[78-L] Gene Lees RIP

[David Lewis]

I do believe that mention of Gene Lees' passing was made on this list at around the time of the event. But I don't recall seeing anything as detailed as this article from the Independent (UK). Apologies for cross posting.

UD


Gene Lees: Singer and songwriter who was also an unforgiving music critic 
 Thursday, 22 July 2010 
 
 One of the several albums Lees recorded of his own songs 
 
Although Gene Lees was known as a perceptive music writer and 
 biographer, he was also a fine lyricist, writing such stylish standards 
 as "Yesterday I Heard the Rain", "Someone to Light Up My Life" and 
 "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars". This talent gave his music writing an 
 extra authority and he was a joy to read even if you didn't agree with 
 him. He thought that today's lyrics portrayed "a vision of loveless sex" 
 and that the songwriters were doing as much as pornographers to destroy 
 the mystery of women. 
 
Gene Lees' parents, Harold and Dorothy, were born in England, but 
 emigrated to Canada with their respective parents. Harold had been a 
 coal miner, but in Canada he played violin in an orchestra which 
 accompanied silent films. Lees studied in Hamilton and then at the 
 Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He developed a love 
 of popular music, the Great American Songbook, plus classical music and 
 jazz. His favourite lyric writer was Jerome Kern, and he called Cole 
 Porter's "Begin the Beguine" "the greatest song written in America 
 because of the way it sort of builds operatically. What a piece of work 
 that is." 
 
 From 1948 to 1955, Lees worked as a reporter then as an arts critic in 
 Louisville, Kentucky. He wrote uncompromising reviews: the Louisville 
 Orchestra had never received such critical notices and many of the local 
 jazz musicians loathed him. This pattern echoed throughout his life. 
 
In 1959, Lees became editor of Down Beat jazz magazine, and delighted in 
 disparaging rock'n'roll, dismissing it as junk. He loved Nat "King" 
 Cole's piano playing and adored Peggy Lee: "She was completely 
 motionless. Maybe she'd give a flick of the eyebrow or a slight gesture 
 with her finger. The point was that you heard the song. She got out of 
 the way of the song." 
 
In 1961, Lees left Down Beat, objecting to the dismissal of the art 
 director. He wrote his resignation in the form of a lyric, "It's 
 National F*ck Your Buddy Week". He managed the Paul Winter Sextet on a 
 trip to Latin America; while there he discovered bossa nova and, on a 
 bus journey, wrote an English lyric for Antonio Carlos Jobim's 
 "Corcovado", calling it "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars". He went on to 
 work on other songs with Jobim. He regarded Sinatra's smooth and subdued 
 performance of "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars" (1967) as the definitive 
 recording of any of his songs, and in 1969 he coached the musicians when 
 Sinatra made an album with Jobim which included three of his songs. 
 
Lees wrote English lyrics for several Charles Aznavour compositions, 
 including "Paris Is at Her Best in May", "There Is a Time", "Little 
 Train" and, in particular, "Venice Blue", recorded by Bobby Darin in 
 1965. He wrote "Waltz for Debby" with the jazz pianist Bill Evans, 
 recorded by Tony Bennett and Al Jarreau, and the theme for the film 
 Darling (1965) with John Dankworth, recorded by Sarah Vaughan. Lees' 
 novel about an American jazz musician adrift in Paris, And Sleep Until 
 Noon, was published in 1967. 
 
Lees became pop editor of the magazine High Fidelity, but he continued 
 his contempt for the popular music of the day, loathing the Beatles, and 
 when he and Johnny Mercer went to see Hair they left after a few 
 minutes, dismissing it as "absolutely cretinous". He commented in Down 
 Beat: "Paul McCartney is a musical ignoramus, although he has a certain 
 amount of melodic flair. He is not interested in fitting long vowels to 
 long notes, short vowels to short notes, and why should he be? The 
 performances by rock groups are so distorted that fine points of craft 
 are inaudible. Bob Dylan has the worst ear for song of anybody I have 
 ever heard. It may be justified by calling it 'the broken-glass poetry 
 of Bob Dylan', but that's nonsense. Bob Dylan doesn't know a thing about 
 craft." 
 
His most intriguing composition is "Yesterday I Heard the Rain", which 
 has been recorded by Tony Bennett, Perry Como and Shirley Bassey. On 
 first hearing it sounds like a wistful song of lost love, but the images 
 contain hints of paranoia; who are the "faceless people"? It was written 
 at the time of the "Is God Dead?" debate and the lyric reflected it: 
 "Yesterday I heard the rain / Whispering your name / Asking where you'd 
 gone". For a man so meticulous about rhyme and whose best-selling book 
 was The Modern Rhyming Dictionary, the song contains a false rhyme – 
 "rain" and "flame". 
 
Starting with The Gene Lees Songbook (1972), Lees recorded several 
 albums of his own songs. His most unusual assignment was to adapt some 
 poems in Polish by Pope John Paul II, and they were interpreted in 
 concert and on record by Sarah Vaughan as the project One World, One 
 Peace (1985). 
 
Since 1981, Lees had been writing his subscription-only Jazzletter. The 
 informed opinions of Lees and his contributors were highly appreciated. 
 Singers and the Song (1987) was a thought-provoking collection of his 
 essays, while other collections were Meet Me at Jim & Andy's (1988) and 
 Waiting for Dizzy (1991). His third wife, the former Janet Suttle, who 
 plans to continue Jazzletter. Lees analysed racism in music in Cats of 
 Any Color (1994) and wrote biographies of Oscar Peterson, Woody Herman 
 and Johnny Mercer as well as a study of the songwriters Lerner and 
 Loewe, and he worked with Henry Mancini on his autobiography. At the 
 time of his death he was working on a biography of Artie Shaw. 
 
Spencer Leigh 
 
Eugene Frederick John Lees, singer, songwriter and critic: born 
 Hamilton, Ontario 8 February 1928: married three times (one son); died 
 Ojai, California 22 April 2010. 

Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com

 		 	   		  
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