Celebrating The Giants Of Popular Music and Jazz

Here We Go...

Our National Treasure

The Great American Songbook and the creation and development of jazz music are partners in the single-most definitive American contributions to the world of art. The works of American composers and the interpretation and performance of those works via the genre of pop and jazz music have given rise to entire generations of songs and audiences throughout the world...regardless of race, color, ethnic background, religion or gender, like nothing else! Although many of our most prolific and brilliant composers have passed away, their work is consistently celebrated by audiences today...and will be long into the future.

Consistently magnificent, these works live on long after their creators, testifying to their greatness. The Great American Songbook Project's goal is to celebrate that music and those responsible for its creation.

Like man...it's all about the music.

From Harold Arlen to Chet Baker; from Jimmy Van Heusen to Frank Sinatra; from Billie Holiday to Lester Young; from Richard Rodgers to Tony Bennett; from Matt Dennis to Ella Fitzgerald; from Jerome Kern to Mel Torme; from Alec Wilder to George Shearing; from Duke Ellington to Joe Williams; from Irving Berlin to Wes Montgomery; from Kurt Weill to Sarah Vaughan; from Harry Warren to Carmen McRae; from Bart Howard to Chris Connor; from Vernon Duke to Lena Horne; from Arthur Schwartz to Diana Krall; from Eubie Blake to Louis Armstrong; from Cole Porter to Bing Crosby; from Walter Donaldson to Sammy Davis, Jr.; from George Gershwin to June Christy...and like that.

At the heart of it all...

Our focus will be on the song, the composer, the performing artist and all the information we can find about those elements. I hope that you'll enjoy hanging out and be moved to drop us a comment with your thoughts and feelings. Hopefully, the formats will change and improve as we go along the blogging trail...

Hopefully, together we can SWING!!!

Arne Haber

Founder

The Great American Songbook Project

NYC, September 12, 2005

Quotables...

• SINATRA: Okay you muthas'-all eyes on me!
• BENNETT: Harold Arlen was not only one of the nicest human beings I ever knew, he was probably the greatest American composer...ever!
• GEORGE T. SIMON: "...one of the major tests of the validity of any artistic creation is its longevity."
• NAT "KING" COLE: "I'm the kind of singer who likes nearly every type of tune. But the ones I enjoy most are the ones we call "standards"-I don't mean only the big favorites that are heard all the time; I'm including all songs that have the unforgettable "something" in their sound that nearly always marks them for a spot on the standard shelf."
• BILLIE HOLIDAY: "No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music."