The Song is You: Jerome Kern Coast to Coast

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A Note from the Artistic Director

They called him “The Dean.” He was the oracle of the idols of the American Songbook. A teenage George Gershwin, listening to the band at his aunt’s wedding, heard Jerome Kern’s music for the first time and stopped dead as his whole world changed. Because Kern, it can be argued, invented the American Songbook. Or at the very least, in the early part of the 20th century, when “musicals” mostly meant imported European operetta, Kern evolved a new sound—a fresh, melodically sophisticated, uniquely American sound; the sound of American popular music as it would rule until the arrival of rock and roll. He penned some 700 songs, including numerous standards, from “All the Things You Are” to “Bill.” Along the way, he revolutionized the American musical theatre not once but twice.

Jerome David Kern was born January 27, 1885 (three years before Irving Berlin, 13 before George Gershwin). Unlike many pioneers of the American Songbook, Kern didn’t grow up the stickball-playing child of struggling immigrants. He was raised in middle class comfort on the Upper East Side and in Newark, NJ, the son of Henry Kern, a German-born businessman, and American Fanny Kakeles Kern, who taught him the piano. He was one of seven boys—only three of whom survived childhood. “Romie” studied music in New York and Heidelberg. Along with contributing early songs to London shows, he made his name writing new songs for British exports to Broadway.

Throughout his career, Kern almost always conceived his work as part of a larger musical project and rarely set out to write a pop song for its own sake. (“The Last Time I Saw Paris” is an exception.) He wrote by immersing himself in circumstance and character; he famously referred to himself as “a musical clothier—nothing more or less.”

With librettist Guy Bolton and lyricist P. G. Wodehouse, his revolutionary approach for a series of low-budget WWI-era shows for the Princess Theatre electrified Broadway and a generation of youths, including Richard Rodgers, E. Y. “Yip” Harburg, George and Ira Gershwin, and others who saw reigning Ruritanian operetta and Ziegfeld-esque extravaganza replaced by modern, smart, naturalistic melding of story and song, and the jazz-flavored beginnings of the classic Broadway show tune. By 1927, audiences saw Kern’s vision (in collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein, II) of Edna Ferber’s novel Show Boat as a serious-themed powerhouse of Broadway storytelling—paving the way for everything from the Rodgers and Hammerstein canon to Fiddler on the Roof and Next to Normal.

A personality of wild paradoxes (austere, but a rabid practical joker; a lavish collector of rare books and antiques, but penny pinching in business), he spent his later years in Hollywood with collaborators like Dorothy Fields (Swing Time, winning an Oscar for “The Way You Look Tonight”) and Ira Gershwin (Cover Girl). Earlier collaborators had included Anne Caldwell and Otto Harbach. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1946, at age 60, while in New York. He was outlining (with Dorothy Fields) a new musical about Annie Oakley, to star Ethel Merman.

—Deborah Grace Winer

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Selected Song List

As a special preview, here is a selection of songs from:
The Song is You: Jerome Kern Coast to Coast
All music by Jerome Kern

ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
From Very Warm for May / Musical (1939)

BILL
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
From Show Boat / Musical (1927)

CAN’T HELP SINGING
Lyrics by E. Y. “Yip” Harburg
From Can’t Help Singing / Film (1944)

LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY
Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
From Cover Girl / Film (1944)

LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING
Lyrics by B. G. DeSylva
From Zip, Goes a Million / Musical (1920)

PICK YOURSELF UP
Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
From Swing Time / Film (1936)

THEY DIDN’T BELIEVE ME
Lyrics by Herbert Reynolds
From The Girl from Utah / Musical (1914)

WHY DO I LOVE YOU
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
From Show Boat / Musical (1927)

YESTERDAYS
Lyrics by Otto Harbach
From Roberta / Musical (1933)

YOU COULDN’T BE CUTER
Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
From Joy of Living / Film (1938) 

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Artist Bios

Deborah Grace Winer, artistic director, writer & host

Now in her fifth season as Lyrics & Lyricists series artistic director, Deborah Grace Winer is an author and playwright who has written extensively about the American Songbook. She has led five previous Lyrics & Lyricists shows: “The Crowd’s at El Morocco,” about the heyday of the New York nightclubs; “Fred and Ginger in so Many Words,” honoring the contributions Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made to the Songbook; “I’ve Got Your Number,” a celebration of Carolyn Leigh; “The Last Girl Singer,” a tribute to her friend Rosemary Clooney; and “Dorothy’s Side of the Street,” the Dorothy Fields Centennial salute. In November 2009, with her mentor, Robert Kimball, Deborah was co-artistic director of “I Remember You,” the Johnny Mercer Centennial Tribute Concert.

