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Established in 2001, Jazz Appreciation Month celebrates the rich history, present accolades, and future growth of jazz music. Spanning the blues, ragtime, dixieland, bebop, swing, soul, and instrumentals, there's no surprise that jazz music has endured the test of time from its early origins amongst African-American slaves in the late 19th century to its growth today.

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With the catchy melodies of Richard Rodgers’ music, and the cheeky wit of Lorenz Hart’s lyrics, the early collaborative songs of Rodgers-and-Hart are characteristic of 1920s jazz at its finest — and some of the best examples of early classics from the Great American Songbook. Most of the shows from this period have sunk into obscurity, but the songs have stood the test of time. You won’t be able to resist tapping your feet along to these ten great hits!

“Any Old Place with You”
Bob Shaver

This was the first Rodgers and Hart song to feature in a Broadway show. It was snapped up by Lew Fields (formerly of the celebrated Weber and Fields vaudeville act) for his 1919 show A Lonely Romeo. At the time, the boys thought they had made the big time, but it would be another six years before they really struck success. Lew Fields would go on to be one of their most committed supporters, producing several of their 1920s shows; his son Herbert also became their most significant lyricist throughout the 1920s.

“Manhattan”
Ella Fitzgerald

“Manhattan” was the first real hit the boys would have, though its first incarnation was in the unperformed show Winkle Town (1923), written by Rodgers and Hart with a script by Herbert Fields and Oscar Hammerstein II. The boys played the score of Winkle Town to producer Max Dreyfus. “There’s nothing of value here,” was his response. The rest is history. It’s interesting to listen to this song and “Any Old Place With You” together though—they’re similar songs, but you can hear a transition from the old style of “Any Old Place” to the jazz-age informality of “Manhattan.” This is Ella Fizgerald singing the song, one of the superlative interpreters of Rodgers and Harts’ songbook.

“Mountain Greenery”
Matt Dennis

The success of one Garrick Gaieties almost inevitably spawned a second. Many of the same team reunited, and although the result was not as striking as their previous effort, The Garrick Gaieties of 1926 was still a success. In “Mountain Greenery” the boys penned a riposte to the urban delight of “Manhattan”. Here the cosy couple imagine a country retreat in a song that really showcases the trademark Rodgers and Hart style of the period: catchy music and witty lyrics with a wealth of outrageous rhymes.

“Here in My Arms”
Phyllis Dare / Jack Hulbert

Finally, the boys got to write their own full-length show, an American Revolutionary tale recounting the British invasion of Manhattan. In Dearest Enemy (1925), an American girl falls in love with a British Officer before thwarting the invasion under his nose. Their main love song, reprised throughout the show, was “Here In My Arms”. Only a year later, the boys would be summoned to London’s West End to produce a show for British audiences. “Here in My Arms” received its second outing in Lido Lady (1926), though British reviewers were not as favourable as the New York press. Here is the original recording from the 1926 production of Lido Lady, featuring Phyllis Dare and Jack Hulbert.

“The Girlfriend / The Blue Room”
Richard Rodgers

1926 marked the most successful year yet for Rodgers and Hart, now firmly part of the Lew Fields stable and churning out hit after hit. The Girlfriend was one of their biggest successes, featuring a number of songs that would become representative of their 1920s style, featuring prominently the new jazz sound of the Charleston. The title number from the show later served as inspiration for the 1950s British pastiche, The Boyfriend. Here, Richard Rodgers himself offers his take on both “The Girlfriend” and “The Blue Room,” capturing poignantly the infectious sound that epitomizes the character of the 1920s.

“This Funny World”
Susannah McCorkle

One of Rodgers and Hart’s least auspicious shows was the Florenz Ziegfeld-produced Betsy (1926). This was written at a time when the boys were at their height, and very busy—indeed another of their shows, Peggy-Ann, opened on Broadway the previous evening. Perhaps they were simply too busy to do both shows justice. The intended hit song, written for star Belle Baker, was “This Funny World,” a charming, rueful ballad. To their horror, Ziegfeld decided it wasn’t good enough, and without even consulting the boys, he replaced this with Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies,” which was a tremendous success. Not for the first time Rodgers and Hart would have their noses put out by this snub, following which Rodgers did not speak to Berlin for ten years. Here’s Susannah McCorkle in a quintessentially 1970s recording of the song.

“My Heart Stood Still”
Rod Stewart

Despite a troubled experience on their first trip to England, Rodgers and Hart were soon enticed back by producer C.B. Cochran to write another revue. One Dam Thing After Another (1927) allowed them to explore a number of ideas that would feature in subsequent shows, and one song in particular (“My Heart Stood Still”) travelled back across the Atlantic to become just one of several hits in A Connecticut Yankee (1927). This recording features Rod Stewart, offering a recent version from his Great American Songbook period.

