Читать книгу Peggy Lee - Tish Oney - Страница 4

John Chiodini

Tish called me one day and asked for an interview. I did not know her at the time. She was attending the University of Southern California and writing her doctoral dissertation on the “lyrical genius of Peggy Lee.” She asked if we could talk about my experiences working with Ms. Lee in the studios on recording projects and live performances. Her focus was on Peggy Lee’s creativity as a songwriter. We got together, and that led to the creation of not only the Peggy Lee Project, a touring show that highlights Peggy Lee as a songwriter, but also a wonderful friendship and professional partnership. In the ensuing years, Tish and I have recorded four CDs together and performed for live audiences nationally. The latest album, Tish Oney with the John Chiodini Trio: The Best Part, includes three songs that I co-wrote with Peggy Lee but that were never recorded by Peggy or anyone else.

I started working with Peggy Lee in 1979, recording a few tracks on her DRG Close Enough for Love album. I was subbing for another guitar player who couldn’t make a certain date. I was recommended by Peggy’s longtime friend, bassist Max Bennett. To promote the album on TV, it was sent to The Tonight Show and The Mike Douglas Show, among others, and the producers of those shows chose “It Was Just One of Those Things” as the song they wanted Peggy to perform. I had come up with a funky rhythm lick that Peggy liked, so I was invited to join her band to perform the song on the TV shows. After that, we played an engagement at the Westwood Playhouse. The band was great—Mike Renzi, Grady Tate, Jay Leonhart, and Mark Sherman. It was wonderful to play for Peggy Lee and be a part of that band. I stayed with Peggy for about ten years. There were many tours and three more albums, but the special part was co-writing songs and creating music with Peggy Lee.

Tish could have called this book Anatomy of a Singer. Anatomy, according to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, is “a study or examination of a process in order to understand and explain how it works.” This is what Tish has done in this book, what makes it unique: no gossip, no rumors—just enough personal information to propel the story of how Peggy Lee created her amazing music by connecting one period of her life to the next.

In the midst of studying the anatomy of Peggy Lee’s music, how it was actually created, Tish reveals the recording industry at that particular time, especially how male dominance caused female artists to have a much smaller role. Peggy’s approach would take decades to accomplish, although radio broadcasts helped her craft her skills as a pop diva, jazz singer, and concert and recording producer. Tish shows how Peggy always fought for musical artists and songwriters to receive the proper royalties for their work, from jukeboxes to film. Any one of us who collects royalties from the film industry has to acknowledge Peggy Lee’s commitment and victory.

Tish details Peggy’s sense of adventure. In film, as a singer, actor, composer, lyricist, and voiceover artist (as both a performer and a music creator), she always went her own way. She created her own music videos. She sang and collaborated with the other singers and songwriters of her time—just about everyone you could think of.

This book is like a series of short stories. Sometimes you hear about this or learn that. At other times something historic is happening. There are many surprises in these chapters. Tish’s attention to detail is very compelling, and you want to keep reading.

A couple of my experiences working with Peggy Lee exactly mirror what Tish has written about in this book. For example, I witnessed what Tish describes about Peggy Lee’s belief in visual appearance mattering as much as musical performance. When the lighting for a show was not what she wanted or expected, she would claim to enter a vortex, and nobody wanted to see that. The lighting had to be exact. No improvising.

Before I met Peggy, I didn’t have a lot of experience working with vocalists. I played with the Boston Pops, the Buddy DeFranco Quintet, and the Maynard Ferguson Band. As an accompanist, I learned the music and played my part. Then I got the great opportunity of working with Peggy Lee. I experienced with her firsthand, as an accompanist and especially as a songwriter, that music and poetry are collaborative partners, that the lyrics are just as important as the composed music. As Tish explains in her book, this one idea was the overriding reason for the choices Peggy Lee made in creating and performing her music.

One last story. For tours, Peggy would spend a great deal of time deciding what kind of show she wanted to do and what songs she wanted to perform. Her music library at her home had every arrangement for her recordings. She would choose a song, tell me if there was something she didn’t like about that particular arrangement, and we would try different ways to change it. Peggy was an excellent musician. She knew what she wanted to hear. After all, she spent her entire career working with the best writers and musicians. After choosing the songs, she would sequence the show. Then we would rehearse the show, usually at her home in Bel Air. Extreme detail and work went into planning and preparing her shows. That’s what I love about Tish’s book, the detail.

On a personal note, Tish and I have a special friendship. We have worked a lot of gigs as a duo. You really need to trust that other person in a duo. There’s no one else. The way to earn that trust is by having your fundamentals together and then making good musical choices. The key word is musical. Tish and I always come ready to play. We know the music and have all the details down. But above that, we recognize in each other the same intent to make the music great, not only our own part. Because we have all this together, we can be spontaneous in our performance. Joyful.

Tish has written a great book. She has detailed the creative genius of one of our national treasures, Peggy Lee. Because of my close association with Peggy on many fronts (guitarist, band member, arranger for her quintet, co-writer of her songs, musical director on tours, co-producer, and friend), I can confirm that what Tish wrote about the creativity of Peggy Lee is what I knew about Peggy. I can say, without reservation, that if you want to know who Peggy Lee really was, you should read this book.

Tish has a vast knowledge and understanding of her subject and passes this on to the reader in an easy style that compels you to keep reading. The detail is amazing. You experience Peggy Lee’s life through the lens of her creativity: every song, every show, every win, and every loss. This book is an excellent read for anyone and a special delight for Peggy Lee aficionados.