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About the Songs...
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While the City Sleeps...
(Quotes from the liner notes are in italics throughout)
- While the City Sleeps (5:16)
(Charles Strouse / Lee Adams)
Helene Blue Musique Ltd.) ASCAP)
"This song is New York. How I first learned of the joys of urban life."
Sung on Broadway by Billy Daniels in the Sammy Davis, Jr.-starrer, Golden Boy in 1965, it has always made me dream of the sophisticated red glow of tailights on rain-slicked city streets.
Bob Kindred's opening is that lonely horn on a city sidewalk on a summer's night, as people are rushing to somewhere magical and romantic. This is Duke Ellington / Leonard Bernstein late-night territory — "when conversation means so much more."
Solos by Randy and Bob.
(Back)
- Magnet (5:26)
(Ray Passman / Herb Wasserman)
Raybird Music, Inc. / Kips Bay Music (BMI)
"Randy and Bob turn a small studio into the mainstage of Avery Fisher Hall."
The sound of men who enjoy their work. Tom kicks this off with just the edge I was after. Then, Dave jumps in and drives it. Originally, the riff had a sharper attack, but Bob and Randy ended up slurring it, which gives it a decidedly Miles Davis feel.
Ray Passman had been promoting this song at the time we were recording. I had heard him sing it a few times, and even though I couldn't get the original rhythm to work for me, the song fit the tone of the album. It didn't seem to feel right, though, until I found the rhythm hook to set it on. Then, we could run with it.
Just fabulous solo work on this cut, more concert hall than smokey club, as Bob and Randy split a chorus.
Solos by Randy and Bob.
(Back)
- Tenderly (4:47)
(Walter Gross / Jack Lawrence)
Edwin H. Morris & Co., A Division of MPL
Communications Inc. (ASCAP)
"Big, sexy notes that are just fun to sing."
Les comes to the fore here as the first chorus is a voice/piano duet. You don't often hear a Standard set up with such a bluesy, soulful intro. Giving this first part lots of air was fun, since it gave both of us lots of room to swoop around the other and to scoop notes fully.
As one female friend said upon hearing the first few bars, "Oh my!" That about sums it up.
It's not often that a song will have two key changes. Usually, you change it; you leave it. We start in C. I hand it off for a change to Eb for Bob's chorus, then we keep the swing of the middle section but change the key back to C for me to come back in with. I will admit that landing correctly in C after having an earful of Eb was a bear, and necessitated more than one extra take. But we were convinced the mixed-time, mixed-key approach would work. I believe the results bear this out.
Solo by Bob.
Note: Tenderly was incorrectly attributed on the CD insert. The writers of Tenderly are correctly stated above. This will be corrected on all future printings.
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- It's Just a Matter of Time (4:26)
(Clyde Otis / Brook Benton / Belford Hendricks)
Alley Music Corp./Trio Music Corp./Iza Music Corp.
"True story. Beware of phone calls out of the blue at 2:30am."
A reworking of Brook Benton's 1959 hit, presented here with just the trio. I've always heard it with the much darker, blusier approach you hear here. When someone hurts you that badly, the feelings run that deep. And, in fact, sometimes they do call.
Dave's rumbling bass line sets up the entire piece. Also, you hear why Les Kurtz is so in demand by the likes of Dakota Staton and others. His break here is that tasty. Just a good, old fashioned, fat, R&B solo.
Solo by Les.
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- (We're) Strangers Now (5:20)
(E. J. Decker)
Mrs. Coleman Music Co.
"That moment when you realize that the affair you've been hanging onto has been over for quite some time..."
After spending an inordinate amount of time pining for one particular lost love, I ran into her while I was walking down the street one day. She had transformed herself utterly. She had cut her hair very short and changed the color, the clothing style was radically different, the attitude had changed completely. Whether these changes showed progress or fallback for her mattered not. The all-too-obvious point was that I had no idea who she was at this point in her life. She no longer was the person I had loved, certainly. She had moved on with her life. We no longer had a thing in common, it seemed. Who we were before no longer existed. It's much easier to "get the point" at a moment like that.
Performed live, this song has just the piano interlude played here by Les. While recording, we decided to have Bob take a tenor chorus. I was planning to come back at the head, but at the last moment, tossed it to Les who followed Bob's lead, creating a stunningly beautiful moment, overall.
Both the song and Bob's solo work on it were submitted for Grammy consideration.
Solos by Bob and Les.
(Back)
- Since I Met You Baby (4:23)
(Ivory Joe Hunter)
Hill & Range Songs
"For Bob Gaddy, who always made this the saddest happy song. Randy wrote the horm chart."
Truly a Blues Gentleman, the late pianist and singer Bob Gaddy was always very kind and supportive of my work. He taught me much. I owe him a great deal.
