Jack Jones

[Marian]

I'm pleased you all enjoyed it too.

[mariana44]

I had not realised how much like his father JJ is--really lovely video.

[Terence Lee]

Vocal Legend Jack Jones Releases New Album, 'Love Makes the Changes: The Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman'

LOS ANGELES, August 12 -- Legendary singer Jack Jones, best known for his Grammy-winning vocals for "Wives and Lovers" and "Lollipops and Roses," releases the next chapter in his long history of making hits, "Love Makes the Changes: The Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman," out on August 3rd, 2010.

Jack Jones, noted the "best jazz singer in the world" by Judy Garland, "the greatest 'pure' singer in the world" by Mel Torme and "one of the major singers of our time" by Frank Sinatra, is one of the most recognizable artists in the world. During the 60's, Jack released his first of many hits "Lollipops and Roses," soon followed by "Wives and Lovers," "She Loves Me," "Lady," "The Race Is On," "What I Did For Love," and the Grammy nominated "Impossible Dream." These songs paved the way for his musical career spanning over five decades and encompassing more than sixty albums, including Grammy-nominated "Jack Jones Paints a Tribute to Tony Bennett."

A double Grammy winner, Jack performs around the globe to sold-out audiences in venues ranging from jazz clubs to the London Palladium. Whether he performs with his trio or full symphony orchestra, his musical perfection, vocal passion, phenomenal breath control and impeccable phrasing all unfailingly illustrate why he stands with the luminaries. From the thematic threads of his shows to his ability to make the largest halls intimate, Jack Jones is the very definition of a complete and total entertainer.

"Love Makes the Changes: The Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman" was created as a tribute to the lives and shared love of Jack's good friends and celebrated songwriters, Alan and Marilyn Bergman. During their distinguished career, their songs have been nominated for sixteen Academy Awards, for which they have won three: "The Windmills of Your Mind" in 1968, "The Way We Were" in 1973, and the score for "Yentl" in 1984. "Windmills" and "The Way We Were" also earned Golden Globe Awards, and "The Way We Were" earned two Grammys. Among their songs are: for Frank Sinatra "Nice 'n' Easy," for Ray Charles "In the Heat of the Night," for Fred Astaire "That Face," "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?," "So Many Stars," "The Summer Knows," "Where Do You Start?," "On My Way to You," "You Must Believe In Spring," to name but a few.

Jack explains the motivation behind the release, "For years, my dear friends Alan and Marilyn Bergman have had the ideal loving and pure relationship, truly sharing almost every ounce of life. I call them: 'The Masters and Johnson of Romance.' So I wondered, 'How could they possibly perceive what it feels like when the music doesn't keep playing?' Well, on this CD we pay tribute to the most perceptive and creative couple I know. They have inspired me to put many of their wonderful creations into one of my weak story lines... Each of these song tells part of the story, most of which you and I have lived through. You write your own story as you follow the songs, and even if it doesn't turn out to be much of a book, it will be one hell of a score."

Track listing:

1. That Face
2. It Might Be You
3. I Won't Believe My Eyes
4. Nice 'n' Easy
5. The Windmills of Your Mind
6. In Another Life
7. The Summer Knows
8. Where Do You Start?
9. Medley: The Way We Were / How Do You Keep the Music Playing?
10. On My Way to You
11. Love Makes the Changes
12. What Matters Most

For more information, please visit http://www.jackjone s.org/ or http://www.jackjonesmusic.com

[Marian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOZrDmdtF7M

Trailer for Jack's upcoming visit to the Philippines next month at the Araneta Coliseum.

[Terence Lee]

A tribute concert for Michel Legrand was held not too long ago. Some of the singers who performed were Patti Page, Steve Lawrence, Andy Williams, Dionne Warwick, Melissa Manchester & George Benson. It's a missed opportunity to catch Jack Jones & Johnny Mathis in concert. These 2 singing legends would have added more star power to the evening since they have recorded so many of Michel's songs. There was a Yentl medley but no sign of Barbra.

