Fate Music

Garcia and The Great American Songbook

Per wiki, The Great American Songbook is “the canon of significant early-20th-century American jazz standards and popular songs“. It is put out by The Great American Songbook Foundation, fittingly enough.

I have so damn much to learn about this stuff. It’s just a gaping hole in my (admittedly limited) musicological understanding. 

I just fell into the rabbit hole, so let me report here the tunes from the GAS that I understand Garcia to have engaged.
Year Song title Composer(s) Lyricist(s)
1930 “Georgia on My Mind“ Hoagy Carmichael Stuart Gorrell

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Lazybones

1944 “Long Ago (and Far Away)“ Jerome Kern Ira Gershwin
1959 “My Favorite Things“ Richard Rodgers Oscar Hammerstein II
1937 “My Funny Valentine“ Richard Rodgers Lorenz Hart
1927 “Ol’ Man River“ Jerome Kern Oscar Hammerstein II
1936 “Pennies From Heaven“ Arthur Johnston Johnny Burke

Russian Lullaby

1953 “Satin Doll“ Duke Ellington Johnny Mercer
1933 “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes“ Jerome Kern Otto Harbach
1949 “Some Enchanted Evening“ Richard Rodgers Oscar Hammerstein II
1928 “Stardust“ Hoagy Carmichael Mitchell Parish
1934 “Summertime“ George Gershwin DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin

That Lucky Old Sun

The Man I Love

Here’s another listing: http://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/cat_pages/title.html

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14 responses to “Garcia and The Great American Songbook”

  1. Twangster Avatar
    Twangster

    I few others (unless perhaps you're only doing tunes Jerry did as instrumentals) … Russian Lullaby, That Lucky Ol' Sun, Lazybones.

    Reply
  2. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Right – they aren't on that list that I worked from, but I understand they are on other lists. I plan to work from the link at the end of the post and add more – thanks!

    Reply
  3. David Leopold Avatar
    David Leopold

    As someone who wrote a book on Irving Berlin (Irving Berlin's Show business: Broadway, Hollywood, and America Harry Abrams, 2005)trust me when I say that Russian Lullaby is considered in the Great American Songbook. There is no one songbook that has every song, but works by the writers listed above would all be considered American Popular Songwriter, and that is what the songbook is about.

    Reply
  4. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    That is so great, thanks! I am very much into categorization, as you saw on Twitter. But I want to understand the basis on which things are categorized. Like, what is the underlying variable, or dimension, or criterion that drives a thing landing inside or outside, or in one but not another. So, you are suggesting that song authorship is key, or at least one key.

    Reply
  5. Twangster Avatar
    Twangster

    Is there a link to the list from the Great American Songbook Foundation? I only see this one at the bottom, which has those 3 tunes:
    http://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/cat_pages/title.html

    FWIW, I know many of these songs from either Willie Nelson or Frank Sinatra.

    Reply
  6. Alex Allan Avatar
    Alex Allan

    I'm curious when "Stardust" and "My Favorite Things" were played by Jerry Garcia? I can't find any reference online, including at jerrybase.com, And the only reference to "Long Ago (And Far Away) is I think the short noodle by John Kahn that you mention in your post about June 30th 1982.

    Reply
  7. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    The Foundation is linked in the post.

    Reply
  8. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    I don't know that he performed them. I used the verb "engaged" in the loosest possible sense. So "Stardust" was just connected to him through Mitchell Parish. MFT – Hornsby teases it during space, GD 9/21/91. Again, a pretty distal connection to Jerry.

    Reply
  9. Twangster Avatar
    Twangster

    Thanks, I dug around their site a couple of times but couldn't come up with a list.

    Reply
  10. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    I got the list from wiki. I had a bad link to it, but it's at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Songbook

    Reply
  11. Nick Avatar
    Nick

    I found this little crumb re JG's connection to the 'great American songbook' lineage in a NYT review of the JGB's 1987 Broadway run:

    "[Garcia] apparently considered his Broadway engagement something special. The program notes went out of their way to relate him to the mainstream of American show business, identifying him as 'the son of San Francisco reed player and swing-band leader Jose Garcia,' and pointing out that his father named him 'after Broadway writer Jerome Kern.'"

    Palmer, Robert. "Music: Jerry Garcia Band." New York Times, 20 Oct 1987.
    https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/20/arts/music-jerry-garcia-band.html

    Here's the scan of the Playbill:
    https://www.playbill.com/production/jerry-garcia-acoustic-electric-lunt-fontanne-theatre-vault-0000005031

    Reply
  12. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    So cool.

    Reply
  13. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    Dammit, this one got umoored from its citation, so I will just post it here: one of the standards Merl taught him was "The Man I Love" by the Gershwin Brothers

    Reply
  14. Fate Music Avatar
    Fate Music

    to read, h/t Jesse: http://tedgioia.com/jazzstandards.html

    Reply

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