I came to the Great American Songbook seeking freshness and novelty, but a came through a different door. The gateway to GAS was jazz. I began listening to jazz in high school and my knowledge and interest broadened and accreted over a long arc of decades. I have a fascination with these songs and their composers and the performers and their zeitgeist. I want to share it and ignite your interest and curiosity. Look up these tunes, performers and composers on YouTube: it is your free jukebox music library of just about every tune. You can even see the original performances in the Hollywood musicals! This is an amazing time and you have access to it all at your fingertips, so grab your smartphone and earbuds! There are few things more precious and interesting than a Golden Age. There was a Golden Age of a particular kind of music that ran from the twenties through the fifties: the golden age of popular standards; the songs that constitute The Great American Song Book. These tunes were written by dapper, creative giants like Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Charmichael, Jerome Kern, and Dorothy Fields. Urbane sophisticated talents who created a body of work that effortlessly captures that urbanity and sophistication. They created tunes focused on the subject of romantic love and exploring all the stages and aspects of the arc of a great love affair: from the initial “walking on air” to the jaded ennui of “never again”. They were obsessed with this theme and subject. Describing, exploring, and driving deep into all its mysteries. These composers and lyricists were in love with Love. These tunes wed lyrics and music into songs that were crafted by songwriting teams originally centered around Tin Pan Alley; The Brill Building on Broadway in Mid town Manhattan. These songwriting teams in many cases split the composing tasks along functional lines: one writing the music and on writing the lyrics. The composers were writing vehicles for others to perform and usually pitched the tunes in the context of a Broadway or Hollywood musical. They were cranking out tunes for the Hollywood and Broadway dream factories at a prodigious pace. They really worked! Cranking out so many songs, they have a tossed off, effortless quality and a guileless directness. They feel unpretentious and casual: genuine and authentic. But their craft and genius raise these songs to high art. Many of these tunes became popular hits in their own right, lifted out of the shows and movies, and have been recorded by all the great performers. Fred Astaire debuted many of these tunes and was a favorite of the writing teams. He was known as much for his singing as his dancing! Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr. and Michael Buble are some of the latest to pay homage to the songbook.

1. My Gig Flyers
My Favorite Songbook Composers

2. My Gig
• I have a steady gig playing at the
Q Bar in Albuquerque
• My repertoire rests heavily on the
great pre-rock composers, before
popular music became mostly
guitar based compositions
• These are piano based
compositions
• These pre-rock pop tunes seem
to be more open to interpretation
and not intrinsically tied up with
the original performer.
• Check out my website
www.jjcousinspiano.com
• Like my Facebook page
JohnCousinsJazz

3. Great American Songbook Composers
• The “Great American Songbook”, sometimes
referred to as “Popular Standards”, is the
uniquely American collection of popular music
from Broadway and Hollywood musicals
prevalent from the 1920s to 1950s.
• Jazz artists continue to perform these songs.
• These composers are my inspiration and
represent a core aspect of my repertoire.

4. Rodgers and Hart
• Lorenz Hart wrote some
of the most touching
and profound lyrics. He
was a tragic character in
his personal life.
• Richard Rodgers had a
second great writing
partner in Oscar
Hammerstein II.

5. The Gershwins
• The Brothers Gershwin
• A remarkable family
team
• Ira is a witty and urbane
lyricist
• George was one of the
great composers of the
20th Century

6. Ira Gershwin
• Wrote wonderful lyrics and
collaborated with others
besides his brother George
• Kurt Weill
– My Ship
• Jerome Kern
– Long Ago and Far Away
• Vernon Duke
– I Can’t Get Started
• Harold Arlen, Harry Warren,
Burton Lane, Aaron
Copland, Arthur Schwartz

7. Cole Porter
• Cole wrote both lyrics and
music
• Unusual for the time; most
compositions were by a team
of lyricist and composer
• Lived in NYC, Paris and
Venice
• Cosmopolitan
• Was permanently injured in a
horse riding accident and
suffered pain much of his
adult life.
• Check out my version of
Begin the Beguine on iTunes

8. Harold Arlen
• Born Hyman Arluck
• Worked with lyricist Ted
Koehler
– Stormy Weather
– I’ve Got the World on a
String
• Yip Harburg
– Somewhere Over the
Rainbow
• Johnny Mercer
– Come Rain or Come Shine
• Truman Capote

9. Victor Young
• Born 1900 in Chicago
• Spent childhood in Poland
• Concert violinist,
conductor, and arranger.
• 1936 moved to
Hollywood: major player
conducting and
composing at Paramount
and Columbia Pictures
• 20 Oscar nominations
• Scores include Shane

10. Dietz and Schwartz
• Dietz also worked with
Jerome Kern, George
Gershwin, and Vernon
Duke
• Besides being a prolific
songwriter, Howard Dietz
pursued a parallel career
as a successful motion
picture executive at
Goldwyn, MGM and
Loew’s

11. Hoagy
• Movie Star
• 14 films
• To Have and Have Not
• Howard Hoagland
• Talented jazz piano
player and singer
• Law degree Indiana U
• Lyrics Frank Loesser &
Johnny Mercer

12. Jerome Kern
• Princess Shows
• Show Boat
– Oscar Hammerstein lyricist
• Don’t Ever Leave Me
• Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
– Bob Hope Roberta (1933)
• Hollywood
– Fred Astaire Swing Time
• Oscars:
– The Way You Look Tonight
– The Last Time I Saw Paris

