A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square

A fine standard, always nice to play and to listen to. It has beautiful harmonies and a good and strong melody. I learned about this one on a Shearing/Tormé album "An evening with George Shearing and Mel Tormé" (or v.v.,I forgot...) Played by Johan Mulder

Category:

Music

Tags:

• jazz
• piano
• standards
• london

[conn6m]

1. You play very well. There were some Bud Powell type moments of great beauty in there. However I agree with rasandler below in pointing out that there is very strong connection with the U.S in this song. You should always credit the composer of any song you play and also look into its history. This song has very special meaning to the people of Britain and to anounce it as 'non U.S origin' is both wrong and insulting.

How would you like it if I called you a piano player of Non-US origin.

[mulderenmulder]

OK, I've changed the description. Thanks for your remarks.

[jazzmanpianer]

Good stuff, but what are you playing on? It sounds like a non-weighted keyboard with no dynamic contrast, but it doesn't look like it.

[mulderenmulder]

The lack of dynamic contrast is a result of the poor technique of my (simple) video camera. Most of the video's are recorded on a Yamaha baby grand, others on a semi-weighted Roland G-800.

[mulderenmulder]

The Concord Jazz album "An elegant evening with George Shearing and Mel Tormé" was the first recording of these musical giants I heard, and it inspired me to put this wonderful standard on my repertoire.

[homePicShow]

Is there any way at all that you could annotate this video with the chords? I appreciate this is a complex song, but i'm hoping this would be a good starting point for me :)

[homePicShow]

this looks difficult, but you play very well..

[12345678927269]

Anyone know what the song means? It reminds me of the period after World War II when Britain was recovering from the Blitz...

[lucianotube]

Beautiful chords!

[wastewheeler]

Jeez, you whine a lot

[conn6m]

5. One day you may become a famous composer. Surely you would want to be remembered as a real person with real feelings. Give composers credit for their work - they deserve it.

[conn6m]

4. After these bombs were defused they were taken to leafy suburbs/Parks and blown up. Can you imagine what this does to wild life. Bombs night and day. Have you ever seen a dog outside when fireworks are on display. Imagine that noise amplified 100 times. The song cries out for a time when the war will be over (to the british) and 'the whole darn world' will righten itself and Nightingales will indeed sing again in berkeley Square.

[conn6m]

3. The information I've written so far could have easily been found by you on Wikipedia. 'A Nightingale' was written in 1940 at the begining of WW11 and performed in a show called New faces. Although it gained popularity quickly its special relevence was because of the War. London was bombed every night during late 1940 untill june 1941. During this time the germans were droping time bombs; designed to cause disruption because they did not explode immediately,