Let Me Sing and I'm Happy

From her first Grammy-nominated album in 1974 of early 20th-century popular songs, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris built a 40-plus year career researching and performing the Great American Songbook. As Bolcom and Morris, she and her husband and musical partner, composer and pianist William Bolcom (Pulitzer Prize, 1988) have performed in venues from Alice Tully Hall in New York and Jordan Hall in Boston to concerts in Lisbon, Florence, London, Moscow, Jerusalem,and Cairo, among many others throughout the US and Canada. This book begins with a short autobiographical journey and then offers step-by-step descriptions of the many aspects of performing, from character development to choreography. Love of words and stories led Joan Morris into a long career of singing, acting, and teaching -- a history she is delighted to share with readers. 'Something my husband and collaborator, William Bolcom, and I have always done before going into the recording studio is to try out the songs for an album in a live concert, to see how they feel to us and how the audience reacts. When we first tried out the songs chosen for Afterthe Ball in concert in Ann Arbor, I realized I could strut like Eva Tanguay for 'I Don't Care,' I could flirt with the audience in Anna Held's 'I Just Can't Make My Eyes Behave,' and I could preen and show off in Blanche Ring's 'I've Got Rings on My Fingers.' I could call on both my acting and singing chops to put over each song like the miniature drama it is. This book is to help singers achieve their own personal interpretations in both popular andclassical repertoire.'--JOAN MORRIS Since 1973 JOAN MORRIS, mezzo-soprano, has concertized with her husband and accompanist, William Bolcom, singing popular songs from the late nineteenth century through the 1920s and '30s, the latest songs by Leiber and Stoller, and cabaret songs by Bolcom and poet-lyricist Arnold Weinsten.