Special Projects

Love and Back Again

"Love and Back Again" is a musical narration by park intern Saskia Walker about the cyclical nature of love stories.
Using musical devices, arranging and word painting, she recounts the complete, and seemingly endless, cycle of love: a budding and growing romance, into heartbreak, anger and acceptance before starting over again with somebody new.

The members of this Little Big Band are experts in New Orleans and Caribbean music, as well as being true masters of their instruments, so with the tunes carefully arranged by Saskia Walker and Brent Rose, the story comes alive!
Victor Campbell (piano), Max Moran (bass), Willie Green III (drums), Jafet Perez (percussion), Brent Rose (tenor sax), Charlie Halloran (trombone), Eric Lucero (trumpet), Saskia Walker (vox).

Listen to the music while you read about the history and interpretation of each song!

 

• Oh! Look At Me Now

  
  
  Audio Transcript

  I'm not the girl who cared about love
  I'm not the girl who cared about fortunes and such
  Never cared much, oh, look at me now

  I never knew the technique for kissing
  I never knew the thrill I could get from your touch
  I never knew much, oh, look at me now

  I'm a new girl in a whirl
  Never knew that love was like this
  With a new heart, brand-new start
  Gonna be a Mrs., can't miss

  So, I'm the girl who turned down a lover
  So I'm the girl who laughed at those blue diamond rings
  One of those things, oh, look at me now

   

  I'm a new girl in a whirl
  Never knew love was like this
  With a new heart, brand-new start
  I'm gonna be a Mrs., can't miss

  Oh, I'm that girl who turned down a lover
  I am the girl who laughed at those blue diamond rings
  One of those things, oh, look at me now

  Look at me now
  Look at me, right now!

   

 

Eliot Kamenitz

Composed by Joe Bushkin, with lyrics by John Devries, this tune was first recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra featuring Frank Sinatra, Connie Haines, and the Pied Pipers, in 1941.
The musical journey begins with a young, naive perspective of someone who scoffs at love before being caught in its web: “I never cared about love but Oh! Look at Me Now!”.
An important feature is the call and response between the horn section and the drummer Willie Green III.

 

• Alone Together

  
  
  Audio Transcript

  Alone together, beyond the crowd
  Above the world, we're not too proud
  To cling together
  We're strong as long as we're together

  Alone together, the blinding rain
  The starless night, was not in vain
  For we're together
  And what is there to fear together?

  Our love is as deep as the sea
  Our love is as great as a love can be
  And we can weather the great unknown
  If we're alone together

  Our love is as deep as the sea
  Our love is as great as a love can be
  And we can weather the great unknown
  If we're alone together

  Alone together

  Alone together

 

Eliot Kamenitz

This jazz standard was written by Arthur Schwartz, lyrics by Howard Dietz, in 1932 for the musical “Flying Colors” to accompany the love interests' dancing.
Likewise, this rendition sets the scene of a grooving, latin dance floor, before suddenly jumping into an energetic swinging trumpet solo by Eric Lucero. We are swayed back into a more intimate setting by the mellow tones of Max Moran's bass solo.
These contrasts highlight the push and pull between dancers and the oxymoron of being Alone Together.

 

• Destination Moon

  
  
  Audio Transcript

  Come and take a trip in my rocket ship
  We'll have a lovely afternoon
  Kiss the world goodbye and away we fly
  Destination moon
  Travel fast as light 'til we're out of sight
  The earth is like a toy balloon
  What a thrill you get ridin' on my jet
  Destination moon
  We'll go up, up, up, up
  Straight to the moon we two
  High in the starry blue
  I'll be out of this world with you
  So away we steal in my space mobile
  A supersonic honeymoon
  Leave your cares below
  Pull the switch, let's go
  Destination moon

  We'll go up, up, up, up
  Straight to the moon we two
  High in the starry blue
  I'll be out of this world with you
  So away we steal in my space mobile
  A supersonic honeymoon
  Leave your cares below
  Pull the switch, let's go

  
  Destination, 'nel blu dipinto di blu'

  Destination, destination moon

 

Eliot Kamenitz

Composed by Marvin Fischer with lyrics by Roy Alfred, this tune was first recorded by Nat King Cole with Orchestra conducted by Neal Hefti in 1951. Walker and Rose's version was heavily inspired by this original classic, as piano player Victor Campbell channels his inner Nat King Cole.
At this point in the story arc, the romance has reached the soaring heights of a "supersonic honeymoon", and vocalist Saskia Walker gives a nod to her Italian roots by quoting Domenico Modugno's "Volare" (transl. "Flying").

