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monogamy, the ideal of one love for a lifetime, reinforcing it Fallen Forests, Fallen Idols and thus ac{mg as a force for social stability. It would be a long slide to lt's Hard Out Here Reing a Pimp, greased by Stones, their V/hen died in July, she was ninety, ten years older therise of Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Hugh Hefrter's than I. When you reach the higher altitudes of agqng, ten years ilk, all the "artists"of rap and hip-hop, and seems like not much, but it is a lot when you are fifteen and long canpaign for irresponsible lubricity. the Pied your idol is twenty-five. Tinre seemed to shetch endlessly on Jo joined the Dorsey band as the lead voice on groups, with a few and, though I knew that rve are all mortal, I used to wonder Pipers. I have never cared for vocal old Fred Allen radio how it felt to reach that age when you knew yours was rurming exceptiors: the De Marco sisters on the it, for the out. When Artie Shaw reached those years, he said to me, show (I liked ther& though I was too yotrng to know andthe Pied "Listen, I know the actuarial tables as well as you do." Indeed' hip harmony), the Hi-Los, the Singers Unlimited Matt Of all the stupid qtrestions I have ever heard posed by Pipers. Jo became a star half by accident because of a She told television reporters, one was asked of a French woman who Dermis song called Little Man vvith u Candy Cigar' hadreached l}3,makingher (it was betieved) the oldest living Dorsey, "Tommy, this is the first time I've ever done this, and of you. I want to wofiurn on earth. When the reporter asked what she thought of it'll probably be the last, but I want a favor solo'" From her futrre, she saill "Well, there isn't going to be much of it." do the record of Little Man with u Candy Cigar the rest of the Here here, nradame! then on he assigned her a lot of solos. For part of the fabric of Jo's record of instantly evokes in and well into the she lvas rne memories of Oak Bay Hrgh School, of which you have American life, as she is now part of its memories. or stardorn, almost certainly never heard ' The kids were warm and But she never acquired a taste for solo singlry welcoming. They were all dedicated, one might say fanaticaf although she succeed at it massively andmagnificently' jitterbugs, and therefore fans of the big bands, especially The 1940s were a time of tremendous changeinAmerican dance, with Torrnny Dorsey. It was the period of Sy Oliver and Buddy popular music, which until then was an adjunct to called the Riclu of Welt Git It andDeep River, perfect for them gowing numbers of big bands in what came to be part Oak Bay is a suburb of Victoria B.C', which is on the Swing Era. Through the 1 9 1 0s and 1920s, if singing was nrusicians from the southern tip of Vancouver Island. It is one of the beauty spots of the presentation at all, it was done by Whiteman hired Morton of the world withroundedftrountains to the north whose slopes band, to the extent that when Paul an instrument in rvere dense with glorious sequoias. To walk among them on a Downey, the latter was requircd to hold singing'- But sott carpet of needles was like being in a cathedral. And when his case, a French horn vrhen he wasn't - and so did Bing I awoke in the mcrning I could look south out the window Downey went out on his own as a soloist, perforrners of across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the State of Washin$on Crosby, who became one of the biggest-selling and the cone of l\{ount Baker, a long-dormant volcano whose the 1930s and'40s. by the orchestra snowy mantel appeared to be pink, making it look like a great The pattern at first conprised a chorus out-section of mound of strauterry ice cream As the idols ofmy youthhave followed by one of vocal and then an more popular, the died, I have thought of those trees: it's as if someone is cutting instrumental. As the singers became Day withLes Brown, down my forest. bandleaders featuredthemmore: Doris rvith James Almost all the songs were love songs, as they are over most Helen Forrest with , Dick Haymes Benny Goodman, of the planet, er.oking the yearning for love, that joy of its and then Tonnny Dorsey, with discovery, and the mourning over losing it. And they celebrated

