Each of my songs emerged in their own special way. My method is to go with the inspiration and let it take me on these wonderful little journeys. Sometimes to the most unpredictable conclusions. I like surprises! Writers have many different methods of composing. Some are deliberate and analytical. Not me. I am free fall into the wind. Probably why I love birds so much. Every flight is a leap of faith. Every song is a leap of faith. Below are the afterthoughts of the inspiration.
When I decided to do another album, as a songwriter I had always recorded mostly my own songs. My first album Cool Night was entirely original compositions, and my second album Paper Doll was mostly my originals sprinkled with a couple well known jazz tunes and now for my third I wanted to pay homage to the very favorite songs that had become part of me throughout the years. These are some of the songs that got under my skin. I don’t say that as a figure of speech because the first memory I have of music getting under my skin was as a child of 3 tucked in between the soundboard of the old red upright and the wall listening to my mother play. The sound vibrations went through me and into me. It was a physical visceral response. How someone so young could feel the musical emotion is beyond my adult comprehension but it remains and for that I am grateful. Like body language there is an unspoken musical language and of course when you talk about jazz it is the ultimate. So on this album Everlasting Cool it became just that. A musical emotional expression of what words can’t always fulfill. I stood alone in my studio and just sang from my heart.
Taste Of Honey-This was written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow. It was originally written for a 1960 Broadway musical version of a 1958 British play A Taste of Honey. In 1964 Herb Alpert won four Grammy ® Awards. My favorite version was one recorded by Morgana King on her The Lady Is A Tramp album released in 1963. She is mostly remembered as Carmela Corleone, in the 1972 film The Godfather. I honor her with this version molto rubato.
Why Don’t You Do Right– The original song upon which this version was based The Weed Smoker’s Dream was written in 1936 by”Kansas Joe” McKoy. He later rewrote the lyrics and it became the current version first recorded by Lil Green in 1941. Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman recorded it in 1942. I dedicate this to all the chick singers out there trying to make a buck.
Angel Eyes-Was written by Matt Dennis and Earl Brent in 1946. To me there is nothing more wonderful than hearing the composer’s actual intention. Matt Dennis was a singer in his own right in addition to being a prolific songwriter. Angel Eyes was written for the movie Jennifer, with Ida Lupino and Howard Duff in which he appears singing and playing the song. I love his writing so much and I love his phrasing just as much!
Cry Me A River-This song was first released by Julie London in 1955 despite the fact that it had been written for Ella Fitzgerald for the film Pete Kelly’s Blues. Jack Webb (Julies husband at the time) was directing the film. It was dropped from the film. The song was written by Arthur Hamilton. I honor Arthur on my rendition and give a tiny nod at the end to Joe Cocker! Truly a part of me wanted to go there and rock out. Twenty years ago I would have.
I’m All Smiles– The first time I sang this song was when I worked at the Playboy Club in Boston Mass. What an experience THAT was! I loved the song then and I love it now. (Bunny dip anyone?)
Every Time We Say Goodbye was written by Cole Porter and introduced by Nan Wynn and Jere MacMahon in Billy Rose’s musical review Seven Lively Arts in 1944. Very clever how not only the mood and lyrics convey going from a major (happy sound) to a minor (sad sound) but the chords do as well. I love songs that capture real raw emotion like this one does. Peggy Mann had a hit with this in 1945 along with The Benny Goodman Quintet. I saved it for last because I’m saying goodbye to you all. It is the end of the album.
Ceyx & Alcyone
I wrote this as a love song to my husband Richard
I gave my album the title of Paper Doll because to me it represents the fragility of the innermost child, the spirit of which still exists in the deepest core of all of us. I am reminded of that sweet unbroken untested child. When we are broken, because at various times we all surely are, it is in the healing and survival that we celebrate. It makes me think of the Japanese practice of honoring the beauty of the broken ceramic object by repairing it with gold (Kintsugi). We all share these veins of gold.
Prelude To Your Kiss. The kissing part is easy. Arriving at the millisecond right before that most intimate expression can have so many diverse paths but when that moment is realized then the symbolic kiss is the least powerful of that equation between two people. It is what is manifest in that moment, everything- the universe.