Deborah is the author of On the Sunny Side of the Street: The Life and Lyrics of Dorothy Fields (Schirmer Books) and The Night and the Music: Rosemary Clooney, Barbara Cook and Julie Wilson Inside the World of Cabaret (Schirmer). She is co-author of Sing Out, Louise!: 150 Broadway Musical Stars Remember 50 Years (Schirmer); and I Remember Too Much: 89 Opera Stars Speak Candidly of Their Work, Their Lives and Their Colleagues (William Morrow). She also authored three companion coffee table books included in each of three box sets of the complete early recordings of Rosemary Clooney (Bear Family).

Deborah’s articles on music have appeared in The New York Times and Town and Country, among other publications. She was featured on the PBS “American Masters” special, “Yours for a Song: The Women of Tin Pan Alley” and on A&E’s “Biography” episode on Rosemary Clooney, and she has appeared on NPR’s “Fresh Air” and “Morning Edition.”

Her play, The Last Girl Singer, starring Tony Award-winner Kelly Bishop, was produced Off-Broadway. Other plays, including Little Shows, Big Important Issues; Rock, Paper, Scissors; The Real Tabasco and Buzz have been developed at Lincoln Center Theater, the Lark Theatre, the Women’s Project, the Westport Country Playhouse and The Actors Studio, among other theaters. She has written books for several musicals.

Among the favorite benefit shows Deborah has written for venues like New York City Center and Town Hall are Fans!: The Sally Rand Centennial Celebration and Gotta Dance: A Dance Tribute to Hollywood, during which she wrote for, among others, Cyd Charisse and Esther Williams. Deborah is a native of Manhattan and a graduate of Swarthmore College.

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John Oddo, music director & piano

John Oddo is a musician with tremendous versatility. Having started his career as a pianist, arranger and composer for Woody Herman and his Thundering Herd, John met Rosemary Clooney in 1983 and served as her music director, pianist and arranger for more than 18 years. His credits include work on 20 of her recordings, as well as countless live and televised performances.

As a music director, John has collaborated with Deborah Grace Winer on all six of her Lyrics & Lyricists shows. He currently works as music director for Debby Boone, Christine Ebersole, Melissa Errico and James Naughton. He has been a longtime collaborator with Michael Feinstein, as both music director for his New York shows and writing symphony and big band arrangements for his tours. He received a Drama Desk Award nomination for his orchestrations for Feinstein and Dame Edna Everage’s 2010 Broadway show, All About Me.

John's past collaborators include Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Barbara Cook, Cheyenne Jackson, Maureen McGovern, David Hyde Pierce and Linda Ronstadt. For his recent recording projects, he has written arrangements, among other duties, for Tom Wopat’s latest CD, I’ve Got Your Number; and Don Shelton’s first solo CD, Hear at Last, plus Steve Tyrell’s and Debby Boone’s new CDs, both soon to be released.

Other projects include composing and performing the music for PBS/Showtime’s “Our Town,” directed by James Naughton and starring Paul Newman, and being conductor, pianist and arranger for the NBC special “Scott Hamilton & Friends." He has performed at the White House for four of the last five presidents.

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Mark Waldrop, stage director

Mark Waldrop returns to 92Y to direct his eighth Lyrics & Lyricists production. Last season he made his debut as artistic director in a battle of musical wits between Noël Coward and Cole Porter. On Broadway Mark directed and provided special material for Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends, which earned a Tony Award nomination for unique theatrical event. He similarly directed and wrote material for Bette Midler on her Divine Miss Millennium tour, and he has directed cabaret and concert performances for Faith Prince, Sutton Foster, Brooke Shields, Rebecca Luker, John Lloyd Young and Edward Hibbert, among many others.

Off-Broadway, Mark’s directorial credits include the New York City Center Encores! production of Ziegfeld Follies of 1936; the 2012 and previous editions of Newsical: the Musical; Game Show; Pete ‘n’ Keely and Listen to My Heart. He was director, book writer and lyricist for the multiple award-winning and now legendary Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly. Regionally, Mark has worked for leading venues like Paper Mill Playhouse, The Muny at St. Louis, Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars and Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre.

In 1995 Mark received the prestigious Edward Kleban Award for lyricists. Among his writing credits are the lyrics and script for Radio City Music Hall’s 75th Anniversary Christmas Spectacular and the lyrics for three TheaterWorks USA scores: Gold Rush, A Christmas Carol and Bunnicula. As an actor, Mark was in the original Broadway casts of Evita, La Cage aux Folles and The Grand Tour. He can be heard on the soundtracks of Disney’s Aladdin, Pocahontas and Mulan, and on the cast recording of Hey, Love.

