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What is your thing with Nakedness---first Naked Boys Singing! and now Hanging Out?
Believe me, nakedness had nothing to do with it. I’m a nice Jewish boy who is fully clothed when he goes to bed. I’ve never been naked. But when the producer director Bob Schrock approached me with writing songs for Naked Boys Singing! and now with Hanging Out, I knew that they were commercial ideas, and as a songwriter, I went for it. Fortunately, I was correct, since Naked Boys is celebrating its 10th anniversary on July 25th Off-Broadway and just opened in the West End in
But the material in both shows is really funny, literate and let’s face it, there’s plenty to talk about when discussing sex.
What is your musical background? Were your parents involved?
Everybody in my family sang. My mom was a big band singer in the 40s, my Aunt Shirley sang with jazz bands in the 50s, my dad loved to sing opera and my grandfather sang Al Jolson - you had to fight to sing in my household. As a kid, I didn’t think anything of it (doesn’t every kid have a family who does concerts around the piano weekly?), but now I cherish the memories of my mother teaching me how to phrase “Night and Day” while she was cooking matzo brie. So many wonderful lessons she taught me.
All my mother taught me was how much margarine to use when making matzo brie! Ok – what were the lessons?
Singing is talking - it’s about communication.
- Don’t ever stop in the middle of a syllable and take a breath, find a logical place.
- Don’t showboat - over sing.
- What’s the story of the song, who am I talking to?
How did all this lead to your immersion in jazz?
My mother was always playing music in the house, and was very opinionated about who she liked and didn’t. I grew up with Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughn and countless others, so I was singing at a very early age. I first got into jazz when I went to high school. My high school, Los Angeles High, was about 60% black and I learned pretty quickly my Lesley Gore records weren’t going to cut it, when my friends were playing Nina Simone and Ahmad Jamal. Plus I was in Acapella Choir and our director, Bill Roderick, was good friends with Dave Grusin and we’d get to do all these great arrangements of his, which were quite jazzy. I feel so fortunate to have been put in that school.
Do you really think is possible to write relevant songs in a musical genre that has seemed to peak, such as opera in the early 1900's, or musical theatre post-Sondheim?
I’m basically a lyricist and I think that as long as what I’m writing about is true to my times and what I’m feeling, I’m fine. There’s a song on my new CD about Truman Capote called “Sissies,” which uses the musical vocabulary of the Great American Songbook and jazz, but speaks about something they’d never write about in the 40s - the guts and individuality of a Gay man, and the bluster of male bravado. I actually think jazz is so rich in things that are quite new when coupled with my singer/songwriter perspective, that it’s frightening. There are a few other writers who are doing this, like Lorraine Feather and Dave Frishberg, and I think it’s quite hip, actually. The problem is that the media is limited in getting this material exposed, so I’m constantly looking for new ways to get heard outside the jazz-radio paradigm.
What drives you to keep on when most others in this biz get married have children and end up doing community theatre if their day job and children's soccer schedules permit? (Not that there is anything wrong with that)
The simple answer is: I love to sing, I love music, I’m always learning and luckily I’ve had enough success along the way to keep chugging along. Every time things seemed impossible I’d have Liza Minnelli sing my tune or have a hit CD in
Tell me about your new CD, and especially about the song "In
One song I really dig is “Future Street” which is this swinging “positive” song, which is sort of “Sunny Side of the Street” sideways. It’s so hard to write a positive song without sounding stupid, and I think I managed it on this one. Mark Murphy, who wrote the liner notes on my new CD (which is the thrill of my life), loved this one, so all is well. “In
What about your collaborators? Singer/song-writer Marilyn Harris first caught my attention with her fascinating song about late great comedian Sam Kinison.
I love Marilyn Harris. We wrote like 4 things on my latest CD (including “
When did you learn that dogs where better than people?
Like most things in my life - cookies, music, jazz, movies - dogs are something I’ve loved all my life. My mom always had at least 4-5 poodles named after the Gabor sisters at all times, and I just have a connection with them. I’m like the Will Rogers of dogs, I’ve never met one I didn’t like. I’ve tried to put the love of them into helping rescue them and making the world a better place for them. I view it as my second career. Anyone on my mailing list knows they’ll be getting an e-mail with some dog looking for a home about twice a month from me. I like people too by the way, but dogs are just the greatest!
Mark Winkler’s Schedule
1. Sept. 12 at Café Metropole in
2. Oct. 25th- Sunday Jazz Brunch at the Blue Note in NY
3. “Adding New Pages to the Great American Songbook" – Metropolitan Room - Date Pending
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