May 2008 vote of the patients, played every night at with Earl Hines, the Eberle brothers, Helen recordings was, by two young fliers just back frotn O'Connell with Jinrmy Dorsey, the underrated Harry Babbitt lights out. In New York, almost been court-martialed withKay Kyser, Andy Russell with Stan Kento& Burope told her that they'd a mission over Germany, they had" with Ted Weems, and Stafford and Sinatra with Dorsey' because returning from Radio' In 1942, James Caesar Petrillo, the tyrannical and against regulations, been listening to Armed Forces pattern over their home field rather (according to credible rumor) "comected' head of the They'd disrupted the flight get landing orders) during one of American Federation of Musicians, made a blunder: he barmed than change bands (to their recording by AFM members in a lnaneuver to get more money her songs. and well into the 1950s she was for musicians. The cause was just, the tactic hopelessly stupid' Through the the 1940s life. A retired Army general Instrumentalists couldn't record, but singers, who were not part of the fabric of American disgusted with the state of the world menrbers of the rmion, could. Many vocal records were made wrote her that he was so he wanted to retreat to a farm with her records and just with soupy a c appella choral backgrounds, and by the time the that "skike" was settled in 19 44, srngers dominated the market and forget it. people would recognize her in bands were on their way out, though no one knew it at the time' Even as she aged, gas and tell her how much this Jo recalled the night Sinaha joined Dorsey. She was sitting supermarkets or stations to themduring the war years' with the Pied Pipers when a very thin Sinatra walked to the record of hers or that onemeant soldiers and fliers and sailors microphone. "We thought we were pretty good and we were She still received mail from old her voice during those years of ordeal, skeptical. He sang about four bars and we knew-" Years later, who were consoledby therrl and ansrvered them Sinatra said, "It was a joy to sit on the bandstand and listen to andremained touchedby letters," she said' her." The feeling was mutual. Jo told me once that she had "Yes, it means something to me, those and in those years I felt very deeply picked up on her car radio a Sinatra recording from the 1940s "I'm a very patriotic lady, see a lot of them at the Paramourt and said to herself, "My God, can he sing." about those kids. I used to embarkationpoint, About twenty years ago, I did an interview with her and Theater, because NewYork City was their my dressing room used to be noted that her voice had been part of two American wars' and they'd be on their way, and turn them away." What Vera Lynn was to the BritishinWorldWar II, Stafford firl1of themall the time. I couldn't earth-bound, devoid of the was to the Americans, and the effect lingered on into the 1 95 0s Always she seemed solidly Hollywood show business and Korea. Why she became such a favorite of Americans mannerisms or pretersions of recalls with amusement her saying, scattered around the planet was her way of letting a song people. Her son Tim see is a wall." happen rather than shoving it at you soaked in personal style' "When I look at awall, all I a distant cousin of Sergeant There was nothing sexually aggressive about Stafford she did Her mother was Anna York, decorated in World not seemto challenge anyone to conquer her. She was avery Alvin York, the farm-boy sharpshooter War I. Amra York was born in Gainesboro, Tennessee, where pretty Bnl, as seen in pictures hung in the barracks of soldiers the five-string banjo' She and over the swaying bunks of sailors, but she seemed more she was noted as a virtuoso of Stafford, who moved west in the 1ike, welf the girl next door than the catch-me-if-you-can girls rnarried Grover Cleveland oil fields. Henever such as Rita Hayworth. In my high-school years, Stafford hope ofmaking a fortune in the hard, first as a roughneck, then as seerned like the wise oldersister, singing a piece of advice, "A did, but he always worked Jo was born the third of four heart that's true there are such things." And when I came to a driller, finally as a foreman. California, a small town know lrer, she still- did- There was also a deeply maternal girls on atract of land atCoalinga, 5 in a limbo about quality about her; sometimes when I telephone to speak to her between highway 101 and Interstate Francisco' The husband, , I halfway felt I shouldbe saying, "Can halfway between and San chief claims to fame are Paul come out to play?" rmdulant landis dry, and Coalinga's earthquake. Life forthe Staffords She was called "GI Jo" by servicemen. The termby now Jo Staffordandabad 1983 they lived from perhaps requires explanation. Uniforms, rations, and other was hard during the Great Depression, and things issued to American soldiers in World War II were paycheck to paycheck. was full of music' marked GI for "government issue," and soldiers themselves Hard times or not, the Staffords' life she said, "I had five years of became known as Gls, or GI Joes. "When I was in high school," lyrng on At a military hospital in Europe, one of Stafford's classical voice haining - all the breathing exercises,

