This evening we went to the
Berrylands Hotel in Surbiton, where
Brian White's Magna jazz band performs every week. Keith Brown (pictured) replaced Rex Bennett on drums.
Our favourite numbers were:
'St Louis Blues' by W C Handy. Further to my recent comments on blues structure, the verses are twelve bar blues in 4/4 time with the standard three lines of lyrics, the first two lines repeated, but it has a 16-bar bridge written in habanera rhythm.
'The Glory of Love', written by William Joseph 'Billy' Hill (July 14, 1899 December 24, 1940), an American songwriter and lyricist who found fame writing cowboy songs, e.g. 'They Cut Down the Old Pine Tree', 'The Last Roundup', 'Wagon Wheels' and 'Empty Saddles'. 'The Glory of Love' was probably his biggest hit, recorded by Benny Goodman in 1936, Peggy Lee in 1959, Dean Martin in 1966, Tom Rush in 1968, Eddy Arnold in 1969, Wizz Jones in 1970, Otis Redding, The Five Keys, and Bette Midler for the film Beaches. Our recording is by Big Bill Broonzy on the Jazz Guitar Anthology Volume 1.
'The Old Folks at Home', AKA '(Way Down Upon the) Swanee River', written in 1851 by Stephen Foster, to be performed by Christy's Minstrels. It has been the official state song of Florida since 1935.
Alan Dandy's lovely keyboard feature 'The Lullaby of the Leaves', composed by Bernice Petkere with lyrics by Joe Young for the Broadway Revue 'Chamberlain Brown's Scrap Book' (1932). Alan played the theme when we first arrived and asked us what it was called but we were useless.
David, one of Frances' boys, declared that all three of them were miserable because of her absence due to a bad cold. I said "well you don't want her to infect you", to which David replied that he did.
Labels: Jazz
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