The playlist for the week of October 20, 2019, is Ralph Burns Wrote Great Arrangements for Tony.

I have always loved Tony’s 1959 album Hometown, My Town. The album has an excellent selection of songs that tell a story. But the more I listened, the more I realized that it was the arrangements by Ralph Burns that set apart this album for me.

Ralph Burns was a jazz pianist, arranger, and arranger. He was also gay and much is his career in jazz was at a time where being gay was not completely acceptable. In any case, he was an exceptional musician and arranger and your author has the deepest regard for his talents, as demonstrated in this playlist devoted to him.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco 1962
Smile by Charles Chaplin, John Turner, and Geoffrey Parsons

Hometown, My Town 1959
Love Is Here To Stay by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin
I Cover The Waterfront by Johnny Green and Edward Heyman
The Party’s Over by Jule Styne, Adolph Green, and Betty Comden

My Heart Sings 1961
Lover Man by Jimmy Davis, Roger “Ram” Ramirez, and James Sherman
Stella By Starlight by Victor Young and Ned Washington
Dancing In The Dark by Arthur Schwarz and Howard Dietz
My Heart Sings by Jean Blanvillain (aka Jamblin), Harold Rome, and Henri Laurent Herpin
It Never Was You by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson
My Ship by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin

This Is All I Ask 1963
Young and Foolish by Albert Hague and Arnold B. Horwitt

Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool 1999
I’m Just A Lucky So-And-So by Duke Ellington and Mack David
It Don’t Mean A Thing by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills