also worked with Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, and Vernon Duke

• Besides being a prolific songwriter, Howard Dietz pursued a parallel career as a successful motion picture executive at Goldwyn, MGM and Loew’s

Hoagy

• Movie Star

• 14 films

• To Have and Have Not

• Howard Hoagland

• Talented jazz piano player and singer

• Law degree Indiana U

• Lyrics Frank Loesser & Johnny Mercer

Jerome Kern

• Princess Shows

• Show Boat– Oscar Hammerstein lyricist

• Don’t Ever Leave Me

• Smoke Gets In Your Eyes– Bob Hope Roberta (1933)

• Hollywood – Fred Astaire Swing Time

• Oscars:– The Way You Look Tonight

– The Last Time I Saw Paris

Kern on Broadway

• The Princess Shows

• Seminal Work

• Princess Theatre

• Tiny House 299 seats

• the theatre hosted a famous series of sophisticated musicals by the team of Jerome Kern, Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, between 1915 and 1918

Jimmy Van Heusen

• Born Edward Chester Babcock

• Started at Cotton Club

• Lyricist Johnny Burke

• Dozens of films at Paramount including twenty with Bing Crosby

• Oscars for: – All The Way

– High Hopes

Jule Styne & Sammy Cahn

• Jule Styne: – Broadway and Hollywood film

scores

– Frank Loesser, Comden & Green, Bob Merrill, Leo Robin

• Sammy Cahn – early partnered with Saul

Chaplin writing for Vaudville.

– Later partnered with Jimmy Van Heusen

– Sinatra movies:• Robin and the 7 Hoods

• The Joker is Wild

Johnny Mercer

• Wrote over 1500 songs• Primarily a lyricist• Also a busy singer with a

string of hit records• Ultimate craftsman gifted

with a sense of language and American vernacular

• Won 4 Academy Awards– Moon River– Days of Wine and Roses

• Co-founder of Capital Records

Johnny Mercer

• Lyrics to Lionel Hampton’s “Midnight Sun”

• “Skylark” with HoagyCarmichael

• “Too Marvelous for Words” with Richard Whiting

• “One for My Baby” with Harold Arlen

• Jerome Kern– Dearly Beloved– I’m Old Fashoined

• Lyrics to “Satin Doll”– Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn

Charlie Chaplin• "Smile" is a song based on an

instrumental theme used in the soundtrack for the 1936 Charlie Chaplin movie Modern Times.

• Chaplin composed the music, while John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons added the lyrics and title in 1954.

• In the lyrics, based on lines and themes from the film, the singer is telling the listener to cheer up and that there is always a bright tomorrow, just as long as they smile.

• "Smile" has become a popular standard since its original use in Chaplin's film.

• It was used as the theme song on The Jerry Lewis Show from 1967-69.

Dorothy Fields

• One of American musical theater’s most prolific lyricists and librettists.

• Collaborators:• J Fred Coots

– Wrote: Santa Clause is Coming to Town

• Jimmy McHugh– I Can’t give You Anything But Love– I’m in the Mood for Love

• Sigmund Romberg• Harold Arlen• Burton Lane• Arthur Schwartz• Cy Coleman• An Oscar with Jerome Kern

– The Way You Look Tonight

• A Fine Romance; also with Kern

Kurt Weill

• Kurt was married to his long time collaborator famous singer LotteLenye– She played SPECTRE

agent Rosa Klebb in the James Bond film From Russia with Love

• Weill wrote Three Penny Opera with Bertolt Brecht

Sigmund Romberg

• Romberg was the subject of the 1954 Stanley Donen-directed film Deep in My Heart, in which he was portrayed by José Ferrer.

• His operetta The New Moon was the basis for two film adaptations

• "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" and "Lover, Come Back to Me" both from The New Moon are jazz classics; the first is performed by many jazz performers, the second is best known by Billie Holiday

Vernon Duke

• Vladimir AleksandrovichDukelsky (Russian: Владимир Александрович Дукельский)

• I Can’t Get Started– lyrics by Ira Gershwin

• April in Paris – with lyrics by E. Y. ("Yip")

Harburg

• Autumn in New York

• As Dukelsky composed for ballet and the concert stage

Cy Coleman & Carolyn Leigh

• The Best Is Yet to Come

– Check out my version on iTunes

• Witchcraft

– 50 Shades of Grey

– Sinatra

• Young at Heart

– Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh

Oscar Hammerstein II

• Sigmund Romberg– Lover, Come Back to Me– Softly As a Morning Sunrise

• Jerome Kern– All the Things You Are– The Song is You

• Wrote the book and lyrics for Showboat with Kern. Based on novel by Edna Ferber.

• 17 year collaboration with Richard Rogers

• My Favorite Things• The Folks Who Live on the Hill• Hello Young Lovers• A Kiss to Build a Dream On• Don’t Ever Leave Me

J Fred Coots

• For All We Know

• You Go to My Head

• Santa Claus is Coming to Town

• Great Name

Harry Warren

• Salvatore Guaragno from Brooklyn

• Vitagraph Studios• Hollywood: over 300 songs

in over 50 movies• 3 Academy Awards for Best

Song• Standards:

– “The More I See You”– “There Will Never Be Another

You”– “I Only Have Eyes For You”– “I Wish I Knew”

Pianists

• Gershwin

• Ellington

• Arlen

• Hoagy

• Their songs became jazz blowing vehicles in large part due to their musicianship

Singers

• Sinatra

• Fred Astaire

• Diana Krall

• Chet Baker

• Blossom Dearie

• Ella

• Bing Crosby

Standards

• Check out my versions of some of these Songbook classics on iTunes

• Begin the Beguine

• Fly Me to the Moon

• The Best Is Yet to Come