Jerome Kern–Love of Jazz

We just listened to Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are” in full harmonic glory in the last post. We thought you might be interested in an interview from 1994, when Marian McPartland asked Stephen Sondheim about the song. Here is the Sondheim’s response.

We can see from this interview that Sondheim was impressed with Kern’s jazz roots. Fair enough.

With that in mind, we thought you might be interested in another song from the 1939 musical, Very Warm for May. It is the lively instrumental called, “Harlem Boogie-Woogie.”

Just in case you might think that Kern came to jazz late in his career, we would like to acquaint you with a delightful song from 1912’s The Red Petticoat, one of Kern’s first songs on Broadway. It is called “The Ragtime Restaurant.” Here is the Frank Saddler orchestration, sung by Hugh Panaro and Rebecca Luker in the John McGlinn restoration recording on EMI.

Because this post is filled with happy, toe-tapping tunes, we think it is appropriate to end this post with a delightful song written for the Duncan sisters in the 1919 musical, She’s a Good Fellow. Here is Jeanne Lehman and Rebecca Luker singing another Saddler orchestration of a Kern song called, “The Bullfrog Patrol.”