Here are my May contributions:

(third post this time with boosted volume. My understanding is that new versions can be uploaded to Box.com and the original url links remain valid. We shall see. )

The Birth of the Blues
Composed in 1926 by Ray Henderson and recorded that year by Paul Whiteman

It's only a Paper Moon

Composed in 1933 by Hard Arlen

I Got the Right to Sing the Blues
Composed in 1932 by Harold Arlen

Fun to be Fooled
Composed in 1934 by Harold Arlen

I knew the first two songs but the last two were completely new to me today. I apologise for my mistakes on these but I just played them from first sight and did one take on each.

Ian

On re-posting my four pieces with boosted (re-rendered) volume I found that, when copying the previous post to paste it into the new one, the links were copied but in name only, i.e. without the underline. So I had to remake all links from scratch.
Ian

Beemer - well your 72 year old fingers may not be as nimble as they once were but they know where to go on the piano keyboard. I suspect we are all sitting back and admiring your sight reading skills too. Paper Moon was very nearly my contribution this month too but it will keep :-)

Riddler - Great stuff Ed, you really have Monk down, love that left hand part during the head which creates the quirky Monk feel and then releases into the straight ahead swing. Great recording too.

Riddler,
I was confused at first trying to figure what "was you", and what was the backing track? It was a really nice experience and not what I was expecting from the Monk repertoire. Great!
Ian

Bass and drums were on the backing track (Band in a box). I was playing piano.

Ed

Beemer Thanks, for boosting the volume, now it's loud enough for me (to hear the small inaccuracies from sight reading you mentioned).
Ed - Well, You Needn't "Angular", yes, funny and fun to listen to. I found it easy to figure out which voices come from the backing track and what you are playing on the piano, e.g. some bass notes in your left hand that are already on the backing track.

Tim - I have fond memories of Erroll Garner - remember seeing him on early TV variety shows and had several of his LPs - always amazed by his technique & improvisational abilities - of the three enjoyable pieces I think I liked "Mood Island" best, but very well played all...

An excellent medley very well played Russ!

I remember first hearing "Nightingale..." on a Nat King Cole album from way back when, and the other two songs on a June Christy album from the early 50s...for some strange reason I still remember thses lyrics from "That's All":

I can only give you country walks in springtime
And a hand to hold when leaves begin to fall
And a love whose burning light
to warm the winter night,
that's all, that's all.

Hi, folks -- great to hear the contributions thus far -- hopefully, we'll get a few more:

jazztpt -- A shrewdly conceived medley, connected IMO by the sweet-sadness of all three. I associated "A NIghtingale..." with WW II Britain in my mind's eye; after Googling it, it turns out that I wasn't wrong -- it became popular in 1940, the same year as the Nazi air attack on British soil. The other two are from the 40s and 50s, respectively, and all are well deserved Standards. And (as usual) your rendition had just the right sense of gentle swing. Just out of curiosity -- does Britain have venues that support this type of music; i.e., informal pubs, but perhaps a little higher-end? Here in the USA (at least where I live), there isn't much call for it.

Pianist685 -- I hadn't heard of Yiruma prior to your playing him -- I think he provides "New Age" music in its very best sense; i.e., providing melodic "hooks" with enough variety and rhythmic displacements to sustain interest. I get a sense of the American West in the music, and you understand how it moves very well, IMO.

Beemer -- A nice traversal of varied of tunes from the mid 20s to mid 30s. I'm glad you featured Harold Arlen -- IMO, he is easily in the same league as Gershwin, Rodgers, Kern, Porter, and Berlin, and indeed, Berlin himself once simply said: "Harold's best is the best". Both he and Harry Warren were responsible for just a raft of hits throughout the 30s, 40s, and early 50s, but somehow both were more under the radar than the other names above. With the exception of Gershwin, Arlen "heard" Jazz and Blues language more deeply than the others I cited, and much of his later music (post WW II) is highly Jazz-inflected -- the sheet music essentially has Jazz changes built right in. I intend to provide a good bit of this music in future Piano Bars -- much of it is unfortunately little-known, but it's great stuff.

Riddler -- A great swinging rendition of "Well, You Needn't" -- it's Monk at his most genial and accessible, and your rendition is spot on in those qualities.

Beemer -- I recorded the Garner pieces one day before posting them here -- and, yes, certain treble notes have degenerated into the "wince" category, no doubt about it. I have a tuning scheduled for May 21, the same day we're hosting a local music group in the evening. Unfortunately, I've already recorded the pieces for the June Piano Bar, and so you'll have to live with some sour stuff for yet another month.

Thanks for your comments Tim. I live near Newcastle which is a big party town , loads of bars and restaurants. I believe there are a couple of Piano bars and some of the restaurants have pianists at the weekends. However I doubt they are playing too many of the standards we enjoy in our bar , which I am sure are musicaly of a far higher quality :-)

Thanks Handyman. It was June Christy who introduced that’s all to me too, but only a couple of years ago in my case.

Constantin - delightful little tune that has an "indigo" feel to it in parts - as always really enjoyed your deft touch on the keyboard!

Just wondering - are you familiar with the works of David Lanz - I think you might like them very much - for a good intro start with his beautiful "Leaves on the Seine"...

Handyman, yes, "Leaves on the Seine" is very pretty and very much the same style as Yiruma, perhaps a bit more like Einaudi whom I like less. I was not familiar with Lanz's music at all but I have heard "Cristofori's Dream" a couple of times on Classic Radio.

Great job on these Ian, especially with one take sight reading - oldies but goodies - I've heard them all off and on for years - "Fun to be Fooled" is a way underrated song I've always liked a lot - thanks for bringing that one back to mind especially!

Yes, it's a beautifully melodic piece of music - Einaudi is pleasant enough for sure, but definitely not at the same level of creativity as Lanz...

Here's my contribution to the May Bar - it's the haunting melody that served as the theme music for the 1990's multi-segment PBS television series "The Civil War" - this is a typically delightful Dan Coates arrangement:

Ashokan Farewell

From Wiki: "Ashokan Farewell" is a piece of music composed by American folk musician Jay Ungar in 1982. For many years it served as a goodnight or farewell waltz at the annual Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps run by Ungar and his wife Molly Mason, who gave the tune its name, at the Ashokan Field Campus of SUNY New Paltz (now the Ashokan Center) in Upstate New York.

Producer Ken Burns heard it and decided to incorporate it into his documentary.

Handyman,

A beautiful evocative melody. I understand that Jay wrote it whilst sitting in a tepee. It has strain parts that are so familiar to us Scots.

Well played!

Ian

Handyman - Ashokan Farewell This one is very interesting, really something different from what we have had in the Bar so far. Thanks for citing the English Wikipedia; there is much more information about this song on the net, e.g. https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...dy-became-an-anthem-for-the-19th/407263/ I am not a Scot but I have some vague imagination what a Scottish lament would sound like. Well, I always thought there was some difference between a tepee and a Scottish castle, haha....

Pianist 685....Not so different.....both are cold :), but I doubt I could get my piano in a tepee
Ian