[Dixielandjazz] Vince Giordano, Mark Walter interviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Rare Cabaret Tunes by Cy Walter Brought Back to Life for an Evening
by Tom Dworetzky
New York Daily News, May 8, 2013
Cabaret performances are intimate, fleeting, like a stranger in the night whispering
in your ear -- then gone.
It was by such a fleeting chance that this reporter, brought to an event by a friendship
unrelated to music, got to hear rare, vintage tunes by a legend of cabaret, all performed
just for a night in an intimate setting by both established and rising stars and
with accompaniment by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks.
The evening was billed as a party to celebrate the retirement and 56th birthday of
my longtime friend Mark Walter at Sofia's Restaurant below the venerable Edison Hotel
in midtown -- but it was really much more.
As part of the event, he was honoring the music of his father, Cy Walter, an accomplished
American Songbook pianist and composer whose career spanned the halcyon musical era
of the mid-'30s through the late-'60s.
Reconstructing his father's career has been a labor of love for Mark. And his hunt
for rare recordings was how he and Giordano became friends. That friendship, in turn,
led to a remarkable evening, which brought together some of modern cabaret's luminaries,
such as KT Sullivan, Steve Ross, Marlene VerPlanck, Ronny Whyte, Jenny Lin and Jennifer
Sheehan, to perform both classics of the songbook and also some of Cy Walter's nearly
lost songs.
After the festivities, the News asked both Mark Walter and Giordano about Cy Walter's
place in cabaret, the almost-lost works that were performed and the serendipity that
brought it all together.
News: First, Mark, can you tell us about your father Cy Walter's place in the cabaret
scene during the decades he was active?
Walter: Cy played in many smart nightspots, but was most often at the old Drake Hotel's
Drake Room. His unique virtuosity earned him many complimentary nicknames from his
contemporaries, including the "Park Avenue Tatum" -- as the Cafe Society pianist
parallel to Harlem-based Art Tatum -- and the "Dean of Cocktail Pianists."
He also accompanied many famous chanteuses, like my godmother Mabel Mercer, Lee Wiley
and Viennese-born Greta Keller.
News: How did this search begin for you? You were only 11 when Cy died and really
knew little of his musical legacy growing up.
Walter: My journey really began when preservationist and performer Michael Feinstein
suggested to my mother, Cam Walter, well over a decade ago that Cy's sheet-music
legacy deserved filing with the Library of Congress.
She only told me of this some years later, perhaps nine years ago. She then started
sharing details and memorabilia from my father's amazing career. I was intrigued
and thrilled -- and have since searched out long-ago-made recordings and rare sheet
music to bring my father's work back to life. I also now have a website to share
it,
http://www.cywalter.com
News: How did you manage to bring this evening together? And to get all these stars
to help you?
Walter: They all generously agreed to perform, with Vince and the Nighthawks' orchestral
accompaniment, a few wonderful numbers. And others came to support them, including
the legendary cabaret singers Julie Wilson and Andrea Marcovicci, as well as famed
Great American Songbook composer Burton Lane's widow, Lynn Lane. I've been blessed
by their friendship, which is in a real sense another life-changing gift from my
parents.
News: How did you get involved with the music that you now play – and curate as well?
Giordano: I got bitten by this music, so to speak, when I was 5 years old, listening
to my grandmother's old phonograph records.
Back in the '50s no one understood what I was about. I was this weird kid, but I
just kept on going with my dream of playing this music and of recreating what I heard
on those old 78 RPM records.
There were a lot of ups and downs and the Nighthawks were formed. We try to keep
the Great American Songbook and jazz and dancing alive -- and it seems to be working.
We've gotten work with 10 movie directors so far, including on the "Boardwalk Empire"
television series and in films like "The Aviator."
News: Can you talk a bit about the historical parallels between the present day and
the '20s and '30s, which make this music, both in its sound and its stoic gaiety
in the face of hard times, appropriate for today?
Giordano: The music always brings people to a happier place. We've had so many comments
at Sofia's that people weren't feeling so hot when they came in -- they were depressed
or tired -- and they come up and tell us that this is better than going to a psychiatrist!
They say, "I have a good feeling now and I'm going out on a cloud."
This music from that time is able to do that. It puts you in another place.
I often say that music is a reflection of the times and that the times are a reflection
of the music. And in America in the '30s, music was the only thing that people had.
There was nothing else left, so they had to write something that would get people
inspired to get through the next day.
News: How did this evening come about with Mark?
