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« Is Poker like Poetry? | Main | Hello Johnny! from Don Juan Canto I, CXXIII [by Lord Byron] »

July 18, 2023

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Wonderful post, and how pleased I am that you dedicated it to me! Just as you expected, I loved the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra (and singers Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberle). When I was eight years old, Louis Prima and Keely Smith introduced me to "That Old Black Magic." Lovin' the spin that I'm in!

Love the tribute!
Love the music of that era.

I have a few versions of Tangerine sung by Hellen O’Connell

Wonderful post!

What a heartwarming story. Those connections with your Father through his records were a bond that was truly special and meaningful. Your sense of the power of words through poetry is a natural consequence of that relationship. I loved your story.

The first recording of "Strange Fruit," sung immortally by Billie Holiday, was released in mid-1939 on Commodore Records, the small label practically shop-distributed by the record store of the same name. If for nothing else, NYC's Commodore Records shop, run by jazz aficionado Jack Crystal (Billy's father, as noted elsewhere), gave us a gift that keeps giving: a 10-inch, 78-rpm record comprising four songs sung by Billie Holiday: "Strange Fruit," "Fine and Mellow," "Yesterdays," and "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues." (N.B. Milt Gabler was vitally involved in that undertaking.) A short, reliable, musical/discographical history of "Strange Fruit" is David Margolick's STRANGE FRUIT: BILLIE HOLIDAY, CAFE SOCIETY, AND AN EARLY CRY FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, published in 2000. Perhaps the most devastatingly memorable rendition of the song I've heard since Holiday's classic 1939 recording is Rene Marie's conjoining "Dixie/Strange Fruit" track on her 2001 album VERTIGO. That track will take the top of your head off!

I'd be negligent if I didn't post the names of the outstanding musicians who accompanied vocalist Rene Marie on that shatteringly impressive "Dixie/Strange Fruit" track on her album VERTIGO: Mulgrew Miller on piano, Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums, and Robert Hurst on bass.

One further attenuated connection (or, in Yiddish, a bubbeseh nagel): I went to summer camp (ca. 1964-5) with Phoebe Snow (née Laub). Yep, she could sing like nobody's business.

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"Lively and affectionate" Publishers Weekly

Radio

I left it
on when I
left the house
for the pleasure
of coming back
ten hours later
to the greatness
of Teddy Wilson
"After You've Gone"
on the piano
in the corner
of the bedroom
as I enter
in the dark


from New and Selected Poems by David Lehman

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