Re: Sinatra and Styne

[Eliott Kahn <Elkahn...>]

At 05:10 PM 7/25/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Okay, I'll add my two cents to this quintessential Jewish music theme.  As 
>far as I'm concerned "A Swingin' Affair" is as good as music ever got.  I 
>spent an entire semester working with an alto player on Sinatra's phrasing on 
>"From This Moment On," and he's not even close to being done!  
>
>I should mention that, growing up in Philadelphia as I did, the most 
>distinctive feature of Friday nights was Sid Mark's Sinatra show, which our 
>family listened to from beginning to end.  When I asked to go to services 
>instead it was considered something of a sacrilege.    -Hankus

This made me smile! It would seem Italian-American culture would be unavoidable 
in the land of Bobby Ridelio, Fabian Forte, and Frankie Avalon.

But the topic might have a bit more Jewish musical influence than first 
apparent. Composer Jule Styne, who wrote several of Sinatra's hit songs along 
with lyricist Sammy Cahn, was a poor Jewish immigrant from London who grew up 
in Chicago. I find a healthy dose of eastern European Jewish musical influences 
in his melodies and harmonies, particularly in his frequent temporary 
modulations to minor keys as well as use of the flat seventh melodic interval. 
Some examples of this might be: "Time after Time" ('So lucky to be ...'); "I 
Fall in Love too Easily" ('My heart should be well schooled ...'); and 
"Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week" ('Cause that's the night 
that my sugar and I...').

Other gems that Jule and Sammy wrote for "Ol' Blue Eyes" include: "Guess I'll 
Hang my Tears out to Dry," "It's the Same Old Dream," "The Things We Did Last 
Summer," and "Three Coins in the Fountain." 

No one should misunderstand and think I am calling these songs, "Jewish music;" 
I'm not and they're not. Jule Styne also played piano in nightclubs during the 
twenties and thirties' heyday of Chicago's Jazz era, and his music also betrays 
these influences. But if Italian-Americans are, justifiably, proud of Sinatra, 
even though his music was certainly not "Italian," there's no reason American 
Jews shouldn't be proud of the accomplishments of so many great American-Jewish 
songwriters. Even though their music isn't "Jewish music," nevertheless, many 
of them closer to the immigrant experience such as Styne, Gershwin, and Berlin 
bear the indelible stamp of Eastern-European/Russian Jewish musical influence.

Eliott Kahn

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