May 2008 he'd have rry back, bouncing books on my diaphragrq doing scales. I professor at Juilliard and a very good conposer - joke. recorded a number of had eyes to be an opera singer. I was always in the glee club in to be to pull off the He not only hilarious parody of high school, and I thought to be an opera singer would be a albums of P.D.Q.'s rnusic and wrote a describes good thing. But it takes more than five years to become an musicology in abiography of this fiction, whomhe Bach's sors' The opera singer, and when I got out ofhigh school, I had to go to as the last and definitely the least of work." The haining made her a sight-reading shark and recordings are full of satiric invocations of the techniques and great mary and have seen contributed to her accurate intonation. Her ear v/as so precise stylistics mannerisms of the I jellied laughter on listening to them that she made her fictional Darlene Edwards sing sharp or flat musicians reduced to of P.D.Q''s music to ear-grating effect. It is hard to sing out of tune on purpose, Schickele used to stage an armual concert was difficult to hire only too casy to do it unintentionally, but Jo did it at will. at Carnegie Hall, and I understand it of the best of them Her sense of pitch lras famous arnong professionals, rnusicians on that night because so nxmy although she once told ut intervieu'er that she was only a hadvohmteered to play in the P.D.Q. orchestra. Jonathan Edwards, an careful srnger with good relative pitch. Oh yeah? She and I had Paul Weston invented pianist insisted that what he conversafions about intonation, and she taught me something' inconparable cocktail pianist who into being at a Columbia She said that the trick was to think the tone just before making played was iaz.z. Jonathan came Florida. Paul and Jo, it. Paul said, "She can say that, but I don't knowhowyou do Records sales convention at Key West, kving Townsend of it." Because it means that you are in two places at once in the with George Avakian and the late late dinner in a time. Nonetheless, over time I thinkitinprovedmy intonation' Columbia's a&r staff, were having a wrong-chord And she said that she sang pitch differently in a group restaurant where they had to endure one ofthose over the planet' The situation, rvhich opens a can of worms that could take a long pianists who somehow find work all got more than usually discrssion to close. In this she was like Bonnie Herman, lead pianist left for the night,.and Paul, who to the piano andbegan to singer with the Singers Unlimited, who idolized Jo and with firnny after about two drinks, rvent imitation of him Avakian and rvilrtn she became friends. Only a few singers have that ear- play Stard,usf in excruciating had it, and insisted p(rppillg ilccuracy, among themJo, Bonnie, Perry Como, and Towrsend fell out, as the old expression up with Matt Monro. that an albumbe made in that style. Avakian carne thename Jonathan Edwards, after the preacher of the Colonial ossifiedring" to I knew Paul a little before I knew her' perio{ because, he said, it had a "properly There has been a long history of musical jokes, including it. Paul had some second Hayden's Surprise Symphony' Steve Allen once made an On the way back to California, sustain the gag for an album by a frctional pianist named Buck Harnrner who had thoughts. He wasn't sure he could service as Darlene. three hands. Beforehejoinedfireonstaff at Down Beat tn entire album. He pressed Jo into to make The Chicago, I hired Don DeMicheal as a regional stringer for Jonathan's wife. They went into the studio L,ouisville, Kentucky. Among the itens he sent me was one Original Piano Artistry of Jonathan Edv'ards" soon after its release in 1957, atrout the legendary blues singer Blind Orange Adams making The album was a best-seller their curiors brand of artishy one of his rare appearancqs. Knoqring far less about the blues and the dreadful duo sustained added, wrong chords to befog thirrr Don, I thought nothing of it it was a play on Blind bars with beats missing or - - rurs and what Jo Lemon Jefferson, but I didn't get it and printed it. Don the mind, uncompleted and meandering - Darlene's eerily inaccurate called me, horrified that I'd published it. I thought it was called "crumbling thitds," and Darlene Edwards in hilarious and urged him to keep it up. I 1et John Tynaq our intonation through Jonathan arud - Flappers, Sing Along with u,est coast editor, in on it, arrd from then on vre had an item Paris, Songs for Sheiks and and Darlene Remembers about Blind Orange in almost every issue. The situation got Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, awkward when Folkways records contacted me asking how Duke, Jonathan Plays Fats. to have a song in one of their they could reach Blind Orange: they wanted to record him I It was a dubious distinction taste in lyrics' You didnot can't re,member what we did abottt that.I think we killed him albums, for Darlene hadabizarre words You're Blasd really are in a car crash. realrze how dreadful the to ("You're deep, just like a And then there's P.D.Q. Bach, perhaps the most elaborate until you heard Darlene do them Cocktails Two hoax in musical history, the invention of Peter Schickele, a chasrq you've no enthusiasm. . . ") So too for

