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Nice An' Cool
''Nice an' Cool'' is an album by saxophonist Gene Ammons recorded in 1961 and released on the Moodsville, accessed December 6, 2012 a subsidiary label of Prestige. Reception The AllMusic review stated: "A 1961 set of standards heavy on the ballads, ''Nice 'n Cool'' is prime Gene Ammons... Ammons' brilliantly soulful tenor saxophone really stretches out on the familiar melodies... ''Nice 'n Cool'' is first and foremost a mood album, with the unity of sound more important than the individual performances, but Ammons particularly shines."Mason, S[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Ammons
Eugene "Jug" Ammons (April 14, 1925 – August 6, 1974), also known as "The Boss", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. The son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons, Gene Ammons is remembered for his accessible music, steeped in soul and R&B. Biography Born in Chicago, Illinois, Ammons studied music with instructor Walter Dyett at DuSable High School. Ammons began to gain recognition while still at high school when in 1943, at the age of 18, he went on the road with trumpeter King Kolax's band. In 1944, he joined the band of Billy Eckstine (who bestowed on him the nickname "Jug" when straw hats ordered for the band did not fit), playing alongside Charlie Parker and later Dexter Gordon. Performances from this period include "Blowin' the Blues Away," featuring a saxophone duel between Ammons and Gordon. After 1947, when Eckstine became a solo performer, Ammons then led a group, including Miles Davis and Sonny Stitt, that performed at Chicago's Jumptown Club. In 1949, Ammo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most well-known American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music. Rodgers is known for his songwriting partnerships, first with lyricist Lorenz Hart and then with Oscar Hammerstein II. With Hart he wrote musicals throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including '' Pal Joey'', '' A Connecticut Yankee'', '' On Your Toes'' and '' Babes in Arms.'' With Hammerstein he wrote musicals through the 1940s and 1950s, such as ''Oklahoma!'', '' Flower Drum Song'', '' Carousel'', ''South Pacific'', ''The King and I'', and ''The Sound of Music''. His collaborations with Hammerstein, in particular, are celebrated for bringing the Broadway musical to a new maturity by telling stories that were focused on characters and drama rathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Wyands
Richard Francis Wyands (July 2, 1928 – September 25, 2019) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, best known for his work as a side-man. Early life Wyands was born in Oakland, California, on July 2, 1928 and grew up in Berkeley. He began playing the piano at age 7 or 8 and started playing professionally in 1944, while a teenager, in San Francisco. Wyands earned a degree in music from San Francisco State College in 1950. At school and college he played piano and drums. Wyands was influenced by Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, Art Tatum, and Teddy Wilson.Panken, Ted (December 2, 2012"An interview with Richard Wyands for the Liner Notes for Half and Half (Criss-Cross) – Feb. 7, 2000" Later life and career In the early 1950s, Wyands was part of Vernon Alley's group that was the house band at the Black Hawk club in San Francisco, and thus part of the rhythm section that accompanied visiting soloists. The year after leaving the Black Hawk in 1954, Wy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenor Saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while the alto is pitched in the key of E), and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F key have a range from A2 to E5 (concert) and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists". The tenor saxophone uses a larger mouthpiece, reed and ligature than the alto and soprano saxophones. Visually, it is easily distinguished by the curve in its neck, or its crook, near the mouthpiece. The alto saxophone lacks this and its neck goes straight to the mouthpiece. The tenor saxophone is most recognize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 20th century. With George, he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as " I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", " The Man I Love" and " Someone to Watch Over Me". He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to George's opera '' Porgy and Bess''. The success the Gershwin brothers had with their collaborative works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. His mastery of songwriting continued after George's early death in 1937. Ira wrote additional hit songs with composers Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Harry Warren and Harold Arlen. His critically acclaimed 1959 book ''Lyrics on Several Occasions'', an amalgam of autobiography and annotated anthology, is an important source for stud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1924) and ''An American in Paris'' (1928), the songs "Swanee (song), Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and the opera ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935), which included the hit "Summertime (George Gershwin song), Summertime". Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody (composer), Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Someone To Watch Over Me (song)
