Chris Ingham    jazz pianist-singer  composer  producer  author

HOAGY II - sleevenotes

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Still the Hippest Guy in the Room

Ah, the fatal allure of the pianist-singer. Fatal in that when some future hyphenates were exposed to it in the movies, our fate was sealed. The empathetic elegance of Dooley Wilson in , the seductive self-pity of Sinatra in and the luxurious swing of Nat Cole in all took their toll. But above all, it was the wise, wry Hoagland ‘Hoagy’ Carmichael in monochrome fantasies like who really sold the role.

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Hoagy was always the hippest guy in the room, still is. Coolly apart from the central action, but all-seeing, all-understanding and always on hand to offer pithy philosophies to the hapless protagonists. And when he played and sang his mysterious, dreamy, amusing songs, people stopped for a moment and listened, felt something and changed a little. That’s a good job.

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A hot jazz junkie and a self-taught pianist, Hoagy always claimed he was a discoverer of tunes rather than a composer, a down home sophisticate with a direct line over the shadows and the rain to the blossom-covered songs of Hoagland. Pumping with a jazz heart, crafted with instinctive Tin Pan Alley smarts, bolstered by harmonies as rich as Kern or Gershwin and topped with melodies dancing like Bix Beiderbecke arpeggii (that’s what Hoagy calls ‘em, must be right), these 70-100 year-old songs still sing to us, still make us stop for a moment. Dazzling absurdity juxtaposes plaintive romanticism while at the centre of everything, the eternal quest for the peacefully dandy. Take me there, brother.

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Nine years and over 100 live shows on from our first album, here’s the second volume. Once more, with these prototypically jazzy Indiana-years masterworks, wartime curiosities and Hollywood gems, we’ve resisted the temptation to reinvent the wheel. Get too clever with stuff that’s already clever, you could end up with something stupid. Controls were set for the heart of the song and we just played, felt something, changed a little. That is a good job.

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1. Don’t Forget to Say No Baby (Carmichael/Johnson/Victor) 2:47                   

2. (Up a) Lazy River (Carmichael/Arodin) 4:21                  

3. The Monkey Song (Carmichael) 2:48              

4. Ain’t There Anyone Here For Love (Carmichael/Adamson) 3:49                 

5. Billy-a-Dick (Carmichael/Webster) 4:32

6. Small Fry (Carmichael/Loesser) 2:29                   

7. Jubilee (Carmichael/Adams) 4:08                     

8. Two Sleepy People (Carmichael/Loesser) 3:21                   

9. In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening (Carmichael/Mercer) 3:32                  

10. Rockin’ Chair (Carmichael) 3:40                   

11. Down, Boy (Carmichael/Adamson) 1.53

12. The Nearness of You (Carmichael/Washington) 2:41                   

13. Winter Moon (Carmichael/Adamson) 3.55                   

14. I Walk With Music (Carmichael/Mercer) 4:05        

15. Heart and Soul (Carmichael/Loesser) 2:42                   

Chris Ingham - piano, vocal

Paul Higgs - trumpet

Andrew Brown - bass

George Double - drums

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Recorded in Bardwell, Suffolk, UK, April 2023

Produced by Chris Ingham

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Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) is one of the most enduring and endearing songwriters from the Golden Age of the Great American Songbook. Wry, wise, sentimental and sophisticated, Hoagy’s songs are beloved for their warmth, humour and jazz-inspired melodic beauty. 

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Ten years and over 100 live shows after our first CD Hoagy, our enthusiasm for Hoagy’s singular oeuvre is undiminished. With the second volume, we’ve continued to aim at infusing the music with the spirit of legendary jazz cornettist and Hoagy’s dear friend Bix Beiderbecke and investing even the most familiar standards with a straight-ahead freshness. Whether big hits or fascinating curiosities, these characterful gems of 20th century songcraft continue to move, delight and inspire us. Tunes we’ve played a thousand times seemed to take on a new shine while other tunes we barely knew have become new best friends. 

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Chris Ingham (piano/vocal) Forming his quartet in 2013, Chris has led over 200 festival and club performances of his Hoagy Carmichael, Dudley Moore and Stan Getz repertoire projects. He is musical director of film song quintet Jazz At The Movies, a record producer (Ruthie Henshall, Joanna Eden), author (Rough Guides to The Beatles and Frank Sinatra) and TV composer (Wartime Crime, How The Beatles Changed The World). Based in East Anglia, he curates jazz clubs in Diss (The Corn Hall) and Bury St Edmunds (Hunter Club). chrisingham.co.uk

Paul Higgs (trumpet) Arranger and trumpeter for NYJO for many years, Paul has worked as a Musical Director at the RSC and National Theatre, as a TV and film composer and a record engineer and producer. One of the UK's most versatile and expressive jazz trumpeters, Paul has played with Nancy Wilson, Shorty Rogers and John Dankworth and is soon to release Pavane II, a second jazz/classical recording featuring his own evocative compositions. paulhiggs.com

