Tea for Two....This is a song that I enjoy very to play, although depends suits from opportunity :)
You can also visit my other new channel:
http://www.youtube.com/JustPianoforte
There I just start to make some tutorials for Jazz musicians beginners, and more :-)
More Information:
"Tea for Two" is a song from the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Irving Caesar . The song is sung from the viewpoint of a lovestruck man, who plans the future with his new woman in mind.
The story may be apocryphal, but Irving Caesar indicated on Steve Allen's radio show that the lyrics were intended to be temporary. Hoyt Axton later did much the same thing with the "Jeremiah was a bullfrog" part of "Joy to the World (Hoyt Axton song)".
"Tea for Two" became a jazz standard and was recorded by numerous bands and instrumentalists. One famous interpretation of the song is Tommy Dorsey's cha-cha-cha version, re-popularized in 2005 by adverts for McVitie's biscuits. Another notable recording was made by Art Tatum in 1939.
The song has become a reliable standby for performers who call for soft shoe bits.
The song was also orchestrated by Dimitri Shostakovich in 1928 under the title "Tahiti-Trot". Conductor Nikolai Malko bet Shostakovich 100 rubles that he couldn't orchestrate the song after having heard it just once on a record. Shostakovich won the bet by doing the orchestration successfully in under 45 minutes. The song was also sung by Edith "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale, in the documentary film Grey Gardens.
"Tea for Two" was used as a code by English paratroopers shot down over Paris in the French film La Grande Vadrouille.
The Composer Vincent Millie Youmans was born in New York City on September 27, 1898 and grew-up on Central Park West on the site where the Mayflower Hotel once stood. His father, a prosperous hat manufacturer, moved the family to upper-class Larchmont, New York.[1] Youmans attended the Trinity School in Mamaroneck, NY and Heathcote Hall in Rye, New York. Originally, his ambition was to become an engineer and attended Yale for a short time. He dropped out to become a runner for a Wall Street brokerage firm before he was drafted to fight in World War I. He took an interest in the theatre when he produced troop shows for the Navy. After the war, he was a Tin Pan Alley song plugger for the TB Harms Company and then as a rehearsal pianist for famed composer Victor Herberts operettas.[2]
No, No, Nanette was the biggest musical-comedy success of the 1920s in both Europe and the USA and the two songs "Tea for Two" and "I Want to Be Happy" are considered standards. From 1927, Youmans also produced his own shows. He had another major success with Hit the Deck! (1927; including Hallelujah), but his subsequent productions were failures, though many of their songs remain popular. His last contributions to Broadway were some songs for Take a Chance (1932).[3]
Youmans collaborated with the greatest songwriters on Broadway: Herbert Stothart, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Caesar, Anne Caldwell, Leo Robin, Clifford Grey, Billy Rose, Edward Eliscu, Edward Heyman, Harold Adamson, Mack Gordon, Buddy De Sylva and Gus Kahn.[2] He collaborated with lyricist Ira Gershwin on the score for Two Little Girls in Blue, which won wide acclaim. His next show, with lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, was Wildflower. His most enduring success, however, was No, No, Nanette, with lyrics by Irving Caesar.
Youmanss early songs are remarkable for their economy of melodic material: two-, three- or four-note phrases are constantly repeated and varied by subtle harmonic or rhythmic changes. In later years, however, apparently influenced by Jerome Kern, he turned to longer musical sentences and more free-flowing melodic lines.[3]
Youmans was forced to retire in 1934, after a professional career of only 13 years, only returning to Broadway to mount the ill-fated extravaganza The Vincent Youmans Ballet Revue (1943), an ambitious mix of Latin-American and classical music, including Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. Choreographed by Leonide Massine, it lost some $4 million.[4] More than any of his contemporaries, he made constant re-use of a limited number of melodies; he published fewer than 100 songs, but 18 of these were considered standards by ASCAP.[3]
He died of tuberculosis in Denver, Colorado. At his death, Youmans left behind a large quantity of unpublished material.
In 1970, Youmans was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
You can download the sheet music here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/7459137-5c9
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I too love this song and play it several times a week! Not, however, the way its being played here, but love it none-the-less. Great playing!
dgrendahl 1 year ago
@dgrendahl thanks Doug, it's much appreciated
PianistaItaliano 1 year ago
That was great! I love that swing feel with this music, it's so nice to listen to! You're pretty good at the piano!
pedalsnkeys1313 1 year ago
@pedalsnkeys1313 Thanks :-)
PianistaItaliano 1 year ago
Is there a bass player accompanying you? Also, is that a normal acoustic piano? It seems to have a slightly "electronic" sound. (Or maybe it's just me??)
Very nice, by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
renenkel 1 year ago 2
@renenkel Thanks, is only an real grand piano, steinway & sons 211B
PianistaItaliano 1 year ago