The Year of Tony Bennett

An Appreciation of the Art and Music of Tony Bennett

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Song of the Day: Undecided Blues

The song of the day for Monday, September 8, 2014 is “Undecided Blues.”

About This Song

“Undecided Blues” was written in 1941 by blues shouter Jimmy Rushing (also known as Five-by-Five, due to his stature). Rushing as born in Oklahoma City into to a musical family; his father was trumpet player and his mother a singer. He started his career as an itinerant blues singer in the early 1920s. He sang with Jelly Roll Morton and other early jazz orchestra before joining the Bennie Moten band in 1929. When Moten died in 1935, he joined the Count Basie Orchestra, which was his home for many years. Rushing, with the Count Basie Orchestra, first recorded “Undecided Blues” in 1941.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded this song in 2001 for his blues album Playin’ With My Friends. The vocal arrangements are by Rob Mathes; Phil Ramone produced the album.

About Today

To celebrate a recent birthday and to prepare ourselves for our upcoming trip to the 57th Monterey Jazz Festival, The Year of Tony Bennett crew (all two of us) decided to go for a pedicure. For some reason, we both decided to paint our toenails blue. We don’t have the blues, but we do have blue toes. I think we’ll fit it with the ocean in Monterey.

Undecided Blues

Listen to Undecided Blues on Spotify. Tony Bennett · Song · 2001.


“Undecided Blues,” as well as the album Playin’ With My Friends, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Undecided Blues

The song of the day for Friday, January 31, 2014 is “Undecided Blues.”

About This Song

Recently, your Year of Tony Bennett bloggers (all two of us) watched a wonderful documentary called A Great Day In Harlem, directed by Jean Bach and released in 1994. It was her very first film and was nominated for Best Documentary for that year. Ms. Bach, who was a great jazz fan and knew many jazz musicians in New York, decided to make a film about the great 1958 photograph by Art Kane for Esquire magazine. Simply, the word was put out to the jazz community to show up at the unreasonably early hour of 10:00 AM at a particular intersection in Harlem to have their picture taken. And show up they did.

greatday-large

Many of the greats showed up: Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Milt Hinton, Roy Eldridge, Gerry Mulligan, Marian McPartland, Art Blakey, Thelonius Monk, Jimmy Rushing and many, many more.

This film is a must-see for any jazz fan. It not only documents the process of creating the photograph, it also includes interviews with several of the musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie and Marian McPartland, and plays a lot of music from the late 1950s as well. You can rent the disc from Netflix and it’s available as well from Amazon.com. And be sure to watch the extra DVD features — they’re great too.

After viewing this film twice (and I’m not returning it until the copy I ordered from Amazon arrives), I knew I had to feature a song featuring one of the greats from this photograph and so today it’s Jimmy Rushing.

Jimmy Rushing, who wrote “Undecided Blues,” was one of the great blues performers and composers. The first recording of the song was made in January, 1941 with Count Basie.

About This Version

Tony Bennett recorded “Undecided Blues” for his 2001 album Playin’ With My Friends. Most of the songs on this album are duets, but there are several solo songs and this is one of them. If you’re a Bennett fan and like the blues, I encourage you to check out this album; Tony Bennett can really sing the blues.

http://open.spotify.com/track/24GVJ7Mx7Jh6g0EL8k77oz
“Undecided Blues,” as well as the album Playin’ With My Friends: Bennett Sings The Blues, is available from iTunes.

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Song of the Day: Undecided Blues

The song of the day for Thursday, August 15, 2013 is “Undecided Blues.”

About This Song

“Undecided Blues” was written by the great blues and jazz singer Jimmy Rushing. Rushing started his career as an itinerant blues singers in the midwest before moving to California, where sang with Jelly Roll Morton and other bands. In the mid 1930s, Rushing joined the Count Basie band, and sang with Basie for thirteen years. He also worked with Duke Ellington in 1959 and made an album with the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1960.

About This Version

Today’s song is from Tony Bennett’s 2001 album Playin’ With My Friends — Bennett Sings The Blues. And sing the blues he can. There’s some fine music on this album and The Year of Tony Bennett heartily recommends it.

Undecided Blues

Listen to Undecided Blues on Spotify. Tony Bennett · Song · 2001.

“Undecided Blues,” as well as the album Playin’ With My Friends, is available from iTunes.

And if you have some extra time today, here’s Jimmy Rushing …

Undecided Blues

Listen to Undecided Blues on Spotify. Jimmy Rushing · Song · 1999.

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Song of the Day: Undecided Blues

The song of the day for Sunday, March 3, 2013 is Undecided Blues.

About This Song

Undecided Blues is by Jimmy Rushing, who was not only a blues shouter, but also a jazz singer with the Count Basie Orchestra from 1935 to 1948. Mr. Rushing, whose father was a trumpter and mother a singer, was born in Oklahoma City in 1901 and died in 1972.

About This Version

I’ve been having trouble deciding about things, even the song of the day. So today’s song of the day is Undecided Blues from Playin’ With My Friends. This album was a revelation to me: Tony Bennett can really sing the blues.

http://open.spotify.com/track/24GVJ7Mx7Jh6g0EL8k77oz
Undecided Blues, as well as the full Playin’ With My Friends album, is available from iTunes.

As a Sunday treat, here’s Jimmy Rushing with the Count Basie Orchestra singing the Undecided Blues.

Undecided Blues

Listen to Undecided Blues on Spotify. Count Basie, Jimmy Rushing · Song · 1997.

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