Grammy Award Winning Vocalist Catherine Russell at Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Allen Room

Jimmy McHugh’s I’m In The Mood For Love to be highlighted

Grammy Award winning vocalist Catherine Russell will appear in concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room on Friday and Saturday March 30 & 31, 2012.

Catherine will lead a ten piece orchestra, featuring new arrangements performed by the musicians on her new album Strictly Romancin’.

On her new album and at The Allen Room, Catherine includes the classic Jimmy McHugh composition, I'm In The Mood For Love.

The album is quickly garnering success, jumping to #1 on the JazzWeek Chart, while also hitting #1 on I-Tunes and Amazon Jazz Charts, and #6 on Billboard's Jazz Album Chart. Vocalist Russell is a native New Yorker, born to musical royalty.

Her father, the late Luis Russell, was a pioneering pianist/composer/bandleader, and Louis Armstrong's long-time musical director. Her mother, Carline Ray, is a bassist, guitarist, vocalist, who has performed with Mary Lou Williams and the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

Catherine Russell will appear in concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room on Friday and Saturday March 30 & 31, 2012, with two shows nightly (7:30pm & 9:30pm); She records for World Village/Harmonia Mundi.

http://jalc.org/concerts/details309a.asp?EventID=2653

catherinerussell.net/

Jimmy McHugh on Google: Let’s Party Like It’s 1962

Googling around, we came across an interesting bit of Jimmy McHugh history reprinted in the St Petersburg Times this week, which originally ran on Tuesday, March 6, 1962- Fifty years ago this week.

“NEW ORLEANS -- The Mardi Gras Waltz, composed by two of the nation's top songwriters, makes its debut at Carnival balls of Rex and Comus tonight -- Mardi Gras.” 

"Jimmy McHugh, who gave the world the music to I'm in the Mood for Love and On the Sunny Side of the Street, wrote the music for the new waltz. Ned Washington, who authored the lyrics to 'When You Wish Upon a Star' composed the words." 

St Petersburg Times (actual page snapshot)

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19620306&id=5Q8zAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HVIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4176,2790645

JIMMY McHUGH IS THE CULPRIT: MURDER, HE SAYS IS A KILLER SONG

Murder, He Says is an absolutely knock-out, if somewhat lesser known, Jimmy McHugh gem.

Tori Amos hit a bullseye with her recording, featured in Mona Lisa Smile starring Julia Roberts. 

Dinah Shore scored a wartime hit with her jitterbug version of the tune, now featured in the new hit game, LA Noire. 

Here’s a sample of the song’s 1940s hipster lyrics:

He says, Jackson, he says
and my name's Marie
He says, Jackson, he says
shoot the snoot for me
He says, Jackson, he says
Is that the language of love?

The high spirited and perennially peppy Betty Hutton killed ‘em with her jump & jive LIVE performance of Murder, He Says for Armed Forces Radio’s Command Performance program.

Summing it up her style, the show’s host Bob Hope called the Betty ‘A Vitamin Pill on Legs’!

Here’s a link to a rare film clip of this 1943 performance (and another to Tori Amos’s great swing track.)

Enjoy.

Betty Hutton:

Tori Amos:

JIMMY McHUGH MUSIC: an Evening of music at Vitello's Jazz Club

Judy McHugh Presents an 
Evening of Jimmy McHugh

at Vitello’s Jazz Club

Judy McHugh is presenting a very special evening of music to salute Black History Month, featuring the music of her grandfather, Jimmy McHugh.

Ella Fitzgerald & Jimmy McHugh

The composer’s indelible ties to the Black community began in the Roaring Twenties, when he was the music director at New York’s legendary Cotton Club.

There he not only wrote countless songs for the era’s most famous African-American performers, but was also directly responsible for Duke Ellington’s first engagement at the famed Harlem showplace. This was when and where the Duke’s career was launched.

Since then McHugh’s music has been performed and recorded by hundreds of African-American artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole and Smokey Robinson.

Judy McHugh has put together a great talent lineup to cap the month long celebration of Black history, featuring John Proulx, piano and voice; Chuck Berghofer on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums. Vocalist Sherry Williams rounds out the bill, along with a special guest appearance by Deana Martin (Dean’s daughter and Jimmy McHugh’s Goddaughter.)

We hope to see you there.

Wednesday, February 29, 8pm

Vitello’s Jazz & Supper Club

4349 Tujunga Avenue

Studio City, CA 91604.

818.769.0905

http://www.vitellosjazz.com/event/jimmy-mc-hugh-music-presents-black-history-month-tribute/

Featured on The International Review of Music

Picks of the Week

••

Ella Fitzgerald:
Reach For Tomorrow

http://youtu.be/ykP8Wtcg86w

Billie Holiday:
I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me

http://youtu.be/ykP8Wtcg86w

Sarah Vaughn:
I'm In The Mood For Love

http://youtu.be/yezEgD0TmB8 (Mood)

JIMMY MCHUGH’S SONGS STAND THE TEST OF TIME:

Moody’s Mood For Love gets the Royal Treatment

Hip hop artist Prince Paul is considered one of the most original and innovative hip hop artists and producers ever to emerge.

On his second, highly acclaimed and influential album, A Prince Among Thieves, Prince Paul sampled the Jimmy McHugh & James Moody jazz classic, Moody’s Mood For Love as the basis for a new song, Mood For Love.

Def Jam artist Don Newkirk is the featured vocalist on the jazz tinged track.   

No wonder I’m In the Mood For Love, Moody’s Mood For Love, On The Sunny Side Of The Street, Let’s Get Lost and many other Jimmy McHugh songs are give fresh and innovative interpretations by a such a diverse range of artists year after year.

Here’s a link to Prince Paul’s Mood For Love:

Michael Feinstein's American Songbook February 17th on PBS

Follow the link to PBS to find your local broadcast time.

http://www.pbs.org/michael-feinsteins-american-songbook/

JIMMY McHUGH MUSIC SALUTES BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Ella Fitzgerald & Jimmy McHugh

Judy McHugh Presents

an Evening of Jimmy McHugh

at Vitello’s Jazz Club

Judy McHugh is presenting a very special evening of music to salute Black History Month, featuring the music of her grandfather, Jimmy McHugh.

The composer’s indelible ties to the Black community began in the Roaring Twenties, when he was the head music director at New York’s legendary Cotton Club.

There he not only wrote countless songs for the era’s most famous African-American performers, but was also directly responsible for Duke Ellington’s first engagement at the famed Harlem showplace. This was when and where the Duke’s career was launched.

Since then McHugh’s music has been performed and recorded by hundreds of African-American artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole and Smokey Robinson.

Judy McHugh has put together a great talent lineup to cap the month long celebration of Black history, featuring John Proulx, piano and voice; Chuck Berghofer on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums. Vocalist Sherry Williams rounds out the bill, along with a special guest appearance by Deana Martin (Dean’s daughter and Jimmy McHugh’s Goddaughter.)

We hope to see you there.

Wednesday, February 29, 8pm

Vitello’s Jazz & Supper Club

4349 Tujunga Avenue

Studio City, CA 91604.

818.769.0905

http://www.vitellosjazz.com/event/jimmy-mc-hugh-music-presents-black-history-month-tribute/


Ella Fitzgerald:
Reach For Tomorrow

http://youtu.be/ykP8Wtcg86w

Billie Holiday:
I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me

http://youtu.be/ykP8Wtcg86w

Sarah Vaughn:
I'm In The Mood For Love

http://youtu.be/yezEgD0TmB8 (Mood)