May 2008 and, alas, Ellington's Sophisticated Lady, which deserved Jonathan told the interviewer, "We do things that other better than "smoking, drinking, never thinking of tomorrow, people have thought of and foolishly abandoned." nonchalant . . ." and "whennobody is nigh . . . ." the I was dwastated by the album and gave it atave review in I knew Paul's writing from the Dorsey days up irrto High Fidelity. Paulread it and wlote me and for a long time albumshe wroteforJo, andagroup of "moodmusig" he wrote for .-61 before I met himwe exchanged letters an4 occasionally, phone unfortunate term - alburns calls. This was maryelou-s stuff, with the dance band jazz The recordings had some curious effects. Paul was playing instmmentation augmented by strings and such soloists golf with the head of a large corporation, who mentioned that as Eddie Miller and Don Fagerquist. The charts were so he had picked up an alburn called Jonathan and Darlene loveb, with perfect musical lines, that I once thought about Edwards in Po.ris. He asked Paul if he'd heard it, and Paul, trying to write them out, as an exercise. 1912, in thinking this was a joke, allowed that he had- The man said, Paul was born Paul Wetstein, on March 12, "He's pretty good, but I don't think she's all that hot." And Springfreld, Massachusetts, of a German Catholic father and Paul realized the man was not joking. an hish Catholic mother. "He is Irish in everything except music, he is ln 1,961, after several years of doing telwision in America, music," Jo remarked once. "When it comes to and the Westons moved for a sttrnmer to London, where they did a German." Meaning, one presumes, precise, thorough. series of shows for the ATV network Their faces became disciplined. Characterized by spare, clean voice-leading and familiar in England (Scripts for the show were written by corurterpoint, his writing was highly individual. Alan and Marilyn Bergman.) After high school in Pittsfielcl, Massachusetts, Paul studied graduated One night in a restatuant, the resident cocktail pianist economics at Dartmouth, rvhete he had a band. He smiled and launched into an imitation of Jonathan Edwards, cumlaude and Phi Beta Kappa fi 1933, in the depths of the which Paul and Jo took as an amusing tribute. They nodded Great Depression when, as he put it, the world wasn' t exactly appreciatively. When in his next tune, he used a chord that not looking foryoung economists. He went on to graduate studies sonre even Jonathan could have conre up with, P aul re altzed the man at Columbia University in New York, where he sold actually played that way. Paul had a mouthful of red wine at charts to the Joe Haymes Orchesffa. Bandleader and singer the time. It got sprayed all ovcr Jo's white dress. Rudy Vallee, who occrrpied a position a little like that of the The fans of Jonathan and Darlene, particularly in the music Frank Sinaha a few years later, heald some of them on business, are legion. Leonard Feather said Darlene was the radio and conmissioned Paul to write for him. economics, only singer to get off the A hain between A and B-Flat. When Paul's father was rr:happy at his abandoning the the first album came out, he gave it 48 stars in Down Beat. but relented when Paul sent home a check frorn Vallee, continued to Once you got into the lunacy of Jonathan and Darlene, they signature on which caused a fuss at bank Paul Phil became real. Paul and Jo talked about them as if they were, write for the bands of Vallee, Ha;mres, and drumrner yet and Jo had a certain strange affection for Darlene. "She's a Harris. The Dorsey brothers broke up theil band after Domey nice lady from Trenton, New Jersey, and she does her best," Jo another irascible battle between thenl and Tommy stay on as a said. Ios Angeles ln:m;ganne sent a writer to their home to took over the Haymes band. He asked Paul to included interview Jonathan and Dalene, who supposedly lived with the staff arranger, building anarrangtrng staff that also closest Westons, permanent freeloaders. Paul and Jo slipped into the Sy Oliver and , who became Paul's they wrote I Should Care roles, and, as Jonathan and Darlene, conplained about the food friend and sometime collaborator; The zlrangements on and the fact that the Westons made them go to the bedroom together, with a lytic by Sanrry Cahn. and Who? when famous people came to the house. Dorsey's recordings of Night and Day, Stardust, Paul's. Jo said, "It ',rras crazy tilrr-re. Because when he asked a are In question, the interviewer wasn't asking "ne, he was asking At that time Dorsey's "boy singer" was Jack Leonard BBDO Darlene." 1938, Leonard, Paul, Stordahl, andHerb Sanford, the Raleigh Koolnetwork "Once we got into it," Paul said, "it was easy. Jonathan was advertising executive who produced the Dorsey band was playing, saying that he played a much better stride piano than Fats, and radio show on which the Tonnny Darlene came up with things off the top of her head- She said, rented a house in Los Angeles. Paul and Axel 'Well, actually, a five-four bar gives you an extra skide."' Group singers were a clan urto themselves.

