Congratulations to Dionne Warwick, who on May 6 was honored as the 2002 recipient of the Aaron Davis Hall Harlem Renaissance Award. The award recognizes Warwick’s 40-year career and longstanding commitment to the global community. Past recipients of the award have included Harry Belefonte, Max Roach, Nancy Wilson and Maya Angelou.
There are two new directories of images in the Bacharach_Pix folder. One is a collection of scans of sheet music that I hope to expand as I scan more of what I have.
The other is a series of images from 40 Golden Songs of Bacharach and David, a vocal/piano music anthology.
Burt is scheduled to be interviewed by VH1 for special devoted to Austin Powers in Goldmember. Look for it to air around July 4.
Bill Minnick writes that a concert date has just been announced for Burt at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pa., outside Philadelphia, on Oct.
18. For a complete list of Burt’s upcoming concert appearances, visit the On Tour page.
I updated the Media section with Coming of Age: Mr. Burt Bacharach, a transcript of the Feb.
10, 2002, profile of Burt on CBS News Sunday Morning.
Keep an eye out this summer and fall for two new books about Burt. Serene Dominic’s The Little Red Book of Burt Bacharach: An Illustrated Discography of Burt Bacharach (Omnibus/Schirmer Trade Books) traces Bacharach recordings from the earliest through today, including commentary from Burt and many of the artists who performed his songs. The Little Red Book of Burt Bacharach is scheduled for publication in August 2002. Robin Platts’ Burt Bacharach & Hal David (Collector’s Guide Publishing) includes interviews with Burt and Hal as well as Gene Pitney, B.J. Thomas, Steve Tyrell and others.
Look for it in September 2002.
Burt performed a mind-blowingly brilliant show at the Grand Casino in Biloxi, Miss., on April 25, and after the show I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to meet Burt for the first time. I’ll eventually post a full recap of the show in the discussion forum, but in the meantime, here’s a photo. Please excuse the idiotic grin. For what it’s worth, Burt said he is familiar with the Web site and expressed his interest in and appreciation for it.
We only spent a few minutes with him, but Burt was charming and gracious beyond the call of duty, and I sincerely appreciate his taking the time to greet four wide-eyed, star-struck fans.
Vocalist Alan Dale died in New York on April 25 after a lengthy illness.
Dale’s “I Cry More,” from the film Don’t Knock the Rock (1957), has the distinction of being among the earliest Burt Bacharach compositions to be recorded. Dale was 73.
I added two articles to the media page. Hits, which appeared in the New Yorker, Sept.
14, 1968, and Composer in Tartan Cap, which appeared in the New Yorker, Dec. 21, 1968. The first is a profile of Burt as he returns to New York to begin rehearsals for Promises, Promises; the second is a follow-up visit with Burt as he prepares to go on the Tonight Show to promote Promises, which by then was a major Broadway hit. The articles were transcribed from a fax of copies made from a large, tightly bound volume. When the text was illegible, I either made an educated guess based on the context or used ????s. Thanks to Mark Rozzo for sending me these articles.
The audio link has been non-functioning for quite a while. I had been hosting the audio files on my office PC, and the strain was just too much.
So I’m going to try hosting a few mp3s here. The space allocation is fairly small, so I’ll rotate songs on a semi-regular basis. Today, we have three relatively obscure Bacharach tracks: Alan Dale’s “I Cry More,” the Isley Brothers’ “Make It Easy on Yourself (Are You Lonely By Yourself)” and Chuck Jackson’s “The Breaking Point.” “I Cry More” is taken from the 1997 MCA Japan compilation Burt Bacharach Songbook. “Make It Easy on Yourself” and “The Breaking Point” are from the 2001 West Side compilation The Sound of Bacharach. Enjoy!
