A Once in a Century Life -Happy 100th Lenny

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"...everything my father did, in any aspect of his life, was always in the context of love. If he could have, he would have hugged every person on the planet — and he kind of did, through his music." 
~ Jamie Bernstein on her Father, Leonard Bernstein

 On a Sunday afternoon, November 14 1943, at Carnegie Hall, Leonard Bernstein, at just the age of 25, entered the world's spotlight. He was brought in to conduct the New York Philharmonic at the last moment and with that his magnificent ride began. He was a conductor, composer, teacher, mentor, humanitarian, political activist, and ambassador for the arts to the world. He LIVED with every pore of his being. Larger than life to be sure.

"I'll do it as Bernstein,or not at all."

His own singular complicated, exuberant, passionate, political, Peter Pan-esque existence is legendary.  He could be a "handful" as his daughter describes, but no one lived bigger or left such gifts to the world.  Legend indeed.

"A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future."

 It was as if he had so much to share and had to get it out or he might burst-be it for the ballet, the Broadway stage, the conductor's podium with every major symphony orchestra or the timeless and marvelous Young People's concerts.  

"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."

Most lights that shine so intensely burn out and cease. No one remembers too much about them, but Leonard Bernstein's light was so immense that it could never go out-never die. It will always shine, like a beacon of sheer joy,of promise and hope. 

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 "It is the artists of the world, the feelers and the thinkers who will ultimately save us; who can articulate, educate, defy, insist, sing and shout the big dreams."
  
Last weekend while sitting at Tanglewood, the place he adored, and where he conducted his last concert, listening to Andris Nelsons conduct the BSO perform, along with Yo-Yo Ma, a new John Williams' piece, "Highland's Ghost", composed in part to celebrate Bernstein's centennial and the "spirit" of Tanglewood, everyone in that huge crowd felt a presence.  The music Williams wrote is "...a little haunted by Lenny." No doubt.  Through his music, and his work,the light that is Bernstein haunts us all, pushing us, moving us, beckoning us to go forward...to create, to heal, to help, to sing, to love, to live! and oh what a light he left us. Happy Birthday Lenny!
  
"We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good We'll do the best we know. We'll build our house and chop our wood And make our garden grow. And make our garden grow!"
~ Leonard Bernstein's Candide

Bernstein conducting the Boston Symphony in a performance of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony at Tanglewood, in 1970. 
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  Bernstein Playlist via NPR

Visit The Bernstein Experience

Forever Frank

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 "Whatever else has been said about me personally is unimportant. When I sing, I believe. I'm honest."

Frank Sinatra

I don't think there is a single moment of our lives that can't be scored with a Sinatra song,  "In the wee small hours", "I did it my way", "Come fly with me", "The best is yet to come..."  His was the 20th century sound. Before Elvis or The Beatles or Michael Jackson there was Sinatra.   The first pop star, with screaming girls fainting in the seats and lining up for blocks and blocks to hear the skinny crooner from Hoboken NJ.  He was a star whose persona often shadowed his genius.  Ring-a ding, coolio, New York NewYork satires have often eclipsed what Frank Sinatra was really about...the song.  Yes, he defined "cool" for a generation with his tipped fedora, cigarette and glass of Jack Daniels...every guy wanted to be him and every girl wanted him.  He could be aloof, even a bully, with a temper but a huge heart who was ever present for a friend and who fought for what was right, standing side by side with his black friends and colleagues that couldn't enter the front doors of clubs they played or stay in the same hotels.  Sinatra was a loner who had a flip side.  A woman on each arm and a Rat Pack of good buddies to carouse with til dawn...every man of his generation emulated the look and the style of Sinatra.

 

"If you don't know the guy on the other side of the world, love him anyway because he's just like you. He has the same dreams, the same hopes and fears.
 It's one world, pal. We're all neighbors."

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 Frank (everyone can call him Frank) took the fluff out of popular music and honed it into an art form.  He defined the American Songbook and infused each lyric with his emotion that resonated in every note.  No one to this day interpreted a song like Sinatra.  He found space and meaning and truth beyond what the songwriters themselves knew was there.  There have been a lot of great singers but only Sinatra could stamp a song with ownership.  So many songs that are considered standards belong to Sinatra and it is hard to hear them without hearing his voice...The Voice  In the 50s that voice evolved with a grittier edge as experience took over the crooner, he matured  from the Bobby Soxer popularity, stepped away from the bandstand and stood alone in front of the microphone.  He poured his emotion into each lyric and told his life through the music. Be it the cool playboy with "the world on a string" or the lonely guy at the bar asking "set 'em up Joe".    

" Throughout my career, if I have done anything, I have paid attention to every note and every word I sing - if I respect the song. If I cannot project this to a listener, I fail.”