May 2008 music of the time was \\,ere dating two of the four King Sisters, Alyce and Yvonne contrary, not all the popular respeotively. Jo said: "The Kings knew about the Pipers' good- Englishmanjurryed and They'd heard us. They told Paul and Ax, 'You really ought to Paul continuE{ "And this them off my show, hear this group.' So one afternoon we went over to Paul and clawed at the glass and said, 'Get fired- They stayed in New Ax's house and had a sort of singers' jam session." get them offl' So they were I wrote of this encounter: York for a few months." "We stayed until we had just enough money left Los Angles," Jo said "[ " Half the group singers in town were invited, " P aul for our train tickets home to rrry last tmerrployrnent said. "Like the I\{tsic Maids from the Bing Crosby had gone down and picked up was a message to call an show, and the Kings. The Pied Pipers came in the front check I got home and there the call and it was door, anC they went right to the refrigerator and ate up operator in Chicago. I returned a group of eight, but if everything in the house." Tonnrry. He said, 'I can't afford have you join the "We were very poor," Jo said defersively' you have a quartet, ['d sure like to had left the group by then, and "Even the ketchup,"Paul said' "Ax and I nwer got band' Dick Whittinghill So that was it' We went ovcr that.''l'he ketchup rvas all gone, werything that was we actually were down to four. in the refrigerator." with Tonrny." "I don't tenrenrber that ketchup," Jo said, laughing' Oliver, then with "Then they started singing. They had Jo and three Dorsey had his ear on the arranger Sy planning to leave the music guys and fou other guys, and they worked in sections' Jirmnie Lunceford. Oliver was Tornrry asked how much Like, they'dhave a sax sectionversus thebrass section, business and go to law school. he would give him double then the two sections wtluld be together, and four of Lunceford was paying hiq said pzry him substantially for each therri would sing unison here against four parts. We'd that (maybe it was triple), royalties on each individual never heard anything like it. chart besides, and pay him full publish' With "At this point Herb Sanford came home and heard conposition, which Dorsey wanted to his own copying; with them and went ctazy.I{e went to Tonnny and said, Lunceford, Oliver had to do even Dorsey told Sy, if he would 'We've got to have them on the Raleigh Kool program' Dorsey that ended Furthernore, band to Sy's And Tornny saw a chance to get the Pipers on the give him six months, he would rebuild the Sy took the programwithout his having to pay anything, since Herb ipecifrcations, hiring the persormel Sy wanted Buddy Riclr, which of course was pushing them. The band went back to New \-ork, offer and asked Tonnny to hire at one point sang in a and the Pipers got in their cats and drove to New York' Dorsey did- Sy's wife Lilliaru who informafion about ten years On the basis of doing one radio show!" group with Dorsey, gave me this royalties from "You have to be awfully young to do that," Jo said' ago. She said she was still livrng on the presumed she continued "The sponsor," Paul said, "was in England' Each Dorsey's publishing company, and I Dorsey got for themoney rvas week the agency mailed a recording of the program to to do so urtil her death' What period, and its records are sti1l the sponsor. One ofthose great big glass discs. But as one of the hottest bands of the remains as fiery as ever' And it they took it to the post office, they broke it, so that it got hot. Oliver's Well Git It any band, often built to England in pieces, so this old'Sir Hubert or whatever played ballads probably better than mellifluous trombone' his name was didn't know what the hell was going on' around Dorsey's magnificent and a martinet, Dorsey was able to He knewhe had Tomny Dorsey andhe knewhe hadbig Perhaps because he was including ratings. Unforhmately for the Pipers, he came to conhol some disparate and hostile tenperaments, of whom had volcanic America. He was sitting up in the booth, at NBC. Now Buddy Rich and Frank Sinaha, both Dorsey's own' Sinaha himself their arrangements were pretty crazy anyway, but they terrpers coflIlrrcnsurate with Buddy came through the were singing 'Hold Tight, Hold Tight, foodly rucky- said that it's a wonder that he and roomed together on the road sacky, want some sea food, Mama."' experience alive. And yet they cut-glass pitcher of It was one of the silly songs of the era, such as Legend had it that Sinatra once threu' a in New York' I Tlree Little Fishes, and Mairzy Doats, irrnnensely water at Buddy backstage at the Paramount writing a popular at the period- Sentimental memories to the asked Jo if it were true. "Sure," she said "I was

