Summer's Waltz

I came across this tune while looking around on YouTube to see if there were any jazz waltzes out there about summertime. In fact I was hoping to find one with the title "Summer's Waltz." And I did! It also happened to be a very lovely tune.

It was written by jazz bassist David Carpenter. He wrote it in 2001, and unfortunately passed away a few years later at the very young age of 48. I got in touch with his widow (with the help of drummer Peter Erskine), and sent her this demo. She really liked it! 

I hope you will too!

Summer’s Waltz

(click on the title to listen)

Summer’s coming, the days grow long.
Bees are humming their old sweet song.
Birds are chirping, kids slurping their milk shakes and malts
and dancing to summer’s waltz.

There’ll be lakes to swim in and bikes to ride,
stones for skimmin’ and kites to glide,
there’ll be T-shirts and concerts and sweet somersaults
and dancing to summer’s waltz.

You can eat your fill at an outdoor grill
then find a girl to help you count the stars at night.
Yes, a summer fling may not mean a thing
but then again, who knows, it might.

(And though you hope that) summer leaves lasting mem’ries of
the dreams it weaves into summer love
there’s a reason the season hurries then halts—
it’s dancing to summer’s waltz

Music © 2001 by David E. Carpenter
Mild Cheddar Music (BMI)

Lyric © 2013 by Lee Charles Kelley
West Sixty Ninth Street Music (ASCAP)

She Takes Pictures

This is a nice little jazz/pop waltz about an amazing photographer I know...

 

 

"She Takes Pictures"

(click on title to hear demo)

Sunshine, flashbulb or halogen,
the light leads her to inner peace.
You can almost feel the shock of oxygen
as each camera click brings sweet release.

She likes taking pictures—her world’s a camera lens—
quick photographic raptures, transcending all the trends.

Rock stars, hoods, and hipsters, denizens of cool—

it’s a kick to take their pictures. This chick is nobody’s fool.

L.A. to London, St. Bart's to Big Sur, 
a never ending blur streams through her aperture.
But in the shutter’s afterglow a shadow is revealed,

slightly out of focus in her depth of field.

She loves the game, she loves the game
of tryin’ to pin life’s moments in a frame.
So day and night, both day and night 

she hopes to catch the glow of natural light.
Windows and shutters and rainbows and fluttering eyes.
Double exposures bring subtle disclosures of lies.

When it all fades to blueprint blue 
there’s only one thing left to do…

… with all life’s little pressures, the things she can’t control,
they will keep her taking pictures to pacify her soul.

They’ll keep her taking pictures—there's always one more roll.

Words and Music © 2012 by Lee Charles Kelley 
West Sixty Ninth Street Music (ASCAP)

It's Always Summer in My Mind

Although this is a piano-jazz ballad, it was inspired by several songs Brian Wilson wrote for The Beach Boys, especially "Your Summer Dream." 

Note: there's a lyrical change in the 2nd verse which differs from the recording.

As usual the recording is just me and Janice Friedman (on piano) recorded in her living room with a hand-held Olympus voice recorder.

Brian Wilson

"It's Always Summer in My Mind"

(click on the title to listen)

When autumn colors come to paint the park,
and skies grow dark, I’m not inclined
to let the season choose the clothes I wear,
for it’s still summer in my mind.

And when my radiator murmurs low

and winter snowdrifts form, I find
I’m by the seashore in the balmy air.
And it’s still summer in my mind.

I found my love as cotton clouds blew by,

one sweet July, long, long ago.

But then September came and summer said goodbye.

Years pass and I still love her so.

So...

when laughing daffodils declare, “It’s spring,”
and skylarks sing just to unwind,
their shining fineries can’t compare to mem’ries

of her and summer in my mind.

It’s always summer in my mind.

A Johnny Mercer summer in my mind.

It’s always summer in my mind.

Words & Music © 2011 by Lee Charles Kelley

West Sixty Ninth Street Music (ASCAP)

Rough Demo

Vocal: Lee Charles Kelley

Piano: Janice Friedman

Last Train to Mercerville

This one has generated a bit of interest here and there, especially the big band version recorded by Laura Ainsworth on her CD Necessary Evil. Note: after the introductory verse the lyric is made up almost entirely of Johnny Mercer song titles (in bold below).