Three approaches to the same song: Ivory Joe Hunter's original is a light and very sweet blues, something not often heard. Nonetheless, it was a big hit in 1959. Bob's version was very sad, very slow. The man in his version had very mixed emotions. I've always heard it as the sexy, hot-August-night-on-a-roadhouse-dance-floor number you hear here.
I told Randy that I was after a "King Oliver" feel on this, and you can hear where that's led us. While Randy and Bob may be the stars of this track, be sure to focus on the rhythm section on a subsequent listening. Les steals the cut.
Solo by Randy.
(Back)
- How to Handle a Woman (4:13)
(Alan Jay Lerner / Frederick Loewe)
Warner Chappell Music (ASCAP)
"You normally don't improvise at the start of a tune, but it's how I kept hearing it. A song for 3am."
My favorite cut. I have always heard this as a late night song, for either after the party when the guests are gone and you're sitting quietly together in the quiet, or for sitting quietly by yourself, contemplating life and relationships, either in-hand or sought-after. It's always had that Chet Baker-type feel to it for me.
Les sets it up beautifully, and Tommy's brush work and Dave's subtle foundation create the very sound and feel I was after. Although blowing on the melody first isn't done often, Randy and Les show you that it works fabulously when done right.
Solos by Randy and Les.
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- Anything You Wanna Do
(I Wanna Do with You) (3:30)
(Ray Passman / Phil Medley)
EMI Longitude Music (BMI)
"No matter how bad the night, someone might walk through that door, and you could start over. "
Another song of Ray's. It was the B side of a Billy Eckstine release many years ago. It's always struck me as more of a Brook Benton-type song. So, that's the treatment we've given it. On the piano break, for extra bonus points, what is the quote?
Solo by Les.
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- Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (5:24)
(Jay Gorney / E. A. "Yip" Harburg)
Gorney Music / Next Decade Inc. (ASCAP)
" 'Laid off' or 'downsized,' out work is still out of work."
If you've been there, you know what an angry song this is. Two guys sitting in a bar, talking about their lives and why it all doesn't make sense or seem fair anymore.
I had been trying to find my way into this song for a very long time until I stumbled across the riff as I was walking down the street one day. Then, it began to sing. And become much more blues-based. The way Randy and I kick each other up on the last bridge and outro still gets my heart racing. Listen for how Tom subtly starts pushing all of us to the build.
Solos by Randy and Bob.
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- I Could Have Told You (5:16)
(Carl Sigman / James Van Heusen)
Music Sales Corp. / Major Songs Music (ASCAP)
"Two guys sitting in a club at the bar. Perspective is a shifty beast."
I've heard this beautiful song done by various artists, but I heard it first by Arthur Prysock, so that's the treatment that sticks. Bob does some lovely playing over a lush rhythm line.
Another tune that gives the image of two guys in a club, sitting at the bar, listening to the band over in the corner, talking about the vagaries of life and love. In such cases, one friend is always crying on the other's shoulder. But there are times when it's hard to tell who's crying on who's shoulder. It's hard to avoid connecting with this fellow's pain as it slowly grows past his defenses as the tune wears on.
Solo by Bob.
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- Sea Cruise (2:38)
(Huey "Piano" Smith)
Warner Tamerlane Music (BMI)
"Katherine's favorite song."
The 1959 Frankie Ford hit. Just a good rhythm tune. When asked what lovely, sincere song of love she would want me to sing to her, my wife replied, "Sea Cruise." She explained, "I just like it."
I'm convinced that there is nothing Dave Hofstra can't smoke on.
Solo by Bob.
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- You Don't Know Me (5:29)
(Cindy Walker / Eddy Arnold)
Hill & Range Songs (BMI)
"Every singer / pianist who played while people sat getting drunk. For Teri Thornton."
This song works on so many levels. It's unrequited love; it's having people walk right into you even though they're looking right at you; it's about all those nights of playing while folks screamed and yelled and ignored the fact that you're playing your heart out; it's all of the people who thought they knew who you were, although they never took the time to look at you.
I always had a hard time not aping Ray Charles' masterful version. But it was Shirley Horn's version that showd me you could actually do something slower than Ray Charles-slow. It was the time that I learned from her. Then trusting the fact that, at that tempo, you have plenty of time to let who you are come through.
I sat in with Teri many times over the years. I remember 4:00 a.m.'s, sitting at the bar after the music was over, talking with her, usually as the last people in the joint. The conversation would always come around to how numbing the grind was, playing to dozens of hicks, tourists and trendy types who just didn't care. It made her very tired.
This is before the Monk competition. It was gratifying to see her have the comeback she deserved to have. It was just not the amount of it she deserved. She is missed.
Solo by Bob.
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