Sunday, January 28, 2007

STAGES OF LOVE: MY FIRST PUBLISHED WORK











Yesterday I neglected to include a photo of the late great Jerome Kern in honor of his birthday. Here is a shot of him on stage at the curtain call of "Showboat" in 1927-- its very first Broadway production. Kern's lyricist partner in all of this was the late great Oscar Hammerstein II-- long before he collaborated officially with with the equally great Richard Rodgers. A Jerome Kern melody is simply wonderful after all of these many years. We lost Mr. Kern on November 11Th, 1945-- cut down in his prime. By the way,. I am putting into publication tomorrow the first volume of my songs entitled "STAGES OF LOVE-- WANTED FOUND, LOST AND FORGIVEN. I am reprinting the dedication of the volume and the composer's notes here:
“STAGES OF LOVE”
This initial publication of forty-three songs is humbly dedicated forever To Tony Westbrook. Tony was the first artist who had enough faith in this composer to venture many long hours in the recording studio, the rehearsal hall and helping to define the sound and structure of these first recordings. Many of the songs in this volume were recorded by him for the very first time in the years 2000-2003. And so for his faith, dedication and hard work, this first published work is humbly dedicated to him: a talent to be reckoned with for many years to come!!

Composer’s Notes

Twenty- Seven years and counting. That’s how long it’s been since I first had a song that I had written performed on a stage or recorded by a gifted singer. It’s a comforting thought to know that I have been able to work and create many songs with some very incredible talent: some of whom are represented as my co-author and collaborator in the songs in this book.

Some of these include my great friend and first collaborator: Randy Ames
and my arranger and best friend Tim Doran. Without, Tim’s amazing faith in me and without his most incredible talent the music writing would have stopped in 1990. Tim is my angel on earth. I would like to thank Terry Snyder, Adam Simmons, Greg Lastrapes, Billy Murphy and Michael Criste. And of course: Tony Westbrook to whom this publication is dedicated.

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