Currently listening to.... 2016

Dimply fantastic @Freddy, thank you. His talent has only been galvanised by the 40+ years that his career spans, and above all else he is a thoroughly likeable guy who genuinely connects with the people in his audiences. Love him.

 

Two hours of some of my favourite female Jazz and Blues singers

1. Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong: Summertime
2. Nina Simone: Love Me or Leave Me
3. Rosemary Clooney: Over The Rainbow
4. Sarah Vaughan: Misty
5. Edith Piaf :La Vie En Rose
6. Sarah Vaughan: Just A Gigolo
7. Nina Simone: My Baby Just Care for Me
8. Ella Fitzegerald: Night And Day
9. Carmen McRae: Bye Bye Blackbird
10. Billie Holiday: Porgy
11. Sarah Vaughan: Misty
12: Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong April In Paris
13. Annie Ross:Let There Be Love
14. Ella Fitzgerald: Love For Sale
15. Carmen McRae: Strange Fruit
16. Dinah Washington: Honeysuckle Rose
17. Etta Jones: Nature Boy
18. Ella Fitzgerald: Star Dust
19. June Christy: Something Cool
20. Nina Simone: Mood Indigo
21. Ella Fitzgerald: Blue Skies
22. Petula Clark: As Time Goes By
23. Carmen McRae: Lover Man
24. Peggy Lee: There Is No Greater Love
25. Doris Day: Cheek To Cheek
26. Chris Connor: How Long Has This Been Going On
27. Dinah Washington: All of Me
28. Ella Fitzgerald:The Lady Is A Tramp
29. Sarah Vaughan: Lullaby Of Birdland
30. Sarah Vaughan: Tenderly
31. Nina Simone: Little Girl Blue
32. Billie Holiday: What Is This Thing Called Love

 

Anyone remember Johnny Burnette. He got a hit with this song and wrote a number of hit songs for Ricky Nelson.

Sadly, he died a the age of 30 when he was night fishing and his boat was hit by a bigger one and he drowned.

I saw him when he came over here in the early 1960's

 

Very few of you are likely to appreciate this (it's too old ).

It has a lot of the top music stars of the forties and fifties in it.

It's from the 1948 movie "A Song is Born" with Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo featuring: Benny Goodman (clarinet), Louis Armstrong (trumpet), Lionel Hampton (vibes), Charlie Barnet (tenor sax), Tommy Dorsey (trombone), Mel Powell (piano), Alton Hendrickson (guitar), Louis Bellson (drums), Harry Babasin (bass), Russo & the Samba Kings, Golden Gate Quartet (vocals)

 

Following on with Danny Kaye.

He starred as Red Nichols in the film The Five Pennies. Red was a famous jazz band leader that gave up his band to help his daughter who had contracted polio. It's a film worth watching for the story and the music. Quite a bit of pathos in the story.

A lot of famous jazz players were in his band. Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing in Dallas) plays his wife and Tuesday Weld plays his daughter as a teenager.



In the film Louis Armstrong plays himself.



After many years he is persuaded to go back to playing his music.

Sylvia Fine (Danny Kaye's real wife) wrote the new songs for the film and received an Oscar nomination for 'The Five Pennies' and, I think, dubbed the songs that Barbara was singing. The real Red Nichols dubbed Danny's cornet playing.



The film had four Oscar nominations but didn't win any. Worth watching if you have the chance.