Why this tune? I wrote “Sunday Night Blues” a few years ago, responding to a request from a friend for asong about the dreaded “Sunday scaries.” I asked Barbara Papendorp to perform it for the first time in public at Blues Alley on August 26. She’s premiering another new song on the 26th, and singingContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Sunday Night Blues”
Category Archives: Tunes On Tuesday
Tunes on Tuesday: Don’t Sleep On Me
Why this tune? Here’s another song that is on the list for my show at Blues Alley in Washington, DC on August 26, a tune we recorded in 2020. I wrote “Don’t Sleep On Me” in 2019, as a reaction to feelings of inadequacy that I felt at jam sessions or gigs, in the presenceContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Don’t Sleep On Me”
Tunes on Tuesday: No Ducks
Why this tune? This week I’m sharing another song that I’m planning to include in my show at Blues Alley in Washington, DC on August 26. “No Ducks” was inspired by Carolyn Hax’s advice column in the Washington Post. She had a question from a reader trying to deal with a family conflict. Hax’s advice,Continue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: No Ducks”
Tunes on Tuesday: Opposites
Why this tune? I’m excited to announce that I’m presenting my own show at Blues Alley in Washington, DCon August 26! I’m assembling a program of my songs, old and new, and hired some of my favorite musicians to play and sing them. “Opposites” will be on the program. I wrote it during the song-a-dayContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Opposites”
Tunes on Tuesday: I Will Wait For You
Why this tune? In honor of Bastille Day, which our French friends just celebrated on July 14, this week’s tune highlights a French composer. Michel Legrand wrote “I Will Wait For You” for the 1964 musical “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” and it quickly joined the jazz and pop canon alongside many of his other songs.Continue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: I Will Wait For You”
Tunes on Tuesday: Cleveland Park
Why this tune? This week I’m revisiting a song I wrote in 2011 as part of Jason Mendelson’s MetroSongs project, and ambitious collection of songs inspired by the stations of the Washington, DC Metro subway system. Jason produced eight albums between 2011 and 2017 documenting our public transit system with songs in a wide varietyContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Cleveland Park”
Tunes on Tuesday: You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To
Why this tune? This week I took some time to add another jazz standard to the repertoire of tunes I can play comfortably without the music. The educators all say that the best way to do that is to learn the song in every key, and practice it until it’s in your fingers and head.Continue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To”
Tunes on Tuesday: Wrong Amount of Right
Why this tune? This week’s tune is another from my January song-a-day challenge, that I finally got around to “polishing” for this recording. I wrote this in response to the prompt “the right amount of wrong,” and started by reversing the prompt to see where that would lead. The result was an empowerment song forContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Wrong Amount of Right”
Tunes on Tuesday: My Ship
Why this tune? Kurt Weill wrote “My Ship” in 1941 for the musical “Lady in the Dark,” featuring lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Weill got his start as a classical composer in his native Germany, best known for “The Threepenny Opera” from 1928 and its most famous song “Mack the Knife.” Weill fled Nazi persecution inContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: My Ship”
Tunes on Tuesday: You and the Night and the Music
Why this tune? In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month in the US, this week’s tune is a tribute to one of the many Jewish American composers who helped create the body of work we know as the “Great American Songbook,” source of many of the jazz standards we still play today. Arthur Schwartz, andContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: You and the Night and the Music”
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 