The Great American Songbook

I have a good songwriter friend named Brad who does concerts with his wife Terri at nursing homes and senior rehab centers. I've heard them perform a number of times and have always enjoyed their wide variety of music. While Brad plays the guitar and sings, Terri plays the piano/keyboards and violin. They both love to perform big band jazz tunes from the 1930s and 1940s from what is often called The Great American Songbook. These include songs by greats such as George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin. Recently, Brad and Terri have begun doing house concerts which they often record. I love listening to their creative arrangements.

I first became familiar with jazz during a particularily difficult time in my life. In 1991, I was recuperating from some major surgery at the home of my then-therapist Sandra. Before going into the hospital, I borrowed several albums from the library that contained songs by that iconic American songwriter -- Irving Berlin. Berlin. whose name was originally Isaac Bahlin, was an immigrant from Russia who came to the U.S. around the turn of the 20th century. He wrote some of the finest jazz standards of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. He gave us unforgettable tunes like God Bless America, Cheek to Cheek, and Alexander's Ragtime Band. He also composed the music for iconic American musicals such as Annie Get Your Gun and White Christmas.

While recovering from my surgery, I spent a lot of time listening to Berlin's songs. Around the same time, I was also listening to Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion Show. I found out Garrison's tastes included jazz, as well as classical music, and classic rock. He frequently featured well-known jazz musicians such as pianist Butch Thompson. I began to enjoy listening to this music while resting on my therapist's sofa. Around the same time, I was also listening to a record acquired in Paris in 1968 called God Bless Tiny Tim. At first, I thought of that eccentric performer as chiefly a novelty act. But gradually his retro songs grew on me. I found myself drawn to such tunes from the 1910s and 1920s like Tip Toe Through The Tulips and All I Want is Fifty Million Dollars. I found some of Tiny Tim's songs quite moving in a nostalgic kind of way. Eventually, I even learned to play some of these songs, while accompanying myself on the autoharp. In this wonderfully unexpected way, the world of jazz opened up for me.