I\{ay 2008 Whiting, and, later, letter to my mother at the time, and the water splashed all over Nat Cole records, and wrote for Margaret it." Gordon MacRae and Dean Martin. In 1943lre went to wotk show. I{e But Paul and Jo both got along with Dorsey. Paul said, "I onThe Music Shop networkradio albums, the first of only ever had one argument with him He was rehearsing one began to record a series of instrumental later one, using all brass of rry arrangements, and he did something that he hardly ever which was Musicfor Dreuning. A and four French horns, did" He started to make some changes. Axel and I weren't used four flugelhorns, four trombones, - was close to the to that. And Tomrry was very good about this. He was making no saxes was the delightfirl Carefree.It - inthe first Boss the changes, and I was throwing a pencil up in the air and instrumentationlater usedby Rob McConnell catching it. And the brass, the evil ones, started to laugh So Brass albums in mono Tommy knew something was going on behind him All of a Paul's "mood rusiC' albums were first recorded in stereo (or "binaural" as sudden he turned arorurd and caught me and he fired me. So I and in the late 1950s, re-recorded placed above the was out oftheband for about three hours. A lot ofpeople got it was called), using only two mikes as ever and the fired from that band for a few hours." orchestra. The charts remain as beautiful nusic Jo said, "One night in Texas, half of the band got fired' stereo as good as if not better than later orchestl'al Torrny was in one of his drinking phases. And he was pretty recorded with as many as 32 ttacks. back in her Dorsey days'' well smashed- And he had almost a concert arrangement on Johrmy Mercer had told Jo own record conpany, and Sleepy Lagoon. There's apartwherehehadtogoup to areal "Some day I'm going to have my good as his rvord. high note. And this note just splashed all over the stage. So he you're going to record for me'" He lvas as of its tbunding. and stopped the band He sai{'Stop. Take it fromletter C'' So he He signed her to the label within ayefi which came from tried. And again, splash! all over the stage. He stopped the she began to record a string of hits, one of band about three times. On the fourth time it started getting to a suggestion of Paul's: going to do some the players. And they start giggling. The whole saxophone "When Jo and Gordon MacRae were Whispering section started. And then it's like the measles, it spreads' duets," Paul said, "I temembered a record of recotded it. We Tonnrry turned and fired about half the band. And they all got Hope thatnry father brought home. And they jockey played it, rve never found up and picked up their horns and 1eft. I can still see it. We never forurd a disc that it sold rvell over played the rest of the night with about half a band-" anybody thatbought it, but in the Bible belt Paul said, "Didyou ever hear the story about Jinmty Dorsey a million copies. And it's still selling." songs' gtarting over again on a tune? It was up in Milwaukee. And Jo recorded rnore than 800 songs, including folk there was anearly morning show, and Jimrny'd had a few the Scottish, country and country songs. height of her night before. One of his big numbers was Flight of the Bumble One day m 1947, when she was at the with Bee, which is not too good at 10:30 in the morning with a stardonl Jo passed Country Washburn, chilchatting the girl rvho can do hangover. So he starts. And it fell apart. So he said angnly, cronies in a corridor atCapitol. "There's what it was that she could 'Take it from the top. ' And he cormts it off probably a little it," she heard him say. She asked - planning a satiric faster, just to show them do. Washburn explained that he was be done by a hillbilly "And some guy in the audience yells, 'Why don't you play recording of Temptation, as it might The girl he had it right?" slnger the term in use in those days. - leason another, "And Jimrny yells, 'Why don't you go and fuck yourself?' scheduled for the session ha{ for one or So Jo made the "The theater manager came out and took Jirffrry by the fallen out, and he thought Jo could do it. Cinderella Stunp. The song, in elbow and 1ed him off." record under the pseudonym irnrnediate hit' He chuckled at more memories of the Dorseys, then said, its new incarnation called Timtayshun, was an who "When Jo came with Tonrrry, I was just leaving the band. The entire record industry was speculating over knew. When at had asked me to be her arranger and musical Cinderella really was. Not even Jo's manager deal she had director, and I also had a chance to do an album with Lee last he found out, he asked her what kind of no deal; she had Wiley. I wanted to branch out." made for herself. She told him there was no Paul wrote for Shore and Bing Crosby. When Johnny made the record for fruu and for scale, and was receiving Mercer founded Capitol records, Paul wrote for Betty HuttorL royalty at all. andbecame aproducer as well. Heproducedsome of the early He was firrious.

