Search - Audrey Lavine :: At Home With Arlen

Harold Arlen's career as a composer spanned more than 50 years and 400 songs, from the Cotton Club to Hollywood and back to Broadway, but his dream was to be a performer. He brings a singer's sensibility to his compositions; his melodic lines derive from an appreciation not only of what is possible for a singer, but what helps a singer convey power, tenderness, and emotion. At Home with Arlen showcases many lesser-known gems from Arlen's catalog of more than 400 songs, with some familiar tunes nestled in among them. Arlen aficionados will be sure to note "Love Held Lightly" from Saratoga; Arlen's personal favorite, "Last Night When We Were Young," which was inexplicably cut from the three films in which it was placed; and the rarely heard "Song of the Gigolo." Yet Arlen believed firmly that the composer contributed only half of a song. "A good lyric writer is the composer's best friend," he said. Among his lyrical friends Arlen counted Ira Gershwin, Ted Koehler, Johnny Mercer, E.Y. Harburg - all of whom are represented on this recording, along with Jack Yellen, Dorothy Fields, Peggy Lee, Leo Robin, Truman Capote, and Arlen himself. Propelled by Ross Patterson's jazz-influenced arrangements, even familiar classics like "Come Rain or Come Shine" are given a new spin, as Audrey and Jerry Dodgion's alto sax wail together in duet. In addition to Patterson on piano, Audrey is joined on At Home With Arlen by bassist Don Falzone, and drummer Eric Halvorson. Completing the ensemble are multi-instrumentalists Aaron Heick and Jerry Dodgion on flute, clarinet, and alto saxophone.