{"id":4954,"date":"2013-07-30T16:21:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T23:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=4954"},"modified":"2013-07-31T12:11:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T19:11:24","slug":"correspondence-mickey-leonard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2013\/07\/correspondence-mickey-leonard\/","title":{"rendered":"Correspondence: Mickey Leonard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Mickey-Leonard.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Mickey-Leonard.jpg\" alt=\"Mickey Leonard\" width=\"150\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4955\" \/><\/a>The <em>Rifftides<\/em> webmaster received a communiqu\u00c3\u00a9 from the distinguished songwriter Mickey Leonard (pictured) about the Fred Astaire-Rita Hayworth videos in the next exhibit. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is the absolute best thing I&#8217;ve ever seen\/heard with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stayin&#8217;<br \/>\nAlive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d &#038; those two spectacular dancers. Bravo for such a wonderful thing to do. Without question, fantastic!!! Thank you from a most appreciative composer who generally doesn&#8217;t like anything. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mr. Leonard&#151;described by critic Will Friedwald as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a beloved staple of the jazz and cabaret scenes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d&#151;is the composer of &#8220;I&#8217;m All Smiles,&#8221; &#8220;Why Did I Choose You&#8221; and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not Exactly Paris,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d among other standard songs. His arrangement of Luiz Eca\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Dolphin\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the highlight of the 1969 album <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/From-Left-Right-Bill-Evans\/dp\/B00000DLUO\"target=\"_blank\">From Left to Right<\/a>, in which he collaborated with pianist Bill Evans. Here is what I wrote about that Evans track in a <em>Down Beat<\/em> magazine review.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Evans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 solo on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Dolphin\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is one of his finest, on a par with his best work in the <em>Portraits<\/em> and <em>Explorations<\/em> albums with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. Leonard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s orchestration in the &#8220;After&#8221; version complements perfectly what Evans and the rhythm section had improvised in the &#8220;Before.&#8221; The lily is enhanced by the gilding as Leonard harmonizes Evans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 solo for flutes and piccolo, with the improvised piano line in the lead. It is a moment of absolute beauty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For further appreciation of Mickey Leonard, see <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748703555804576102060595604184.html\"target=\"_blank\">this 2011 Will Friedwald article<\/a> in the online <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Rifftides webmaster received a communiqu\u00c3\u00a9 from the distinguished songwriter Mickey Leonard (pictured) about the Fred Astaire-Rita Hayworth videos in the next exhibit. This is the absolute best thing I&#8217;ve ever seen\/heard with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stayin&#8217; Alive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d &#038; those two spectacular dancers. Bravo for such a wonderful thing to do. Without question, fantastic!!! Thank you from a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}