Welcome to my music blog -
The Soundtrack of My Life!
Many of you have asked me “What’s with all the music, Dr.
Weiss?” Well, as I’ve told some of you:
I personally call every surgery patient on the evening of
surgery just to make sure they are doing well and have no questions that need
answering. Occasionally, I would be at the piano and play a song that we had
listened to that day. I gradually realized that I wanted to go through all the music
that I had played during my life and at least start making a list of the songs that
I had recently played.
Well, there are now about 600 songs on the list and I realized
that it in a way it represented the ‘soundtrack of my life’! And that’s how I got
the idea to record these songs and share them with my patients, friends and family.
After I record them they will reside here, for easy access.
Music is truth. It’s honest. It’s really the first social
media, where in a way, people could share their souls directly. And isn’t that what
the purpose of social media is and why it’s so popular - trying to share who you
really are, as completely and directly as possible?
Finally, it has been (and will continue to be) a genuine
pleasure sharing these different songs with you and I really appreciate all of your
positive feedback!!
"St. Louis Blues" is a popular American song composed by W. C. Handy in the blues style and published in September 11, 1914. It was one of the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song and remains a fundamental part of jazz musicians' repertoire. Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Bessie Smith, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Guy Lombardo, and the Boston Pops Orchestra are among the artists who have recorded it. This arrangement is close to the way it was played by Earl Hines, one of the most influential jazz pianists ever. Although I had heard the name, until recently I didn’t know much about Hines. I didn’t know that … OK, there is too much to say here about Hines or Handy, for that matter - just go to Wikipedia if you’re interested. However, a few quotes: the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie (a member of Hines's big band, along with sax player Charlie Parker) wrote "the modern piano came from Earl Hines." Erroll Garner said, "When you talk about greatness, you talk about Art Tatum and Earl Hines”. Count Basie said that Hines was "the greatest piano player in the world". As a matter of fact, he does sound pretty [...]
On This Day (July 9) 90 years ago in 1929, "Fats" Waller’s classic “Ain't Misbehavin'" was recorded in New York City at the height of the ‘Roaring twenties’ for a Broadway musical comedy. Waller said the song was written while "lodging" in prison (for an alimony violation), and that is why he was not "misbehaving". Interestingly, in the play, Louis Armstrong played "Ain't Misbehavin'" in a trumpet solo, and although this was initially slated only to be a reprise of the opening song, Armstrong's performance was so well-received that he was asked to climb out of the orchestra pit and play the piece on stage. Anyway, “Fats Waller” has always been one of my favorites. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano. His best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose", have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. I’ve really gotten a lot of joy over the years playing this song and I hope you enjoy it also. To qualify for a Weiss Music Minute it was necessary to speed it up a bit, but it still feels right, maybe a little on the fast side. But hey, it was at [...]
Here’s a one-minute cover of the Tennessee Waltz, one of my favorite songs, written by Redd Steward and Pee Wee King. Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I've ever owned!!
More Than You Know I am a big fan of female jazz vocalists. This is a song that was famously sung by two of my favorites, Bille Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald (among many, many others.) I probably first heard their version while I was an intern in Hartford, Connecticut. I shared a house with a jazz DJ who gradually introduced me to many jazz LPs every night on his way to his bedroom upstairs. I fell in love with their voices and this song. (By the way, composer Vincent Youmans also wrote the music for Tea for Two.) Thanks again, Todd. (Happy Birthday!) Enjoy, Dr. Weiss Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I've ever owned!!
If Dogs Run Free - Happy Birthday Bob! On this day in 1941, Bob Dylan was born. I first heard this song from the album New Morning when I was 17 and a freshman at NYU. This song fragment contains one of my favorite lines: 'Just do your thing, you’ll be king.' This beat jazz homage featured Bob Dylan’s spoken word poetry, scat-singing Maeretha Stewart and Al Kooper on piano. Kooper was known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to record the Super Session album (BTW, if you haven’t listened to this album, then do!) I thought the jazz intro was just so cool, and Dylan’s mysterious and, as always, inscrutable words were among his best (where to start?) such as ‘my mind weaves a symphony and tapestry of rhyme’ and ’to each his own, it’s all unknown’. Anyway, Happy Birthday Bob! Enjoy, Dr. Weiss This was dedicated to Luis. Related video: Forever Young - On This Day Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a [...]
