Music is one of if not the greatest thing ever invented by the human race.  I will never understand anyone that doesn’t love music.  I could not imagine my life without it.  It doesn’t matter what kind of music you listen to just as long as you listen to it.  On this page I will discuss my favorite Genres of music and why they are important to me.  Now please note that my Genres have been developed by me and may not be consistent with what the music industry defines in a certain Genre.  That’s okay with me because I always did think a little different to the main stream.  I guess that is why my high school friends called my “The Great Contradictor” I have never just went along with the main stream and I am too old and too set in my ways to change now.  As I have stated before I have been listening to Dean Martin, Perry Como for as long as I can remember and to Frank Sinatra since I was 13.  I was speaking to a young staff (22 or 23 year old) at my firm and he was asking my I listen to “Old Man Music”.  I said, because I think it’s the best and why shouldn’t I listen to what I like.  He responded with Frank is dead, why not listen to the new stuff like Hootie and the Blow Fish.  So I told him a story about a conversation I had with a friend back in 1983.  I said “People have been listening to Frank Sinatra since the 1930s and in 100 years people will still be listening to Frank Sinatra and they won’t even know who Boy George is”.  My staff responded “who is Boy George”?  I said EXACTLY MY POINT!

 

So here we go the world of music according to me:

 

THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK

 

The Great American Songbook is a collection of the most influential American popular songs of the 20^th Century.  The music principally comes from Broadway musicals, the Hollywood musical composed from the 1920s through the 1950s.  Most of this music was composed in Tin Pan Alley (West 28^th between 5^th and 6^th Avenues in Manhattan).  It was here than many of the Great American Songbook was composed.  These composers include:

 

• Cole Porter, born in 1891 in Peru Indiana – In my opinion he is the Best!  Some of his Great songs include:
  • Night and Day
  • Anything Goes
  • Just One of Those Things
  • In the Still of the Night
  • Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall In Love

 

• Irving Berlin, born in 1888 in Russia, he emigrated to New York when he was 13 or 14.  Many regard as the Greatest American composer.  His hits include:
  • White Christmas
  • God Bless America
  • Steppin Out With My Baby

 

• George Gershwin, born in 1898 in New York City, Best remembered for Porgy & Bess, and Rhapsody In Blue.  Other hits include:
  • Someone to Watch Over Me
  • I Got Rhythm
  • Embraceable You
  • S’Wondeful

 

• Frank Loesser, born 1910 in New York City.  Best remembered for Guy & Dolls.  Other hits include:
  • Luck Be a Lady
  • Baby It’s Cold Outside
  • On a Slow Boat to China

 

• Rogers & Hart, yes Richard Rogers composed music before he teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein.  Lorenz Hart was his partner and they composed great hits such as:
  • If I Could Write a Book
  • Manhattan
  • You Took Advantage of Me
  • Thou Swell

 

I really could go on forever with the list, but it will take to long.  Most of us know most of this music and if you don’t learn it.  You will not be disappointed.  Singers have been singing these songs for a long time and they still sell.  In recent years Rod Stewart made a fortune with his series of the Great American Song Book.  Michael Buble’ is introducing a whole new generation to this music.  For that I thank him, he is also a great singer.  The greatest singers of the Great American Song Book are as follows:

 

 

 

 

LOUNGE MUSIC

 

Lounge Music – In Las Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s the “Lounge” became a popular place for wives and girlfriends to hang out while their men were gambling.  The music was a continuation of swing jazz ear of the 1930s and 1040s with a greater emphasis on the vocalist.  I find this music to be a lot fun.  Today a lot of the artist are considered “Cheezy”, but I thinks its just awesome.  The Kings of Lounge music are the members of the GREATEST NIGHT CLUB ACT IN HISTORY (THIS IS A FACT), THE SUMMIT MEETINGS AT THE SANDS.  The CLAN (as Frank called it, He hated the term RAT PACK, so I don’t use it often) Frank, Dino, Sammy, Peter & Joey first performed together in the COPA Room at the Sands Casino in Las Vegas.  The first performance was January 20, 1960 (Religious Holiday see Religion Page).  Other great Lounge Performers include:

 

 

JAZZ

 

All modern music started with Jazz!  Jass as it was originally called started in New Orleans at the beginning of the 20^th Century.  Wikipedia defines jazz as:

Jazz is a music genre that originated at the beginning of the 20th century, arguably earlier, within the African-American communities of the Southern United States. Its roots lie in the combining by African-Americans of certain European harmony and form elements, with their existing African-based music. Its African musical basis is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swung note.[1] From its early development until the present day, jazz has also incorporated elements from popular music especially, in its early days, from American popular music.[2]

As the music has developed and spread around the world it has, since its early American beginnings, drawn on many different national, regional and local musical cultures, giving rise to many distinctive styles: New Orleans jazz dating from the early 1910s, big band swing, Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s on down through Afro-Cuban jazz, West Coast jazz, ska jazz, cool jazz, Indo jazz, avant-garde jazz, soul jazz, modal jazz, chamber jazz, free jazz, Latin jazz in various forms, smooth jazz, jazz fusion and jazz rock, jazz funk, loft jazz, punk jazz, acid jazz, ethno jazz, jazz rap, cyber jazz, M-Base, nu jazz and other ways of playing the music.

Talking of swing, Louis Armstrong, one of the most famous musicians in jazz, said to Bing Crosby on the latter’s radio show, “Ah, swing, well, we used to call it syncopation, then they called it ragtime, then blues, then jazz. Now, it’s swing. White folks – yo’all sho is a mess!”[3][4]

In a 1988 interview, trombonist J. J. Johnson said, “Jazz is restless. It won’t stay put and it never will”.[5]

 

My favorite Jazz Artist are:

 

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED…..