May 2008 And so because of Paul wrote the charts.on more than five hundred of her were absolutely thrilled, it was marvelous. going to be. But from recor{ings, as well as writing, during the Columbia years, for that, I thought that's the way it was Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, and Frankie Laine. At then oq kids, forget it." got shows and hit Columbia, her hits included , Make Love to "Well, particularly when she radio Me, Jambalaya, andan odd little novelty that Paul conposed, records," Paul said- "Then it was: She's cold" of comnercial success," I said "It's Shrimp Boats, whose success baffledme. , "They're suspicious good; if it's "The thing about Jo," Paul said, "is her versatility' She anAmerican conviction: if it's popular it can't be is od4 in view of the accorrplishednrore inmore different directions than any singer good, it can't be popular. Which I wish Paul were alive for a lot I knorv. When you think tllat Whi sp ering Hop e was a religious country's materialism" How his knowledge of economics, I seller in '46 or '47 of the first religrous songs that a pop of reasons, but particularly conversations about singer had ever done. would love to have one of our telephone "And thenthere'sJo't Jttzz. She's notajazzsinger, but she the Wall Sheet meltdown of critics against dirl a good jazz albwr" She was the first pop singer to do I said "But then perhaps it's a reaction sells, but it does not with an orchestra' And that was in 1946. connnercialism We've all seen trash The former is the premise of She could do show songs, she couldhandle arhythmsong and follow that what sells is hash. the latter the premise of critics'" a ballad. I sound like an agent or something. But I thinkpeople the record industry, had. Columbia gave her a sometimes don't realize how wide her scope was, in all kinds Connnercial success Jo surely 25,000,000 records of American music." diamond award whenher sales reached - She was the favorite The list of her successful singles is amazing,tnchtdmglong and that was after her period at Capitol. in the peak years of her career, Ago fund Far Atuay), Blackls the Color, It Could Happen to wolnan singer of Americans charts' Yau, Thut's For Me, Goodnight lrene, Day by Day, Haunted according to the Billboard magazine Hefit, I'll Be Seeing You, Let's Take the Long Way Home, Pied Pipers came into the Tlre Neorness of lbu, September Song, There's No You, You Paul was leaving Dorsey when the Belong to L{e,.Iambalaya, Teach L{e Tonight , a duet with band- Paul remembered grving his notice: but then he got thinking about it, Johrury Mercer on sCandy, trivia! songs such as A - You're "Tofirny said, 'Okay,' Glerrrr Miller'' And he Adorable, all her satiric and comic songs, her country songs, and he thought,' I'll bet he's goin"'\rith rehearsal about it. But I wasn't and a huge list of albrms. made a speech one night at The one negative in her career was that some critics said her going with Miller." jealousy is that Tornny frmded singrng was colCt The frrmy thing about that "Thatused to be the purfJ L.rtrc," she said. "I never made it the Mil1er band in its first daYs. one arrangement that rvith the critics. I think what the critics didn't like was that it "I guess," Paul said to Jo, "I wrote u,as sinply singmg. There wasn't much . . ." you guys sang." courtship' ln fact she "Thete was a disgusting normatity about it," Paul said- Jo and Paul hardly had a whirlwind the Pied Pipers' The "Maybe. I clon't know. I think maybe a lot of 'emresented first married John Huddleston of 1943. A year after their that too. I'm basically a pretty dutrl person I was never on matiage lasted from 1941 rurtil Perry Como in a fifteen- sinokin' anything or drinkin' anfhing." divorce she began alternating with 1950s, she was "When you'ri struggling, they love you," Paul said. minute radio show. From the 1940s into the Paul. When they His point was well taken, but he didn't take it far enough. heard on radio and television, and seeing mote, I thought, for America whether under the intluence of critics or not -- decided to marry, she became a Catholic, have the lingering loved to love- performers who die young or whose lives are or his mother's sake than Paul's and I religion more seriously than he seem to be blighted: Charlie Parker, Harry Houdini, Bix inpression that she took the tseiderbecke, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland; James Dean is did "Converts often do," her son Timnoted. had two children, Tim included in the list, although the evidence is that he was in fact Paul and Jo married in 1952, and age ofrisk, Jo thought arather happy person. He just happened to die yormg in a car andAmy. When they werereaching the 1959, with a Las Vegas clash when he wasn't even the driver. about her responsibilities at home. In to give tip "WhenLittle Manwith a Candy Cigar first came otlt," Jo contract awaiting only her signature, she decided to record turtil the mid- said, "the critics couldn't say enough wonderful things, they public performing but she continued