"Last Train to Mercerville"

(click on the title to listen)

 

Sometimes in quiet contemplation

when all the world seems tired dull and stale,

bored to tears with my computer’s cursor,

I yearn for an amusifying verser

whose clever lyrics always cure my alienation.

So if you share my fond preoccupation

with good old tunes that tend to tell a tale,

and words just terse enough not any terser,

as written by a certain Johnny Mercer,

perhaps you’d care to meet me at the railroad station…

...where Mister Bob White is Trav'lin’ Light

and dustin’ his shoes to The Blues in the Night.

Down on Skylark Lane, past Early Autumn Hill,

he’s boardin’ the last train to Mercerville.

Where Laura rides too on that train passin’ through.

On each train I caught, John, I Thought About You.

You were just Too Marvelous for Words at least until

your words charmed all the birds in Mercerville.

                  On the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe,

                  they know Something’s Gotta Give.

                  But the Mercer Line runs great 
                  and tonight I’ve got a date

                  to Accentuate the Positive.

And isn’t it fine, Come Rain or Come Shine,

to ride that old friend to the end of the line.

Ah, The Summer Wind, The Autumn Leaves that spill

across the track that takes you back to Mercerville.

(whistling interlude)

Watch her glide alongside the Moon River,

and Dream when you’re feelin’ blue,

where Fools Rush In
lovin’ the spin that they’re in

And the Angels Sing a Tin-Pan Alley hymn for you.

Well, that’s how it goes, and, John, these phrases I chose

fit Hoagy and Henry and Harold and those

the Old Music Masters who gave us a thrill

with jazzy strains aboard those trains to Mercerville.

I was born old fashioned, I’m Old Fashioned,

I love the moonlight, still. 

I’m just insane about that train,

a-hoo-wee-de-hoo-wee, to Mercerville.

                 Hop on board. Take a trip on a train, hop on board.

                 Day In, Day Out, 
                 That Old Mercer Magic has me in its spell

                 and Anyplace I Hang My Hat Is Home, Goody Goody,

                 The Days of Wine and Roses, Tangerine,
                 Jeepers Creepers, Time to Hit the Road to Dreamland,

                 and in The Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening,    
                 I Remember You.

Music & Lyric © by Lee Charles Kelley
West Sixty Ninth Street Music (ASCAP) 

Piano: Janice Friedman, Vocal & Whistling: Lee Charles Kelley

It Was Just Like Love

Several years ago I saw a young actress on an entertainment show. She was asked about the rumors that she had been romantically involved with a famous actor. "No, we're just friends," she said. "But it's one of those friendships some people have, you know, where it's almost like you're in love."


Hmmm, I thought. There might be a song there...

"It Was Just Like Love"

(click on title to play tune)

It was just like love,
without the aggravation,

a rich blend of
warm friends, cool conversation

plus the thought
that rain or shine you've always got
great company.

That sounds a lot
like love to me.

It was just like you
to keep my engine purring

while guys you knew
were the same bad dream, recurring.

I still don't know
what made you feel you had to go
through all that fuss 

when it was so
much like love with us.

Bridge

I guess I should have understood
the rules of the game,

should have used those tools of the game
that make hearts dance.

But sad to say I'm like those wayward
fools of the game

who'd rather wait for one true love
than waste time on romance.

Yeah, it was just like me
to fix what isn't broken.

To late I see
some things should have stayed unspoken.

But in a blaze
of reckless honesty our days
of fun were done.

I spoke one phrase
and watched you run.

(solo, repeat bridge)

It was just like bliss
that couldn't clear the runway.

At last we kiss,
though not quite in the fun way.

It's all gone bust,
yet as we kiss goodbye I trust
you'll share this toast.

"Wasn't it just like love almost?"

'Cause it hurts just like love almost...

Words & Music © 2006 by Lee Charles Kelley 
West Sixty Ninth Street Music (ASCAP)

Recorded at Birdland in NYC during a Tierney Sutton singing workshop.

Christian Jacob (piano), Trey Henry (bass) & Ray Brinker (drums). 

