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"I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" - Issy Van Issy Van Randwyck

This is my favorite song from the album, The Glory of Gershwin, which I posted about yesterday.  I sang it for my first musical theater audition four years ago.  When I originally wrote a post about the song (post about the actual audition here), there wasn't a video to add to the post.  Now there is so I can post the whole song!

"Nice Work if You Can Get It" - Sting, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Fred Astaire, and a duet with Claude Bolling and Stephan Grapelli

Auditions for the summer musical are in a month and a half so it's time to pick out a piece.  I looked through some Broadway books, and Nice Work if You Can Get It is the song that stuck out this year.  The version I know best is Sting's from the album, The Glory of Gershwin:

Various pop stars sing Gershwin songs on this album.  My favorite performances, besides Sting's are Carly Simon's I've Got a Crush On You, Cher's jazzy It Ain't Necessarily So, Jon Bon Jovi's bluesy How Long Has This Been Going On, and one more, which gets a post of its own tomorrow.

Nice Work if You Can Get It was introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1930's musical Damsel in Distress, and it was also used in the 1992, Tony-winning musical Crazy for You.  Last night, I wandered around YouTube listening to different versions.  My favorites are Ella Fitzgerald's, Billie Holiday's, Sarah Vaughan's, Fred Astaire's, and this instrumental version by Claude Bolling and Stephane Grappelli:

 

Happy Birthday, Bernadette Peters

When I was younger son's age, I wanted to be Bernadette Peters when I grew up.  She's a wonderful actress, has a lovely voice, is beautiful, and, important for me at the time, she has blond hair that is curly!

Does anybody else remember her in a short-lived TV show, All's Fair?

There are so many wonderful performances of hers on YouTube.  Here, she's singing, "We're in the Money" and "Pennies from Heaven:"

Oh, and did I mention exuberance?!

Other posts about Bernadette Peters:

• Singing "You Could Drive a Person Crazy"
• Singing "Unexpected Song"
• On the Carol Burnett Show
• Singing "Raining in My Heart"
• My favorite performance of hers, "Sooner or Later"

 

Not a normal Ash Wednesday

I thought my voice was back to normal last weekend, but I was wrong.  I blew my voice out during the choir rehearsal on Sunday, and, by the time we got to the anthem, I could barely sing.  I croaked out - maybe - 1/4 of the notes.  I usually give my voice a month to recover after almost totally losing it like I did in January.  This time, I was too excited to get back to choir so I only gave my voice 2 1/2 weeks. 

No singing for at least the next week and a half means no church either.  I can't go and not sing (I've tried before, and I just can't) - so I missed the Ash Wednesday service today.

I'm trying to get in better shape to help get my blood pressure down so I've been doing four Zumba classes a week (plus one Broadway dance).*  The Ash Wednesday service was during one of my usual four classes so I just went to Zumba like usual.  

At first, I kept looking at the clock to see where they were in the service.  We were dancing to In a Search at about the time for the first reading.  "I wanna party with a sexy lady..." - not unusual lyrics for Zumba, but certainly not Ash Wednesday-ish.

Here's a video of another instructor's version of the song.  The choreography that our instructor does to the chorus is similar, including the body roll, but the rest of the choreography is different:  

During the second reading?  

Booty Shake.  That's when I decided to stop looking at the clock.

Here's another instructor's choreography for Booty Shake.  The moves that our instructor does for part of the chorus and the bridge are similar (the rest is different).  I love it when we break into the samba during the bridge!

 

Once I stopped thinking about not being at the service, I had a wonderful time (as usual) at Zumba (one of my favorite instructors), and it was over before I was ready.  

 

* At first, four Zumba classes a week made me really tired.  Now, I don't even really notice.  

Lucy Kaplansky concert

Even though she's one of my (ten or so) favorite folk singers and I haven't been to a concert of hers in a few years, this morning, I wasn't planning on going to this evening's Lucy Kaplansky concert.  I was tired and depressed.  The holidays, starting before Thanksgiving, were wonderful, but they were over.  Daughter headed back to UNC-Asheville yesterday.  It was a grey and drizzly day which turned into a foggy evening and morning.  Everything made me grumpy this morning.

However, older son wanted to go to the concert so we did, and I'm so glad.  It was wonderful.

However, I think I used as many Kleenexes during her concert as I used while watching Les Misérables.  The songs that made me cry the most were the two about her daughter (who's 10).  Those songs sounded so familiar to me, and with daughter having left yesterday, I had tears running down my face.

I loved her introductions to the songs where she told about her past and how the songs came about.

She sang a number of songs off of her new album, Reunion, which we bought afterwards, and she also sang a number of my favorites.  She did a few cover songs, including a Bruce Springsteen song, the Beatles' Let It Be, and I Wish It Would Rain, by Nanci Griffith.  It was difficult not to sing along with that one because I used to sing it as a bedtime song to older son:

 One of the two songs she sang about her daughter was Manhattan Moon:

I love the words to this one, particularly the end:

...I used to travel in a straight line
Now I'm walking on a road that winds
You take my hand and we take our time
Oh we take our time
We take our time

You hear music in everything
The rain's a drum
The traffic sings
I listen too and I dance along
We keep on dancing when the music's gone
When the music's gone

I was much more purposeful and straight-line before I had kids, and I'm much more wander-y now.  I want to stay that way, but I'm finding it difficult because I feel like I "should" be more organized and get more done.  

