SONGS OF MATT DENNIS AND BOBBY TROUP IN SANTA MONICA

FEATURING MARY FOSTER CONKLIN AND MARK WINKLER

Mary Foster Conklin and Mark Winkler will sing the songs of Matt Dennis and Bobby Troup on Thursday, October 7th at 8:00 & 10:00 pm at THE VIC (2640 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA - 888-367-5299 - http://www.thevicforjazz.com/ ). The show features a quartet led by Stuart Elster on piano, with Kevin Axt on bass, Gary Meek on sax/flute and Bob Leaterhbarrow on drums. There will be a $15 cover, 2-drink minimum.

Matt Dennis and Bobby Troup were two of the very best singer-pianists to come out of the West Coast Cool Jazz Movement of the 50s. Both played the smoky jazz lounges and upscale supper clubs across the country and their songs were recorded by star performers like Nat King Cole (Route 66), Ella Fitzgerald (Angel Eyes) and Frank Sinatra (Let's Get Away from It All). As contemporaries, the two complemented one another: Dennis with his charming smile and easy elegance played more Beatles to the edgier Stones-like, East Coast born hipster Troup. This past June, in New York City, Mark Winkler and Mary Foster Conklin, two upcoming jazz vocalists with a shared passion presented a tribute to these two great composers of the post-war, oft-neglected period of the Great American Songbook.

Mark Winkler is an award winning singer/lyricist from California, whose tunes have been covered by such artists as Dianne Reeves, Randy Crawford and Kenny Rankin. His latest recording Mark Winkler sings Bobby Troup was released last summer to critical acclaim. Mary Foster Conklin, a die-hard New Yorker, has one Matt Dennis song recorded on her CD YouÇd Be Paradise, released in 2001. She has spent most of this past year researching more of the Dennis folio and is currently at work on an all-Dennis recording. The two vocalists had corresponded in the past -- there are several Dennis/Troup compositions in existence, so it's obvious that they were destined to cross paths --and when they finally did meet this past winter, the singers jumped at the chance to work together.

While the evening will cover the well-known hits of the two composers, Winkler and Conklin also have a few surprises in store, as they swap stories and share some of the less familiar but no-less memorable hipster treasures, like Lemon Twist, Bobby Troup's sophisticated yet twisted ode to nutrition, and the Matt Dennis noir dark melody Blues for Breakfast, with lyrics by Jerry Gladstone, among others. Also included will be several Troup/Dennis works, like Learn to Love, which was written in 1980, and finally recorded by Winkler a month before Dennis's passing in 2002.

For more information, see http://www.maryfosterconklin.com/ .

 

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