Jazz, blues and nostalgia, by Sjaak Roodenburg.
Conny Stuart with ‘Zeur niet’ (Stop nagging) from the Dutch musical ‘Heerlijk duurt het langst’ (Pleasure is the best policy), and furthermore an optimistic and raucously sung wisdom by Ella Fitzgerald, Vera Lynn who shows us the happiness of the singing teakettle, Billie Holiday with ‘I’m painting the town red’, Jasperina de Jong, Clark Terry, Duke Ellington, Wim Sonneveld with an unknown and moving song about loneliness, and the German singer Max Raabe with his Palast Orchester which brings the atmosphere of the German dance bands of the 1920s and 30s back to life.
Also a glorious ‘High Fidelity Recording’ by the former ‘King of Jazz’ Paul Whiteman, of ‘An American in Paris’, the composition in which George Gershwin accurately and gloriously evokes the character of the 1920s French City of Light, with its taxis, café sounds, Eiffel tower and cathedrals.
As always, the Palace of Nostalgia brings the past into the present.
