Home » Jazz Articles » New York Beat » Big Band Retrospective at The Allen Room

2

Big Band Retrospective at The Allen Room

By

View read count
Emceed by scholar/ vocalist Michael Feinstein, Jazz at Lincoln Center continued its 25th anniversary season in a celebration of the big band era. With music supplied by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, an ideal orchestra for such a program, Feinstein succeeded in deepening an understanding of the relationship between the bands, their vocalists, and the songwriter/arrangers of the era. Dubbed Swinging with the Big Bands, the evening of June 13, 2013 showcased vocalists Nellie McKay,Connie Evingson and Sachal Vasandani, with Wynton Marsalis performing featured solos.

The show focused on little known ironies and ersatz histories of the era's notable songs. Feinstein traced the lyric evolution of a 1942 offering from Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee, "Why Don't You Do Right ,Baby?," from its origin as a 1936 nefarious blues satire by Kansas Joe McCoy to mainstream hit. His account of the development of the 1942 Harry James creation, "Blues and Cantabile," contained key informative commentary. Johnny Green's "Body and Soul," recorded in 1930 by Louis Armstrong, was cleverly reconstructed, with Marsalis capturing some of Satchmo's pioneering intervallic leaps. The story of how Bobby Troup snatched a bit of esoterica and turned it into the hit "Girl Talk," for his wife Julie London, was revealing. Vasandani's performance here was a highlight of the show. Reviews of the evolution of Tommy Dorsey megahit "Marie," with its vocalizing from band members, and Jimmy Dorsey 's "Green Eyes," rescued from earlier ignominy by Helen O'Connell, were equally enlightening.

Revisionist exploration of jazz history has been one of the primary missions of Jazz at Lincoln Center during its first 25 years. Michael Feinstein's role as director of the Jazz & Popular Song series has been a particularly successful component of this mission and its continuance is vital.

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Jazz article: Eric Reed Quartet at Smoke
Jazz article: Voices of Mississippi at Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz article: The Mingus Big Band at The Django

Popular

Read Take Five with Pianist Irving Flores
Read Jazz em Agosto 2025
Read Bob Schlesinger at Dazzle
Read SFJAZZ Spring Concerts
Read Sunday Best: A Netflix Documentary
Read Vivian Buczek at Ladies' Jazz Festival

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.