We bought two of her CDs after the performance, the new one, and one where she sings math songs written by her father (she sang two in the concert - they're good).  We actually stood in line to get her to sign the new CD, which I've never done before at a concert.  

I've turned off so many of my emotions the last few years, but, somehow, going to this concert turned lots of them back on again.  It stirred up all sorts of things inside me, and made me want to keep stirring things up rather than going back to being more safe, comfortable, and... not blank, but not all there either.  

• Lucy Kaplansky's website and Facebook page
• Previous postsaboutLucy Kaplansky

[This post is more choppy than I would like, but it's after midnight, and if I don't post it now, I'll never get back to it.  I haven't written in almost a month.  I spent the holidays exactly the way I intended.  Older son graduates from college this spring, and we have no idea where he'll be next year.  This was the last time I could be sure that both daughter and older son would be home for the long, college, winter break.  I didn't think about house cleaning or any other unnecessary details of life.  I knew blogging would come back later.  I threw myself into enjoying doing things with my family, and I'm so glad I did so.]

It was worth it, new music, and "Sleigh Ride" by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

All that running around in the beginning of the month was totally worth it (post here).  We went up to Asheville last weekend to pick daughter up and enjoy Asheville Christmas decorations.  Since then, I've been able to mostly focus on doing things with daughter and older and younger sons - baking cookies, putting up the tree, Zumba, Zumba, Zumba (Mon, Tues, & Wed), choir (daughter joined us!), etc.  Daughter and I tried out a new place for breakfast this morning (Straw Valley Cafe in Durham - good!), and older son and I saw Rise of the Guardians again, this time in 3D (younger son doesn't like 3D).  I'm really glad I got most of the shopping out of the way the first few weeks so I could really focus this week.  

I do have to start wrapping at some point...

I'm still having a difficult time relaxing - but at least my activity level is not making it worse.  

Our Christmas music is a random collection of records, tapes, and CDs.  The largest part of it is not on CDs.  One of my favorite tapes started warbling while we were making Christmas cookies.  

Aaack!

I went to the B&N music section to expand the CD part of our collection.  After listening to lots of tacky less-than-inspiring Christmas music at stores this December, I really enjoyed the jazz standards Christmas songs that Marco's restaurant (in Asheville) played when we had dinner there last weekend so I wanted to get more music like that.  Unfortunately, B&N didn't have any Louis Armstrong or Ella Fitzgerald Christmas CDs.  I also couldn't find any classical Christmas CDs, which was disappointing.  I did find (and splurged):

• Holly Happy Days by the Indigo Girls
• An Appalachian Christmas by Mark O'Conner (including guests:  Alison Krauss, Jane Monheit, Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, and Chris Thile)
• Christmas Album by the Manhattan Transfer
• Jingle All the Way by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
• Holiday Spirits by Straight No Chaser
• The Christmas Album by the Canadian Brass 
• A Swingin' Christmas by Tony Bennett and the Count Basie Big Band

So much good music... what to play.  I'll just add what's playing now:  a jazzy/bluegrassy version of Sleigh Ride by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones:

How Long Has This Been Going On? - Ray Charles

Dear husband recently recommended Ray Charles's blues version of How Long Has This Been Going On? (by George and Ira Gershwin):

"Everybody Talks" - Neon Trees and also the Glee version

I hadn't heard this song before it was used on Glee recently.  I went and looked it up right away - it's such an energetic and fun song.  The official video is... strange, and has nothing to do with the words:

Here's the Glee version (for as long as it actually stays on YouTube):

"Scream" - Usher

Two of my favorite Zumba teachers have used this song recently.  It's a wonderful song for dancing.   The first few weeks, I didn't really listen to the lyrics.  One day, however, I heard it on the radio while I was driving, and realized that the lyrics were... stupid.  He's trying to attract a woman at a bar, with some really awful pickup lines.  Or maybe they're normal pickup lines.  I've never been in that sort of bar.  Anyway, the music for this song is great, but the words are rather stupid.  I refer to it as "Relax, and just slap his face."

The official video is rather boring, although there's a bit of dancing at 2:45.  I did a bit more searching and found this hip hop video:

"Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" - Pink

It seems like this song is on the radio every time I turn it on - which made me think that it must be the current top song.  I looked it up, and, it's only #16 on the Billboard top 100 (it peaked at #5).

The official video is well done, but the action is very slow and graceful, which doesn't really reflect the energy of the song.  I prefer this live video:

Younger son and I heard this while running errands today.  Even in the "clean" radio version, you can tell what she's singing.  Younger son said that the words to this aren't nearly as offensive as the words to another recent hit.  I'll post that one on Friday - the music to that one is really good; I just wish the words weren't so stupid.