Well, as a matter of fact, I do find myself missing New Orleans, one of my favorite cities, at one of my favorite times of the year in the Big Easy: Jazz Fest! For a nice summary of Jazz Fest history, read this summary in the New York Times from a couple of days ago. One of my most emotional times in New Orleans was attending the first jazz fest after hurricane Katrina in 2006. I described this moving experience here. This one is dedicated to the many friends and family with whom I’ve shared this unique experience over the years, including: Todd, Alfred, Will, Donna, Portia, Jonathan, David, Katrine and Jay (who, by the way, has the sweetest perfume store in the French Quarter: Madame Aucoin Perfume, around the corner from the Hotel Montelione.) Let the good times roll! Dr. Weiss Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than [...]
On this day in 1925, Jimmy Cox passed away after giving us the immortal Roaring Twenties hit “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,” written for Bessie Smith (one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s and 1930s) who originally made it famous back in the day, before being widely re-popularized in 1992 by Eric Clapton on MTV Unplugged. Interestingly, Clapton had previously recored the song with his band, Derek and the Dominos, for their first album (Layla). It was Duane Allman’s first song with the group and was recored live, vocals and all, with no overdubs on the first take! The song’s lyrics, told from the point of view of a one-time millionaire during the Prohibition era, reflects on the fleeting nature of material wealth and the friendships that come and go with it. Tragically, it wasn’t recorded and released by Bessie Smith until 1929, just two weeks before the Wall Street Crash that ushered in the depression, and 4 years after Jimmy Cox died at the age of 42. So Cox never even knew of his enduring legacy! I was fortunate to first be exposed to this song at a long closed Greenwich Village supper [...]
On This Day: Al Dubin passed away in 1945. He wrote the lyrics to what is formally called "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)", from the 1933 film Gold Diggers of 1933, sung in the opening sequence by Ginger Rogers. The song's lyrics reflect a positive financial turnaround and a fantasized end to the Great Depression, which in the U.S. began to turn around in early 1933 but wouldn't actually end until the late 1930s. Al Dubin, like me, was a Jewish guy from Philadelphia, perhaps explaining my affinity for this song. He also wrote "Tiptoe through the Tulips", "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "Lullaby of Broadway." Harry Warren wrote the music and was the first American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars. He wrote the music for the first blockbuster film musical, 42nd Street, choreographed by Busby Berkeley and over a career spanning four decades, wrote more than 800 songs. Other well known Warren hits included "I Only Have Eyes for You", "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", "Jeepers Creepers", "That's Amore", "There Will Never Be Another You", [...]
On this day, Brazilian musician Antonio Carlos Jobim was born in 1927! "How Insensitive" is one of his more popular songs, having been covered by a large and diverse swath of people - from Ella Fitzgerald and Diana Krall to Liberace, The Monkees and William Shatner of Star Trek fame! Jobim is also known perhaps for his most popular song (and one of the most recorded songs in the world )- The Girl from Ipanema. Bosendorfer piano sound - For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I've ever owned!!
The Things We Did Last Summer On this day (January 15) in 1993, musician and songwriter Sammy Cahn passed away. Cahn wrote the song that I'm covering today - "The Things We Did Last Summer", which debuted in 1946. His songs won 4 Academy Awards including one for "Three Coins in a Fountain." This time I'm trying to let my "inner trumpet" out. I've always loved this melancholy and romantic song, and for me the classic version is sung by Sinatra. This was only one of many songs that Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen wrote for Frank Sinatra. They were almost considered to be his personal songwriters - producing such songs as "All the Way", "Come Fly With Me", "High Hopes", "Call Me Irresponsible", "My Kind of Town (Chicago Is...)" and "Love and Marriage." With composer Jule Styne he is remembered for hits such as "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow", "I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry", and this song, "The Things We Did Last Summer". He also wrote the lyrics to "Teach Me Tonight", "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" and even "You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!" from the 1953 film classic Peter [...]
