"THE
JOHNNY MERCER JAMBOREE" CD RELEASED
"The Johnny
Mercer Jamboree" has just been released by Original Cast Records (http://www.originalcastrecords.com/).
"The Johnny Mercer Jamboree" was originally produced as part of the
Chip Deffaa Invitational Theater Festival, and made possible with
support from Chashama (Anita Durst, Artistic Director). That production
was one of the most popular in the Festival. And that's saying plenty,
since in six weeks the festival offered more than 25 different productions,
143 performances in all. This album has four bonus songs, besides
those featured in the show. Copies of the CD may be ordered by sending
$17.45 (postage included) to ORIGINAL CAST RECORDS, Box 496, Georgetown,
CT 06829. Copies may also be ordered by phone at 888-627-3993 or online
using the American Express or Discover Card. The album may be purchased
at such leading stores as Tower, Footlight, and Colony. This is the
first show from the Festival to be recorded. Coming next: "Mad About
the Boy!"
Johnny Mercer
had more number-one hits on the Hit Parade than any other writer;
he earned 29 Academy Award nominations and for Academy Awards. ASCAP-Deems
Taylor Award-winning producer Chip Deffaa carefully matched artists
and songs, to get people well-suited for Mercer's music. He started
by selecting Tex Arnold, the authority on this subject, as musical
director/arranger. No one knows Mercer's legacy better than Arnold,
for 20 years musical director for Mercer's his own Goddaughter, Margaret
Whiting. Arnold, whose orchestrations have graced Carnegie Hall and
Avery Fisher Hall, custom-tailored arrangements for each artist.
The singers
include seasoned cabaret and theater pros, plus some promising new
discoveries. With nine Audiophile albums to her credit, and appearances
at New York's Oak Room and San Francisco's Plush Room, Joyce Breach
needs no introduction to cabaret devotees. She lends her warm, hazy
tones to the Mercer classics "I Wanna Be Around" and "One for My Baby."
Rich-voiced Bobby Belfry ("I'm Old Fashioned") and Carolyn Montgomery
("Good Goody") have won cabaret's highest honor, the MAC Award. Keith
Anderson, who first made his mark in the national tour of "The Secret
Garden" and has sung at the Kennedy Center, has, Deffaa notes, "one
of the loveliest tenor voices to be heard today.
Wendy Porter
("Castles") came to the cast from touring with "Beauty and the Beast."
Farah Alvin has enriched such Broadway productions as "The Look of
Love" and "Grease." Newcomer Matt Helton, most recently in "Godspell,"
has the sound of America's heartland in his expressive voice. Joining
them are David Michael Roth, Christine Zino, Suzanne Dressler, Diane
Schwartz, and Jeffrey Pattit.
Special guest
is England's Jonny Peterson ("This Time the Dream's On Me"), who has
played leads in numerous musicals on the West End, including "A Chorus
Line," "Forty-Second Street," and "Cats," and he has played the emcee
in "Cabaret" in the U.S. national tour and on Broadway. He starred
in the Festival's premiere presentation of "George M. Cohan: In his
Own Words," a musical in development, being published by Samuel French
Inc.
Producer
Chip Deffaa, a longtime music critic and the author of eight music-related
books, conceived and cast the show. He also wanted to mix in some
charming rarities. Thus, in this 18-songs collection you'll hear Mercer
standards like "Blue in the Night" and "Dream" plus rediscoveries
like "Working Our Way Through College (the first commercial recording
of it ever) and "Bob White" (the first recording to combine both Mercer's
original 1930s lyrics with the new lyrics he penned in the '60s),
and the seldom-revived "Hit the Road to Dreamland" (which Arnold has
turned into a full-scale production number).
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