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Karrin Allyson, vocals

One of America’s foremost jazz vocalists, Karrin Allyson makes her Lyrics & Lyricists debut in “Jerome Kern Coast to Coast.” An extraordinarily versatile musician, Karrin earned a degree in classical piano before turning to jazz. She moves with ease and authority from bossa nova to French chansons, bebop to the blues, and ballads to pop.

Karrin plays the major jazz festivals, concert venues and clubs of the US, and she makes repeated tours overseas to Europe, Brazil, Japan and Australia. Highlights of this season include her annual engagement at Birdland, The Jazz Cruise in January, a week at the Blue Note in February, and return dates in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, the Bay Area and the Twin Cities.

Karrin has been a featured guest on Garrison Keillor's “A Prairie Home Companion” and at major festivals including the Spoleto Festival USA. She returns to New York on May 21 to appear on 54 Below’s WBGO Jazz Series. This fall she will be the featured vocalist in the Newport Jazz Festival’s “Now 60” anniversary tour.

In May 2011, Karrin released her 13th CD, Round Midnight, a collection of songs by such diverse artists as Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mandel, Thelonious Monk, Stephen Sondheim and Charlie Chaplin. The album was named one of the top CDs of 2011 by DownBeat magazine and earned Karrin her fourth Grammy Award nomination for best jazz album. Her other Grammy-nominated CDs are Imagina: Songs of Brasil (2008), the jazz album Footprints (2006) and Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane (2001), all on the Concord Jazz label. Karrin’s website is karrin.com.

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Debby Boone, vocals

Debby Boone earned instant fame when “You Light Up My Life” became an overnight hit. The single claimed the #1 spot on the Billboard charts for ten straight weeks and sold in excess of four million copies. Debby received the Grammy Award for Best New Artist of the Year, and she won two additional Grammy Awards and has received seven Grammy nominations. “You Light Up My Life” ranked seventh in the September 20, 2008 Billboard Magazine’s 50th Anniversary Special Issue’s The Hot 100’s All-Time Top-Charting Songs of the last five decades.

In addition to her recording career, Debby’s starring roles on Broadway include Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the role of Maria in Lincoln Center’s 30th Anniversary production of The Sound of Music and Rizzo in Grease. Debby toured nationally in Meet Me in St. Louis and performed the role of Anna in the 50th anniversary staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Center and other theatres throughout the US.

Debby’s CD release on Concord Records, Reflections of Rosemary, is an intimate musical portrait of her late mother-in-law, the legendary singer Rosemary Clooney. Debby has toured Reflections of Rosemary with music director John Oddo at performing arts centers across the country. Debby’s new show and upcoming CD, Swing This, is her take on Las Vegas in the 1960s. She recently completed a two week engagement of her new Swing This show at the Café Carlyle.

Debby has also written six best-selling children’s books in collaboration with her husband, Gabriel Ferrer, who created the illustrations. Her website is debbyboone.com.

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Jeffry Denman, vocals & choreographer

Jeffry Denman most recently appeared in New York as Lieutenant Barri in Classic Stage Company’s revival of Sondheim’s Passion. On Broadway, he originated the Danny Kaye role in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, earning him an Astaire Award nomination, and he appeared in The Producers, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Dream and Cats. Jeffry wrote A Year with The Producers, about his time with the Mel Brooks hit. His other acting credits include New York City Center Encores! productions of Face the Music and Of Thee I Sing, and he received an Ovation nomination for his performance in LA Reprise’s On Your Toes.

As both actor and choreographer, Jeffry garnered Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nominations for his work in Yank! at the York Theatre, and he worked with the late legend Marvin Hamlisch at the Kennedy Center and Michael Feinstein at Carnegie Hall. He choreographed Off-Broadway’s Naked Boys Singing, Assistance and Bullet for Adolf, and he regularly appears in the Town Hall Broadway by the Year series as performer, director and choreographer. Together with Marc Kudisch, Jeffry premiered The Holiday Guys in Happy Merry Hanu-Mas off-Broadway this past December.

Regionally, Jeffry directed and choreographed Damn Yankees: The Red Sox version starring Carson Kressley, and choreographed The Music Man starring Peter Scolari, both at Ogunquit Playhouse. This summer he will direct and choreograph Thoroughly Modern Millie at Tuacahn Center for the Arts and then will choreograph West Side Story, again at Ogunquit. Jeffry’s website is jeffrydenman.com.