“To Keep My Love Alive”
Anita O’Day

Above all, the Rodgers and Hart songbook is full of wit and irreverence. Here is one of their classic comedy numbers, “To Keep My Love Alive” from A Connecticut Yankee (1927), their biggest hit of the 1920s, in which Queen Morgan Le Fay sings of the various ways she has dispatched her lovers. It’s sung by Anita O’Day, who captures the casual attitude of the character whilst creating a great swing version of the song.

“Thou Swell”
Sammy Davis, Jr.

One of Rodgers and Hart’s most celebrated hits, this song has been covered numerous times. It really captures the whole conceit of A Connecticut Yankee (1927)—the juxtaposition of dialogue from the time of King Arthur and the modern day, encapsulated in the title alone. Here, Rodgers is at his jazzy best and Hart is preposterous in the way he rhymes nonsense words, archaic phrases, and contemporary slang—classic 1920s musical comedy! Here’s Sammy Davis, Jr. milking the verse only to give the refrain his characteristically virtuosic rendition.

“You Took Advantage of Me”
Bobby Short

By the late 1920s, Rodgers and Hart’s 1920s success was beginning to wane. They would reappear in the 1930s to even greater success, but the turn of the decade marked a period of reflection and a flirtation with Hollywood. From this period, the shows they produced produced far fewer song hits. But here is one, from Present Arms (1928), which has become a household standard. Here, Bobby Short gives some class and pizzazz to “You Took Advantage of Me”.

The full playlist:

Headline Image: New York City. CC0 License via Pixabay

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Compiled by Taylor Coe

Now that summer is finally here – dog-eared paperbacks and sunglasses dusted off and put to good use – it’s also time to figure out what we should be listening to as we loll about in the sun. While the media seem more concerned with which current pop hit will become the unofficial “Song of the Summer” (Pharrell’s “Happy”? Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”?), here at OUP, we have instead zeroed in on songs from summers past. Ranging all the way back to 1957 (for Ella and Louis’s take on Gershwin’s classic “Summertime”) and all the way over to Germany (for Dutch television host Rudi Carrell’s fanciful ode to sommer on the North Sea), we have pulled together a diverse and inspired set of tunes to take along to the beach, or the Pizza Hut, or the New York City streets, or wherever you should find yourself this summer!

“Summertime” – Kenny Chesney
I’ve been to his amazing concerts at MetLife Stadium for the past three years and this song has been my anthem ever since. “And it’s two bare feet on the dashboard / Young love and an old Ford / Cheap shades and a tattoo / And a Yoo-Hoo bottle on the floorboard.”
— Leslie Schaffer, Special Accounts Sales Rep

The Lovin’ Spoonful, best known for their 1966 summer smash “Summer in the City,” make two appearances on our Summer Songs playlist. Public domain, via Wikimedia

“Summer in the City” – The Lovin’ Spoonful
Now that I live and work in New York City this song speaks to me. While the summer days are brutal and exhausting, the nights are wonderful. During the day we are tortured by sweltering sidewalks, oven-like subway stations, and loud construction noises, but at night the city cools off and comes alive again. There’s nothing I love more than drinks on a rooftop in the summer. In fact, I think that’s what I’ll do tonight.
— Christie Loew, Assistant Manager Accounts and Merchandising

“Summer of Panic” – Hanoi Janes
“Summer Bonfire” – Great Lakes Myth Society
“Summer Wine” – Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood
“Vacation” – the Go-Gos
The song that’s been my summer anthem since it came out in 2010 is Hanoi Janes’s “Summer of Panic.” The song’s frenetic pace, distorted and muted vocals, and a mix of old school chords with what Pitchfork reviewer Jayson Greene called “swarms of wiggling B-movie lasers” make for a psychotic surf music vibe that can’t be beat. It perfectly captures my love-hate relationship with summer, where I feel such pressure to have fun while it lasts, that it becomes panic-inducing. Its companion piece, Great Lakes Myth Society’s “Summer Bonfire,” might sound less fraught with anxiety, but only because some of the verses trail off, leaving you to supply the missing rhyme that, for instance, turns “electric” into “electric chair.” But for those times when I am able to relax, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood’s “Summer Wine” is a must listen. Hazlewood plays the role of a cowboy whom Sinatra seduces, drugs, and eventually robs. Nevertheless, the languid tempo, their sultry vocal blend and the brass chorus somehow makes this odd song sound like a hot summer night. I am now considering that as my three favorite summer songs involve nervous breakdowns, capital punishment, and committing felonies, I might need a long summer vacation. There’s always the Go-Gos.
— Anna-Lise Santella, Editor, Grove Music/Oxford Music Online and Music Reference

