Articles by David Bittinger
Eight Sinatra Surprises
by David Bittinger
Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald were mutual fans who joined up for superb duets and had similar repertoires. Is it possible to call one of them primarily a “jazz singer" and one not? Yeah, it's possible. Listen to Ella scat on How High The Moon and you hear a genius singer who came from jazz territory and could riff like an instrumentalist. Frank really wasn't a jazz singer and had just one little joke scat, “dooby dooby doo," ...
Continue ReadingPermanent Moonlight—Songs of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett
by David Bittinger
Still famed for her “silents" and early retirement from sound movies, lonely star Greta Garbo once conjured a dreamy fantasy of “permanent moonlight" in a letter to someone who was about as enigmatic a creative icon as she was, Noël Coward. In 2012 singer Maud Hixson came across that Garbo letter while reviewing personal effects of Coward's at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. She attended that exhibit with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, a legendary composer ...
Continue ReadingMaud Hixson: Studying Scores and Moving Forward
by David Bittinger
Maud Hixson has built an accomplished career as a performer and recording artist out of unlikely circumstances. She grew up far from the capitals of jazz and vocal music, in the Twin Cities area. Doris Day's performance in the Ruth Etting biopic “Love Me Or Leave Me" served as a primary inspiration for a young Maud to become a performer. In her twenties, waiting tables at a diner, she met another future jazz singer, Nichola Miller. With no glamour and ...
Continue ReadingDaan Kleijn: Trio
by David Bittinger
If in the past you'd asked me about jazz guitar, a few words might have been offered about Wes Montgomery, and a few more about a beloved Jazz 'Round Midnight reissue of one of the great records that Django Reinhardt cut with violinist Stéphane Grappelli. A vague opinion might then have been tossed off that is admittedly weak: that jazz as a musical form is about as problematic for guitar (even well-played) as it is for electric organ.
Continue ReadingA Sondheim Jazz Project: A Sondheim Jazz Project: City of Strangers
by David Bittinger
This CD crosses two soft borders: one between Canada and the U.S, and one between show tunes and jazz. It presents the work of the most famous Broadway songwriter of the past half century as might be heard performed at the Village Vanguard rather than the Winter Garden.Saxophonist and arranger Bobby Hsu's “A Sondheim Jazz Project" realizes Stephen Sondheim compositions as they're rarely realized. Hsu's motive: “I want to be Sondheim's advocate in the jazz world, rather than ...
Continue ReadingMaud Hixson: Don't Let A Good Thing Get Away
by David Bittinger
This collection of songs by veteran composer Michael Leonard has deep roots but contemporary character. It was laid down in New York's legendary Nola Recording Studio, whose clients have included Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie. The outstanding instrumentalists--cornetist Warren Vache, bassist Steve LaSpina, guitarist Gene Bertoncini, and pianist/arranger Tex Arnold--have worked with such luminaries as Benny Goodman and Stan Getz.In 2008, Twin Cities-based vocalist and music researcher Maud Hixson, working with Arnold, began reviewing the prolific work of ...
Continue Reading
