Rich or Poor (Gavin Creel & Jennifer Laura Thompson)
Fine and Dandy (Carolee Carmello & Mario Cantone)
Sing High (Male Ensemble)
I'll Hit a New High (Andrea Burns & Male Ensemble)
Starting at the Bottom (Gavin Creel)
Can This Be Love? (Carolee Carmello)
Fordyce (Ensemble)
Let's Go Eat Worms in the Garden (Gavin Creel, Carolee Carmello & Ensemble)
Etiquette (Mark Linn-Baker & Ensemble)
The Jig-Hop (Andrea Burns & Ensemble)
Can This Be Love? (reprise) (Jennifer Laura Thompson & Gavin Creel)
Wedding Bells (Ensemble)
Nobody Breaks My Heart (Carolee Carmello)
Nature Will Provide (Deborah Tranelli)
Finale Ultimo (Carolee Carmello & Ensemble)
Up Among the Chimney Pots (Natalie Douglas)
Can't We Be Friends? (John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey)
Whistling in the Dark (Jack Donahue)
Once You Find Your Guy (Ann Hampton Callaway)
The classic 1930 musical comedy in its world premiere recording, featuring a 28-piece orchestra and a cast of Broadway and jazz greats. An amazing roster of talent including Carolee Carmello (Kiss Me Kate, Parade), Gavin C... more »reel (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Mario Cantone (Assassins and TV's Sex & The City), Mark Linn-Baker (A Year With Frog and Toad and TV's Perfect Strangers) and Jennifer Laura Thompson (Urinetown, Footloose) # is joined by bestselling jazz artists Ann Hampton Callaway, John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, all in loving tribute to one of the few female composers from the first half of the 20th Century: the legendary Kay Swift. With a new biography of the composer, entitled Fine and Dandy: The Life and Work of Kay Swift, due out June 1 from Yale University Press, this new recording is sure to attract the attention of Broadway and jazz music-lovers everywhere. Overture (Orchestra), Rich or Poor (Gavin Creel & Jennifer Laura Thompson), Fine and Dandy (Carolee Carmello & Mario Cantone), Machine Shop Opening (Mark Linn-Baker & Ensemble), Starting at the Bottom (Gavin Creel), Can This Be Love? (Carolee Carmello), I'll Hit a New High (Andrea Burns & Male Ensemble), Picnic Song (Ensemble), Let's Go Eat Worms in the Garden (Gavin Creel, Carolee Carmello & Ensemble), Can't We Be Friends? (John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey), Up Among the Chimney Pots (Natalie Douglas), Whistling in the Dark (Jack Donahue), Etiquette (Mark Linn-Baker & Ensemble), The Jig-Hop (Andrea Burns & Ensemble), Nobody Breaks My Heart (Carolee Carmello), Can This Be Love? (reprise) (Jennifer Laura Thompson & Gavin Creel), Wedding Bells (Ensemble), Waltz (Deborah Tranelli), Finale Ultimo (Mario Cantone, Carolee Carmello & Ensemble), Once You Find Your Guy (Ann Hampton Callaway)« less
The classic 1930 musical comedy in its world premiere recording, featuring a 28-piece orchestra and a cast of Broadway and jazz greats. An amazing roster of talent including Carolee Carmello (Kiss Me Kate, Parade), Gavin Creel (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Mario Cantone (Assassins and TV's Sex & The City), Mark Linn-Baker (A Year With Frog and Toad and TV's Perfect Strangers) and Jennifer Laura Thompson (Urinetown, Footloose) # is joined by bestselling jazz artists Ann Hampton Callaway, John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, all in loving tribute to one of the few female composers from the first half of the 20th Century: the legendary Kay Swift. With a new biography of the composer, entitled Fine and Dandy: The Life and Work of Kay Swift, due out June 1 from Yale University Press, this new recording is sure to attract the attention of Broadway and jazz music-lovers everywhere. Overture (Orchestra), Rich or Poor (Gavin Creel & Jennifer Laura Thompson), Fine and Dandy (Carolee Carmello & Mario Cantone), Machine Shop Opening (Mark Linn-Baker & Ensemble), Starting at the Bottom (Gavin Creel), Can This Be Love? (Carolee Carmello), I'll Hit a New High (Andrea Burns & Male Ensemble), Picnic Song (Ensemble), Let's Go Eat Worms in the Garden (Gavin Creel, Carolee Carmello & Ensemble), Can't We Be Friends? (John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey), Up Among the Chimney Pots (Natalie Douglas), Whistling in the Dark (Jack Donahue), Etiquette (Mark Linn-Baker & Ensemble), The Jig-Hop (Andrea Burns & Ensemble), Nobody Breaks My Heart (Carolee Carmello), Can This Be Love? (reprise) (Jennifer Laura Thompson & Gavin Creel), Wedding Bells (Ensemble), Waltz (Deborah Tranelli), Finale Ultimo (Mario Cantone, Carolee Carmello & Ensemble), Once You Find Your Guy (Ann Hampton Callaway)
