The song "I Only Have Eyes For You" may have been written by Harry Warren and Al Dublin in 1934, but it still retains its beauty in the present day.
The popular romantic jazz song or standard, has been covered by many artists since the day that it was introduced to the world in the film Dames, including recently at a celebration of music concert at Brooklyn's Medgar Evers College by the Medgar Evers College Jazz Ensemble which is directed by Professror Roman Mitchell and features a plethora of the colleges students and graduates. This rendition is directed by the scholar and also features Mitchell on trumpet, Stephanie Jeannot on vocals, Steven Lawrence on piano, and Nathaniel Manning on drums.
Were you like me last night, bounded
by emotion while watching the Grammy Awards last night?
Somehow the monumental force
of love creeped in and I felt this synchronicity with the screen. I will admit
that I am probably with Kanye West’s ideas of who deserves the trophy and
usually do not watch the award show at all for that simple reason. But I felt
that there were many moments that were beautiful beyond reckoning.
Adele swept up a few ideas that
I loved. The biggest night of music started with a performance by Adele and she
enchanted the crowd by simply singing without all the theatrics proving that
she is a real singer and does not need much more than her voice to be in
harmony with the people in her surroundings. They felt what she had to give because she
really sang her song with pure emotion and meant every word.
But I found immeasurable
comfort in who she is as an individual when she started to sing her tribute to
George Michael. As she sang the cover of George Michael’s “Fast Love,” she
realized she messed up by singing in the wrong key. She stopped the band,
recognized her mistake before the more than a million viewers and started the
song over to do the job that she was supposed to do.
We live our lives in recurring
rhythms. We get up, try and then if we fail, we are hit with snowballs of
commentaries about it that isn’t entirely fair but true. It is not normal for
us to see someone humble enough to admit, hey, I’m not doing this thing right.
Can we try it again? And then she tried it again and nailed it. She decided not to feel vulnerable and alone
in her mistake on stage. She carved into her ego for another opportunity and
got out of the heat that she felt that she was in. Many of us watching stared
in disbelief. I felt a tinge of sadness for her though I also felt like getting
out of my seat and dancing like a jitterbugger at Duke’s Place thinking of how
she commanded the moments to follow. She showed herself as human and that is
what made the show for me.
Speaking of dancing like a
jitterbugger, maybe you are interested in getting into the jazz dance
experience. Check out this cool video of dancing and The Harlem Swing Dance
Society grooving to jazz sounds by the JNote Band. https://youtu.be/0DMMHXwhylY
If you understand the moves
that these dancers are doing, this is what it felt as an individual who steps up
to the plate and sometimes fouls out felt like. Adele proved that there is nothing
wrong with taking a second chance at hitting a home run. The difference is, she
did on the wildest night of music. This song was about the wildest joints in
town during the jazz era when Duke Ellington was feeding up chocks full of
dreams.