"Someone to Watch Over Me" is a 1926 song composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, assisted by Howard Dietz who penned the title. It was written for the musical ''Oh, Kay!'' (1926), with the part originally sung on Broadway by English actress Gertrude Lawrence while holding a rag doll in a sentimental solo scene. The musical ran for more than 200 performances in New York and then saw equivalent acclaim in London in 1927, all with the song as its centerpiece. Lawrence released the song as a medium-tempo single which rose to #2 on the charts in 1927. Origin Initially, "Someone to Watch Over Me" was written by George Gershwin for the musical ''Oh, Kay!'' as a "fast and jazzy" up-tempo rhythm tune – marked ''scherzando'' (playful) in the sheet music – but in the 1930s and 1940s it was recorded by singers in a slower ballad form, which became the standard. The definitive slow torch song version was first released by Lee Wiley in 1939, followed by Margaret Whiting in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Schertzinger
Victor L. Schertzinger (April 8, 1888 – October 26, 1941) was an American composer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His films include '' Paramount on Parade'' (co-director, 1930), ''Something to Sing About'' ( 1937) with James Cagney, and the first two "Road" pictures ''Road to Singapore'' ( 1940) and '' Road to Zanzibar'' ( 1941). His two best-known songs are "I Remember You" and " Tangerine", both with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and both featured in Schertzinger's final film, '' The Fleet's In'' ( 1942). Life and career Schertzinger was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, the child of musical parents of Pennsylvania Dutch descent, and attracted attention as a violin prodigy at the age of four. As a child of eight, he appeared as a violinist with several orchestras, including the Victor Herbert Orchestra and the John Philip Sousa band. In his teens, he attended the Brown Preparatory School in Philadelphia, and gave violin performances while touring America an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallichs. He is best known as a Tin Pan Alley lyricist, but he also composed music, and was a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as songs written by others from the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s. Mercer's songs were among the most successful hits of the time, including "Moon River", " Days of Wine and Roses", " Autumn Leaves", and " Hooray for Hollywood". He wrote the lyrics to more than 1,500 songs, including compositions for movies and Broadway shows. He received nineteen Oscar nominations, and won four Best Original Song Oscars. Early life Mercer was born in Savannah, Georgia, where one of his first jobs, aged 10, was sweeping floors at the original 1919 location of Leopold's Ice Cream. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Remember You (1941 Song)
"I Remember You" is a popular song, published in 1941. The music was written by Victor Schertzinger, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The song was originally recorded by Jimmy Dorsey in 1941. It has since been covered most notably by Frank Ifield, Glen Campbell and Björk. History "I Remember You" was one of several songs introduced in the film ''The Fleet's In'' (1942). In 1941, Mercer began an affair with 19-year-old Judy Garland, while she was engaged to composer David Rose. Garland ended her involvement when she married Rose. In later years, Garland and Mercer rekindled their affair. Mercer stated that his song "I Remember You" was the most direct expression of his feelings for Garland. Renditions Australian singer Frank Ifield recorded the song in a yodeling country-music style on 27 May 1962, and his version went to number one on the UK Singles Chart, selling 1.1 million copies in the UK alone. The recording stayed at No.1 for seven weeks. It also reached number five on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (; July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960) was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and (usually uncredited) director in the musical theater for almost 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs. He is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers, as the duo Rodgers and Hammerstein, whose musicals include ''Oklahoma!'', '' Carousel'', ''South Pacific'', '' The King and I'', and ''The Sound of Music''. Described by Stephen Sondheim as an "experimental playwright", Hammerstein helped bring the American musical to new maturity by popularizing musicals that focused on stories and character rather than the lighthearted entertainment that the musical had been known for beforehand. He also collaborated with Jerome Kern (with whom he wrote '' Show Boat''), V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Something Wonderful (song)
"Something Wonderful" is a show tune from the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''The King and I''. The song was introduced in the Broadway production by Dorothy Sarnoff in the role of Lady Thiang, the King's head wife. In the 1956 film adaptation "Something Wonderful" was sung by Terry Saunders in the role of Lady Thiang: Saunders was the understudy for Sarnoff in the Broadway production and, in 1952, had taken over the role when Sarnoff departed. "Something Wonderful" is sung by Lady Thiang to Anna Leonowens to persuade her to accept the King for what he is, despite his faults. In a sense, these lyrics have echoes of the song "What's the Use of Wond'rin'" from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''Carousel'', which also deals with the issue of women standing by their husbands despite all their faults. Musically, the heavy chords that punctuate the accompaniment bear some pre-echoes of the song "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from ''The Sound of Music''. This is notable because both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
