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Doris Day Was So Much More Than The "Girl Next Door"!
by Joan Merrill
Doris Day was often called America's “girl next door"--friendly, wholesome, relatable, and unintimidating. Women wanted to be her and men wanted to marry her. It was an image so firmly attached to her that it overshadowed her remarkable talent. In her book Holding my own in No Man's Land, film critic ...
Alisa Clancy Served Cheer and Empathy with Her Morning Cup of Jazz During COVID, Then Signed Off
by Joan Merrill
Bay Area jazz lovers were shocked to learn that “the voice of jazz" would no longer help them greet the day with her blend of jazz and good humor in a voice like no other. After 35 years as KCSM's premiere host, Alisa Clancy announced her retirement after almost single-handedly keeping the radio station ...
How Two Stars Revived Their Careers at Concord Records
by Joan Merrill
From 1996 to 2002 I produced 15 shows--mostly on vocalists--or NPR's Jazz Profiles. I was fortunate to have as subjects two legendary vocalists--Ernestine Anderson and Rosemary Clooney--both of whom I interviewed in their homes in Seattle and Beverly Hills. In learning about their lives, I was struck by how they had seemed to be following similar ...
The Great American Songbook Goes Legit—Thanks to Michael Feinstein
by Joan Merrill
A mutual friend introduced them and before the meeting was over, Michael Feinstein had a job. He was to sort out lyricist Ira Gershwin's extensive record collection. At the time, 1976, Feinstein was 20 and Gershwin 80. Perhaps the age difference was the basis for their friendship. Gershwin enjoyed the enthusiasm of the young ...
What’s Harder to Write, Poetry or Lyrics?
by Joan Merrill
Lyrics are often compared to poetry. Are they a form of “the poetic art?" Are they less “artistic?" Poetry has a romantic aura to it, whereas lyric writing seems rather plebeian (to borrow a word from “Cry Me a River"). Writing lyrics doesn't have the cachet writing poetry has. It isn't as cool. And ...
Dorothy Fields, The Only Major Female Songwriter Of The Golden Age
by Joan Merrill
Whenever there's a discussion of the great songwriters of the Golden Age of popular music (1920s to 1960s), we hear the names Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, Frank Loesser, George Gershwin, and a few others. You don't very often hear names Yip Harburg, PF Webster, Johnny Burke, Sammy Cahn, or ...
'And All That Motive'—A New Jazz Mystery Audiobook by Joan Merrill
Joan Merrill, author of the Casey McKie jazz mystery series, announces the release of her latest audiobook, And All that Motive, narrated by longtime Bay Area jazz radio host Alisa Clancy. Set at a festival near San Francisco, And All that Motive has Casey racing against time to solve the killing of jazz singer Sid Satin ...
And All That Motive: A Casey McKie Mystery
by Joan Merrill
The following is an excerpt from the first chapter of And All That Motive: A Casey McKie Mystery by Joan Merrill (CreateSpace, 2014). Who the hell was calling me this early on a Sunday morning? After a night of music and drinking. Jesus. “Casey McKie," I mumbled, not hiding my annoyance. ...
