So This is Love - Sara Gazarek



Since this week is the 60th anniversary of Cinderella, I thought I would continue the celebration with more songs from the classic film. This beautiful jazz version of So This is Love is by SARA GAZAREK.

Gazarek is a jazz vocalist from Seattle and, boy, does she have an amazing voice. Her voice has brought her numerous awards and accolades over the past decade and she if she keeps this up, she will become a modern jazz great. Her first album, YOURS, was released in 2005 and topped the Billboard and iTunes Jazz Charts!

So This is Love can be found on her second release, LIVE AT THE JAZZ BAKERY, from 2006. It blows my mind to hear her scatting along with pianist Josh Nelson during the solo. To have that much vocal control is amazing. I love it.

I think the thing that appeals to me the most about Sara and her band, is that they really stress learning about jazz at a young age. As they tour across the country, the set up free clinics at local high schools and colleges to teach young people about everything from jazz basics to the music business. It is great to see them take such an interest in what they do! See if they are playing and teaching in a town near you by going to their website.

Labels: cinderella, jazz, live at the jazz bakery, sara gazarek, so this is love

  ¶ 9:05 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  'Twas Brillig - Camarata Chorus & Orchestra



Here's a rare treat: A cover of the short chorus that the Cheshire Cat sings to himself in Alice in Wonderland. This chorus was originally written by Lewis Carroll for his book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, with music by Oliver Wallace. It is part of the much longer poem, Jabberwocky, which is made up of many nonsense words. Humpty Dumpty offers Alice an explanation of many of these words:

Brillig — Four o'clock in the afternoon: the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.

Slithy — Combination of "slimy" and "lithe."

Tove - A combination of a badger, a lizard, and a corkscrew. They are very curious looking creatures which make their nests under sundials and eat only cheese.

Gyre — To go round and round like a gyroscope.

Gimble — To make holes as does a gimlet.

Wabe — The grass plot around a sundial. It is called a "wabe" because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it, and a long way beyond it on each side.

Mimsy — Combination of "miserable" and "flimsy"

Borogove — A thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, "something like a live mop".

Mome — Possibly short for "from home," meaning that the raths had lost their way.

Rath — A sort of green pig.

In the preface of his book, Carroll notes that gyre and gimble are pronounced with a hard g, and that slithy is pronounced like two words: sly and thee. The Cheshire Cat gets everything right, but Tutti Camarata and his Chorus gets all of this wrong. It also sounds like they are singing borogroves instead of borogoves.

It's a fine cover and the added bridge, which is not part of the original poem, is a nice addition to what would be a very repetitive song. However, it does bug me that they didn't pronounce those words correctly.

This song can be found on the 1957 Disneyland LP record ALICE IN WONDERLAND: MUSIC FROM THE SCORE which features new arrangements of the music from the film by Tutti Camarata. The entire album is available exclusively through iTunes.

Labels: alice in wonderland, alice in wonderland lp, jazz, tutti camarata, twas brillig

  ¶ 2:25 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

  So This is Love - Heather Marie Marsden



SO THIS IS LOVE is the name of the love ballad in Cinderella, but it is also a three song EP by HEATHER MARIE MARSDEN that features contemporary jazz versions of three popular Disney songs.

Marsden has been in the acting business for the past fifteen years, having appeared in such television show as Charmed, Diagnosis Murder, Drake & Josh, and Boy Meets World. More recently, she has been branching out into the world of music. Her song, Into Your Heart was featured in an episode of Melrose Place last September, with this EP debuting just before that. Here is what Heather had to say about this new EP:

I am thrilled to announce that my first jazz project, So This is Love, has just been released. It's my re-imagining of some classic Disney songs as late night, adult fare. I co-produced the project with Chris Rhyne, (Santana, Ponty) who is a wonderful jazz pianist, and my partner-in-crime in the studio. I hope you enjoy as much as we did creating!

I know I enjoyed it, and I hope to see a full length album of Disney tunes sometime soon!

Labels: cinderella, heather marie marsden, jazz, so this is love, so this is love ep

  ¶ 11:11 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Love - Sunaga t Experience featuring Till Brönner



Hey everyone! It's Jamie from over at Fong Songs. It's a brand new year and it's great to have Covering the Mouse back in full force. Kurtis was nice enough to welcome me back to help out with his blog revival and I was more than willing to help out. As you may or may not know, I'm an aficionado of Disney and Disney covers alike, so this will be the first in a series of monthly guest posts from yours truly, my first post here since April 2008! First up, the love theme from 1973's Robin Hood, appropriately titled Love.

