Sunday Morning Jazz - Frank Sinatra - Serenade In Blue

Although Frank Sinatra died almost 15 years ago,  he's still a household name among those who love smooth jazz.  Few remember however, the ups and downs of Sinatra's career.  High school dropout. Started out in small clubs.  Got picked up by two of the most famous big band leaders of the 1930s, Harry James and then Tommy Dorsey.  Branched out own his on and did spectacularly well during the war years. But, by the early 50's, Sinatra was passé.  He lost his recording contract.

He got back to music in the strangest way, via a non-musical film role in one of the greatest films of all time, From Here to Eternity.   His recordings began to soar on the charts once again, only to fade at the end of the 50s.  Capitol Records dropped him, so he started his own record company, Reprise.

Funny how we think that stars are always starts.  We sense luck and forget the energy, resilience, and persistence it takes to rise to the top, or what it takes to stand back up after you've fallen.

Anyway, here is Frank Sinatra singing a beautiful melody,  written by Harry Warren, a prolific song writer of over 800 songs, including "I Only Have Eyes for You", "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby", "That's Amore", "The More I See You", and the first gold record in history, "Chattanooga Choo Choo", made famous by Glen Miller and his Orchestra.

Jazz for a Lazy Sunday:Bunny Berigan & Orch-I Can't Get Started

Bunny Berigan, one of the most original jazz musicians of the 20;s and 30’s, was given a fiddle when he was a kid and later his grandfather gave him a trumpet.  He learned to play both and by high school, he was playing fiddle with the school band and trumpet professionally with a jazz orchestra.

Later he hooked up with Benny Goodman.  Want to hear some other great Berigan solos?  Listen to Goodman’s ‘King Porter Stomp’ and ‘Sometimes I’m Happy,’ both from 1935. 

Soon Berigan was on his way, with his own orchestra and a hit number called ‘I Can’t Get Started.’  Recorded in 1937, it was to be his one big shot.  By 1940, Berigan’s orchestra was gone, he’d gotten on with Tommy Dorsey’s band (Check out his solo on ‘Marie.’) and then been dropped.  Heavy drinking had worked its horrific transformation, turning promise and future into empty and past.  In 1942, at the age of 33, cirrhosis of the liver silenced the magic trumpet of Bernard R. Berigan.  But, the bits and pieces of solos and songs still thrill, their ups and downs, happiness and melancholy always reminding us of the talent that once was Bunny Berigan.