The Still Roaring 20's

Well, that was a different evening! I was invited to a party from an ex-neighbor who moved into a house built in 1925. So the party theme was—1925. Celebrating the house’s 100^th birthday.  People dressed in the clothes of the era and spectacularly so. I’d share a photo, but one of the party stimulations was to leave your phone behind. An interesting thing in itself, as we have become so acclimated to and dependent on—purposefully so—our  devices. I knew how to drive to her house, but had I not, I couldn’t have used GPS. Knowing it would be a loud party, I wore my hearing aids but couldn’t adjust them to the ambient noise setting without my phone. I skimmed through a fascinating 1925 newspaper, with little pieces about immigration, free speech and jazz corrupting the youth, but couldn’t take photos of select paragraphs.  And, might I add, it felt just fine, even liberating, not to have that thing drawing my attention every five minutes. But I digress. 

 

My role at the party was to play some background music from the 1920’s on the piano. So to prepare, I went through my various  jazz books and noticed the copyright dates of pieces and came up with an astounding 88 pieces that I’m familiar with that were all written between 1920 and 1929. It’s notable that jazz musicians today still play these pieces! Of course, the interpretation is quite different from the 1920’s recordings, but the songs themselves lend themselves to constant re-invention and the sturdy harmonies and pleasing melodies hold up. Some remain as museum pieces from that era, but I can think of 30 or more of  these songs performed in the last 30 years or so by the likes of Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau, Wynton Marsalis, Dianna Krall and more. 

A couple of hours after the party started, we all gathered by the piano to sing five songs I had selected for group participation.—Tea for Two, Side by Side, Ain’t She Sweet, When You’re Smiling, Five Foot Two. Each one had both personal and cultural stories behind them, tempting to share here, but I’ll defer to later—or not. 

Meanwhile, look at the list below of the songs I came up with and see how many you recognize. Century-old songs that still speak to us, the 20’s still roaring down the ages into our present time. American songs, that carry the best of the ways in which the diverse people gathered on our land have joined together. Songs by the master songwriters we know (or should know), all born between 1891 and 1902—Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers (and Lorenz Hart), Hoagy Carmichael, among them. And many whose names we don’t know well, but left a glorious legacy.  Listen to them, play them, sing them with the children. Enjoy!

 

•      Ain’t Misbehavin’ (’29)

•      Ain’t She Sweet. (’27)

•      Always (’25)

•      April Showers (’21)

•      At Sundown (’27)

•      Aunt Hagar’s Blues (’20)

•      Avalon (’20)

•      Basin St. Blues (’28)

•      Best Things in Life Are Free (’27)

•      Bill (’27)

•      Birth of the Blues (’26)

•      Blue Skies (’27)

•      Blue Room (’26)

•      Button Up Your Overcoat (’28)

•      Bye Bye Blackbird (’26)

•      California Here I Come (’24)

•      Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man (’27)

•      Can’t We Be Friends (’29)

•      Carolina Shout (’25)

•      Charleston (’23)

•      ’Deed I Do (‘ 26)

•      Dinah (’25)

•      Everybody Loves My Baby (’24)

•      Fascinatin’ Rhythm (’24)

•      Five Foot Two (’25)

•      Hard Hearted Hannah (’24)

•      Honeysuckle Rose (’29)

•      How Long Has This Been Going On (’27)

•      I Can’t Believe You’re in Love w. Me(’26)

•      I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (’28)

•      I Cried for You (’23)

•      I Found a New Baby (’28)

•      I Want to Be Happy (’25)

•      If I Had You (’28)

•      I’ve Got a Crush on You (’28)

•      Just You, Just Me (’29)

•      King Porter Stomp (’23)

•      Liza (’29)

•      Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love (’28)

•      Look for the Silver Lining (’20)

•      Love Me or Leave Me (’28)

•      Lover, Come Back to Me (’28)

•      Mack the Knife (’25)

•      Making Whoopee (’28)

•      Man I Love, The (’24)

•      Manhattan (’25)

•      Me and My Shadow (‘27)

•      Mean to Me (’29)

•      More Than You Know (’29)

•      My Blue Heaven (’27)

•      My Heart Stood Still (’27)

•      My Lucky Star (’28)

•      Oh, Lady Be Good (’24)

•      Old Man River (’27)

•      One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else (’24)

•      Rockin’ Chair (’29)

•      Russian Lullaby (’29)

•      Say It With Music (’21)

•      Sentimental Me (’25)

•      Sheik of Araby (’26)

•      Shine (’24)

•      Side by Side (’27)

•      Softly As in a Morning Sunrise (’28)

•      Somebody Loves Me (’24)

•      Someone to Watch Over Me (’26)

•      Sometimes I’m Happy (’25)

•      The Song Is Ended (’27)

•      Stardust (’28)

•      Strutting with Some Barbecue (’28)

•      S’posin’ (‘29)

•      ‘S Wonderful (’26)

•      Sweet Georgia Brown (’25)

•      Sweet Lorraine (’28)

•      Sweet Sue (’28)

•      Tea for Two (’24)

•      There’s Be Some Changes Made (’21)

•      Thou Swell (’28)

•      What Is This Thing Called Love? (’29)

•      What’ll I Do (’24)

•      When the Red, Red Robin (’27)

•      When You’re Smiling (’28)

•      With a Song in My Heart (’29)

•      Who’s Sorry Now (’23)

•      Why Do I Love You? (’27)

•      Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby (’25)

•      Yes, We Have No Bananas (’23)

•      You’re the Cream in My Coffee (’28)

•       You Took Advantage of Me (’28)