“Darn That Dream”, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”, “Call Me Irresponsible” — Those are just three of the many popular songs composed by Jimmy Van Heusen (photo above). Lyrics for the first two were written by Johnny Burke and the third by Sammy Cahn.
Van Heusen won four Oscars and one Emmy Award and wrote more songs (85) recorded by Frank Sinatra than any other composer. He also wrote the songs for six out of the seven Bing Crosby/Bob Hope “Road” movies.
In 2014, Jim Burns, President and Executive Producer of Burns Media Productions, created a documentary, Jimmy Van Heusen Swingin’ with Frank & Bing. Reviewing it for the New York Daily News, David Hinckley wrote, “When they talk about the great golden-age songwriters like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and the Gershwins, they sometimes leave out Jimmy Van Heusen. This delightful hour proves that’s a mistake.”
On Sunday, October 6, at the New Jersey Jazz Society’s Jersey Jazz LIVE! event at the Madison (NJ) Community Arts Center, Burns will screen his documentary. Then, Burns and author/historian Chuck Granata will discuss the unique musical partnership between Van Heusen and Sinatra. That will be followed by a live performance of Van Heusen’s music by pianist Jon Weber, guitarist Lance Conrad, and vocalist Anais Reno (from left, in photos below).
Weber has recorded and toured all over the world, winning numerous accolades for performance and composition. Among jazz artists who have performed with him or recorded his music are the late trumpeter Roy Hargrove, vibraphonist Gary Burton, and tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander.
Conrad started out as a classical guitarist but shifted to jazz when he heard guitarist Bruce Forman’s Coast to Coast band. At the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, Conrad studied with Forman and drummer Aaron Serfaty and played in bands under the direction of composer/arranger/conductor Vince Mendoza and saxophonist Bob Mintzer. He also leads his own group, Strictly Trio, which mainly performs original compositions and arrangements of jazz standards.
Reno was featured as a Rising Star in the March 2022 issue of Jersey Jazz. In a review of her first album, Lovesome Thing: Anais Reno Sings Ellington & Strayhorn (Harbinger: March 2021), JJ’s Joe Lang wrote, “It is rare to find a young vocalist who exhibits the maturity in her interpretation of songs that Anais Reno provides . . . This is not only an impressive debut recording, but deserves to be on any list of best vocal albums of the year.”
In advance of the October 6th program, we asked Reno to share her thoughts about Van Heusen’s music. “One of my personal favorites,” she said, “is called ‘Oh, You Crazy Moon’, written in 1939. It was played by Tommy Dorsey in the year it was written, recorded again by some of my favorite singers such as Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra, and, now in 2024, I find myself singing it for an audience that seems to love its clever, yet heartbreaking writing almost as much as I do.
“Sarah Vaughan,” she continued, “sang it as a truly despondent ballad, allowing the listener to soak in the heartbreak the narrator is experiencing in real time. On the other hand, Frank Sinatra lightly swung it, intelligently playing into the humorous sense of remove the narrator would like to feel from this heartbreak, yet cannot seem to. It is music like this that brought 12-year-old me (she’s now 20) to curiosity about jazz and continues to challenge my interpretive habits today.”
The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, NJ. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts begin at 3 p.m. Admission will be $10 for NJJS members and $15 for non-members. Student ad¬mission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for pur¬chase. To order tickets in advance, log onto https://artsintrinsic.ticketleap.com/jjs-jimmy-van-heusen-10-06-24/
Funding for Jersey Jazz Live! has been made possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a part¬ner agency of The National Endow¬ment for the Arts. This program is also proudly supported by a grant from The Summit Foundation.
Anais Reno photo by Matt Baker
