[Dixielandjazz] Peggy Lee book reviewed - Newsday, November 13, 2014

[Charles Suhor]

I'm glad that this review emphasizes Peggy Lee's distinctive musical genius, while acknowledging that her personal life was often a mess. True of Bix, Bird, and so many others. Not all, of course. 

Charlie

On Nov 14, 2014, at 2:15 PM, Robert Ringwald wrote:

> Peggy Lee Bio by James Gavin Puts Singer in Spotlight
> by Gene Seymour
> Newsday, November 13, 2014
> Peggy Lee fused a minimalist vocal style and an arresting stage presence to transcend
> generations as both idol and influence. Jazz-blues giants from Louis Armstrong to
> Ray Charles admired her timing and tone, while pop-rockers from Paul McCartney to
> Madonna worshipped her calibrated intensity and dramatic instincts.
> She wore her yearning for the spotlight with a near-glacial composure that, given
> her mercurial temperament and stormy offstage life, may have been an even greater
> work of art than all her signature recordings, including the unlikely 1969 hit that
> gives James Gavin’s biography its title.
> With the same reportorial elbow grease and musical savvy found in Gavin’s biographies
> of Lena Horne and Chet Baker, “Is That All There Is?” surges forth as an epic American
> saga; it begins on the North Dakota prairie where Norma Delores Egstrom decided at
> age 15 that she was a singer good enough to leave behind a troubled childhood for
> the life of a big band songbird.
> According to Gavin, the teenager who would be Peggy Lee had an uncanny affinity for
> black bands such as Count Basie’s, where slick invention sprang from a taut beat.
> Her breakthrough came from her association with another white crossover artist, Benny
> “King of Swing” Goodman, with whose orchestra she patented what she called her “softly,
> with feeling” style capable of handling both rowdy blues and gossamer ballads.
> It was in Goodman’s band that Lee also found the love of her life: guitarist Dave
> Barbour, for whom she carried a candle even after their tempestuous marriage ended
> in 1951. Subsequent marriages and affairs couldn’t dim that flame for Barbour, who
> died in 1965.
> By that time, Lee’s fame had reached iconic stature, thanks to such 1950s triumphs
> as her supporting-actress Oscar nomination for “Pete Kelly’s Blues”; her songwriting
> and studio work on Disney’s “Lady and the Tramp” and a streak of hits that included
> “Lover,” “Fever” and “I’m a Woman.”
> Her professional momentum slowed by the late 1960s after which the setbacks outweighed
> the successes. Gavin tabulates both with sometimes numbing thoroughness, citing,
> without sensationalizing, her delusions, excessive drinking and drugging, and testiness
> with employees, friends and family.
> Still, even through debilitating illnesses, Lee continued to stand and deliver her
> music until she could no longer stand. And then she would sing sitting down. Peggy
> Lee made singing -- and living -- look easier than it actually was.
> -30
> 
> -Bob Ringwald
> Bob Ringwald Solo Piano, duo, Trio, Quartet
> Fulton Street Jazz Band
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> Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, 
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