Let Me Sing and I’m Happy: The Memoir and Handbook of a Singing Actress by Joan Morris is the history of an actress who sings popular songs. It is also a handbook detailing Joan's approach to bringing the song to life.
Author Morris writes “For forty years I’ve been privileged to sing the greatest songs from our American musical theater history – Kern, Berlin, Gershwin, Porter, and Rodgers and Hart. I was fortunate to find a musical partner, William Bolcom, who felt the same way, who helped me illuminate and bring to life the history and drama in each song. Our approach gained us entry into the serious-music concert world. It helped us, in Schiller’s words, to ‘…unite that which fashion had sternly parted.’”
Joan's new book is published by Pendragon Press and can be ordered from their website: http://www.pendragonpress.com/book.php?id=761
LET ME SING AND I’M HAPPY
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 Early Me
Chapter 2 Moving to New York
Chapter 3 Meeting Bill
Chapter 4 After the Ball
Chapter 5 Building a Character (“Bill”)
Chapter 6 Emotional Memory (“Can’t We Be Friends”)
Chapter 7 Memorization : Learning Lerner & Loewe and Lydia (“I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore” and “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady”)
Chapter 8 Physical Movement and Gestures (“I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise”)
Chapter 9 Comedy Songs (“My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” “Some Little Bug” and “Humphrey Bogart”)
Chapter 10 Dramatic Songs (“It Never Entered My Mind” and “More Than You Know”)
Chapter 11 Time, Get Out of My Hair
Chapter 12 Programming
Chapter 13 Encores and Programming Miscues (“Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise”)
Chapter 14 Nerves
Chapter 15 Political Correctness (“Frog Song,” “My Castle on the Nile”)
Chapter 16 Vocal Techniques in Popular Style (“Ten Cents a Dance”)
Chapter 17 A Word to Classically Trained Pianists from William Bolcom
Chapter 18 Concert Preparation