A Collection Music from the 1930s, Featuring Songs from
Rodgers and Hart Chosen By Woody Allen and
Newly Recorded for the Film by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks
Featuring An On-Screen Performance of “Mountain Greenery” by Vocalist Kat Edmonson
Sony Classical will release the original soundtrack for Woody Allen’s CAFÉ SOCIETY both digitally and on CD on July 8, 2016. The soundtrack includes a great compliation of the music from the 1930’s, largely from the Rodgers and Hart, chosen by Allen and featured prominently in the film. The album includes original performances by Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks as well as the on-screen performance of “Mountain Greenery” with Sony Music Masterworks recording artist Kat Edmonson.
Set in the 1930s, Woody Allen’s bittersweet romance CAFÉ SOCIETY follows Bronx-born Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) to Hollywood, where he falls in love, and back to New York, where he is swept up in the vibrant world of high society nightclub life. Centering on events in the lives of Bobby’s colorful Bronx family, the film is a glittering valentine to the movie stars, socialites, playboys, debutantes, politicians, and gangsters who epitomized the excitement and glamour of the age. With CAFÉ SOCIETY, Woody Allen conjures up a 1930s world that has passed to tell a deeply romantic tale of dreams that never die.
The film opened the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews and is scheduled for wide release July 15. Allen becomes the first and only director to have three opening night films selected for the Cannes Film Festival (HOLLYWOOD ENDING opened in Cannes in 2002 and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS in 2011).
“The soundtrack consists of music from the 1930s, since that’s when the picture takes place,” Allen stated. “Most of the material is Rodgers and Hart, who are very dominant in those years, and have that bittersweet romantic quality that defines the spirit of the movie itself.”
The success of CAFÉ SOCIETY wouldn’t be complete without the partnership of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart. Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting duo that worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs. From 1936 to 1943, the duo wrote a series of Broadway musical comedies, each of which seemed to top the one before in terms of innovation and box office success. ON YOUR TOES (1936), BABES IN ARMS (1937), I’D RATHER BE RIGHT (1937), I MARRIED AN ANGEL (1938), THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE (1938), TOO MANY GIRLS (1939), HIGHER AND HIGHER (1940), PAL JOEY (1940), and BY JUPITER (1942) dazzled Broadway in spectacular succession, and collectively offered such classic songs as “There’s A Small Hotel,” “I Wish I Were In Love Again,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Where Or When,” “The Lady Is A Tramp,” “Spring Is Here,” “Falling In Love With Love,” “Sing For Your Supper,” “This Can’t Be Love,” “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “Bewitched,” “I Could Write A Book,” “Nobody’s Heart,” and “Wait Till You See Her.”
Vince Giordano’s passion for music from the 1920’s & 30’s, and the people that made it, began at age 5. He has amassed an amazing collection of over 60,000 band arrangements, 1920’s and 30’s films, 78 recordings and jazz-age memorabilia. Giordano’s passion, commitment to authenticity, and knowledge led him to create a sensational band of like-minded players, the Nighthawks. For over 40 years, Vince Giordano has single-handedly kept alive a wonderful genre of American music that continues to spread the joy and pathos of an era that shaped our nation. Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks can be heard on the soundtracks of films including The Cotton Club, The Aviator, Finding Forrester, Revolutionary Road, and on TV on HBOs Boardwalk Empire.
Texas native Kat Edmonson grew up listening to the Great American Songbook. She has performed alongside Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett and been featured on “The Tonight Show,” “Austin City Limits” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” To date, Edmonson has released three albums to critical acclaim, Take To the Sky, Way Down Low and The Big Picture. She is currently working on a new album that is scheduled for release in 2017.
TRACKLIST
1. The Lady Is A Tramp – Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks*
2. Jeepers Creepers – Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks
3. Mountain Greenery – Kat Edmonson / Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks*
4. Have You Met Miss Jones – Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks*
5. I Didn’t Know What Time It Was – Benny Goodman & His Orchestra*
6. Taxi War Dance – Count Basie & His Orchestra
7. Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart – Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks
8. Manhattan -Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks*
9. My Romance – Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks*
10. Pick Yourself Up – Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks
11. I Only Have Eyes For You – Ben Selvin
12. The Peanut Vendor – YeraSon
13. There’s A Small Hotel – Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks*
14. Out of Nowhere – Conal Fowkes [piano] / Brian Nalepka [string bass] / John Gill [guitar]
15. This Can’t Be Love – Conal Fowkes*
*Composed by Rodgers & Hart