Giordano: I met Mark Walter when I left the music business for a few years and took
a job at Bertelsmann, BMG, which was the company that took over RCA.
I was in the archives, which I just loved. The past is so fascinating.
I got a call from this fellow who told me he was Cy Walter's son and was trying to
track down this unknown recording that his father had made, and he asked if I would
put in some research. I said that I would because part of my job was not only to
help the company, but also people doing stories or research. Lo and behold, I found
these recording sheets of Cy Walter of an album that never came out, and I sent them
to Mark.
So a friendship came from that. I told him, of course, that I enjoyed his father's
work, but I had no idea that I would ever be talking to his son and trying to help
put the family together with the music.
News: What was Cy Walter like as a pianist and composer?
Giordano: I was always amazed with his brilliant piano playing. He was such a master
interpreter -- you never, ever knew where he was going with it. It was so inventive
and that was what truly grabs me. He had just fantastic ability and technique and
this imagination on the way he runs up and down on these pieces by other composers.
And then, finally, I found out that he was also a pretty interesting composer, too.
I don't have all that many tunes by Cy Walter that he composed himself, but the few
that we played that night were very exceptional and different.
News: Would you talk a bit, if you can, about the four that we heard performed that
night and the artists who performed them?
Giordano: We started with Ronny Whyte, who sang a Harold Arlen tune accompanied by
the Nighthawks, and then we moved to Marlene VerPlanck, who performed Walter's "Some
Fine Day." Walter had written both the music and the lyrics to that song, and it
had recently been recorded by VerPlanck and previously recorded and performed by
Mabel Mercer (with Cy Walter's and Stan Freeman's duo piano accompaniment) and by
Bobby Short.
Jennifer Sheehan sang Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are," a famous standard that
Cy Walter was the first pianist to perform in Kern's play, "Very Warm For May."
Jennifer also performed a very interesting piece, "Time and Tide." The music to it
was written by Cy Walter, and the lyrics by Alec Wilder. It's a very hard piece.
It's well-constructed and in a few places it is dissonant -- not where it will offend
you -- but it just really grabs you with the different chords and melodies. They're
very striking, and that's what I was really knocked out by about it.
I hadn't heard it before; the family's copy was lost, but Mark found the music in
the library of the lyricist, with the help of archivist Judy Bell and sent it to
me.
Like Marlene VerPlanck's singing of "Some Fine Day," the Nighthawks' orchestral accompaniment
to Jennifer Sheehan's performance of "Time and Tide" was a first, something the band
undertook at Mark's urging.
The last two Cy Walter songs were sung by Steve Ross. One was a lovely piece entitled
"See A Ring Around The Moon," written by Walter with lyricist Chilton Ryan.
The second was a very brilliant song entitled "The Astaire," with the music written
by Walter and the lyrics by Andrew Rosenthal, for Fred Astaire's creation of a new
swing-trot ballroom dance as part of the launch of his famed dance studios.
The piece should have gone to bigger and better places but it was a mysterious recording,
too. There was only one orchestral recording of it, by Fred Astaire on vocals and
with Benny Goodman's orchestra accompanying. It somehow was not released, but Mark's
family had a test pressing of it.
KT Sullivan performed "I Want To Be Bad" in true Helen Kane "Betty Boop" style. Pianist
Jenny Lin also performed Cy Walter's challenging arrangement of Cole Porter's "Begin
The Beguine," which had recently been recorded by her.
Finally, Mark played recordings for the audience of Cy Walter himself performing
several tunes, including Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are" and Cole Porter's
"Love For Sale"; Walter accompanying Mabel Mercer on a late '30s recording of George
and Ira Gershwin's and Dubose Heyward's "Summertime," from "Porgy and Bess;" and
Walter's playing of his own extremely creative and demanding piano solo composition
"Mrs. Malaprop."
News: It was pretty exciting to hear some of these tunes rediscovered and played
for the first time in decades for the audience. How about for you and the band?
Giordano: The remarkable thing is -- that with all those singers and performers --
it was all unrehearsed. We just came together, all took a deep breath, and said,
"You follow me, and I'll follow you."
We were really riding at the edge of the curve.
News: What's next for Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks?
Giordano: We are soon to be back at Jazz At Lincoln Center with Michael Feinstein
and Wynton Marsalis. And we celebrate our fifth anniversary of playing regularly
on Mondays and Tuesdays at Sofia's Restaurant. It's great to have a regular gig,
especially when you can have an 11-piece band!
-30-



-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

"When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife." -Prince Philip