Jazz vocalist Steve Tyrell returns to the famous Blue Note in New York

Steve Tyrell (ST photo)

Grammy award winning Jazz vocalist Steve Tyrell will return to the Blue Note in New York City from July 12 - 13 to perform material from his upcoming recording I'll Take Romance, to be released by Concord Records in the fall. I'll Take Romance will comprise of love songs from the Great American Songbook.




 WHEN: Tuesday, July 12 - Wednesday, July 13, 2011; Sets at 8:00pm & 10:30pm
WITH: Steve Tyrell, vocals; Other musicians, TBA
COST: $35 @ table / $20 @ bar
WHERE: The Blue Note; 131 W 3rd. St, New York, NY 10012
MORE: Doors open at 6pm. Set times are 8pm and 10:30pm

BIO: "Grammy Award-winning vocalist Steve Tyrell is truly a renaissance man. In his four-and-a-half decades in the music business, he has achieved great success as an artist, producer, songwriter, music supervisor, and performer.

With his breakthrough performances in Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride II, Tyrell reinvented and re-popularized classic pop standards for a modern-day audience. With the grit and soul of a lifetime of experiences, and in addition to producing hits for Grammy-winning artists ranging from Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville to Rod Stewart and Diana Ross, Tyrell himself has sold hundreds of thousands of albums and gained a passionate following all over the world. His hits "The Way You Look Tonight," "The Simple Life," "Crush On You," and "The Sunny Side of The Street" have launched thousands of weddings and millions of romances. He has held top positions at Standards, Swing, and Big Band outlets with a devoted following at Adult Contemporary Radio.

With sold-out shows across America and raves from around the world, his following increases day by day. Although Tyrell tours mainly with his band, he also enjoys playing with some of the most renowned orchestras in the land, and he has appeared with The Boston Pops, twice with The New York Pops, The Nashville Symphony, and The Houston Symphony on several occasions.

At the request of the Sinatra family and Quincy Jones, Tyrell was the featured performer with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at their season-opening concert in which Frank Sinatra was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. Also at the request of the Sinatra family, he reprised that performance this past May at Carnegie Hall. This is one of the rare times the family has reached into the vault of original Sinatra arrangements to share them with another artist.
In 2005, after the passing of the legendary Bobby Short, Tyrell was asked by New York City's Café Carlyle to take over their revered Holiday Season of November and December, which Mr. Short had not missed in 36 years. Now Tyrell has become a fixture in New York and has played the Café Carlyle to record crowds for the last six years.
As an artist, all seven of his American Standards albums have achieved top 5 status on Billboard's jazz charts, and his first album A New Standard was among the best-selling jazz albums for over five years.
Aside from being a Grammy Award winner, Tyrell has earned two Emmy nominations, three Ace Nominations, the 2004 American Society of Young Musicians All That Jazz Award, the 2004 The Wellness Community Human Spirit Award, the 2006 Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2008 Los Angeles Jazz Society's Jazz Vocalist of the Year."
Excerpted from ST's official bio.

'I Can't Get Started' a Bunny Berigan classic

Allposters.com

Q. I heard a great big band recording of a song titled "I Can't Get Started" by a bandleader, new to me, Bunny Berigan. What can you tell me about him and the recording?

A. We agree "I Can't Get Started" by Bunny Berigan and his orchestra is a big band classic. Bunny is the vocalist. Here is the sad tale of Berigan;

Musician/bandleader, Bunny Berigan had a short life...born in 1908 and died in 1942. His career hauntingly paralleled that of Bix Beiderbeck. Both Bunny Berigan's and Bix Beiderbeck's individualistic styles, compromising in playing with commercial bands, losing battle with alcoholism, and disintegration and death followed a similar pattern.

Bunny Berigan's first big hit records were with the Benny Goodman big band. For classic Bunny Berigan solos hear Goodman's version of King Porter Stomp and Sometimes I'm Happy both recorded in 1935. His solo on Tommy Dorsey's recording of Marie is a classic as well.

For up-tempo Bunny Berigan hear Gangbuster's Holiday also recorded with his own band or Blue Lou with the Metronome All Stars of 1939. Bunny Berigan won the Metronome Poll in both 1937 and 1939.

Bunny Berigan's biggest hit was a ballad, recorded under his own name, in which he played and sang was the now classic I Can't Get Started. Bunny Berigan’s recording of I Can’t Get Started was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974.


The song, surprisingly, was introduced by comedian Bob Hope. Hope sang it to Eve Arden in the Broadway revue Ziegfeld Follies of 1936. In a New York Times article, theater and film critic Vincent Canby said, “It was sung for laughs, with (Eve) Arden making caustic comments about Mr. Hope’s passion.”