The DVD is on sale now.
http://www.amazon.com/Michel-Legrand-Fr ... 339&sr=8-3

[mariana44]

I agree Terence---JJ , JM and Barbra would have made it unmissable.

[Terence Lee]

Amazon is selling Jack's latest album on CD-R!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041D ... os_product

Marian, is your copy on CD-R too?

[Marian]

It certainly looks like it Terence.

[Terence Lee]

Marian, are there any pressed copies on sale or just CD-R for this release?

[Marian]

I'm not quite sure what you mean Terence. I've sent you a message on facebook to tell you what my copy is like. I'm afraid I don't know in what other format the CD is available, but I should think they are all the same.

[Terence Lee]

Jack Jones at 72: Gift of Song

by Mario A. Hernando
Philippine Star, October 20, 2010

MANILA, Philippines -- When the lights dim to signal the start of the show, '60s crooner Jack Jones appears below the stage bursting into song face to face with the front-row audience. At 72, the voice is less than fine, huskier, the hair silver but is still remarkably lush, and the memory starts to fail. Still, Jack can still hit the high notes and sustain them for some time. A show-off, this septuagenarian. He still brims with brio.

Doing a terrific 28-or-so song repertoire, Jack sends women in the big Saturday audience at the Araneta Coliseum in constant ecstasy. Many of these women can't get enough of him, so they come to him to pose for pictures -- while he's singing. Only in the Philippines.

Jack does not seem to mind the intrusions, though, for he keeps coming back to the crowd (in the orchestra seats anyway), shaking hands and even singing along with them. "There's my chorus," he points to this crowd at front left. Security is kind of lax because, well, what real physical harm can a bunch of swooning matrons do to a healthy-looking idol. Sort of like kids lining up to sit on the lap of a bearded man in a red suit at the department store during the Christmas shopping season. Jack mixes with the crowd often, and unfailingly, women come to him, a cameraman in tow. Jack can only quip, "How come I feel like Santa Claus?"

Jack acknowledges some individuals in the audience, paying tribute to Jose Mari Chan at the beginning of the show, and recalling impromptu singing at the Manila Hotel decades ago with Imelda Marcos before doing his fifth number People. He introduces his wife and near the end of the show hugs her.

Jack salutes songwriters before singing their songs: Johnny Mercer, Brian Wilson of the fabulous '60s American band The Beach Boys (God Only Knows), Stevie Wonder (For Once In My Life; he does the Tony Bennett version), Paul Williams (who he says called him up to do the Love Boat Theme for the popular '60s TV series), David Gates of the popular '70s band Bread (If), and lyricist Rod McKuen (If You Go Away, music by the French Jacques Brel).

It's a wonderful program, moving from jazzy, bluesy to romantic and then grand, Jack giving life to great standard tunes like Just One of Those Things, In Other Words/Fly Me to the Moon, Somewhere, Call Me Irresponsible, All Or Nothing, and the song many seem to mistake for his own, She (written by Charles Aznavour, the French singing idol and actor long before the likes of Jack, Robbie Williams and several other guys covered it).

The crowd expects Jack to do some of the songs identified with him, like Where Love Has Gone, I Wish You Love, but he does not and instead does his other hits: Roses and Lollipops, If You Ever Leave Me, Dear Heart, Lorelei. Some of these songs have also been the signature songs of other balladeers like Andy Williams and Steve Lawrence.

Jack offers a generous serving of songs: I Am a Singer, I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, Hey Little Girl, Day in the Life of a Fool (Carnival Song from the French film Orfeo Negro), and the highlight -- the title tune from the musical Man of La Mancha which segues to The Impossible Dream.