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Howard McGillin, vocals

Best known for his record-setting performance in the title role of The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, Howard McGillin has also appeared in Broadway productions of She Loves Me; The Kiss Of The Spider Woman; Anything Goes with Patti LuPone, earning Tony and Drama Desk nominations; The Mystery of Edwin Drood, again earning Tony and Drama Desk nominations and receiving a Theatre World Award; and the original Sunday in the Park with George. On London’s West End, Howard starred in Mack and Mabel and Anything Goes.

Regionally, last year Howard starred in Damn Yankees at the Paper Mill Playhouse and The 39 Steps at The George Street Playhouse, where he had also appeared with Tyne Daly in the world premiere of the new musical It Shoulda Been You. He was also in the world premiere of Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman’s musical Bounce, directed by Harold Prince, at the Goodman Theatre, and later at the Kennedy Center, where he was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award.

As a cabaret artist, Howard has appeared in New York’s Café Carlyle, 54 Below and the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel. He has sung on concert stages around the world, and he has released a solo CD, Howard McGillin: Where Time Stands Still, available on cdbaby.com. Seen recently on the CBS series “Elementary,” Howard has also narrated numerous episodes of “Nature” for PBS, recorded many audio books and provided voices for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and The Swan Princess. This is Howard’s third appearance with Lyrics & Lyricists.

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Paula West, vocals

With a voice acclaimed for its many shades of soulfulness, Paula West believes that the American Songbook includes such writers as Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Jimmy Webb and Leonard Cohen. In New York, she has performed at Feinstein’s at the Regency, The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, Jazz Standard, Birdland, Blue Note, The Iridium and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center. She has also been a featured soloist with The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. She made her Lyrics & Lyricists debut in the 2007 Rosemary Clooney show and returned for the Johnny Mercer Centennial Tribute Concert in November 2009.

Based in San Francisco, Paula holds the record for consecutive weeks at The Rrazz Room and makes annual appearances at the Herbst Theatre. Among her national engagements, Paula has appeared at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Boston’s Scullers, Jazz Aspen and festivals like Spoleto USA. Internationally she has performed in Europe, Japan and Israel.

Paula had performed consistently with The George Mesterhazy Quartet until his death last year. They had joined her for her concert on the 92Y Jazz series in November 2011, and her latest CD, Paula West Live at Jazz Standard with The George Mesterhazy Quartet, was released last July on Hi-Horse Records. Her other critically acclaimed CDs include Temptation, Restless and Come What May. Paula has worked with other jazz greats, such as Ms. Clooney, Bobby Hutcherson, Bill Charlap, Regina Carter, Oscar Brown, Jr. and Dave Frishberg, and she performed at The White House in a salute to American writers.

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Karen Ziemba, vocals

Karen Ziemba received the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for playing “The Wife” in Contact at Lincoln Center Theatre. She also received the Outer Critics Circle Award and earned Tony nominations for both Curtains and Never Gonna Dance, and she earned Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Tony nominations for Steel Pier. Her other Broadway credits include A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, Crazy for You and Chicago.

Beyond Broadway, earlier this spring Karen was in TACT/The Actors Company Theatre’s 20th anniversary season production of Anita Loos’ Happy Birthday, and last fall she appeared in A. R. Gurney’s Heresy at the Flea Theater. Karen won a Drama Desk Award for And the World Goes ‘Round and earned a nomination for I Do! I Do! She starred at the New York City Opera in 110 in the Shade and The Most Happy Fella, and has appeared in many of the musicals staged for New York City Center Encores!

Last summer, Karen starred as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd for Opera St. Louis. Her other regional credits include Sylvia at The Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Six Degrees of Separation at The Old Globe in San Diego and Much Ado About Nothing at both the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and the Hartford Stage.

Karen’s film and TV appearances include The Producers, Once More With Feeling, "Scrubs," all three NY “Law and Order” series, “The Kennedy Center Honors” and, for PBS, “My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies,” “Gershwin at 100” and “Stephen Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall.” Her website is karenziemba.com.

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Barbara Carroll, special guest

As pianist, composer and vocalist, Barbara Carroll is famed around the world for her swinging improvisational skills. She made her New York debut at the Downbeat Club opposite Dizzy Gillespie’s big band and appeared on Broadway with her trio in Me and Juliet. In 2002, Barbara completed a recordbreaking 24-year run at the Bemelmans Bar in the Carlyle Hotel, and then she established residence at the Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel with her widely popular weekly Sunday Jazz Brunch. She now frequently appears at 54 Below, and for the remaining Saturdays of this month she is performing with her duo partner, bass player Jay Leonhart, at Birdland.

