Later this week the temperature is supposed to drop in New York City, and the change immediately invokes the appearance of Indian corn, pumpkins, and fresh-pressed apple cider at the corner store.
     It is still too early for bittersweet, but our backyard vine should yield a bumper crop after first frost, just in time for Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November.
     This music is an echo that has traveled 76 years, going all the way back to the first time we sat in front of the old Magnavox in our living room in Toledo, Ohio. I was probably double wrapped in blankets in a basket near the door, as the cold wind blew off Lake Erie and the Packard was outside warming up for our ride over the river and through the woods to Gramp & Emily’s house.
     But the sounds of Larry Clinton on The Lucky Strike Radio Program are still there and I suppose, like the rest of this list, it will be out there orbiting and playing on forever.
     Too bad this time of year moves on to being so damn cold, without lingering much in this cool and sunny state, but at least we have seasons and, wherever we are, each other.
     And Frank, Jo, and Brian, and all the old (and new) favorites to play us into the next chapter.

About The Music

     “September Song” features the great stage actor and movie star Walter Huston, who was featured in The Treasure of The Sierra Madre.
     Walter, father of director John Huston (Casablanca), sings/speaks “September” in an immortal 1938 performance.
     Other great sing/speaking music examples are Audrey Hepburn’s “Moon River,” Rex Harrison’s “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face,” and Richard Burton’s “Camelot.”
     All of these artists were, strictly speaking, not singers, but in every case their performances became the definitive delivery of music that has never been done better by anyone else.
Geoffrey