This last may as well be the show's finale (but he sings two lesser known and therefore anti-climactic pieces after it) for which he removes his black jacket and necktie and dishevels his hair to approximate the looks and character of Don Quixote, the Man of La Mancha. When the song ends, Jack's eyes are in tears. A theatrical performance that drives the crowd to its feet.

Throughout the show, Jack gets intimate with the big crowd as though in a lounge and not at the Big Dome, and consults his four-man band (pianist, guitarist, drummer, and keyboardist) which he once asks, "What's next?" -- explaining they put the show together and design it as the needs arise. He admits forgetting a word or a line sometimes, occasionally looks into the iPad on the piano for the song lyrics, and at one point, insists on turning the stage lights low "for mood" before doing the beautiful Beach Boys ditty, starting the song only when the level of light satisfies him.

Maybe he's only following the dictum that before you even please the others, you have to please yourself first.

As for longevity, he says in one of his spiels: "A long time ago, I was introduced as young Jack Jones. A few years went by and then I was just Jack Jones, and they say 'he's still got it.' What happened then? This (career) is a glorious, glorious gift and responsibility. " From a song with lyric by Alan and Marilyn Bergman (from the album Love Makes the Changes), he may as well be borrowing a line that sums up his life and career: "I won't change a thing that happened."

[mariana44]

That last line comes from "On my way to you"-one of my favourite ever songs.

That was amn awesome review-how great it would have been to be there--it does not matter if he forgets a word or a line--who cares!! His singing is what counts ..

[Marian]

Jack said himself this was the most moving show he has ever experienced. It is a long long time since he has appeared in the Philippines, where he used to go regularly when he was young. It sounds like they remembered him! There is another write-up, Jack added both on facebook. I'll see if I can find it.

[Marian]

'Seniors prom' at the Big Dome
FUNFARE By Ricardo F. Lo (The Philippine Star) Updated October 20, 2010



Jack Jones during his show at the Araneta Coliseum last Saturday night.
Like vintage wine, Jack Jones gets better with age. He is one of the finest recording artists to come out of America, loved not only by music lovers all over the world but by composers whose songs he has recorded.

You can say that again, Jose Mari Chan.

At the Big Dome last Saturday night, Oct. 16, Jack once again regaled an estimated 8,000 fans with mostly his old songs that we never get tired listening to over and over again, bringing us back to the good old days when life was simpler, love was just ready to bloom and the world was less chaotic than it is today.

Joe Mari, who with his family (wife Mary Ann Ansaldo and their children Michael, Franco, Joe and Liza) hosted a dinner for Jack and his wife Eleonora at the Chans’ sprawling bungalow in Dasmariñas Village, Makati City, two nights earlier, was among those in the audience that also included (among those we spotted), former First Lady Imelda Marcos (on the front row beside Eleonora), Deana Jean Lopez, Mike Enriquez, Boots Anson-Roa, Jullie Yap Daza, Vivian Sarabia, wheelchair-bound Celia Diaz-Laurel with son Cocoy, Ronaldo Valdez and wife Baby, Baby Fores and Gretchen Cojuangco.

It was strictly “Seniors Prom,” like a long-delayed class reunion of forever Jack Jones lovers, some of them in wheelchairs, some accompanied by children who must be familiar only with the songs but not the singer and, to quote STAR columnist Baby Gil, “some of them Botoxed.”

At 72, Jack is as magnetic as ever, his voice only a bit raspy when he hit a high note (maybe due to jetlag and having just performed in Cebu the night before), but he is, yes, plakang-plaka all the way, so much like the vintage Jack Jones that if you closed your eyes it felt as if you were just replaying his “greatest hits” CD, sipping red wine in your den on a stormy night.

“He’s hot,” exclaimed the ladies in the audience, some of them daring to pose for pictures with Jack when he went down the stage.

“He endeared himself to the audience with a magnificent performance, singing his songs that were the soundtrack of our lives for the last 46 years,” said Joe Mari. “His intimate rendition and reading of his songs made each one of us in the audience feel that he was serenading us one-on-one.”

