My association with Cole has, of course, been one of the highlights of my career.
-Fred Astaire
So many jazz musicians continue to love Cole Porter’s compositions, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. It’s amazing to me that Sonny Rollins, after years of practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge, decided to finish his comeback album The Bridge with Porter’s You Do Something To Me. But then again, Rollins loved the Great American Songbook, as I wrote about here in my tribute to him:
For me, Cole Porter always brings Fred Astaire to my mind. And the first Porter song I think of is Night and Day, which was the first sheet music I ever bought:
I found it at an estate sale in White Bear Lake in the mid-1970s. At the same estate sale, I bought my first 78rpm records, which included Fred Astaire singing Night and Day with Leo Reisman and his Orchestra.
I had been watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies on TV for years, so I recognized his name. However, before he sang Night and Day with Ginger Rogers on the screen in the 1934 movie The Gay Divorcee, he sang it two years earlier on Broadway in the musical comedy Gay Divorce. It’s important to note on the sheet music that he is not accompanied by his sister Adele.
Twice, when Astaire was left without a partner, he turned to Cole Porter for inspiration. The first time was in 1931 when his sister Adele retired from show business to marry Lord Charles Cavendish. You can read more about that here:
His first Broadway show after Adele’s retirement was Gay Divorce, which opened on November 29, 1932, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City. That was his only stage musical without Adele and also turned out to be his last Broadway musical. After the show, Astaire moved to Hollywood. Interestingly, a week before the opening of Gay Divorce, Astaire recorded two Porter compositions at Victor’s Gramercy Recording Studio in Manhattan with Leo Reisman and his Orchestra: Night and Day and on the flip side I've Got You on My Mind:
The second time he turned to Cole Porter for inspiration was after the 1939 film The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, his last film with Ginger Rogers (not counting The Barkleys of Broadway when they were reunited one last time 1949). On this occasion, he teamed with Porter on Broadway Melody of 1940, in which Porter’s big hit Begin The Beguine was prominently featured.
Artie Shaw’s interpretation of Porter’s Begin The Beguine recorded in 1938 for the Bluebird label had already brought this song and Cole Porter’s music to a larger audience:
From Broadway Melody of 1940, here is Astaire and Powell’s famous tap dance duet to that song:
Note to lack of gloss on the dance floor where they do most of their dancing. I guess, only a dancer would recognize that - slippery dance floors are death to hoofers….
Cole Porter was born on June 9, 1891, in Peru, Indiana. His story is not from rags to riches, as he came from one of Indiana’s wealthiest families. It is more in line with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s - Midwestern beginnings to East Coast fame. He attended prep school at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts and went on to Yale University. He majored in English and minored in music. He wrote hundreds of songs while at Yale, including the football fight songs Bulldog and Bingo Eli Yale, which are still played today.
His first work on Broadway was with his Yale classmate T. Lawrson Riggs on the comic opera See America First, a spoof of the George M. Cohen musicals popular at that time. Although the show was a flop - it closed after only two weeks - Victor Records released Porter’s first record, which included the show’s I’ve a Shooting Box in Scotland:
At the start of WWI, Porter moved to Paris to help with the war effort. He lived the high life and in 1918 met Linda Lee Thomas, a rich Kentucky-born divorcee eight years older than him. They married the following year. They were devoted to each other and remained married until her death in 1954. After the war, Porter returned to New York and reintroduced himself on Broadway. In 1928 he had his first hit on Broadway, Paris. Before long, he became a renowned show composer. However, in 1937 he sustained serious injuries to his legs in a horseback riding accident that left him in the hospital for eight months. Although his accident slowed him down, he remained active into the late 1950s. His last Broadway show was Les Girls in 1957 starring Gene Kelly and Mitzi Gaynor.
Incidentally, Cole Porter had two movies made about him. The first made during his lifetime, when Cary Grant played him in the 1946 movie Night and Day:
The second was when Kevin Kline played him in the 2004 movie De-Lovely.
So many of Porter’s songs have been played over and over by different jazz musicians. For example, in 1934, Porter wrote You’d Be So Easy To Love for the Broadway show Anything Goes. He re-wrote it in 1936 for the film Born To Dance, introduced by Eleanor Powell. However, it became most famous in 1936 when Billie Holiday recorded it with the Teddy Wilson Orchestra for the Brunswick label as just Easy To Love:
In 1957, for his album Hank, Hank Mobley recorded it for the Blue Note label:
Then, in 1961, for his album “Jug”, Gene Ammons recorded it for the Prestige label:
I love Ray Barretto’s conga drum on that one.
All of these versions of Porter’s Easy To Love were released during his lifetime, although it’s likely he never heard them. By the late 1950s, Porter’s condition worsened and in 1958 his bad leg was amputated. He never wrote another song after the amputation and lived his life out in relative seclusion in a room in the Waldorf Towers in New York City. He died in 1964.
Porter’s song Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor) sung by Mabel Mercer with Bobby Short on piano from a 1969 live performance at the Town Hall in New York City reminds me of Cole Porter in those last few years:
Frank Sinatra was also a big Porter fan and helped bring another generation of listeners to Porter’s music. During his association with arranger Nelson Riddle, Porter’s songs held prominent spots on his albums, often selected for the first song on a side. For example, from their 1956 Capitol release Songs For Swingin’ Lovers!, I’ve Got You Under My Skin kicks off side 2:
Note the similarity of this song to Night and Day.
And one more for the road. Carmen McRae has always held a special place in my heart. When I was in college in New York from 1980 through 1984, Carmen McRae played all the time at the Blue Note in the Village. I would go see her whenever I could - automatic. Once in a while she’d sing Porter’s Love For Sale. A lot of great singers performed this Porter classic, but forget all the orchestration on this one - I think McRae with the small group put the most into the tune:
I was buying what she was selling!
Cole Porter was such an important figure in American music history and no one ever talks about him. He is one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. George Gershwin had Ira, Rodgers had Hart and then Hammerstein, Ruby had Kalmar, and even Elton John had Bernie Taupin, but Cole Porter also wrote his own lyrics for his songs. This week, I wanted to re-introduce him through the musicians who loved his compositions and covered them. With Astaire, Porter started out elegant, but later on jazz musicians and vocalists made him swing.
Next week, we’re back on that Big River called Jazz. We’ll dig our paddles in and explore the world of Charles Lloyd.
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Until then, keep on walking….