"Kay Swift, best-known for her close association with George Gershwin, was one of the few female composers to write for Broadway. Fine and Dandy was her first book musical, featuring lyrics by husband Paul James, and became one of the biggest hits of Broadway's 1930-31 season. However, like many musicals of the era, most of the original performance materials were lost over the years. In the mid-`80s, Swift began to reconstruct the score, assisted by orchestrator Russell Warner, who continued the work following her death in 1993. The new recording is a revelation, for the songs are, as the title says, fine and dandy--clever and romantic by turns, and always tuneful. Those who love Gershwin's "Strike Up the Band" and "Of Thee I Sing" will find a similar feel here, helped by strong performances from Carolee Carmello, Gavin Creel, Mario Cantone, Mark Linn-Baker and Jennifer Laura Thompson, bolstered by a full orchestra. The CD also includes several other songs by Swift, including the classic "Can't We Be Friends?""
More than Fine, and More than Dandy!
T. Fanning | Canterbury School, New Milford, CT | 09/18/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I am very selective in writing reviews for Amazon - so if you're reading this, then please know that I must really, really love this c.d. And I hope my "review" helps in your decision whether or not to buy it!
Having said that...this recording is tremendous. Kay Swift's music comes to life through the talented and spectacular voices, most notebly of Gavin Creel and Carolee Carmello. I think I listen to their duet (Track 10), at least once a day. The whole thing is just pure broadway fun, the way it used to be! The only bad thing about this c.d. is that you wished they had staged this musical, so that you could go see it live!"
WOW Simply the best reconstructed show album to date!!
William S. Oser | New Hampshire USA | 02/23/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Fine and Dandy is simply the best 30s musical to be reconstructed for CD yet, and it was a complete surprise because who knew any of the songs from this show? Well, we know them now and they are teriffic, and performed by an equally teriffic cast, especially Carolee Carmello, Gavin Cleel and Jennifer Laura Thompson. Would it be fair to say that Ms. Carmello is wildly underappreciated? I have adored her ever since seeing her as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors many years ago in Boston. Here she is wonderful especially in Lets Go Eat Worms in the Garden and Nobody Breaks My Heart. It was so unexpected to find such a treasure trove of foot tapping songs, but here they are. BUY THIS CD if you like musicals at all, you won't be sorry."
Fabulous discovery!
William S. Oser | 05/29/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is an amazing score: witty, clever, fantastically inventive music -- fans of Gershwin et al will be delighted to discover this delightful show. What a great contribution to the American songbook. And hats off to PS Classics for this debut nonprofit historical recording, which has impeccable production quality. Can't wait for the next one they release."
Dandy
Kevin Killian | San Francisco, CA United States | 05/06/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"No one will easily mistake Kay Swift for Gershwin, but it is great that she is finally getting some recognition beyond "Can't We Be Friends?" (included here on this LP as a sort of bonus) which isn't itself all that familiar except to cabaret aficionados. Writing true show music is a different kettle of fish, an art form with different skills, and listening to this LP one begins to construct a live production of FINE AND DANDY in one's head. The voices of the individual performers are immensely helpful in this journey, and some of the tracks you could listen to day and night. I understand that Donald Ogden Stewart wrote the book for this show and I would love to get my hands on it, having enjoyed some of the films he worked on so much, Dinner at Eight, Holiday, Kitty Foyle, The Philadelphia Story and Europa 51 among them. His Socialist bent had an appealing, whimsical side to it and I can see the factory for which Kay Swift wrote her enchanting opening number as the perfect laboratory for Ogden Stewart's brand of inspired nuttiness. Gavin Creel and Carolee Carmello are vivacious and even infectious on their tracks, and it sounds as though they love the songs as much as we love them. "Can This Be Love?" already sounds like a standard, and I predict many renditions of the comical complaint number "Let's Go Eat Worms."
Don't know if a revival of the show would be successful, but it sounds as though it needs one bravura comedian to put it over big. Back in the 1930s they had Joe Cook. Who is Joe Cook's equivalent today? Someone like Will Ferrell I guess--gulp."