Rev. Andrew J. Brown (double bass - CD) For many years, Andrew combined the roles of Minister of the Memorial (Unitarian) Church at Cambridge and professional jazz bass player, though latterly concentrates on the former. He has played and recorded with Peter Oxley, Steve Harley, the Flanagan Ingham Quartet and Riprap and was part of the house trio at the Hunter Club, Bury St Edmunds, where he accompanied Peter King, Alan Barnes, John Etheridge and many of the UK's leading players. andrewjbrown.blogspot.co.uk

Simon Thorpe (double bass - live) One of the UK's best-known jazz bassists, Simon has been nominated twice for a British Jazz Award. He has worked with Bobby Wellins, Stacey Kent (five albums), Bheki Mseleku, Alan Barnes, Elaine Delmar, Scott Hamilton, Amy Winehouse, Imelda Staunton, Imogen Heap, Alexander Armstrong, Maria Ewing and Mica Paris. He leads the swing band Jivin’ Miss Daisy and GershwINNOVATION (music inspired by George Gershwin’s work).  His compositions include music for the BAFTA award winning short film, Wedding Espresso.

George Double (drums) George drums with Art Themen’s Organ Trio, John Etheridge’s Blue Spirits and Jazz at the Movies. He has toured with vocal legend Jack Jones and has played on West End shows Wicked, Guys and Dolls, Avenue Q, Sinatra and Anything Goes. A respected published drum educator, notably for Trinity College, London, George also curates Suffolk jazz clubs in Hadleigh, Southwold and Frinton. georgedouble.com

1.    Don’t Forget to Say No Baby (Carmichael/Johnson/Victor) 2:47
A genuine wartime worry dressed up as light-hearted romantic insecurity.                    
2.    (Up a) Lazy River (Carmichael/Arodin) 4:21
From 1931, one of the most elaborate and Bixian of Hoagy’s melodies, all dancing arpeggii, elegant chromaticism and pungent jazz notes.                 
3.    The Monkey Song (Carmichael) 2:48
A dazzling piece of absurd cartoon surrealism concerning corruption, indigestion and cannabilism. From the movie The Las Vegas Story (1951).
4.    Ain’t There Anyone Here For Love (Carmichael/Adamson) 3:49
Rarely performed since Jane Russell’s disgruntled rendition in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), surrounded by a near-naked gang of beautiful hunk o’ men in a gym, entirely indifferent to her amorous ambitions.               
5.    Billy-a-Dick (Carmichael/Webster) 4:32
A brilliant, inventive twist on the emotional wrench separated families experience during wartime as a youngster and a left-behind snare drum worry about a drafted brother, 
6.    Small Fry (Carmichael/Loesser) 2:29
First sung by Bing Crosby in Sing You Sinners (1938) to 12 year-old Donald O’Connor, a song for all parents concerned about burgeoning delinquency in their offspring.                    
7.    Jubilee (Carmichael/Adams) 4:08
A joyous piece betraying Hoagy’s hot jazz roots, Jubilee was introduced by Louis Armstrong as part of an elaborate street parade in the Mae West movie Every Day’s A Holiday (1938).
8.    Two Sleepy People (Carmichael/Loesser) 3:21
Written for Bob Hope and Shirley Ross as a follow-up for their 1938 hit Thanks for the Memory, Two Sleepy People features similarly relaxed, affectionate banter. 
9.    In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening (Carmichael/Mercer) 3:32
Recycled and adapted from the score of an unproduced movie called The Keystone Girl, Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman’s superb performance in Here Comes The Groom (1950) helped the song win an Oscar.
10.    Rockin’ Chair (Carmichael) 3:40
The 1930 Louis Armstrong recording of this wry meditation on looming death was a big break for Hoagy. The song remained a career-long live favourite for Louis who made miraculous light of the glum subject matter.
11.    Down, Boy (Carmichael/Adamson) 1.53
Written for, rehearsed and approved by Marilyn Monroe for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but blocked by producer Darryl F. Zanuck, it was recycled for Betty Grable in Three for the Show (1955).
12.    The Nearness of You (Carmichael/Washington) 2:41
A breezy walking ballad written for an unproduced 1938 movie Romance in the Rough, it remains hugely popular (recorded over 800 times) while being perhaps the least Hoagy-ish of his big songs. 
13.    Winter Moon (Carmichael/Adamson) 3.55
Boldly, unflinchingly cast in minor-mode hues, this 1955 song first heard on the Johnny Mandel-arranged West Coast jazz album Hoagy Sings Carmichael is Hoagy at his bleakest and artsiest. 
14.    I Walk With Music (Carmichael/Mercer) 4:05
The title tune from the ill-fated Hoagy Carmichael-Johnny Mercer 1940 musical boasts attractive, Kern-esque modulations perfectly suited to jazz improvisation, and has recently received a handful of interpretations after 60-odd years of neglect.
15.    Heart and Soul (Carmichael/Loesser) 2:42
A 1938 hit for Eddie Duchin, Heart and Soul was rediscovered by ‘50s doo-wop and ‘60s pop. It remains a four-chord-white-notes favourite, passed down from generation to generation at home and in schools, all over the world. Most of those versions skip the fiendish middle eight.