People often ask me how I pick which tunes to cover. Usually I start with being attracted to the words and melody on an intellectual level. I always have to learn and sing through a tune before I know whether it's something I can make my own. I find myself having to live with a song a long time before it really feels like I'm singing my own experience. But once that happens it can really and truly feel like I "own" the song.
In particular I am attracted by the richness and depth of the jazz ballad A powerful musical tradition that I first understood from the intimate voodoo of Billie Holiday first and a little later Nat King Cole's rich and intelligent dreaminess. The "American Standards" tradition has overplayed some of these gems but that doesn't take away from the brilliant construction and magic of songs like "Body and Soul", "Lush Life" and "Lover Man": Sacred texts that bear exploring over the course of a lifetime.
In my early teens while learning the standards I was really attracted to the irreverence of Fats Waller. The sheer force of his comic personality overcame the 30's tin pan alley triteness with a rollicking bawdy combination of humor and virtuosity that really captivated my imagination. In my current set Fats is well represented by "A Porter's Love Song To A Chambermaid" as a joyful counterpoint to the more moody stuff.
Also included in the current batch are songs by a very different kind of musical personality, Smokey Robinson, a man who Bob Dylan once called "America's Greatest Poet" Smokey's grace with a lyric and soulful delivery were an early contribution to the Motown factory system that set the standard for everything to come.
These days I am also featuring favorite songs by Cole Porter, also an early inspiration, having written both words and music to his clever ditties, which were so key to moving the popular song from the dusty parlor into swinging Broadway and nightlife of the 30's. Writing in New York allowed me to drink in last years excellent Broadway revival of "Anything Goes" a few times.
Mr Porter's music was considered edgy and hip back in the day but they still speak to the restless romantic spirit today.
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