Tim/Riddler - excellent renditions of "What Are You Doing..." It's been quite a while since I heard this fine song - it's right up there with LeGrand's "I Will Wait for You" & "Windmills of Your Mind"...excellent playing on both!

Mike - really liked your version of "Laura", one of my all time favorites - I've recorded this too, but not in your league - lovely, haunting song & it was a good movie too (of the "Film Noir" genre) - Gene Tierney was considered by many as maybe the most beautiful of the Hollywood stars of that era (which is saying a whole lot!) I think that might have been right, and yes, it was "Gene"...

jazztpt - good work on both "Yes..." & "Starting..." Enjoyed them a lot!

Constantin - enjoyed your take on "St. Louis Blues" - well done! You know you are dealing with a legendary standard when they name a professional hockey team after it...

One of my all time favorite, and most frequently played, CDs was one I "burned" myself some years ago - it was a collection of Cole Porter's best songs, and featured Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald alternating on vocals selected from their many superb albums over the years.

Porter is, of course, considered by many as our greatest individual songwriter (as compared to team of Rogers and Hammerstein, for example) whose works were always a cut above others in both their musical structure and lyrical content, being highly sophisticated on both aspects. In fact, his song "Begin the Beguine" is sometimes cited as the best pop song ever written...perhaps...

Here's one of his most beautiful, which is from his 1948 musical "Kiss Me Kate", a revival of which I had the pleasure of seeing on Broadway:

So in Love

Handyman - nicely played , very enjoyable listen , now off to give this one a go myself :-)

Constantin, yeah, kinda bluesy, kinda stridey, maybe even honky-tonky. Cool!

Michael, oh yes, one of your best. You really got into the spirit of the thing, loose and swinging and totally convincing throughout. Nifty!

Beemer, I never thought of Shostakovich as a dance music guy, but hey - he could do anything! And your Joplin thing was quintessential ragtime. Good work!

Handyman, that has been a fav of mine forever and a day. Gorgeous arrangement, played so well!

Ed

Michael, I dunno why my file is blocked in Turkey.

Here is a link to the same recording on SoundCloud.

What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life

Ed

Handyman,

So in love - This was the best I have heard from your Piano Bar posts. Your performance was very good and a great choice.

Ian

Ed,

What are you doing the rest of your life - Always a pleasure to listen to everything you post. You play with such confidence all the way through. Is this from any specific sheet music or were you improvising. I ask because I would like to try it.

Ian

Ed,

I have found the 1969 original in one of my Shearing books. Unlike most other pieces I have posted I have found that this is not a piece I can play through on first sight. Well I can slowly!

Ian

Thanks for your kind comments.

I started from the Real Book lead sheet and worked up the arrangement from that. Usually, I jot down some info on the lead sheet to remind myself where to change styles, when to play runs, etc. I have looked around but can't find the lead sheet that I used.

This song has actually been in my head for a long time. I remember it from the 1970s, and may have played it by ear on the Hammond organ that I had then.

Ed

Can't help but chuckle at some of his wordsmithing:

Let
me
live 'neath
your spell;
Do do
the voodoo
that you do
so well.

Ed

This chorus from Porter's "Anything Goes" always brings on a smile:

The world's gone mad today
And good's bad today
And black's white today
And day's night today
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos...

Handyman - So in love I like Cole Porter very much, and especially the orchestral arrangements of his greatest hits that were created to serve as a musical background in the movie "Evil under the sun", which is one of my favourite movies. I also like your rendition of "So in love". Yes, Porter is always playing with words in his lyrics in a funny manner.

OK, so last night I was being entertained by Cole Porter's voodoo words, and - guess what? - I forgot to post my song.

So here it is - Good Morning Heartache, written by Irene Higginbotham in the 1940s. It has been recorded by Billie Holiday, Diana Ross, and many others. It is sometimes categorized as a torch song (don't worry, you're not going to hear me sing). I am playing here from a lead sheet, along with a backing track.

Good Morning Heartache

Ed

Ed,

"Mellow" comes to my mind. I think this would make me want to stay in bed!
Just great,

Ian

Thanks all for liking my stuff.
Handyman, nicely done. Time gone by comes back upon hearing. Elegant.
Ed, that Good Morning Heartache was quite excellent. Best I have heard from you so far. Was that your improvisation? Equally good and well played.

Sometimes I think a few of you would love exploring midi on an iPad. So much fun and affordable. You can take your piano performances and explore a lot of sonic possibilities just by plugging different instruments into your piano midi track and mixing the voices in and out. The instruments are generally free, or $5-$15 with exceptions, of course, but nothing like the cost of VSTs Here is an example using a cathedral organ, choir, synth, strings and oboe. Sure, some of the sounds are less than perfect, but as you can hear the choir is exceptional as is the synth. Strings are more than adequate. Pm me if you want some more info.

https://soundcloud.com/michael-levy-387395070/tears-of-heaven-3

Ed - "Good Morning Heartache" - very nicely done, a throughly enjoyable listen...it would have been even without the background track.

Haven't heard that one either for a very long time - went to YT and listened to Billie sing it - it's definitely a torch song...so was a lot of other stuff she sang...I think did she invented the genre.

Well, here's a partial list of some of his greatest hits (these are the tracks on that CD I mentioned above):

Night and Day
You Do Something to Me
Every Time We Say Goodbye
So Easy to Love
Too Darn Hot
You're the Top
All of Me
I Concentrate on You
So in Love
Love for Sale
It's Delovely
You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To
In the Still of the Night
It's Alright With Me
Anything Goes
What is This Thing Called Love?
I Get a kick Out of You
From This Moment On
It Was Just One of Those Things
Let's Do It
I've Got You Under My Skin
Always True to You in My Fashion
At Long Last Love
Begin the Beguine


With Frank & Ella taking turns singing these down through the tracks does the GAS get any better than this? I think not!

Ed - Good Morning Heartache Your recordings with a virtual combo are always fascinating, and this tune, hitherto unknown to me, is very pleasant. This version of yours is so much 1960s... I love that.

Handyman - Thanks for the list of Porter's greatest successes. I have a 222 pages songbook with piano arrangements of Porter songs, but have only played 2 of them so far: "Night and day" and "Just one of those things".

Delovely... terrific Porter bio with Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crowe, Diana Krall and more. A must see!

Thanks.

Yes, that was my arrangement and solo, working from a lead sheet.

Ed