Sail Away. Guitarist John Tropea has been a friend of mine for a very long time. He captures the free stream of consciousness on his guitar in this song as I imagine riding the notes as if riding on the waves. When I wrote this song I conjured the seacoast town where I grew up in Maine. Casco Bay was always full of sailboats with the white billowing sails moving slowly across the sunny sparkling sea. This memory came from Cousins Island where I would collect shells and hold them to my ear to listen to the ocean as a child.
Cool Night. I remember hearing Mr. Sandman on the radio when I was a little girl. Funny how childhood memories never ever leave you but find their way from your subconscious into the now. I just loved the idea of a “Mr. Sandman”. So this is about falling asleep and allowing all the thoughts and melodies to serve as lullabies. Listening to the sounds outside, seeing the glow of a streetlamp and a couple embracing within that halo. I remembered being alone. The nightingale. Sometimes you just can’t sleep so I just surrender and swing!
Ceyx and Alcyone is one of my favorite Greek myths. It is a tragedy that ends in resurrection. I hope you look it up. A couple is separated through war. One dies and is washed towards shore and as the other wades through the tide to reach him, as they touch they both fly away as birds. So beautiful. This song is about that power of love that truly transcends everything beyond this life.
Forgiveness. The artwork with this song is a painting of a bridge in my hometown that crosses the Royal River. A large brick factory looms at the foot of the valley there. As a little girl I was in a car accident on that bridge and we almost went over onto the falls. I was thrown out of the car and a teenage boy carried me up the steep hill to old Doc Freeman. He gave my arm one yank and lined up the five breaks. The next day I went to the hospital. It reminded me of all the hurts in life and how that river leads to Casco Bay. A huge place, like collective love filled with potential forgiveness. Like a heart with no real boundaries or limitation. What that little valentine symbol really represents. Yet, It is hard to forgive sometimes. Not sure which is more difficult to forgive or to forget.
Drop Of Rain. This was inspired by how much my daughter Lily loves the rain. My husband used to take her out to the garden we had at our 89th street apartment in the NYC. They would just stand in the rain together. It was their thing. Still is. I thought about how extreme the weather has become and wondered how we truly can preserve those normal drops of rain, our planet. It is my environmental cri de coeur. So that our world can have those moments of innocent drops of rain on a child’s face forever. Not a devastating flood or tornedo.
Ordinary Life. This pays homage to the joy of being a mom and a wife. Early in my career; I was offered different music business things, record deals, management deals-In the midst of it all I bumped into a guy in my building on west 83rd street. (An artist) We fell in love, got married, had a child, I went back to college, got a degree in psychology then a masters in gerontology, lived life, cared for my terminally ill mom for 7 years until she passed and all of those parts of my life took priority in my quest to live a life rich in meaning and purpose. I am lucky to have endured and to be enjoying this ordinary life, which has not been without many challenges. Hence “I am walking the road to Judgment Day” along side you. I have learned it is possible to do many things in this life. Just not all at once.
Dannemora Love Song. The prison break was all over the news a couple of years ago. A female prison worker had engaged in an illicit affair with two inmates of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora NY. Love makes people crazy, or maybe it is lack of love and desperation. She assisted in a prison break and they were all supposed to flee to Mexico. She chickened out in the end and they were left to their own devices once they escaped. Tragic story but I mean really who out there hasn’t chosen the wrong person (s) before? She and one of the prisoners are in prison. The other prisoner was killed by police. I wonder what made her do this. She was married and had a son at home.
Without Words. This is my love song to the musicians. I love them through the music. It is a special language that reveals the soul to each other.
Three Kings of Cool. I was inspired by “We three Kings of Orient are”. I remember sitting in the Baptist church community room in Yarmouth with all the other children where we would recite scripture and sing songs before we were allowed to join the adults and choir in the actual church. I loved singing together. I would get goose bumps. I remember in junior high we were singing an anthem and I started to cry. Music gets me to the core. I listened to lots of classical music and jazz at home on the farm where we lived. We had a red piano in the barn. For awhile our rooster had a cage on top. That is where I first played music. It was then that I turned Heart and Soul into a swingin’ version. Today Three Kings of Cool swings!
Kathy Ingraham