Jack kicked off the two-hour solo show (there was no front act) with a new song and followed it up with I Am a Singer which he dedicated to Joe Mari, saying, “Singing is a glorious gift,” and adding as an afterthought, “We miss them (singers) the most when they are gone.” Then, he segued to familiar songs like Tony Bennett’s For Once In My Life and In Other Words, laughing at himself when he forgot some of the lyrics.

The audience erupted into a hearty applause when Jack sang Lollipops and Roses, his very first hit that won him his first Grammy Award for Best Male Performance in 1962 and which was used as title and theme of a Premiere Productions movie in the early ‘70s starring Nora Aunor and Cocoy Laurel with a then unknown named Don Johnson (remember him?).

After a 15-minute intermission, Jack opened the second portion with If You Go Away (words by Rod McKuen) from, according to Joe Mari, the French song Ne Me Quitte Pas written by Jacques Brel. The first time Jack went down the stage was when he sang a medley of Lady and Call Me Irresponsible, holding his wife’s hand and lovingly looking at her eyes.

It was non-stop old-hits from then on – If You Ever Leave Me, Carnival Song (of which the late Walter Navarro did a haunting version for the LEA Productions movie Stardoom, directed by Lino Brocka and starring Rosemarie Sonora), Dear Heart (by Henry Mancini), Lorelei (which is popular only in the Philippines), Dio Como Te Amo (one of Nora Aunor’s winning pieces in Tawag ng Tanghalan)

Two nights before his Big Dome show, Jack and his wife Eleonora were honored with a dinner by Jose Mari Chan and his family (wife Mary Ann Ansaldo, rightmost, and children, from left, Michael, Franco, Joe and Liza, leftmost, seated) at the Chans’ home in Dasmariñas Village, Makati City the background song for the trailer of the new GMA soap Beauty Queen and which I recorded “live” as my celfone’s new ringtone) and the unforgettable Ella Fitzgerald song We’ll Be Together.

He must love the audience so much that Jack went down the stage several times, inviting them to sing along with him, posing for more pictures. When he sang On My Way To You, he again approached his wife. It was the same song he sang the day he and Eleonora exchanged rings at their wedding barely two years ago.

“It was one of the heart-warming moments of the show,” said Joe Mari who, like Jack, is a hopeless romantic.

The high point of the show came when Jack took off his jacket, loosened his shirt and tie and became Don Quixote with his fiery characterization in Impossible Dream, giving his all in a stirring style that made your hair stand on end, acknowledging the standing ovation with tears in his eyes. The song is from the musical Man of La Mancha which has a special significance to Jack because his father, Allan Jones, had played the role onstage and years later Jack reprised the same role.

A trivia from Joe Mari: “Allan Jones is a famous actor-singer who, in 1938, appeared with Jeanette MacDonald in the film The Firefly. His hit song from that film was The Donkey Serenade, a lilting tune that goes, There’s a song in the air but the fair senorita doesn’t seem to care for the song in the air, so I’ll sing to the mule if you’re sure that she won’t think that I am such a fool serenading the mule.” adding, “1938 was also the year Jack was born.”

Jack has been here several times in his four-decades-plus career (with performances at the Manila Hotel, the Big Dome, etc.)

Said Joe Mari, “Jack has had this long-lasting love affair with the Filipinos, a love affair that will last a lifetime.”

Oh well, if Jack Jones goes away as we know he must, we will terribly miss him, won’t we?

He didn’t do Moon River and What I Did For Love at the Big Dome that Saturday night but who cared? His awesome rendition of Impossible Dream was more than enough to make it a truly enchanted evening, making us dream the impossible dream to try when your arms are too weary to reach the unreachable star…

[mariana44]

Thanks Marian--that was fabulous--one little thing annoyed me though--the reviewer said, that Jack started with a new song--but no clue as to what song it was !!!!!!!