Robin Hood has always been one of my favourite Disney films. I can't even count the number of times I've seen it on video as a kid. Part of its enduring quality is its memorable soundtrack, which was chiefly written and performed by Roger "King of the Road" Miller who portrayed the narrating minstrel rooster, Alan-a-Dale. George Bruns and Floyd Huddleston co-wrote Love, which was sung by Huddleston's wife Nancy Adams. An alternate version of the song was posted on youtube by their son Huston Huddleston. I didn't realize until rewatching these scenes recently, but the Love montage with Robin and Marian was later mirrored with Simba and Nala during Can You Feel the Love Tonight? in The Lion King. The forest setting, their reflections on the water, even walking under a waterfall, and of course those long meaningful looks into each other's eyes. Ah, it's Disney love!

Love was actually nominated for Best Original Song at the 46th Academy Awards up against, among others, Live and Let Die and The Way We Were (the winner). You know how they perform each song nominee during the Oscar broadcast? Well, Love was actually performed as a duet by an 11-year old Jodie Foster and Johnny Whitaker, the young co-stars of Disney's Napoleon and Samantha. They were also fresh off the release of 1973's Tom Sawyer, with Whitaker in the title role and Foster as Becky. More random trivia: Whitaker's siblings Billy and Dora respectively played the bunnies Skippy and Tagalong in Robin Hood!

One of the reasons I wanted to feature this song was that it was also recently revived in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was my favourite film of 2009 (more on that here). Ah, animated foxes in love! Even before Love makes a cameo, Anderson opens the film with The Wellingtons performing The Ballad of Davy Crockett, which was incidentally co-written by George Bruns too!

There aren't a lot of Robin Hood covers out there, so I was thrilled to find this jazz cover of Love, taken from the Japanese Disney cover album MODAL JAZZ LOVES DISNEY as performed by the SUNAGA T EXPERIENCE featuring German trumpeter TILL BRÖNNER.

Labels: jazz, love, modal jazz loves disney, robin hood, sunaga t experience, till bronner

  ¶ 8:28 AM 1 Comments Links to this post

  The Bare Necessities - Astrud Gilberto



ASTRUD GILBERTO may not be a name that is familiar to you, but surely you recognize her voice as the singer on Stan Getz's Girl from Ipanema. That song can be found on influential jazz bossa nova album GETZ/GILBERTO from 1964. The Giberto featured in the album's title is João Gilberto, a Brazilian singer/guitarist who is credited as creating the bossa nova beat! Astrud was married to João at the time and was invited to sing on the Ipanema track, the popularity of which instantly launched her career as a professional singer.

Astrud signed a contract with Verve who produced her records throughout the 60s. The Bare Necessities can be found on her 1968 album, WINDY. The kid she is singing with is her son, Marcelo Gilberto, who, twenty years after this recording, eventually became her bass player through the 80s and 90s.

This a fun cover, and I give her extra points for singing the "prickly pear" verse which many artists leave out. But the inclusion of Marcelo playing the Mowgli part helps make the verse actually mean something. I love the banter between the two. It's quite charming.

This cover was requested by Jonathan M Kemp, and it is my pleasure to be able to fulfill it! Enjoy!

Labels: astrud gilberto, bare necessities, jazz, jungle book, windy

  ¶ 11:07 AM 2 Comments Links to this post

  Whistle While You Work - Larry Clinton and His Orchestra, feat. Bea Wain
Shortly after the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Whistle While You Work became a hit song, topping the charts for several week following. The song became an instant classic and was used in many jazz and big band performances all over the country.

One of the earliest covers of this song was recorded in 1938 by jazz orchestra leader LARRY CLINTON featuring the wonderful voice of BEA WAIN.

Clinton was a prominent big band leader in the late 30s and 40s. While is notable for his arranging skills (he arranged music for Louis Armstrong, the Dorsey Brothers and many others) he is better known for taking classical work, such as the work of Debussy and Tchaikovsky, and arranging them for his jazz orchestra and adding lyrics for his singers to sing. He called this 'Swinging the Classics'.

When Clinton was putting together his band he knew he needed a singer. He heard Bea Wain sing an 8-bar solo on the radio one day and new that was his voice. He sought her out and asked her if she would sing for him and the rest is history.

Whistle While You Work Larry Clinton and His Orchestra, feat. Bea Wain 1938

Labels: bea wain, big band, jazz, larry clinton, oldies, snow white and the seven dwarfs, whistle while you work

  ¶ 7:02 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Heigh-Ho (The Dwarf's Marching Song) - Dave Brubeck Quartet
Here is another track from one of my favourite Disney cover albums, DAVE DIGS DISNEY. It is Snow White's Heigh-Ho jazzed up by the wonderful DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET.

