Behind the Songs
May 20, 12:11 PM
Some background information on how the songs were chosen for Famous Blue
1. Because I Told You So – words and music by Jonatha Brooke
I was introduced to Jonatha Brooke by my friend Matthew Libman. He played me tracks from her album 10 Cent Wings and I instantly became a fan. I was impressed not only by the songwriting but also the production by the great Alain Mallet. I’ve loved this song since I first heard it and seemed natural to fit into a jazz format.
2. How He Sings – words and music by Oded Lev-Ari
Oded and I have been working together for seven years, ever since we got together as a couple. We have a beautiful musical connection and no one knows me better…musically and otherwise. This is Oded’s first shot at writing a song with lyrics and I think it came out beautifully. It has also been performed as a duo with “Couples Therapy” – a group formed by Michal Cohen and myself.
3. Sliding Down – music by Edgar Meyer, words by Melissa Stylianou
I was introduced to Edgar Meyer by a couple of bass player friends (Jacob and Bradley) while I was in college at the New England Conservatory of Music. I had never heard the bass played more beautifully in my life. I had the chance to hear Edgar play live and was equally, if not more impressed with him. Last year I met a Canadian singer who had just moved to New York who knew my brother and who my mom would always talk about. I loved Melissa’s voice and tunes and became a fan for life when I heard that she had put lyrics to Sliding Down. She graciously allowed us to record her lyrics only a few months after her own album (titled Sliding Down was released.
4. Famous Blue Raincoat – words and music by Leonard Cohen
When I was in highschool, my mom dragged me to a Leonard Cohen concert. I say dragged because after hearing some of his singing my teenage self was not particularly interested in spending a night with him. I was converted that night. The contrast of Leonard Cohen’s voice with the amazing band and backup singers and the beautiful melodies and lyrics found behind it made me a believer. I was mostly a saxophone player in highschool and played a lot of power ballad tenor sax solos in senior recitals at the Arts highschool I attended. Adam Orr did a version of Famous Blue Raincoat on his recital and asked me to play the tenor sax solo found in the Jennfer Warnes version of the recording. I’ve been singing this song ever since.
5. No Moon at All – music by David Mann, words by Redd Evans)
This one was introduced to me by a friend (Colin) and has made it’s way onto a few albums that have been released lately or are going to be released soon. The first version I heard was the Mel Torme version which is amazing and swinging but Ella swings just as hard. You can hear it on Anat Cohen’s album Noir with the Anzic Orchestra and also on an upcoming New York Voices album. You can hear the influence of the Torme version in the ACQ version although I don’t think the guys had heard Mel’s version.
6. Mushaboom – words and music by Leslie Feist
This one came to me by way of Jeff Breithaupt from the Canadian Consulate in New York. He asked me to sing a version of this on the annual Canada Day celebration at Joe’s Pub. I was originally writing the arrangement for two vocalists (Hilary Gardner and I were going to sing this together) but when Hilary got sick at the last minute I tweaked it to be a trumpet and voice feature and got to play with Ingrid Jensen. I love the story in this tune and became a big Feist fan after hearing this song – “It may be years until the day my dreams will match up with my pay.”
I think this was the first song that I had the guys sing backups on.
7. Extraordinary Machine – words and music by Fiona Apple
I’ve been a Fiona Apple fan for years but the Extraordinary Machine blew me away – they used bassoon on a pop music album – genius! I love the story in Extraordinary Machine (“be kind to me or treat me mean, I’ll make the most of it I’m an extraordinary machine.”) and the arrangement is really beautiful. It’s so good that I was worried about trying to do it justice in the ACQ format. But using some unconvential instrumentation seems to have done the trick with Michael playing accordion and Ernesto playing clarinet and bass clarinet.
8. Don’t Fence Me In – words and music by Cole Porter
I was teaching at a small independent school on the Upper West Side and they sang this song in one of their shows. What a cute country tune…or so I thought. Cole Porter? Really? ACQ is trying to do something different in terms of tunes that we play — adding popular music material to our repertoire and tweaking it to fit our jazz sensibility — but we also like to play songs that aren’t as well known in the jazz repertoire as they perhaps should be. This is one of those for us.
9. Don’t Explain – Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr.
I did a reading for a friend of mine (JC Sanford) who was doing and arrangement for jazz vocalist and wind orchestra and loved his take on Don’t Explain. I came home and a few weeks later and did an arrangement on Don’t Explain based on what I remembered of JC’s arrangement. Turns out my memory of the arrangement wasn’t so good but the inspiration for this version came from that day. The ACQ has changed this many times and are constantly tweaking this one. The Mbira/Voice duet is in peril after our favorite Mbira was lost with Ernesto’s lugagge on our way to Toronto for our record release.
10. Holiday – words and music by Rivers Cuomo
This song makes me happy on many levels. The original version is on an album that never fails to make me dance and sing without reserve, especially with a good partner (yes you Jeff). This tune was also the first full out backround vocal song for the guys – we have since added one or two more to the repertoire because these guys can sing!
A few songs that didn’t make the album that may make the next one:
A beautiful arrangement of Green Day’s “Time of your Life” by Mark Lau
A tune of mine called “Missing You” – you can hear clips of this one on You Tube.
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