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Ann Hampton Callaway likens her popular concerts with jazz legend Ramsey Lewis to a love fest. The pairing of the singer/songwriters offers unexpected takes on pop standards together with initial pieces that stretch aroused and instrumental limits.
“We share the Chicago jazz tradition and a joyful spirit that gives us a distinctive approach to music,” Callaway said. “The impetus for getting together is that we’re both songwriters who take delight in taking risks. We open together, I finish the firstborn half of the show, he begins the second half and we close with an improv session where we’re flying without a net. When I’m sitting backstage listening to him, I’m blown away.”
Like Lewis, Callaway is a musical strength who delights in crossing boundaries and reimagining standards. Her recordings showcase her lush vocals that may elicit memories of Ella Fitzgerald and the big band tradition one moment and steamy ballads suitable for the wee little hours the next. The title song of her latest recording, “At Last,” is a jazzy sit-up-and-take observe rendition of the evergreen Harry Warren number composed for a forgettable movie. Subsequent recordings by Glenn Miller, Nat King Cole, and Etta James cemented it is place in the Great American Songbook; Callaway’s version illuminates her originality.
“There have been assorted versions out since Obama’s inauguration, but I believe I’m the only person who recorded the verse,” she said. “It may have been the best time throughout history for that song to return to the spotlight.”
When Callaway is not working as singer, pianist, composer, arranger, teacher, or producer, her acting capacity comes to the fore at concerts, television appearances, theatrical tributes, and feature films. Broadway recognized it by honoring her performance in the musical “Swing!” with a Tony nomination, and London hailed “Sibling Rivalry,” the musical show she devised and performed with her sister, Liz Callaway. Early next season, the two will take to the road with”Boom,” their brand new show inspired by the songs of the 1960s and ’70s.
“Many of the songs I sing and record are those that go back to the standards I listened to as a child,” she said. “‘Boom’ focuses, instead, on the more contemporary songs that mean a lot to the Boomer generation. This will be a happening they may appreciate.”
Earlier this season, Callaway was amidst those honored at “Shine On,” Good Housekeeping Magazine’s 125th anniversary celebrating women making their mark. She strolled the red carpet along with Meryl Streep, Brooke Shields, Cheryl Tiegs, Candice Bergen, Aretha Franklin, Dorothy Hamill, and other women of distinction.
Outstanding entertainer though she is, her biggest affect on society may emerge from the more than 250 songs she has composed. Many, such as the deliciously rhythmic “Finding Beauty,” are surprising gems tucked into her albums or a concert set. Others are composed for such major artists as Barbra Streisand and in company with good friends like Carole King. Fans of the TV show “The Nanny” still hum the theme song she wrote and recorded. Especially proud of the songs she produced to help those affected by tragedies, she performed “Let the Saints Come Marching” on a national TV broadcast to honor the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Her tribute to the tsunami survivors, “Who Can See the Blue the Same Again?” was freed as a single to raise cash for the Tsunami Fund of the PRASAD Project.
“It’s a grass origins institution with no red tape,” she said. “I heard back from people who helped fix the fishing nets so severely needed. They moved speedily and brilliantly to alter lives. Right now I’m attempting to get my powerful anthem for international warning out there. Sometimes I feel like the Emily Dickinson of song because I many times put something on the back burner until a challenge like that arises.”
Great American Songbook Stories Standards
Presented in the striking format of Ken Bloom’s successful Broadway Musicals, this rich visual history of frequent song covers all of the prominent figures behind the music, in front of the bandstand, and on top of the piano. “The Singers” includes Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Barbara Cook, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald, and dozens more; “ The Songwriters” features Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Fields, Stephen Foster, Richard Rodgers, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, and a host of others; a lively section discusses the Big Bands; and a decade-by-decade insert puts the entire history of usual music in perspective through words and pictures.
Each one of the more than 200 listings in the book features the artist’s personal and professional history, outstanding songs, and primary contributions, plus photos (many rare), record covers, anecdotes, quotes, and more. Sidebars and features all around cover topics of interest—everything from Arrangers, Vocal Groups, and Keepers of the Flame to Tin Pan Alley, Parodists, and Classical Crossovers—making this the most exhaustive survey of it is kind. Throughout, all of the outstanding songs are discussed—literally hundreds of songs, from “Stardust” to “My Funny Valentine” to “White Christmas.” Illustrated biographies, discographies, chronologies, and indices make The American Songbook a full-fledged reference as well as a pictorial feast.