The recording, which features Paul Desmond on the alto sax, Joe Morello on the drums and Eugene Wright playing the double bass, is one that the Quartet had in their repertoire for a while before the idea of this album came about. Here is an excerpt from the liner notes:

"Heigh-Ho" has been developing of late as a closing number for a night-club set, being on of those free-wheeling tunes with an orthodox structure, which lends itself to creating a climactic feeling of excitement.

Heigh-Ho (The Dwarf's Marching Song) Dave Brubeck Quartet 1957

Labels: dave brubeck quartet, dave digs disney, heigh-ho, jazz, snow white and the seven dwarfs

  ¶ 7:02 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Some Day My Prince Will Come - Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea
Two jazz greats come together for this wonderful version of Some Day My Prince Will Come. Taken from the 1979 live album AN EVENING WITH HERBIE HANCOCK & CHICK COREA: IN CONCERT, the song features Hancock and Corea on two grand pianos playing a duet. The result is quite remarkable.

HERBIE HANCOCK, whose jazz piano greatly influenced the definition of 'rhythm section', started his career as a concert pianist by quickly found his love for jazz. He joined the Miles Davis quintet and recorded some of the most influential jazz albums of the sixties. In later years he composed the soundtrack to Bill Cosby's Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and later moved into funk, bebop and rock.

CHICK COREA is a jazz pianist and drummer who has recorded dozens of albums and won over a dozen Grammy Awards for his influential music. Taking Hancock's place as Miles Davis' pianist in 1968, Corea help define and develop jazz fusion, the amalgamation of jazz with other genres of music, such as rock, funk, folk, classical and even hip-hop and metal.

Listen to this song and wonder at the amazing talent of these two people.

This is just the first five minutes of the twelve and a half minute track. Follow the links below to hear the rest.

Some Day My Prince Will Come Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea 1978

Labels: an evening with herbie hancock and chick corea, chick corea, herbie hancock, jazz, snow white and the seven dwarfs, some day my prince will come

  ¶ 6:44 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Bare Necessities - Steve Tyrell
Next up on our spotlight on Disney orphans is the boy raised by wolves, Mowgli, from The Jungle Book.

There are three types of Disney orphans: The street-smart orphan who has learned how to survive on their own (Aladdin), the bratty orphan who has turned his back on the world because they think the world has turned his back on them (Peter Pan), and the clueless orphan who can't think for themselves and is used mainly as a plot device (Penny). Mowgli falls into the third category.

Even though he was raised by wolves and therefore has 'parents', he still lacks a lot of the social skills and independent thinking that comes with growing up as a human. Throughout the whole movie he is just pushed around from place to place to be influenced by whomever is nearby. The only time he ever does something for himself is when he fights Shere Khan with fire.

Today's cover song, Bare Necessities by STEVE TYRELL, is one of the many examples of Mowgli being influenced by whomever is nearby. Almost immediately after singing this song, Mowgli is taken to King Louie who dazzles Mowgli with a new song, making him forget the song that he just sang with Baloo. Even thought the sequel is not as good, Mowgli has much more character in Jungle Book 2.

Bare Necessities Steve Tyrell 2006

Labels: bare necessities, disney standards, jazz, jungle book, steve tyrell

  ¶ 7:45 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Trust In Me - Holly Cole Trio
A big happy birthday to Bruce Reitherman who was born on this day in 1955. Aside from being the son of the famous Disney animator/director Wolfgang Reitherman, Bruce was also the voice of Christopher Robin in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Mowgli in The Jungle Book.

Today's cover is a dark and haunting version of Trust In Me by Canadian jazz singer HOLLY COLE and her trio. The song can be found on her 1991 album BLAME IN ON MY YOUTH, her second album which was made up of covers of jazz, rock and showtunes songs. Her following album, DON'T SMOKE IN BED, is made entirely of Tom Waits cover songs!

Trust In Me Holly Cole Trio 1991

Labels: blame it on my youth, holly cole trio, jazz, jungle book, trust in me

  ¶ 6:35 AM 1 Comments Links to this post

  I Wan'na Be Like You - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Matt and Christine have both requested to hear BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY'S version of I Wan'na Be Like You.

This version of I Wan'na Be Like You was recorded for the Swingers movie soundtrack which gives the song a whole new meaning! It also appears on the band's 1999 album THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE.

If you listen carefully, you will hear a lot of elements borrowed from the Los Lobos version of this song from the STAY AWAKE cover album. But that certainly doesn't make this cover unoriginal! Big Bad Voodoo Daddy puts their own twist on the song and makes it a big band hit!