“Jalapeno Lena” – Rockin’ Sidney
The Summer of ’88 was the first year I didn’t return home from college but stayed in Plattsburgh to live and work the summer away at two part-time jobs. In the morning I prepped at Pizza Hut, “makin’ it great.” That summer must have been around the time Dirty Dancing came out because the jukebox played “Time of My Life” by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes ad nauseum. To break up the nauseum, my fellow prepper, Snooze Warner, and I would play any random, little-known songs we could find in that jukebox. Then one day we stumbled upon “Jalapeno Lena” by Rockin’ Sidney and we thought it was brilliant. Whenever someone played “Time of My Life,” we ran out and played “Jalapeno Lena.” It has a killer zydeco beat that helped us beat the heat of the summer of ’88, a hot summer in Plattsburgh, NY only made hotter by “Jalapeno Lena” and the ovens of Pizza Hut.
— Purdy, Director of Publicity

“See No Evil” – Television
Summer vacations back from college were all about driving up and down the coast of Maine in my dad’s old beat-up convertible, blasting Marquee Moon and Fun House and Unknown Pleasures and Blank Generation on burned CDs. The disc cartridge was in the trunk, so if you wanted to put in something different, you had to pull over and get out. Whenever I hear those records, that’s where I go.
— Owen Keiter, Associate Publicist

“Everybody Loves the Sunshine” – Roy Ayers
“I Get Lifted” – George McCrae
Breezy and light, “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” gets to the core of a lazy day in the sweltering sun. As for “I Get Lifted,” if I had a drop top in the city, this is what I would blast driving in July.
— Stuart Roberts, Editorial Assistant

“Feel Good Inc.” – Gorillaz
One of the hit singles from the cartoon band Gorillaz, this was song of the summer in 2005! According to Wikipedia it is the only song by any one of Damon Albarn’s several bands (including Blur and The Good, the Bad, and the Queen) to hit the Billboard Top 40.
— Jeremy Wang-Iverson, Publicity Manager

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Wann wird’s mal wieder richtig Sommer” – Rudi Carrell
This German Schlager favorite is sung to the tune of “City of New Orleans” and became summer song of the year in 1975. And this video version from Carrell’s TV show isn’t to missed. The lyrics describe a singer nostalgic for heat waves that he used to experience on the North Sea. (!)
— Norm Hirschy, Editor, Music Books

“Coconut Grove” – The Lovin’ Spoonful
“Summertime” – Jason Rebello
“Long Long Summer” – Dizzy Gillespie
There are a few Lovin’ Spoonful songs I could have chosen – “Summer in the City” being an obvious one – but it is “Coconut Grove” that reminds me most of sitting on a beach at sunset. As for George Gershwin’s “Summertime”, there are so many versions that many of them are classics themselves. But when I first heard Jason Rebello’s arrangement from his 1994 album Make it Real, it felt so new and exciting. And then Dizzy Gillespie’s sound is sunshine itself! I could have picked any number of his songs for this playlist, but this is the track that I play when the sun comes out.
— Miriam Higgins, Music Hire Librarian

“Sweet Amarillo” – Old Crow Medicine Show
Not to say that I’m at all over the rollicking Dylan-Old Crow collaboration that is “Wagon Wheel,” this next 40-years-in-the-making tune is equally excellent. According to OCMS frontman Ketch Secor, Dylan’s management company sent the band a cassette with the song fragment along with a set of instructions for how Dylan wanted the song to be completed, and – voilà! – Ketch and company make Americana magic once again!
— Taylor Coe, Marketing Associate, Academic/Trade Books

“Here’s to the Night” – Eve 6
When I was in high school, I spent every summer up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, working at a small summer camp called Forest Footsteps. That camp will always hold a special place in my heart and to this day, I still consider my fellow staff members and the campers as my extended family. On the last night of each week, we had a camp-wide “Boogie” with all the kids where we danced to an assortment of classic oldies and fun summer tunes. The final song was always “Here’s to the Night” by Eve 6 and as soon as the first few notes played, everyone would circle up in the middle of the dance floor and put their arms around one another, singing and swaying together as a group. Even the most introverted kids would find their way into the circle, embraced by their cabin mates. It was a really beautiful way to wrap up the week and that song still brings a tear to my eye, in the best possible way.
— Carrie Napolitano, Marketing Assistant, Academic/Trade Books