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  Often forgotten is his acting, fighting for legitimacy and acceptance he made his own way winning the roles and an Oscar for From Here to Eternity. But it was and remains the music that defined the legend . Don't go thinking New York New York was who he was, listen to the voice, listen to his years with Nelson Riddle, Tommy Dorsey, The Count Basie Orchestra, listen to the richness laid through cigarette smoke, Jack Daniels and LIFE.  Hear the man and the sound that will live forever. 

 

  "A man is only as good as his word...and I'm damned good with my words"

  

With my Dad's love for Frank, his was the soundtrack of my life. There was a Sinatra song playing in the background for every occasion...good and not so good. Beyond the persona, beyond the extraordinary celebrity, beyond the tabloids was and is the music.  There was Tony, Ella, Sarah Vaughan...but it is Frank, forever Frank, who makes me pull over, smile and reach for a Kleenex.

Happy 100th birthday Frances Albert

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 "May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine."

I Still Wanna Hold Their Hand-50 Years Ago Today, The Beatles Really BIG Show

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 “The only thing that’s different is the hair, as far as I can see. I give them a year.” 

Ray Bloch Musical Director The Ed Sullivan Show,1964

 _{On February 9, 1964 the country was still grieving  after the assassination of President Kennedy in November.  With still  one foot  in the 50s, the times "they were a changing".  We were still living in black and white -literally and figuratively but 1964 was an extraordinary and pivotal year culturally, racially, and socially. The events that took place would forever change our identity as a nation. Generations would be divided.  Women would question their roles.  The Civil Rights Movement would take on quiet protest and unspeakable violence.  This was the year of  The Freedom Summer, The Free Speech Movement, the election of Lyndon Johnson by a landslide, the launch of The Great Society and The War on Poverty, the publication of The Feminine Mystique, Voting Rights, and the escalation of our involvement in Vietnam.  A year that introduced Simon and Garfunkle, Betwitched, Mary Poppins, The Supremes, My Fair Lady...and it all kicked off with a visit from four lads from across The Pond.}

 "Now yesterday and today our theater's been jammed with newspapermen and hundreds of photographers from all over the nation, and these veterans agreed with me that this city never has witnessed the excitement stirred by these youngsters from Liverpool who call themselves The Beatles. Now tonight, you're gonna twice be entertained by them. Right now, and again in the second half of our show. Ladies and gentlemen, The Beatles! Let's bring them on."  
Ed Sullivan February 9,1964

I was not around to witness the launch of Beatlemania but my generation, as all that would follow, would be forever  changed culturally and musically by what would become known as Beatlemania. 

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  “How do you find America?” Ringo Starr jokingly replied, “Turn left at Greenland.”

 <sub>On February 9 the country tuned into a favorite Sunday night tradition, The Ed Sullivan Show, but it wasn't to watch TopoGigio.  The Beatles had arrived in America and this would be their first televised appearance live on this stage!  They were 4 mop topped kids from Liverpool with skinny ties and stacked heels and over 73 million people tuned in that night to witness the phenomenon known as The Beatles. It was amazing anyone could hear the boys at all amongst the screaming teens in the audience and throngs outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre.  The screaming was so loud that Ed Sullivan scolded his audience that if they didn't quiet down he would "call a barber."  So it was that night that a country in much need of  diversion found it in the new sound, the new look and the personality of these four guys who would literally turn New York City, the country, and the world,  upside down.  40% of everyone in the country watched The Beatles that night.

 

"I’ve heard that while the show was on there were no reported crimes, or very few. When The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, even the criminals had a rest for ten minutes".
George Harrison</sub>

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<sub>Imagine the thrill for us going on The Ed Sullivan Show, especially when they told us it was the biggest show ever. I still remember one of the producer guys coming into our dressing room just before we went on and saying ‘It’s being watched by seventy million people, you know’. It was like ‘Shhh. Don’t tell us that now. Tell us later’. But then, when you look at the tape, we don’t look nervous".
Paul McCartney

 Not everyone welcomed The Beatles with adoration.  In Newsweek's cover story their reviewer wrote:</sub>

“Visually, they are a nightmare: tight, dandified, Edwardian/Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair. Musically, they are a near-disaster: guitars and drums slamming out a merciless beat that does away with secondary rhythms, harmony, and melody. Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty shouts of “yeah, yeah, yeah!”) are a catastrophe, a preposterous farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments.” “…the odds are they will fade away, as most adults confidently predict.”

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Their music has become the soundtrack of our lives and even after 50 years no, no matter their age, can deny the extraordinary impact they had.  This was not a "flash in the pan"-many who followed and imitated certainly were, but The Beatles changed the game 
and even those who feared Rock n' Roll could not ignore them. The Beatles would make a total of three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show-all in black and white-the final appearance on August of 1965 was one day before they launched their North American Tour at Shea Stadium and one week before The Ed Sullivan Show would be broadcast in color.

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