Album Notes

Before his tragic death George Gershwin had written only two measures of “Love is Here to Stay”. Oscar Levant, having heard George play it, was able to finish the notation of the score. Vernon Duke, George’s
admiring friend, wrote the music for the verse. While the world grieved, no one took George’s death with more sadness than did his brother. Yet, Ira Gershwin was able to write these brilliant lyrics! “In time the Rockies may crumble, Gibraltar may tumble, they’re only made of clay, but our love is here to stay”. Theologians never expressed eternity more succinctly.
With those words in mind, on this CD I opted out of the personal photos and took my digital to a
winter scene at Lake Tahoe-not the Rockies but close enough.
I played these standards as if they were sung. What endears the few of us who remember and love them is our memory of their words. So I play one or two choruses, some of the verses and not too many
alterations of the melody. In abandoning the jazz
format I hoped to let the songwriters speak for
themselves.
The arrangements are mine with help from
publications by Stan Freeman, Marion McPartland, Carmen Cavallaro, Johny Morriss and others I quote now and then. Not to slight the classics I included two waltzes by the Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth.
The pianos are the 1871 Steinway at Piedmont
and the 1918 Knabe at Tahoe.