Here are the Berigan lyrics to the great standard written by Vernon Duke (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics).
I've been around the world in a plane
I've settled revolutions in Spain
The North Pole I have charted
But man I can't get started with you
And at the golf course I'm under par
Metro-Goldwyn wants me to star
I've got a house and a show place
But can't get no place with you
You're so supreme
The lyrics I write of you
Dream, dream, day and night of you
Scheme just for the sight of you
But what good does it do
I've been consulted by Franklin D.
Greta Garbo has had me to tea
But now I'm broken hearted
Can't get started with you:

If you listen to more modern versions of the song....note that the lyrics change with each decade. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was Frank Sinatra ever arrested?

Q. Was Frank Sinatra ever arrested?

A. Yes....and here is the story....

A YouTube video of Frank Sinatra singing "September Song" contains pictures of  mostly album covers, however, there is also a now infamous picture of Frank. What's the story? Proof of Frank's 'Mob" ties? Not really, it was taken by the Bergen County, New Jersey police . The picture haunted Frank for his entire career. It certainly, didn't help having the poster version on the wall at  TV Tony Soprano's Bada Bing Club.

In I938, Frank was singing at his first real professional gig at the Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, just up the road from the George Washington Bridge.
Even at that young age, the other band members reported that Frank was a big attraction to the ladies. One night, so the story goes, Frank was invited out to the parking lot for a "personal encounter."

Unfortunately, a policeman tapped on the car window sending the woman into a panic....she started screaming "rape." Frank was arrested, and these photos were taken. The next day, the woman, who was married, dropped the charges. Case dismissed. But, the pictures never went away.

Who was first choice to play the singer in The Godfather?

Q. Was Al Martino first choice to play the singer in "The Godfather"?

A. The answer is no, according to Vic Damone in his book "Singing Was The Easy Part"? 
In it Vic Damone  talks about Frank Sinatra and the movie The Godfather.

According to Vic this is the now the legendary conversation with Frank Sinatra that led to Damone's refusal of the role of Johnny Fontaine in The Godfather.
He wrote: "Frank, you know this part. It's like your life story." "Yeah, yeah I know."
"What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know," he said. "It's up to you, pal. It could be good for your career, but it's a story about the mob and all that. You've got to make up your own mind. It's your career. I can't tell you what to do."

"So that didn't settle anything. In the back of my head I was still thinking. This is definitely the Sinatra story. Who's going to do that better than me? Besides which, the song Johnny Fontaine was supposed to sing at the wedding was I Have But One Heart, my song.

If I took the part I'd be singing my theme song in front of millions of people. On the other hand, the script made him out to be a kind of a weakling, a whiner. Of course, Sinatra had seen the script; there was no way he wasn't going to get hold of it. But he didn't say anything about the characterization to me, only that I had to make up my own mind. I can't imagine he cared much about the way the movie presented him. He was above that. But he was never, ever a whiner. So how could I do that?"

Damone turned it down.

"My excuse was that I wasn't able to cancel my bookings," he writes. "Afterward I got a call from one of the networks ... and they asked if Sinatra wanted me to decline it. I said no, it was my schedule. Of course, I would never ever discuss the fact that I had spoken to Frank at all."

Also Read http://www.examiner.com/frank-sinatra-in-national/the-godfather-and-from-here-to-eternity-true

To buy Vic's music or his book CLICK HERE

                                    "The More I See You" by Vic Damone

Kitty Margolis in San Francisco

"Margolis is an exhilarating and imaginative jazz vocalist of the highest order. Thrilling." - San Francisco Chronicle

Yoshi's San Francisco is pleased to announce an exclusive engagement June 24 by the award winning jazz vocalist Kitty Margolis. Critics have dubbed Ms. Margolis the inheritor of the great vocal jazz tradition passed down by Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Betty Carter and Carmen McRae, noting her “sumptuous, heart-stopping ballads” and “scat so rare in this day and age you might think you’ve found the Holy Grail.”  Yet Margolis is very much an innovator within this tradition.  Her live shows have been heralded as “world-class jazz experiences” that take the listener on an exhilarating journey through a repertoire that ranges from Tom Waits to George Gershwin, with stops to visit Mose Allison, Truman Capote and John Coltrane along the way.

Ms. Margolis will be supported by her supremely swinging trio including Murray Low (piano), John Shifflett (bass) and very special guest Allison Miller (drums). One show only...don't miss it!

Get the skinny on Kitty and Allison here:
www.kittymargolis.com
www.allisonmiller.com