So much jazz has flowed from their creations...

Tabla player Anindo Chatterjee and I recorded All the Things You, the first song we played on what became four albums of piano and table duets during two sessions on consecutive days.

It was the first track we recorded. I don't believe that Anindo had ever heard it before, so I explained some of the lyrics, such as how it opens:

You are the promised kiss of springtime

That makes the lonely winter seem long

Pretty amusing how the appearance and countenance of Jerome Kern strongly resembles Lee Konitz, whose absolute favorite songs included Kern's All the Things You Are and The Song Is You, both with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.

I once asked Lee if he had ever met any of the great composers and lyricists of standards, and he said he hadn't, but he was good friends with Leonard Bernstein, of course, not to mention all his friends who composed jazz standards, including Chick Corea, Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano, Bill Evans and others. Lee was obviously thinking about people like Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers. He composed a number of jazz standards as well, including Kary's Trance and Thingin'.

- Michael Robinson, November 2022, Los Angeles

© 2022 Michael Robinson All rights reserved

Michael Robinson is a Los Angeles-based composer, programmer, pianist and musicologist. His 199 albums include 152 albums for meruvina and 47 albums of piano improvisations. Robinson has been a lecturer at UCLA, Bard College and California State University Long Beach and Dominguez Hills.