Sunday, August 20, 2017

Saying, "So long," to Jerry Lewis.

Jerry Lewis died at the age of 91 today. He first became famous with Dean Martin when they teamed up in the mid-1940s. He went solo when Martin split from the comedy teaming in the mid-50s.

Perhaps his greatest legacy was his nonstop support and efforts to make people aware of muscular dystrophy and his unflagging efforts to raise money for research in how to fight the disease.

My father, George A. Borgman, always got a kick out of his ability to be a comic and then be able to sing straight and do a good job on top of it.



Here Lewis sings It All Depends On You, which he recorded in 1957. 

It All Depends On You was written for the 1926 muiscal Big Boy by Ray Henderson (music), with lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva and Les Bown.

In December 2015 Lewis was interviewed on the EWTN show The World Over.

Lewis died at his Las Vegas, Nevada home at about 9:15 in the morning.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Jazz Performance Saturday! - "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" - Geo Dixieland Jazz Band

The tune Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue is not only a catchy tune, it is also a very popular tune with modern Traditional jazz bands! In today's Jazz Performance, the Geo Dixieland Jazz Band plays the tune in a park. The video was uploaded to YouTube by Alejandro Armando Córdova Carrasco on January 1, 2016. The identified is the Geo Dixieland Jazz Band which appears to be based out of Mexico City, Mexico.

As I stated the tune Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl?) is a rather popular number and has been covered before here on Yankee Jazz Beat. The original music was published in 1925 and was recorded that same year by The California Ramblers. Ray Henderson composed the music and Sam Lewis and Joe Young wrote the words to it. Interestingly, a 1952 film seems to have brought it back into the spotlight with the title "Has Anybody Seen My Gal."


I couldn't discover too much information on the band or identify the members in this video, but it is nice to know that Dixieland is alive and well in Mexico!