“Steal My Sunshine” – Len
Nothing says driving around town with the top down like this song.
— Sarah Hansen, Publicity Assistant

“Sunny Afternoon” – The Kinks
“Lazing on a sunny afternoon . . .” Need I say more?
— Louise Bowler, Senior Marketing Executive, Journals

“Postcards from Italy” – Beirut
My favorite summer song is “Postcards from Italy” by Beirut. It has such a romantic, old-timey feel to it. Even its title oozes summer – when I hear “postcards” and “Italy” I think of sunshine, the Mediterranean sea, and, of course, gelato! It also helps that the opening bars are played on a ukulele – the quintessential summer instrument! Bellisima.
— Mary Teresa Madders, Marketing Assistant, Journals

“Endless Summer” – The Jezabels
“Miami” – Will Smith
“April Come She Will” – Simon and Garfunkel
The summer-ness of The Jezabels’ “Endless Summer” comes down to this: You’re sixteen and the summer holidays are never going to end. You can practically feel the sweat run down your back as you laze on the beach with your holiday romance. And of course there’s “Miami,” the quintessential summer tune by the great Will Smith. Bringing rap to the masses, this accessible classic will have even your nan nodding her head. Or maybe she would prefer the short but sweet Simon and Garfunkel tune “April Come She Will,” which, with a hint of that classic Watership Down soundtrack, offers a bittersweet metaphor of birth, life, and death. Perfect for a pensive summer afternoon.
— Simon Turley, Marketing Assistant, Journals

“Summertime” – Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
This song lulls like a summer afternoon, rocking on the back porch watching the day go slowly, gently by.
— Anna Hernandez-French, Assistant Editor, Journals

Taylor Coe is a Marketing Associate at Oxford University Press.

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Wednesday, 28 May marks the 33rd anniversary of the death of Mary Lou William. Williams was an African-American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and contemporary of both Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne, is often overlooked as a key contributor to the jazz movement of the 20th century.

Born in Atlanta, Williams had her first taste of arranged music while attending church in her hometown. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1915 only spiked her interest in music, specifically jazz, as the city was a stop on the Theater Owners Booking association route, a vaudeville circuit for African-American performers.

Williams was first able to truly experiment with her musical talents as the pianist and arranger for the band Andy Kirk’s 12 Cloud’s of Joy. She came to this opportunity through her husband, who was the saxophonist for the band. Williams continued to arrange for the group creating household hits like “Walkin’ and Swingin’,” “Little Joe from Chicago,” and “Roll ‘em” until her departure from the band in 1942.

Mary Lou Williams by William Gottlieb, c. 1946. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Williams’s arrangements were not limited to Andy Kirk’s band. Her compositions were featured by jazz greats including, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, and Jimmie Lunceford. The New York Philharmonic performed Williams’s Zodiac Suite at Carnegie Hall in 1946. The Suite was composed of twelve arrangements, each labeled for a sign of the zodiac and all inspired by different jazz musicians.

Facing gender barriers in the states that hindered wide-spread success, Williams traveled to Europe in the 1950s. After performing in both London and Paris, Williams’s returned to the Unites States and simultaneously entertained a brief intermission in her musical career to concentrate her efforts on more religious pursuits.

Returning to music in the late 1950s, Williams reentered the scene with more of a devout lens. Throughout the late 1950s and 60s, Williams composed a number of religious arrangements and musical masses including “Hymn in Honor of St. Martin De Porres,” “Mass for Lenten Season,” and most notably “Mass for Peace and Justice” which was later renamed “Mary Lou’s Mass.” This last mass was the musical backdrop to Alvin Ailey’s series of dances presented under the same name and was also performed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1975 as the first jazz music performed in this iconic cathedral.

Williams returned to secular composing in the last decade of her life and also worked as an artist-in-residence at Duke University up until her death in 1981.

Grove Music Online has made several articles available freely to the public, including its lengthy entry on the renowned jazz singer Mary Lou Williams. Oxford Music Online is the gateway offering users the ability to access and cross-search multiple music reference resources in one location. With Grove Music Online as its cornerstone, Oxford Music Online also contains The Oxford Companion to Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Encyclopedia of Popular Music.

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By Gary Rosen

From the 1920s to the 1950s, Ira B. Arnstein was the unrivaled king of music copyright litigants. He spent the better part of those 30 years trying to prove that many of the biggest hits of the Golden Age of American Popular Song were plagiarized from his turn-of-the-century parlor piano pieces and Yiddish songs. “I suppose we have to take the bad with the good in our system which gives everyone their day in court,” Irving Berlin once said, but “Arnstein is stretching his day into a lifetime.”