Barbara has made more than 30 recordings with an array of jazz luminaries including Art Farmer, Claudio Roditi, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli and Randy Sandke. Her latest CD, How Long Has This Been Going On, was released in 2011; it was recorded live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola with her trio and clarinetist Ken Peplowski. Her previous CD was 2008’s Live at Birdland with Mr. Leonhart and drummer Joe Cocuzzo; both were released on the Harbinger label.

In 2003 Barbara received the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award at the Kennedy Center for the Arts, as well as MAC and Back Stage Bistro Lifetime Achievement Awards. In 2005 she received the first Mabel Mercer Award and the Award of Distinction from the National Arts Club. A frequent guest at 92Y’s Jazz in July festival, Barbara made her Lyrics & Lyricists debut at the Johnny Mercer Centennial Tribute Concert in November 2009. Her website is barbaracarrolljazz.com.

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Aaron Heick, reeds

Originally from Seattle, Aaron Heick is a saxophonist and woodwind player who has just recently become the newest member of the “Late Show with David Letterman” CBS Orchestra. Aaron was also featured as a soloist on Sting’s CD Symphonicities, a project that features Sting in an orchestral setting. Among other highlights of his career, Aaron toured and recorded with Chaka Khan for more than eight years and participated in Barbra Streisand’s 2006 US and 2007 European tours. He also spent eight years as a member of the band led by Cameroonian bassist and singer Richard Bona, with whom he toured regularly throughout the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. Recently Aaron released his first solo CD, Daylight & Darkness. His website is aaronheick.com.

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George Rabbai, trumpet

Trumpeter George Rabbai is currently performing with Michael Feinstein. He has also worked with such artists as Debby Boone, Margaret Whiting, Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney. He began his national career as jazz soloist with the Woody Herman Orchestra and is now a regular member of the John Oddo Orchestra and Peter Nero’s Philly Pops. Also a classical musician, George plays principal trumpet for the Bay Atlantic Symphony and Strathmere Festival Orchestra, with Per Brevig; last September he was soloist in Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto with Strathmere. As a jazz educator, George appears at festivals and area high schools and colleges as a jazz clinician, and he is on the faculties of Philadelphia’s University of the Arts and Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ.

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Dick Sarpola, bass

Bass player Dick Sarpola plays on Broadway in Nice Work If You Can Get It and has played in more than a dozen other Broadway shows. He toured internationally with Liza Minnelli for more than ten years and has performed and recorded with major stars like Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sting, Judy Collins, Michael Feinstein, Barbara Cook and Karen Akers. As a jazz artist, Dick has performed and recorded with such notables as George Shearing, Mel Tormé, Peggy Lee, Marian McPartland, Fred Hersch and Howard Alden, His big band experience includes the Village Vanguard Orchestra, Woody Herman Orchestra and John Fedchock New York Big Band. In the studio, Dick can be heard on the soundtracks of nearly 100 major films.

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Jay Leonhart, bass & vocals

Bass player and vocalist Jay Leonhart attended the Peabody Conservatory as a child; he became a jazz musician while at the Berklee College of Music, and then became a busy freelance musician in New York. Among Mr. Leonhart’s many associations have been Marian McPartland, Jim Hall, Chuck Wayne, Phil Woods, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz and pianist Mike Renzi. From 1975 to 1995, he was named most valuable bassist in the recording industry three times by the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences. In the 1980s, Mr. Leonhart became known as a lyricist when he began leading his own recording sessions and his songs started to be recorded by other singers. As a leader, Mr. Leonhart has recorded 15 albums for DMP, Sunnyside, Nesak and DRG. He has created a one-manshow of his own songs entitled The Bass Lesson. His website is jayleonhart.com.

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Dave Ratajczak, drums

Drummer Dave Ratajczak just finished playing for Mary Poppins and has played for many Tony Award-winning shows, such as City of Angels, Titanic and Sweet Charity. One of his career highlights was re-creating the role of Gene Krupa in a Carnegie Hall celebration of the 50th anniversary of Benny Goodman’s concert there. Dave has performed and recorded with a wide range of artists, including Gerry Mulligan, Milt Hinton, Rosemary Clooney, Bebe Neuwirth, Christine Ebersole, the New York Philharmonic and The Boston Pops. He has performed on the sound tracks of several major films, such as The Informant, Dead Man Walking, The Pelican Brief and Biloxi Blues. Dave also stars in the title role of the award-winning short film The Drummer; its website is thedrummershort.com.

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