Hollywood On 52nd Street
Guess Who I Saw Today is a popular jazz song composed by Murray Grand with lyrics by Elisse Boyd. The song was originally composed for Leonard Sillman’s Broadway musical revue New Faces of 1952 in which it was sung by June Carroll.
The revue opened on Broadway at the Royale Theatre on May 16, 1952 and ran for 365 performances. It was produced by Leonard Sillman, directed by John Murray Anderson and John Beal with choreography by Richard Barstow. The sketches were written by Ronny Graham and Brooks. The songs were composed by, among others, Harnick, Graham, Murray Grand and Arthur Siegel.
The cast featured Graham, Kitt, Clary, Virginia Bosler, June Carroll, Virginia De Luce, Alice Ghostley, Patricia Hammerlee, Carol Lawrence, Paul Lynde and Bill Milliken. De Luce and Graham won the 1952 Theatre World Award. The revue marked Kitt’s Broadway debut, singing a sultry rendition of “Monotonous”, about how boring a life of luxury was.
Two years later, the name was abridged to New Faces and was adapted into a motion picture filmed in Cinemascope and Eastmancolor and was released by 20th Century Fox on March 6, 1954. It helped jumpstart the Hollywood careers of several young performers including Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, Eartha Kitt, Robert Clary, Carol Lawrence, Ronny Graham, performer/writer Mel Brooks (as Melvin Brooks), and lyricist Sheldon Harnick.
Hollywood On 52nd Street
Return to Paradise is a jazz standard that was written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington for the movie of the same name. The film was set and principal photography was shot in Samoa and released by United Artists in 1953. It starred Gary Cooper, Barry Jones and Roberta Haynes and the screenplay by Charles Kaufman was based on the 1951 short story Mr. Morgan by James Michener in his short story collection Return to Paradise, his sequel to Tales of the South Pacific.
The Story
During the 1920s, itinerant American beachcomber Mr. Morgan (Cooper) is deposited on the island of Matareva in the South Pacific. Deciding to stay, he is confronted by Pastor Cobbett (Jones), who lost both his father and his wife as a young missionary on the island and rules the island as a Puritanical despot, using local bullies as wardens to enforce his rules. Morgan wins the support of the natives after defeating the wardens with the aid of an empty shotgun.
Morgan has an illegitimate child with an island girl who dies in childbirth. Leaving his daughter with her grandmother he leaves the island, only to return during World War II. Cobbett has changed, his daughter Turia is now grown and in love with a stranded Navy pilot and Morgan now has to face the inevitable possibility of a repeat of his indiscretion with his daughter. Forcing the split by making the pilot and his crew leave the island, Turia is upset but reconciles with her father who decides to stay on with her on the island.
Requisites
Porgy and Bess, subtitled Swingin’ Impressions by Hank Jones is an album recorded in 1958 for Capitol Records by pianist Hank Jones and released in 1959, the same year the movie was released starring Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Brock Peters and Pearl Bailey. It featured interpretations of music from George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess.
On this session Hank is supported by bassit Milt Hinton, guitarist Kenny Burrell and his brother Elvin, the latter displaying a light touch of the drums to compliment his sibling’s crisp, minimalist piano approach to these compositions. The quartet are perfectly matched to enhancing the subdued, intimate feel of this unusually pared down production.
All ten compositions are by George Gershwin and are not received in the order of the original opera. Summertime, There’s a Boat Dat’s Leavin’ Soon for New York, My Man’s Gone Now, A Woman Is a Sometime Thing, Bess, You Is My Woman Now, It Ain’t Necessarily So, I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’, Oh, I Can’t Sit Down, Oh Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess? and I Ain’t Got No Shame.
This cool jazz recording session was produced were Dave Cavanaugh and Andy Wiswell. The illustration was created by Boyle and the liner notes were written by Edward Jablonski.
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Requisites
Stan Getz Plays is a compilation album of previously released material by tenor saxophonist Stan Getz recorded in 1952 but wasn’t released until 1955 on the Norgran label. The album, however, features tracks (1,3-12) that were previously released on two 10-inch LPs on Clef Records, (13-14) originally released on Verve, and (15 & 16) previously released on MGN. Tracks 12-16 were bonus tracks on the CD reissue.
Stella By Starlight, Time on My Hands, Tis Autumn, The Way You Look Tonight, Lover, Come Back to Me, Body and Soul, Stars Fell On Alabama, You Turned The Tables On Me, Thanks For The Memory, Hymn Of The Orient, These Foolish Things, How Deep Is The Ocean?, Nobody Else But Me, Down By The Sycamore Tree, I Hadn’t Anyone Till You and With The Wind And The Rain In Your Hair.
Recorded in New York City on December 12, 1952 (tracks 1-8) and December 29, 1952 (tracks 9-12). The Los Angeles, CA session was on January 23, 1954 (tracks 13-16). The album cover was designed by Tom Hughes and the photograph was taken by Phil Stern.
The personnel on these recording were: Stan Getz on tenor saxophone, with guitarist Jimmy Raney on tracks 1-12, pianists Duke Jordan on tracks 1-12 and Jimmy Rowles on tracks 13-16, Bill Crow on tracks 1-12 and Bob Whitlock on tracks 13-16 shared bass duties, and Frank Isola on tracks 1-12 and Max Roach on tracks 13-16 were the drummers.
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Requisites
Like Someone In Love is a 1960 album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. It was recorded for the Blue Note label at the Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and ran 39 minutes and 56 seconds. It was produced by Alfred Lion and the cover design was created by Reid Miles with photograph provided by Francis Wolff.
The title is taken from the popular song of the same name composed in 1944 by Jimmy Van Heusen, with lyrics by Johnny Burke. It was written (along with “Sleigh Ride in July”) for the 1944 film Belle of the Yukon, and has since become a jazz standard.
The personnel on this session were leader and drummer Art Blakey, Lee Morgan on trumpet and flugelhorn, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt on bass.
The album was recorded in two sessions on August 7 (#3, 4, 6) and August 14 (#1, 2, 5), 1960 rendering the tunes Like Someone in Love, Johnny’s Blue (Morgan), Noise in the Attic (Shorter), Sleeping Dancer Sleep On (Shorter), Giantis (Shorter), and Sleeping Dancer Sleep On (Alternate Take and Bonus Track On CD).
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