1. Thank Your Lucky Stars
2. Let's Get Lost
3. Can't Get Out of this Mood
4. The Lady's in Love with You
5. Say It (Over and Over Again)
6. Then I Wrote the Minuet in G
7. Somebody, Somewhere
8. The Moon of Manakoora
9. On a Slow Boat to China
10. I Wish I Didn't Love You So
11. Says My Heart
12. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
13. Sand in My Shoes
14. What a Rhumba Does to Romance
15. Why Fight the Feeling?
16. I Believe in You
17. Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat
Rebecca Kilgore - Vocals
Dave Frishberg - Piano
When people talk about "The
Great American Songbook", you know you will
hear the names of such composers as Kern,
Gershwin, Porter and Berlin. One name often
omitted from this list is Frank Loesser, perhaps
because he was a comparative latecomer. Loesser's
first success didn't come until 1934 with
I Wish I Were Twins (with music by
Eddie de Lange). Another thing that held him
back was that his early work was solely as
a lyric-writer. He only started writing music
as well as words for songs during the Second
World War, and it was after the war when he
wrote such successful musicals as Where's
Charley?, Guys and Dolls and How to
Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Even Alec Wilder's classic book American
Popular Song 1900-1950 gives him little
space, because "Loesser's famous Broadway
scores fall outside the time span of this
study".
So it is good that long-time
collaborators, singer Rebecca Kilgore and
pianist Dave Frishberg, have made this album
reminding us of Frank Loesser's abilities
and some of his numerous songs, several of
which are little-known. Only the last of them
- Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat
- comes from Loesser's most famous musical,
Guys and Dolls, but most people will
also know such numbers as The Lady's in
Love with You and On a Slow Boat to
China. The duo could have made a whole
album of songs with words and music by Frank
Loesser, so it may be regrettable that ten
of the songs they chose had music by other
composers - from Burton Lane to Beethoven
(the latter supplied the melody for Then
I Wrote the Minuet in G).
Nonetheless this is an excellent
album, as Kilgore and Frishberg have worked
together so often that they are entirely sympathetic
musical partners. Dave Frishberg is quoted
in the sleeve-note as saying "She's the easiest
to play for of any singer I've ever worked
with. It's a piece of cake because she sings
the lead. She doesn't wait for someone to
help her with it". He adds: "She responds
to what I'm playing". The pairing of the two
reminds me of the empathy one sensed in the
famous duets between singer Ella Fitzgerald
and pianist Ellis Larkins - with two performers
in complete harmony with one another.
As a writer of witty lyrics
himself, Dave Frishberg is well placed to
appreciate Frank Loesser's skill in this department.
Yet Loesser deliberately kept his lyrics accessible:
avoiding excessive cleverness. And Rebecca's
singing is delightfully straightforward, full
of jazz feeling but devoid of affectation.
Her vocals sound simple but it is the simplicity
that comes from years of experience.
Many of the songs were written
for films, which is not surprising - seeing
that Loesser contributed to 89 movies. The
opening Thank Your Lucky Stars was
the title-song for a star-studded 1943 film,
and Loesser co-wrote tracks 2, 3 and 5 with
Jimmy McHugh for 1940s movies. Then I Wrote
the Minuet in G adapts a well-known melody
from Beethoven, probably as a parody of other
attempts to use classical pieces as pop songs.
It begins with the famous opening of Ludwig's
5th Symphony.
Rebecca Kilgore sings the
unfamiliar introductory verses of several
songs, including the self-contradictory verse
of On a Slow Boat to China: "There
is no verse - to this song, 'cause I don't
want to wait a moment too long". What Are
You Doing New Year's Eve? is the sort
of song that usually only crops up on Christmas
collections but it's good to hear it with
its yearning verse.
I Wish I Didn't Love You
So is one of the album's highlights, with
vocal and piano blending faultlessly, and
Frishberg providing a gentle stride to add
a jazz element. What a Rhumba Does to Romance
is a rarity - a discovery of Rebecca's - and
Dave Frishberg enters into its jokey mood,
as Becky complains that "You never hold me
tight for a minute, Why did the Cubans ever
begin it?" One can imagine the unique Martha
Raye giving it all she got in the 1938 film
College Swing.
This album makes you want
to delve further into the work of the Kilgore/Frishberg
duo - and into that of Frank Loesser. Loesser
is more.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Arbors
Jazz ARCD 19356
