Singers and the Song (Paperback )

Singers and the Song Book Description

Far from being the simple intuitive performers the public thought it knew, these people emerge as intelligent, skillful, and fully conscious artist dedicated to their work. Lees's insight and analysis reveal Sinatra in particular as we've never seen him before.
Led by Frank Sinatra, the generation that emerged during and after World War II raised the performance of the popular song to the level of art. Gene Lees' fascinating book examines some of the most gifted of these singers, including Sinatra, Dick Haymes, Peggy Lee, Jo Stafford, and Sarah
Vaughan.
Far from being the simple intuitive performers the public thought it knew, these people emerge--in Singers and the Song--as intelligent, skillful, and fully conscious artists dedicated to their work. Lees also discusses the composers, including the great film composer, Hugo Friedhodfer, and
the supremely talented lyricist, Johnny Mercer; explores the language of the popular song; focuses on the social history of twentieth-century America, seen through the mirror of popular music; and examines the theme of war, from the Viking conquest of northwestern France, through World War II, to
the present.

Gene Lees has contributed to Singers and the Song as an author. Gene Lees is the award-winning author of Waiting for Dizzy, Meet Me at Jim and Andy's, and Singers and the Song, as well as biographies of Oscar Peterson and Lerner and Loewe. A former editor of Down Beat, he has written extensively for Stereo Review, The New York Times and other publications. Since
1981 he has published, edited, and written for the respected JazzLetter.

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