I’m very fond of NOBODY’S SWEETHEART NOW — both the music and the sadly censorious lyrics that wag a stern moral finger at the pretty girl who has left her home town to live a fast life in the Big Bad City. Here is my leisurely explication-with-music of several songs that do the neat trick of delineating vice while saying how naughty it is and what sad consequences ensue. (What other blog offers you fallen women all the way back to Thomas Hardy? I ask you.)
But here, without its lyrics, is a 2014 Chicagoan version of that Sweetheart’s fall from grace — as performed at the San Diego Jazz Fest by four swing poets: Ray Skjelbred, piano; Marc Caparone, cornet; Beau Sample, string bass; Hal Smith, drums. Watch out for the stop-and-go that begins its gradual ascent at about 5:20 — you’ll understand how it got its name. And enjoy the hot lyricism:
Swing out, all you Ruined Maids! And the rest of you, too.
May your happiness increase!
JAZZ LIVES 