About the AuthorKen Bloom and Frank Vlastnik are the co-authors of Sitcoms. Bloom is the author of The American Songbook: The Singers, the Songwriters, and the Songs; Jerry Herman: The Lyrics; and a two-volume history of Twentieth Century-Fox music, among other books. He lives in New York City.
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Great American Songbook Stories Standards Picture
Great American Songbook Stories Standards Image
Most helpful client reviews
17 of 17 persons found the following review helpful.
 A fine contribution
By Art Hilgart
“Ken Bloom’s superb The American Songbook has the distinguishable quality of service to two distinct audiences. Readers of a sure age will take delight in hours of pleasure recalling the music of their lives and responding to the inevitable instinctive to listen to records they haven’t played for years. Young humans like those in my university musical theater courses will encounter the music and the humans who made it- in their historical contexts- and will be led maze-like to new experiences as they seek out films and recordings in libraries and nostalgia bins. And not least, The American Songbook will support extend the great contributions of Bloom’s subjects into the new century.”
35 of 43 people found the following review helpful.
 For something to be praised, something else has to be put down
By J. Slott
When I original picked up “The American Songbook” at my local B&N it was a thrilling experience. The photographs and layout looked outstanding and it seemed that the ground covered was exceedingly generous and, at primary superficial glance, the text well written. But as it turned out after the book was purchased and I was capable to sit down comfortably to genuinely read it, things turned out to be much less than desired.
As general with innovative published books the editing occupation is merely atrocious: mis-spelled words all over the place, repeated paragraphs, inconsistent dates for events, etc.
While the author does warn that his views are just that, his opinions, it still grates the nerves to find such views so thoughtless and/or uninformed: “In the 1960s (writing in regards to music on television, page 199) production values were deployed and rock-lite tunes were featured on NBC’s Hullaballoo and it is ABC clone, Shindig.” Actually Shindig came before Hullaballoo and with performances from the likes of The Rolling Stones, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, etc. there was surely not one thing “rock-lite” with regards to it.
What is even more annoying is the author’s condescending attitude towards rock music altogether. It is not that I feel that Mr. Bloom’s book will have to have given any particular contemplation to rock music. He makes it clear at the beginning that his work will deal basically with the classic American songbook. Nothing wrong with that. But why is it so often times in American art criticism that in order for something to be praised, something else has to be put down? What is the need for a statement like this, “In February 1964, the U.S. was invaded once again invaded by the British… If any individual doubted that rock-and-roll was here to stay, they were horribly, horribly mistaken”. If a critic’s tastes are that exclusive, how valid may the rest of his or her value judgments be?
Even when the author seems to be praising those of the post-World Wars generation, it is normally done left-handed: “(Hal) David’s strength is the straight-ahead ballad, but without the wordplay related with Harburg, the wittiness of Porter, or the aroused pull of Berlin.” Sheesh, what do you have left then?
Or how regarding “It’s telling that Bacharach and David’s number one interpreter, Dionne Warwick, possessed a powerful voice and strong sense of rhythmic drive, but like most singers of her time, remunerated little attention to specific lyrics”. Why thank you, Mr. Bloom, I think…
OK, so perhaps frequent music’s move away from Berlin, Porter, Arlen, Fields, et.al. was exacerbated by the advent of rock and roll. But may anybody veritably say that was the only reason? Irving Berlin gave the world great songs for closely 40 years. But let’s face it; at mid-century the well understandably could not help but start out to arid up a little.
I have no problem enjoying the tunes of the firstborn half of the 20th century and I have no difficultness enjoying the songs of the second half. Yes, I am from the baby-boomer generation but so what? Even Leonard Bernstein praised The Beatles. So, Mr. Bloom, what is your problem?
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
The American Songbook by Ken Bloom
By Allen Johnson, Jr.
This is a superb “dipper-inner”! If you are into the songs that have become American standards, you will find in this book a wealth of entertainment. The photos are chosen for interest and the anecdotal material–gossipy, behind-the-scenes stories in regards to singers and songwriters–is fascinating. The book is beauteous darn comprehensive with short pieces on the more obsucre songwriters and singers and in depth pieces on the greatest American singers and songwriters of the 20s,30s,40s and 50s. The index is indepth and very useful.
Allen Johsnon, Jr. – Kid’s writer and jazz guitarist
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