Season 413: Jazz up you Standards

[wee_ginga_yin]

Take me home you silly girl.

[pabrizzer]

it's a simple little paoriginal.
It does have a brief min7 and a Maj7.
Hope it's jazzy enough.

[One Man And His Uke]

These kind of songs are right up my street. Love the artistry and craft that goes not only into the music of these songs, but also the lyrics. There’s no finer example than that of the great team of a Rodgers and Hart, the latter being the lyric writer for Rodgers before Oscar Hammerstein. So many superb songs of theirs to choose from, and I know I will only get time to do one of them this week. Was tempted to do Bewitched, or My Funny Valentine. Lorenz Hart was such a gifted lyricist, but also quite a troubled man, plagued by his own personal demons. Went for this one in the end because I love, just love, Blossom Dearie’s version. If you don’t know Blossom Dearie, I recommend her. You’ll either find her voice a little bit girly and twee, or you’ll just think it’s perfect. The little descending riff at the start is pretty much as her version, though taken down a step or so. So I could solo, I first recorded the chords on baritone, which is great for that style of jazz comping, then played it back on one computer while I added the vocal and tenor uke over that. Not very high tech, but hey.....Anyway, here is Thou Swell

[mythinformed]

Entry number two, I've decided to terrorize you with my tonsils ………

[CeeJay]

[Tootler]

The Lonesome Road. I found this in a copy of "101 Jazz & Blues Hits for Buskers" I bought some years ago. It is credited to - music: Nathaniel Shilkret and lyrics: Gene Austin. Wikipedia also gives the same credits, dates it to 1927 and adds "It was written in the style of an African-American folk song."
The version in the book only has one verse with the chorus repeated twice. I felt there had to be more lyrics so I went looking. In the process, I came across a book by a collector who had been collecting in rural America during the 1920s and claimed they had collected the song from an African American singer. Given the way many of the "collectors" behaved at that time, it seems quite likely that the credited "songwriters" found a song and "adapted and arranged" it. Maybe it really is an African American Folk song. Who knows? The online book gave me more lyrics, though.

Anyway here is my version. The photos date from 1969/70 when I was living in West Cumbria (it was Cumberland then). When I digitised the original slides, the colour did not come out well, so I've turned them into b&w which I think fits well with the song.

[AlanDP]

[wee_ginga_yin]

Stardust by Hoagey Charmicheal 1927

[mep1]

Some really great performances so far. Just what I was hoping for when I thought about the theme for the season. Keep them coming.

The playlist should be updated until this point.

[mep1]

And here is one from this weeks host.

Misty - in a slow ballad version. The aNueNue Moonbird UC200 Tenor Ukulele came through the door this morning so it was the perfect opportunity to try it out.