Harry Warren

The popular standards of the Great American Songbook provide the foundational material for the musical improvisations of the jazz repertory.  This program is one of an occasional series we’ve produced focusing on the legendary composers and their jazz interpretations.

 Born in New York to Italian immigrant parents in 1893 as Salvatore Guaragna, Harry Warren was a self-taught musician who dropped out of high school to begin performing in the entertainment field.  After stateside service in the Navy during World War I, Warren worked for Vitagraph Films in Brooklyn, and then as a song plugger for publishers and a composer for the stage in Manhattan in the 1920's.  With the advent of sound pictures, Warren was among the first  songwriters to take up residence in Hollywood and compose for the film studios and their classic musicals.

 Beginning with “42nd Street”, Warren provided the music for the Warner Brothers Busby Berkeley productions of the 1930's, and then movie projects of 20th Century Fox, MGM  and other studios in the 40's and 50's.

 Among his famous, enduring, compositions are There Will Never Be Another You, The More I See You, You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me, Serenade In Blue, I Only Have Eyes For You, At Last, Jeepers Creepers, Lullaby Of Broadway, September In The Rain, Chattanooga Choo Choo and many more.

 The program will put these songs in perspective and play jazz versions with swinging improvisations by instrumentalists ranging from Lester Young and Sonny Rollins to Miles Davis and Eddie Lockjaw Davis, among others, as well as vocalists such as Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Johnny Hartman, Etta Jones and Etta James.  And maybe we’ll throw in The Flamingos, too.

 

originally broadcast in 2017

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