VIEWS

 


Here I am shaking hands with the legendary jazz pianist and arranger, Mary Lou Williams. To the left is the great jazz pianist George Wallington. They were judges for a jazz piano contest sponsored by a New York radio station when I was 16. I took first prize - which was lessons with Mary Lou - playing my arrangement of “My Funny Valentine,” which combined elements of jazz and counterpoint. I wish I could remember it now. While working with Mary Lou I was also studying classical piano with Leonid Hambro, staff pianist for the New York Philharmonic.

When Gwyneth Paltrow appeared on Inside The Actors Studio, she said:

"Actually, what really inspired me was 'Free to Be You and Me.' " There was a surprising burst of applause from the audience. "I used to lie on the bedroom floor and sing all the songs and act all the parts and imagine what all the characters looked like. I loved that."



I visited Hannah’s kindergarten class and brought a videotape of some of my Sesame Street songs.


That's me with Minnie Pearl at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. My first job in television was as composer/music director for Feeling Good, a PBS show about health. I composed songs for many pop and country singers. We made two trips to Nashville and recorded and shot at the Grand Ole Opry. For Johnny Cash, we used his band and as I sang one of my songs for them their pencils got busy with the unique notation of Nashville musicians.

This photo shows me with my wife Cantor Cathy Schwartzman, an extraordinary singer, wife, and friend.