13. Kern on Broadway
• The Princess Shows
• Seminal Work
• Princess Theatre
• Tiny House 299 seats
• the theatre hosted a
famous series of
sophisticated musicals by
the team of Jerome
Kern, Guy Bolton and P. G.
Wodehouse, between
1915 and 1918

14. Jimmy Van Heusen
• Born Edward Chester
Babcock
• Started at Cotton Club
• Lyricist Johnny Burke
• Dozens of films at
Paramount including
twenty with Bing Crosby
• Oscars for:
– All The Way
– High Hopes

16. Jule Styne & Sammy Cahn
• Jule Styne:
– Broadway and Hollywood film
scores
– Frank Loesser, Comden &
Green, Bob Merrill, Leo Robin
• Sammy Cahn
– early partnered with Saul
Chaplin writing for Vaudville.
– Later partnered with Jimmy
Van Heusen
– Sinatra movies:
• Robin and the 7 Hoods
• The Joker is Wild

17. Johnny Mercer
• Wrote over 1500 songs
• Primarily a lyricist
• Also a busy singer with a
string of hit records
• Ultimate craftsman gifted
with a sense of language
and American vernacular
• Won 4 Academy Awards
– Moon River
– Days of Wine and Roses
• Co-founder of Capital
Records

18. Johnny Mercer
• Lyrics to Lionel Hampton’s
“Midnight Sun”
• “Skylark” with Hoagy
Carmichael
• “Too Marvelous for Words”
with Richard Whiting
• “One for My Baby” with
Harold Arlen
• Jerome Kern
– Dearly Beloved
– I’m Old Fashoined
• Lyrics to “Satin Doll”
– Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn

19. Charlie Chaplin
• "Smile" is a song based on an
instrumental theme used in the
soundtrack for the 1936 Charlie
Chaplin movie Modern Times.
• Chaplin composed the music,
while John Turner and Geoffrey
Parsons added the lyrics and title in
1954.
• In the lyrics, based on lines and
themes from the film, the singer is
telling the listener to cheer up and
that there is always a bright
tomorrow, just as long as they smile.
• "Smile" has become a popular
standard since its original use in
Chaplin's film.
• It was used as the theme song
on The Jerry Lewis Show from 1967-
69.

20. Dorothy Fields
• One of American musical theater’s
most prolific lyricists and librettists.
• Collaborators:
• J Fred Coots
– Wrote: Santa Clause is Coming to Town
• Jimmy McHugh
– I Can’t give You Anything But Love
– I’m in the Mood for Love
• Sigmund Romberg
• Harold Arlen
• Burton Lane
• Arthur Schwartz
• Cy Coleman
• An Oscar with Jerome Kern
– The Way You Look Tonight
• A Fine Romance; also with Kern

21. Kurt Weill
• Kurt was married to his
long time collaborator
famous singer Lotte
Lenye
– She played SPECTRE
agent Rosa Klebb in the
James Bond film From
Russia with Love
• Weill wrote Three
Penny Opera with
Bertolt Brecht

22. Sigmund Romberg
• Romberg was the subject of
the 1954 Stanley Donen-
directed film Deep in My
Heart, in which he was
portrayed by José Ferrer.
• His operetta The New
Moon was the basis for two
film adaptations
• "Softly, as in a Morning
Sunrise" and "Lover, Come
Back to Me" both from The
New Moon are jazz classics;
the first is performed by many
jazz performers, the second is
best known by Billie Holiday

23. Vernon Duke
• Vladimir Aleksandrovich
Dukelsky (Russian:
Владимир Александрович
Дукельский)
• I Can’t Get Started
– lyrics by Ira Gershwin
• April in Paris
– with lyrics by E. Y. ("Yip")
Harburg
• Autumn in New York
• As Dukelsky composed for
ballet and the concert stage

24. Cy Coleman & Carolyn Leigh
• The Best Is Yet to Come
– Check out my version on
iTunes
• Witchcraft
– 50 Shades of Grey
– Sinatra
• Young at Heart
– Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh

25. Oscar Hammerstein II
• Sigmund Romberg
– Lover, Come Back to Me
– Softly As a Morning Sunrise
• Jerome Kern
– All the Things You Are
– The Song is You
• Wrote the book and lyrics for
Showboat with Kern. Based on novel
by Edna Ferber.
• 17 year collaboration with Richard
Rogers
• My Favorite Things
• The Folks Who Live on the Hill
• Hello Young Lovers
• A Kiss to Build a Dream On
• Don’t Ever Leave Me

27. J Fred Coots
• For All We Know
• You Go to My Head
• Santa Claus is Coming to
Town
• Great Name

28. Harry Warren
• Salvatore Guaragno from
Brooklyn
• Vitagraph Studios
• Hollywood: over 300 songs
in over 50 movies
• 3 Academy Awards for Best
Song
• Standards:
– “The More I See You”
– “There Will Never Be Another
You”
– “I Only Have Eyes For You”
– “I Wish I Knew”

29. Pianists
• Gershwin
• Ellington
• Arlen
• Hoagy
• Their songs became jazz
blowing vehicles in
large part due to their
musicianship

30. Singers
• Sinatra
• Fred Astaire
• Diana Krall
• Chet Baker
• Blossom Dearie
• Ella
• Bing Crosby

31. Standards
• Check out my versions
of some of these
Songbook classics on
iTunes
• Begin the Beguine
• Fly Me to the Moon
• The Best Is Yet to Come