Composer Frederick Loewe (1901-88) and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (1918-86), who met in 1942, wrote the music for such Broadway hits as Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, Camelot, and, most notably, My Fair Lady in addition to the film Gigi. Their better-known songs have been recorded many times through the years with 1956’s best-selling Shelly Manne & His Friends: Modern Jazz Performances Of Songs From My Fair Lady (a trio set with pianist Andre Previn) being the first full-length jazz album dedicated to the music from one Broadway show.
Counterpoint Lerner/Loewe by the duo of pianist Dick Hyman and Ken Peplowski (on clarinet and tenor) is quite a bit different than one would expect. While the still-superb 92-year old Hyman has recorded many straightforward stride piano and swing albums through the years and Peplowski is considered one of the top swing clarinetists of all time, both of the virtuosos have also long had an interest in more advanced improvising, particularly Hyman.
Their CD, subtitled “Fantastical improvs on songs from Brigadoon, Gigi, My Fair Lady, Camelot, Paint Your Wagon, The Day Before Spring,” contains plenty of very surprising explorations. The 13 Lerner & Loewe songs (“Gigi” is played twice in very different versions), which include both familiar standards and obscurities, are taken on some wild rides. Hyman provided frameworks (which are often quite
