My Singing Teachers - Hardcover

Tormé, Mel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195090950 ISBN 13: 9780195090956

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1994

Synopsis

Mel Tormé is one of the world's great jazz vocalists, a veteran of radio, movies, television, recordings, night clubs, and concert halls. He is also a highly respected arranger and composer, the co-author of one of the enduring seasonal classics, "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)." And were that not enough, he is also an accomplished writer, having penned, among other books, a moving biography of his close friend, drummer Buddy Rich, Traps, the Drum Wonder; and an unblinking portrait of Judy Garland late in her career, The Other Side of the Rainbow. Now, in My Singing Teachers, Tormé sums up his vast experience in a tour of American music that is spiced with insightful commentary, vivid anecdotes, and Tormé's own take on the art of the song.
Here is a pantheon of popular music and jazz, a sweeping look at American song from the perspective of one of its great practitioners. Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer, Ethel Waters and Nat "King" Cole, and many many more--all in one way or another helped Tormé shape his inimitable style. Tormé has drawn inspiration from virtually every corner of the entertainment world, so the book has an enormous range--covering jazz, big band singers (such as Helen Forrest or Bob Eberly), Hollywood musical singers (such as Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin), even cowboy singers (Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, among others), not to mention lyricists, composers, and arrangers. It brims with personal anecdotes and astute observations about the greats of American music, and reveals how they have influenced his craft. For instance, Tormé recounts how, at age five, he first saw Bessie Smith in a one-reeler "The St Louis Blues" and how she still influences his blues singing. He reveals how playing at the Paramount with Ella Fitzgerald converted him from bobby-sox music to jazz. And most surprisingly, he shows how listening to instrumentalists such as Ben Webster on tenor sax and Roy Eldridge on trumpet shaped his scat singing--even more than listening to the great scat singers. Tormé also pays homage to many lesser known figures, such as composer Harry Warren--whose songs include "I Only Have Eyes for You," "The More I See You," "We're in the Money," and "Down Argentine Way"--and singer Connee Boswell, who was an important model for Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Torme himself. Perhaps most important, Tormé concludes with a chapter that captures his thoughts on singing, a section that every singer will find invaluable.
American popular music has been graced with many talented men and women whose wit, intellect, ingenuity, and craftsmanship have made this music immortal. My Music Teachers pays homage to these remarkable people as it celebrates the glories of the American song. All fans of pop or jazz, and especially all fans of Mel Tormé, will find this book a treasure.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author:
Mel Tormé is universally recognized as one of the great jazz vocalists living today. He is the author of six books, including The Other Side of the Rainbow and Traps, the Drum Wonder.

From Kirkus Reviews

Great idea: Take one of America's top jazz singers, who also happens to be a good writer (Traps, the Drum Wonder, 1991), and have him write about the singers and musicians who influenced him. Unfortunately, the end result is disappointing and frustrating. Torm‚ had the good fortune to grow up in an era of great singers, songwriters, arrangers, and instrumentalists. More important, it was also an era of live radio broadcasts and increased fidelity in recording techniques. As he makes abundantly clear in this text, the phonograph was his conservatory, with radio serving as a practicum and the movies and Broadway as sources of extra-credit assignments. As a result, the influences on his musical style range far and wide, from Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Ella Fitzgerald to Mabel Mercer and sax players Georgie Auld and Gerry Mulligan. In the book's best moments, he deftly describes a singer's style in a few quick brushstrokes; his descriptions of Louis Armstrong on a bandstand or Crosby at a mike are little gems that capture a moment and a style. However, too much space in this slender volume is wasted on biographical data or irrelevancies like a long list of people who dubbed vocals for Hollywood's non- singers. Torm‚ is capable of better, more extended analysis, as the excellent section on the underappreciated Lee Wiley shows. He is also a pretty fair prose stylist, despite a glaring mixed metaphor in his discussion of Richard Rodgers, whose ``iron-clad melodies...stuck to your ribs.'' That sounds like a painful experience indeed. This book would have been much better if Torm‚ had concentrated more on the music. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0195090950
• ISBN 13: 9780195090956
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256