Day 28: Tin Pan Alley

Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook

The golden age of Tin Pan Alley during the 1920 and 30s culminated in a combination of words and music that was insouciant, sophisticated and urbane. Even the idiom's finest practitioners, however, occasionally lapsed into sentimentality. Perhaps no songwriter better epitomizes the golden age than Cole Porter, a tunesmith and lyricist who wrote dozens of remarkably witty numbers such as the list song "You're the Top" yet also had a self-professed desire--which he at times acted on--to write schmaltz like "I Love You." (The latter was reportedly written in response to a friendly wager that regarding Porter's ability to write a song in which the three-word phrase was repeated on end.) Not all Porter's overtly melodramatic tunes were throwaways however; indeed, some of his best creations, such as the classic "Night and Day," mixed intelligence with heavy dozes of emotion to great effect.

Given the somewhat complex relationship between wry detachment and embellished feeling in the songs of Cole Porter--and indeed Tin Pan Alley itself--it's not surprising that pianist Oscar Peterson--a player who, for all his dazzling flourishes, was rooted in a lyrical style--proved an adept interpreter of Porter and the American songbook. Music producer/impresario Norman Granz, founder of Verve Records and a major proponent of the Great American Songbook, managed both Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson and orchestrated songbook series for both artists. While Fitzgerald's songbooks were so successful that they arguably played a pivotal role in entrenching the Tin Pan Alley cannon, Peterson's are today less well known, though they are invariably tasteful. 1959's Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook is one of the best of Peterson's 19 songbook records, 10 of which were made between 1952 and 1954, and nine of which were done in 1959. Peterson's renditions of "I've Got You Under My Skin," "Night and Day" and "In the Still of the Night" are so easy on the ear that they might be accused of bordering on elevator music were Peterson not so careful to accentuate Porter's melodies. It is level of attention that ensures that even with lyrics absent, Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook--at once virtuosic and also a tad bit sappy--is a worthy representation of Porter, in sum and total.

To here audio clips of Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook, click here.