Songs I keep singing
The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust/Centre for Herpetology is run by some people, whose people (Neel Chattopadhyay, Arundhati Chattopadhyaya) I love very, very much. So when they asked me to write a song, well it kinda just slithered out of me. Aman Mahajan caught it in the nick of time and gave it some juice. The […]
Aman Mahajan & Radha Thomas, Summertime Possibly one of the most covered songs in the English-singing world, #Summertime is a #jazz and #blues classic. In #2034 it will be 100 years old. I may not be around then, so I figured I’d do my version of it while I still can. Actually @amanmahajan_ and I […]
#ThereWillNeveBeAnotherYou was written for a movie called Iceland back in 1942 by #HarryWarren and #MackGordon. It was sung as a slow ballad, a love song. Then along came #jazz cats. Who needed everything to be speeded up X4 so they could display their chops in a spectacular way. And one of those jazz cats was […]
It is with a sense of dread that I’m posting this, one of my all-time favorite tunes, #PeelMeAGrape. I love it for the melody, I love it for the lyrics, I love it for the space it gives me and I love it because it swings. Really swings. I’ve been singing it for a few […]
I first heard #BornToBeBlue sung by #HelenMerrill on an album which featured #CliffordBrown. I listened to that album hundreds of times and I know every single song on it. Until I heard Helen Merrill (in the mid 70s) I think I’d thought that jazz had to be sung at top volume with heavy duty dynamics […]
#IfIShouldLoseYou made its debut in the 1936 film #RoseOfTheRancho. The movie did not receive an auspicious review, #CliveHirschhorn in his book, #TheHollywoodMusical, describes the movie version as an, “uneasy mix of operetta and low comedy.” But It’s really quite a beautiful song. Both melody and lyric. And so it’s not surprising that it’s been covered […]
What an amazing body of work from just one man #AntonioCarlosJobim. This is one of his not so well-known songs called #DoubleRainbow. It started off by being an instrumental piece named #ChildrensGames when Jobim first wrote it. And yes, you can hear it in the playful melody. It was first recorded by the fabled Brazilian […]
Jazz has taught me a lot of things. Including the word ‘threnody’ which means ‘lament.’ It’s not a word I’d have come across if I hadn’t wanted to sing this song. #IRememberClifford is an instrumental jazz threnody written by jazz tenor saxophonist #BennyGolson in memory of #CliffordBrown with lyrics by the master #vocalese exponent #JonHendricks. […]
#PolkaDotsandMoonbeams was published first in 1940, that’s 80 years ago. And it became a huge hit for #FrankSinatra. The music was written by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke. It’s also one of the world’s top 100 recorded jazz tunes. So naturally, I wanted to try it. I’ve never sung a song to […]
#Nuages (meaning ‘clouds’ in French) is guitar player #DjangoReinhardt’s most famous composition. It was first recorded in 1940 although he did at least 13 versions after that.There were no lyrics when Django wrote the piece, of course. But the melody is so beautiful and haunting that it didn’t take long before people wrote lyrics to […]
Radha Thomas 