May 2008 There are five passes you can go through to get 1 960s. And Paul used to say that he resented Jonathan because from L.A. just NARAS (which Paul founded) had given him a Granrny but from one to the other. I had started down the slope of quit. Pauloever won one. The fates of so many others of what are Benedict Canyon Drive when inexplicably my engine a movie in which the called the Bwerly Hills Brats suggest how right she was. Whenever I see one of those scenes in he is WhenAnry Weston was inher adolescence, she andJo had protagonist finds that his brake lines have been cut and you turn off the a confrontation in which Amy defended herself on the grounds hurtling down a slope, I thinli, "Why don't you that she wasn't a doper. Later, I remernber, Jo said in key and slow up orr the engine's deconpression?" Ot can transmission. astonishment at the dawning new age, "I'm supposed to be slam the gear shift into leverse. It'll tear out the motor grateful that they're not drug addicts?" but it certainly will stop the car. In this case, when my But her judgment that her family mattered more thax a quit up there on the ruotmtain crest, knowing there wasn't a narrorv road career was obviously a right one in that Tim and Anry got gas station u.ithin miles or even a place on that neutral and through the adolescent years undamaged by the come-ons to where you could stop safely, I slapped it into destruction that were *all around them They grew into coasted down the hill, u'ondering rvhat I'd do wher, I reached disciplined and intelligent professionals, Tim Weston a the bottom u\nd then, Eureka! I coasted dorim the hill and guitarist and corrposer, Amy a singer at one time married to theninto Lexington Road, where the Westons lived, andkept Paul se,w saxophonist Bryan Cunnning; and Jo, whenever she could going and . . . I coasted right into their drivervay. alam. arrarlgeit, the adoring babysitter of her grandchildren. my car from a window and came hurrying out in he went into his Often on the telephone, Paul and I talked politics; Jo and I saying, "What's wtong?" When I told hinl talked history, of which she had an awesotne knowledge, helpless laughter. I stayed there until the AAA truck arrived. especially twentieth century history. When in 1984 I wrote an alburq recorded in Germany by Paul died on Septcmber 20, 1996. on Sarah Vaughan, based on the youthful poems of Pope John As age encroached on us, Jo and I would comnliselate " I f I fal1 Paul II, I came home with a tape of the sessions; I wanted to the phone, particularly about arthritis. She said once, finds me." When play it for Paul and Jo and another friend of mine and theirs down, I just have to lie there until somebody - "She never Gene Kelly. Paul had worked on the score of the Gene Kelly she was gone, I recalled this to Amy, who said, movie- Cot'er Girt- And all three of themwere Catholic, so I lost that sense of humor. When I would talk to her on the ever did." hacl a certain sensitivity over whether I had rendered a Catholic phone, she soundedno different than she retumed sensibility in the writing. We set up a party at the Westons' In October 2007, she rvent into the hospital. She thcn on, Tim told me, she r,vhere I couldplay themthe album home but remained b edridden. From thought her Gene walked in and said innnediately, "Did you meet the was mostly asleep. Then on July 26,ha caregiver priest Pope'?" Paul of course laughed. condition was deteriorating and called Tim and a Tinl I said, "Gene, eve4rlvfiere Sarah Vaughan and I went in namedp Cullum Ryan, who gave her the last rites' her condotniniun Europe, we were asked that question." driving fromhis own home in Topanga to away in her sleep. Gene sai{ "Cut the shit, Lees, didyoumeet the Pope?" in Century City, was too late. She slipped Farther along in the evening, we got talking about Fred The funeral was small andprivate. Tim and Amy invited in all Astaire, Gane's friend and the idol of his youth. Gene said, me, but I couldn't go, and my friend, a presence almost "This is the way Fred dance{" and gaYe an astonishing ofmy life, fromlong ago and far away, as the song says, was imitation of Astaire."I introduced an element of qmcopatior5" gone. Records, he said, and danced in his own style on the carpet. How I wish Paul acquired rights to their Columbia albums, and it had been videotaped. It would have been invaluable to dance including the Jonathan and Darlene Edwards through students everywhere. some of the Capitols. They can be obtained c h i anr e c o r ds' Paul's sense of humor was almost rurcontrollable. http : //my s it e. v er i z o n. n e t / r e s o a div /wvvw'. or int Sometimes he would laugh so hard that he would ro11 off the com/index.html. sofa and lie on the floor, shaking and helpless. Box 240, I remember an occasion when I was driving from The The Jazzletter is published 12 times ayeat at PO per year U.S., for Valley, as it is always called in the Los Angeles area the Ojai, California 93024-0240, at $80 $90 - Lees. San Fernando Valley. A long mourtain separates the Valley other cotmtries. Copyright @ 2008 by Gene

May 2008