I Wan'na Be Like You Big Bad Voodoo Daddy 1996

Labels: big bad voodoo daddy, i wan'na be like you, jazz, jungle book, swing, swingers soundtrack

  ¶ 1:20 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

  I Love to Laugh - Louis Prima & Gia Maione
To finish off Mary Poppins Week (which also happens to be Obscure Disney Song Friday) I am posting a cover of one of the lesser remembered Mary Poppins, the song sung by the gravity-defying Uncle Albert, I Love to Laugh.

Uncle Albert was played by Ed Wynn, a comedic Broadway actor and radio personality in the 30s and 40s who went on to have on of the very first comedy variety shows on television.

Ed Wynn first worked for Disney in 1951 as the voice of the Mad Hatter. Other Disney credits include Mr. Hofstedder in That Darn Cat and Rufus in the Gnome-Mobile, but it is his role in Mary Poppins that most people remember.

Wynn died of throat cancer two years after the release of Mary Poppins.

This cover of I Love to Laugh is by the husband wife team of LOUIS PRIMA and GIA MAIONE of their album LET'S FLY WITH MARY POPPINS.

I Love to Laugh Louis Prima & Gia Maione 1965

Labels: gia maione, i love to laugh, jazz, let's fly with mary poppins, louis prima, mary poppins

  ¶ 10:35 AM 1 Comments Links to this post

  When You Wish Upon a Star - The Swingfield Big Band
This month's cover of When You Wish Upon a Star is from a disc called BIG BAND LOVE SONGS. The CD features big band versions of love songs mostly from the movie world.

BIG BAND LOVE SONGS is one of those cheap CDs you find at Wal-Mart in a rack that lets you sample the tunes and THE SWINGFIELD BIG BAND is a group that has recorded dozens of albums for the label that produces these value discs. They are very much a studio band.

However, don't let that jade your thinking. This version of When You Wish Upon a Star has a great arrangement and is performed better than a lot of other jazz versions of this song. Listen for yourself and you will probably find that you want to hear more. The same album also contains a version of Some Day My Prince Will Come.

When You Wish Upon a Star The Swingfield Big Band 2005

Labels: big band love songs, jazz, pinocchio, swingfield big band, when you wish upon a star

  ¶ 4:00 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

  Whistle While You Work - Artie Shaw and His Orchestra w/ Leo Watson
Today's track is by ARTIE SHAW AND HIS ORCHESTRA featuring LEO WATSON. Waton, a jazz musician from the 30s and 40s, was primarily a vocalist but also played the drums and the trombone which made a valuable player in many bands, Artie Shaw's and Gene Krupa's bands in particular, as well as the Spirits of Rhythm.

If you are a fan of Looney Tunes, you may be interested to know that Leo Watson provided the voice for Prince Chawmin' in Bob Clampett's Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, a cartoon that has gone on to be part of the infamous Censored Eleven, forever in the Warner Bros. vaults never to see the light of day (except on youtube).

This song was recorded in 1937, probably just after the movie was released.

Whistle While You Work Artie Shaw and His Orchestra w/ Leo Watson 1937

Labels: artie shaw, jazz, leo watson, snow white and the seven dwarfs, whistle while you work, zip a dee doo dah album

  ¶ 4:33 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Alice in Wonderland - Dave Brubeck Quartet




It was on this day in 1951 that Alice in Wonderland was released to theatres for the world to enjoy!

The title track which was written by Bob Hilliard and Sammy Fain and was performed by the Jud Conlon Chorus, was recorded a few years later by jazz musician DAVE BRUBECK and his quartet in 1957.

This version is a bit different than the Bill Evans version I posted before. While Brubeck keeps the time signature in 4/4 as per the original, he give the melody more of a triplet feel. The Evans version adapts this feel to 6/8, which has become a well recognized way of playing the song by jazz musicians over the years.

Labels: alice in wonderland, alice in wonderland song, dave brubeck quartet, dave digs disney, jazz

  ¶ 12:54 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

  A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes - Kei Kobayashi
KEI KOBAYASHI has been surrounded by jazz his whole life. His dad, a jazz pianist, and his mom, a jazz vocalist, kept him constantly surrounded by the music they loved.

When he was sixteen he performed with Herbie Hancock in a benefit performance for victims of the Kobe earthquake. This was his big break. Soon after he released his indie album PS I Love You which sent Kobayashi into a bidding war between major labels!

He has now signed with Toshiba EMI and has released a few albums including JUST YOU in 2000 which includes a nice jazz cover of A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes.

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes Kei Kobayashi 2000

Labels: a dream is a wish your heart makes, cinderella, jazz, just you, kei kobayashi

  ¶ 4:14 PM 0 Comments Links to this post