5/11/2023 0 Comments Wizard of oz tunesmithWhen I look back on it-though I didn’t realize it then-the orchestrations showed an enormous amount of melodic invention, even though it was limited to hot solos.” They gigged in nightclubs and the lake steamer boats around Buffalo.Īrlen said in his biography, “My professional piano was a kind of attempt at aping what jazz I heard at the time and superimposing on that my own ideas-which led to orchestrating and my beginnings. Everything changed when at 12 he learned a ragtime jazz piece called “Indianola.” Suddenly, boy and piano were inseparable.Īt 15, he quit school and began to play in movie houses, then formed a jazz trio that grew into an 11-piece band called the Buffalodians. A reluctant student, he dutifully practiced his classical exercises. When he was 9, Hyman’s mother bought him a piano. Explaining his father’s influence, Arlen told Harpers in 1960: “He improvised wonderful melodies to fit the texts that had no music, and that’s undoubtedly where my sense of melody comes from.” John, Carly Simon, Tom Jones and Harry Connick, Jr.īorn Hyman Arluck on Februin Buffalo, N.Y., he was the son of a celebrated cantor. Harold’s songs always do.”Īmong the songs that have grown on the public over the years are such standards as “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Blues in the Night,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Let’s Fall in Love,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “I’ve Got the World On a String,” “One For My Baby” and “Accentuate the Positive.” Arlen’s work has been covered by luminaries like Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Aretha Franklin, Diana Krall, Dr. I remember thinking that ‘The Man That Got Away’ was too long and unorthodox to be a hit, but it grew on people. His songs are, well, peculiarly constructed, so that I never know what to expect. Ira Gershwin added, “He is always original, always himself. “Harold’s melodies are way out-they take unexpected twists and turns,” said Johnny Mercer. “His melodies are so fresh and original that they challenge the lyricist.” “His tunes are studded with harmonic and rhythmic surprises that are distinctive and unmistakably his own,” said E.Y. And often as not, I’m happier with the extension than I would have been trying to keep the song in regular form.”Īrlen’s illustrious lyric partners agree. “Sometimes I get into trouble in order to get out of trouble I break the form: I start twisting and turning, get into another key or go 16 extra bars in order to resolve the song. “I don’t think I’m trying to be different,” Arlen said in his biography Happy With The Blues. As a composer, he routinely broke out of Tin Pan Alley’s standard 32-bar model to let his songs wind and wander, but never at the expense of memorable tunes. Harold Arlen once described his melodies as “tapeworms.” Though not the first thing that leaps to mind upon hearing the breathtaking beauty and artistic invention of his songs, Arlen did have a point.
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