Jazz, blues and nostalgia.
Musical time-traveling: Little Esther, barely out of childhood but already singing with a soulful voice about her love for old men (‘Aged and mellow blues’).
When it became ‘hot’ for jazz orchestras to create swing versions of classical music, Ernie & Emilio Caceres found inspiration from Dvorak with ‘Humoresque in Swing Time’.
Tony Bennett with Dave Brubeck, and Bennett’s early hit ‘Cold, cold heart’ in a subdued version by Jerry Lee Lewis. Even comedic duo Homer & Jethro take a crack at it.
Kay Starr amidst giants like Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Max Roach, and Nat King Cole.
Particularly noteworthy is underrated tenor saxophonist Brew Moore, who, during the bebop era, sounded ‘old-fashioned’. He believed that anyone who didn’t play like Lester Young was missing the mark. When fortune finally smiled upon him, he tragically fell down the stairs to his death.
Dinah Washington with two versions of the ‘Salty Papa Blues’ with an eighteen-year gap, accompanied respectively by Lionel Hampton and Quincy Jones.
Additionally: Cheerful sadness in the comedic tear-jerker ‘She’s More to Be Pitied Than Censured’ performed by vaudeville star Beatrice Kay, Charles Aznavour, Blossom Dearie, Peggy Lee, Elvis Presley, Count Basie & Joe Williams, The Ramblers, and ‘Mister Bongo’ Jack Costanzo with ‘Inchworm’.
In short: Another Palace episode reminiscent of the olden days