Arnstein never won a case, but he left an enduring imprint on copyright law merely by getting his days in court and establishing precedents that later led to copyright infringement judgments against such notables as George Harrison and Michael Bolton. Though his claims often strained judicial credulity, Arnstein had a gift for posing conundrums that engaged some of the finest legal minds of his era, forcing them to refine and sharpen their doctrines.

Over the years, Arnstein laid claim to more than a hundred standards of the Great American Songbook. This playlist of 15 songs — from Irving Berlin’s “A Russian Lullaby” of 1927 to Cole Porter’s “I Love Paris” of 1952 — is representative, and we have selected recordings that illustrate performance styles from the 20s to today. “No one,” as one lawyer wrote and you will agree, “can accuse Arnstein of courting feeble opposition.”

Gary A. Rosen is the author of Unfair to Genius: The Strange and Litigious Career of Ira B. Arnstein. He has practiced intellectual property law for more than 25 years. Before entering private practice, he served as a law clerk to federal appellate judge and award-winning legal historian A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.

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It’s another snowy day along the East Coast, perfect for staying indoors and curling up with a cup of cocoa and some great books. This month,  the First Book Marketplace is highlighting some excellent books in honor of African-American history month as well as sweet seasonal titles to read with your valentine.

Browse through the Marketplace’s African-American Interest section to find a wide range of award-winning titles including stories of musical legends like Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, baseball hero Jackie Robinson: Bravest Man in Baseball and stories from the past like Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt.

This month, we also feature Valentine’s Day books. Share the love of reading with your someone special with Rosemary Wells’ Be My Valentine, A Charlie Brown Valentine and many more!

by Kathy Stemke

Black History Month is a time to create greater awareness of a strong and powerful culture with a rich history. The following books and activity ideas will keep children engaged as they learn about inspiring black Americans and their culture.

Bestselling and award-winning author, HYPERLINK Nancy I. Sanders has published over 75 books including A Kid’s Guide to African American History and D is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet.

Her new book is America’s Black Founders, for ages 9 and up. Through the petitions they wrote, the sermons they preached, the literature they published, the churches they built, and the organizations they formed, African Americans influenced the birth of a new nation in powerful and far-reaching ways. Click here for several activity ideas from Nancy’s websiteClick here for several activity ideas for Black History month from Nancy’s website.

Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa is an excellent example of a quality book that conveys black history in kid-appealing way.  Ella’s story is told through the perspective of a cat, “Skat Cat Monroe,” who pulls in readers in with rhythm and rhyme. 

LANGUAGE ARTS ACTIVITIES
Use words from this story to practice finding the number of syllables in words. How many syllables are in Skat?  Fitzgerald?  determination?

Have students look up words from the story in the dictionary and share reports either written or verbal. Let students determine alphabetical order of the words. 

MATH ACTIVITIES
We learn in A Note From the Author that Ella was born in 1917.  The story tells us that in 1935 the Harlem Opera House signed Ella as a featured singer.  How old was Ella?

We learn in the story that Ella and Dizzy Gillespie headlined a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall in 1947.  If she was born in 1917, how old was Ella in 1947?

We learn in A Note From the Author that Ella died in 1996.  If she was born in 1917, how old was Ella when she died?

MUSIC & MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES
“A-Tisket, A-Tasket” was a hit song sung by Ella Fitzgerald that began as a “jump rope jive.”  Jumping rope is an excellent work out and helps children develop timing and balance. Have your students jump rope along to Ella’s music and encourage them to create their own jump rope songs. 

Dizzy by Jonah Winter features the famous Dizzy Gilliespie.

VOCABULARY ACTIVITIES
There are many instruments featured in the illustrations of Dizzy.  Passing the book around, make a list of the instruments your group can identify.  There’s a trumpet, sax, French horn, bass, piano and drums.  Now brainstorm to create a list of instruments not featured in this book.

MATH ACTIVITIES
Review the music math words for solo, duet, trio, quartet and quintet.  Call students up with instruments in singles and small groups and let the group name the band with these math music words. 

ART & MUSIC ACTIVITIES
Painting to the Beat: Provide paper, watercolor paints and space for each child to paint.  Play one of Dizzy Gilliespie’s many CDs that are available at your local library. Encourage children to paint to the beat.  Ask them to consider what “color” a song feels like.  Be sure to have them write the title of the song, along with their name and date on their musical masterpiece. 

MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES
A Jazz Parade: Provide children with handmade instruments or objects with which they can create a beat.  Turn on the music and ha