Opening piano by Janice Friedman. Vocal by Lee Charles Kelley. 

New York in the Rain

Last summer, I was in the back of a taxicab headed up Central Park West. It was a cool rainy day. As I looked out the window, at the city, and at the people huddled under their umbrellas, I thought, "I love New York in the rain," then thought, "Hey, that might make a good song title."

I wondered what the story would be, then saw an image in my mind of two people meeting on a rainy day. A phrase popped into my head, "Under an awning, in the cool summer rain..." And I was off to the races.

Musically, my goal was to write a simple double eight-bar structure. But I also wanted to have a key change in the middle of each eight-bar section. Ironically, I thought about "The Warmth of the Sun," by Brian Wilson. I tried the same basic key change — for me it was going from C to A — to see if it worked, and it did.

In fact, it worked really, really well.  Thanks, Brian!

"New York in the Rain"

(click here to listen)

Verse:
Some folks fear the weather man.

They don’t like to get wet.

I once feared the weather man

until the day we met…

Tune:

…under an awning,

in the cool summer rain.

I’d just missed my bus, you just

got off the train.           

We talked and laughed

till coulds cleared up above.

            In a week or two

we two were deep in love.

And although we parted,

while springtime was new,

when I hear raindrops fall I

still think of you.

            And I wear a secret smile

I can’t explain

            except to say that I love

New York in the rain.

Words and Musix © 2010 by Lee Charles Kelley 
West Sixty Ninth Street Music (ASCAP)

Piano: Janice Friedman  
Vocal & Whistling: Lee Charles Kelley

Love Is a Dangerous Thing

I got the idea for this song from Tony Bennett. 

When his first Duets CD came out — to commemorate his 80th birthday — he did a TV special, showing him working with all his partners on the project, and discussing their working arrangements, etc.

When he was talking about Stevie Wonder, he said that the first time they'd met was at a benefit for Coretta Scott King, held in Atlanta. Bennett had to fly down from New York City in a huge snowstorm.

"It was a dangerous night for flying..." he said, and kept repeating the phrase.

One of the cool things I've noticed about Tony Bennett is that everything he does is so steeped in jazz that he even swings when he talks. (Think about it for a sec, and you'll see I'm right.)  So when he kept going back to that phrase — "It was a dangerous night for flying..." — a swing tune started forming in my head. 

The lyric came a few days later.

Love Is a Dangerous Thing

(click here to play)

Verse:
Seems like love has always got 

your heart right over a barrel.

And though this new chick’s hot, 

your evening’s fraught with peril.
Right now it seems you could live on dreams, 

but life’s no seaside resort.
Long story short, this song is sort 

of a down-to-earth travel report:

Tune:
            It’s a dangerous night to be flying

with the stars burning bright in her eyes.

And though she’s cute bring a big parachute—

just a word to the wise.

It’s a treacherous stretch of the highway,

a switchback that circles and snakes.

Yet ’round ev’ry curve you just punch it and swerve

as if you’ve never heard of the brakes.

All hail the incredible feeling,

to sail out where stars never end.

But talk about grief, when that ship hits the reef,

you’ll soon be drowning, my friend.

You’re engaging in risky behavior
each time that you kiss and you cling.

Yes, flirting is fun when you do it and run,

but love is a dangerous thing.

Now you’d never go running with scissors,

and you’d never jump off a cliff.

So why treat romance as if you’ve got a chance—

that’s a mighty big if.

Yes, I used to get stupid by starlight.

I’d give in to Cupid’s old jive.

But last time I did my poor heart took a skid

and barely squeaked through it alive.

Still it felt great to be breathless,

that thrill that cuts straight to the bone—

just wondering when you might see her again,

and not straying too far from the phone.

No, no, these are desperate dreams to be dreaming

despite what it seems they might bring.

They seldom come true, but then when they do

they bring you a new song to swing;

But don’t count on happiness;

love is a dangerous thing!

Music & Lyric Copyright © 2006 by LEE CHARLES KELLEY 
West Sixty Ninth Street Music (ASCAP)

Piano: Janice Friedman
Vocal: Lee Charles Kelley