[78-L] Gene Lees RIP

[Jeff Sultanof]

This article is a mess. I'm not absolutely positive, but I don't believe
that Lees ever studied at Berklee, certainly not toward a degree. I know he
lectured there on lyric writing.

Jerome Kern was his favorite lyricist??????? Johnny Mercer was his favorite
lyricist. Lees told me this himself. Kern didn't even write words as we all
know. Did anybody read this??

I stopped reading after this. It is so ironic that it was written and
published, as this was exactly the kind of article that would make Gene
furious, because he knew that once something appeared in a major or even
minor periodical, it would be used as a source for somebody else's article.
He didn't care if people criticized him, he just wanted the facts to be
correct. He believed that there should be a website refuting information
that was continually quoted and rehashed which wasn't true. He even went to
the extent of asking Dick Sudhalter to prepare such an entry for Bix
Beiderbecke.

Perhaps it is true that there has not been something about Gene with as much
information as this article, but it's a pity it can't be trusted. Let's see
how long it takes for an article to show up that discusses Jerome Kern, the
lyricist.

Sorry, Gene, my dear friend whom I miss very much.

Jeff Sultanof

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 5:08 AM, David Lewis <uncledavelewis at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> 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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