Rita's Anita

For a limited time only: Anita Ellis and Ellis Larkins "Live" at the Vine Street Bar and Grill.

Alert the media! Jane in Japan!

It strikes me as auspicious and anomalous, not to mention amazing, that singer Jane Harvey, who has not performed "live" for (to put it mildly) a month of Sundays, has chosen to get back into action in ---hold on to your wigs and keys, boys and girls---Tokyo, Japan!

Jane will be flying there from L.A. in early November, along with her husband Bill King, for one performance only in celebration of SSJ Records' radically retooled reissue of her 1988 album The Other Side of Sondheim, now called simply Jane Harvey Sings Sondheim, which includes four previously unreleased tracks and Jane's new 2009 version of "Send in the Clowns."

This CD Launch Party, presented by SSJ, Inc with the cooperation of Tokyo TUC, will take place on November 11, 2009 at Tokyo TUC, Iwamoto-cho, Tokyo, where singer Pinky Winters recorded her 2007 SSJ release, World on a String. It is to hoped that SSJ just might happen to have recording apparati lying about so that Harvey's gig might similarly be captured for possible CD release. She will be accompanied by Hiromu Aoki (p) and Jambo Ono (b).

The evening will commence with an overview of Jane's career presented by Japanese jazz critic, Keizo Takada

Admission is 5,800 yen, which includes Chinese food and a drink. Doors open at 6:45 pm, show begins at 7:30. For more information, check out TUC's web site (in Japanese).

It would seem to me that the occasion would be well worth hopping on a jet and wending your way across the Pacific just for this occasion alone. Truly the jazz vocal event of the season!

Here is a review of a performance of Jane's that appeared in the New York Times in 1984. Inasmuch as there is a picture of Jane Harvey next to the definition of "ageless" in the dictionary, it would seem most likely that a.) her chops are still in excellent shape despite her somewhat protracted time away from the performing stage and b.) we can expect a similarly fine show as was experienced by critic John S. Wilson when he wrote about the singer in '84 in the Times.

Jane, you are, indeed, AMAZING!

Here is Jane Harvey w/ the Benny Goodman Sextet

And MORE! from SSJ in October

________________

Abridged liner notes for SSJ Records' October release of Corky Shayne's In the Mood for a Song?:

Getting in touch with the rightful owner of the master of this album, veteran music executive Mort Hillman, was easy enough. And after negotiations were completed for SSJ’s release of the 1956 LP, next came the task of securing some background on the making of the disc. But so far back in time did Hillman oversee the production of the recording---more than fifty years ago ---that he can only remember a few scant details about the artist, Corky Shayne.

Hillman can recall doing a record promo tour with Shayne, including appearances by Shayne on popular radio shows in the Chicago area such as those of popular dee-jays Howard Miller and Marty Faye. But that was just about it,

And were it not for the help of legendary Chicago singer-pianist Audrey Morris who did, in fact, recall Shayne from the golden era of the Fifties music scene in Chicago, I might never have ascertained the few facts about the singer that I finally did. In late 2008, the still professionally active Morris put me in touch with Shayne’s half-sister, Ava Schneider, who was able to supply me with a few facts about Shayne. From Schneider I learned that Corky (real name Corinne) was born in 1932 in Illinois and that she died in Indian Wells, California in 2005.

Schneider recalls that her sister didn’t remain in Chicago too much longer after her performing activities ceased, and that Shayne then moved to the Los Angeles area where she remained active in show business, but behind the scenes with a series of jobs as assistant to music industry executives. I did, however, find an L.A. Times reference to her performing at a 1965 charity event. Shayne’s half-sister also said that somewhere along the line, Corky became an avid golfer and eventually moved to Palm Springs, California area where she could actively pursue her growing interest in the sport. Clearly, if she was half as good a golfer as she was a singer, then Shayne must’ve had more than her share of holes in one.

A longer version of these notes can be found here.

1. IF I ONLY HAD A BRAIN

2. HE'S JUST MY BILL

3. MY LOVE IS A WANDERER

4. BACK IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD

5. NOW MORE THAN EVER

6. EV'RY TIME

7. AUTUMN IN NEW YORK

8. JUST SQUEEZE ME

9. I'M GLAD THERE IS YOU

10. TEARDROPS

11. I HEAR A RHAPSODY

12. TWO SLEEPY PEOPLE

Another new SSJ October release

It doesn’t take an advanced knowledge of the U.S. music scene in the latter half of the 20th Century to realize that an artist committed to performing the best in American Popular Song could not have come along at a more inopportune time. That is, at the very moment when the rules governing the music business were being radically rewritten by the coming of rock and roll, and by the emergence of the singer-songwriter. In its December 9, 1957 review of Smith’s first album, Time Magazine found itself calling attention to three other young singers also set on making their mark in the music business. Needless to say, also like Smith, none of the others, Trish Dwelley, Eileen Rodgers, and Carol Ventura were able to sustain mainstream visibility over the long haul.

But for the meantime, Smith had talent and beauty to spare and was able maintain a highly active career, especially in nightclubs and on TV shows such as the Hollywood Palace, and Ozzie and Harriet. Later on, she also was featured with another fine singer Frankie Randall in much of the national advertising for 1968 Chevrolet Motor Cars, appearing in TV commercials and print ads for the vehicles for several months.

In the early 1960s, Jennie would find safe harbor in the protectorate of U.S. TV star Steve Allen, who had also, earlier on, taken up the cause of such burgeoning young singers as Andy Williams, Steve Lawrence, and Eydie Gorme. Smith made her first guest appearance on Allen’s popular Sunday night primetime TV variety show in 1957 and would eventually join his five-times-a-week series in 1963. After the Allen Show went off the air the following year, Smith continued with her career for a time, appearing at such popular spots as New York’s Michael’s Pub and on TV’s Johnny Carson Show.

Much like Jo Stafford who packed it in around the mid-1960s, Smith also realized that she could not continue to buck popular music trends forever, and so she too, in the latter part of that decade, departed show business in favor of marriage and home life. Not yet thirty, she had had a remarkable run of 15 years as a professional. Quite a feat for one who was still so young and in control of her musical powers. For nearly thirty years she was also part of the business world. Retired now, she is still happily married and living in Southern California.

The new cover of this (originally) 1963 Canadian-American album, Nightly Yours on the Steve Allen Show, features a photo supplied to SSJ Records by Smith herself.

* This issue also contains a bonus track of one of the singer's single for Can-Am, "As I Love You."

Nightly Yours on the Steve Allen Show Canadian-American CALP 1010

1.THIS COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING BIG 2.FLY ME TO THE MOON 3.I'LL GET BY 4.SPEAK LOW 5.AS LONG AS HE NEEDS ME 6.MY MAN 7.LET'S FACE THE MUSIC AND DANCE 8.THEY'VE GOT A LOT TO LEARN 9.MEAN TO ME 10.GRAVY WALTZ 11.SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME 12.NICE AND EASY *13. MORE THAN YOU KNOW
MORT GARSON (ARR)