 

• Darn That Dream

  
  
  Audio Transcript

  Darn that dream, I dream each night
  You say you love me and you hold me tight
  But when I awake, you're out of sight
  Oh, darn that dream
  
  Darn your lips and darn your eyes
  They lift me high above the moonlit skies
  Then I tumble out of paradise
  Oh, darn that dream
  
  Darn that one track mind of mine
  It can't understand that you don't care
  Just to change the mood I'm in
  I'd welcome a nice old nightmare
  
  Darn that dream and bless it too
  Without that dream I never would have you
  But it haunts me and it won't come true
  Oh, darn that dream

  Darn that one track mind of mine
  It can't understand that you don't care
  Just to change the mood I'm in
  I'd welcome a nice old nightmare
  
  Darn that dream and bless it too
  Without that dream I never would have you
  But it haunts me and it won't come true
  Oh, darn that, darn that

  Darn that dream.

 

Eliot Kamenitz

Composed by Jimmy Van Heusen, with lyrics by Eddie DeLange, in 1939, Darn That Dream was part of the Broadway musical Swingin’ the Dream, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night’s Dream, set in New Orleans in 1890.
Walker's breathy voice invokes a sad awakening from sweet slumber, as she remembers the "moonlit skies" from Destination Moon, that lift you high before you "tumble out of paradise", plummeting to a heartbroken reality.
Brent Rose is featured on the tenor saxophone playing a mournful solo.

 

• Get Out Of Town

  
  
  Audio Transcript

  Get out of town
  Before it's too late, my love
  Get out of town
  Be good to me, please

  Why wish me harm
  Why not retire to a farm
  And be contented to charm
  The birds off the trees

  Just disappear
  I care for you much, too much
  And when you're near, close to me dear
  We touch too much

  The thrill when we meet is so bitter-sweet
  That darling, it's getting me down
  So on your mark get set
  Get out of town

   

  Get out of town, 

  be good to me please my love

  Get out of town
  Be good to me, please

  Why wish me harm
  Why not retire to a farm
  And be contented to charm
  The birds off the trees

  Just disappear
  I care for you much, too much
  And when you're near, close to me dear
  We touch too much

  The thrill when we meet is so bitter-sweet
  That darling, it's getting me down
  So on your mark get set
  Get out of town

   

 

Eliot Kamenitz

This popular song was written by Cole Porter, a legendary composer of the Great American Songbook, in 1938 for the musical Leave It To Me!. The introductory verse of this arrangement, a somber piano and voice duo, helps bridge the feelings of initial betrayal into a bubbling rage once the horns come in, and "Get Out Of Town" becomes an expletive! Percussionist Jafet Perez is heavily featured "talking" with his drums in Afro-Cuban rhythm before the band swings out for the last refrain.

 

• Something Cool

  
  
  Audio Transcript

  Something cool, 

  I'd like to order something cool

  It's so warm here in town,

  And the heat gets me down,

  Yes, I'd like something cool! 

  My! It's nice to simply sit and rest awhile

  Now I know it's a shame,

  I can't think of your name,

  I remember your smile!

  I don't ordinarily drink with strangers,

  I most usually drink alone.

  You were so awfully nice to me,

  And I'm so terribly far from home.

  Like my dress?  I must confess it's terribly old;

  But it's simple and neat,

  It's just right for the heat,

  Save my furs for the cold!

  A cigarette?  Well I don't smoke them as a rule,

  but I'll have one,

  It might be fun

  With something cool!

  I'll bet you couldn't imagine

  That I one time had a house

  With so many rooms I couldn't count them all!

  I'll bet you couldn't imagine

  I had fifteen different beaus

  Who would beg and beg to take me to the ball.

  And I'll bet you couldn't picture me

  The time I went to Paris in the Fall,

  And who would think the man I loved was quite so handsome,

  Quite so tall?

  Well it's true,

  It's just a memory I have

  One I almost forgot

  'Cause the weather's so hot!

  And I'm feeling so bad 

  About a date,

  Oh wait!

  I'm such a fool!

  He's just a guy

  Who's stopped to buy me

  Something cool!

 

Eliot Kamenitz

Composed by Billy Barnes, this tune was first released by June Christy in 1954 as a jazz ballad. However, this arrangement has a different sound and image, one of the sweltering heat and rhythms typical of a summer in New Orleans.
Getting approached by a man "who wants to buy me something cool" brings on the ramblings of a past love story, embellished by the Brazilian rhythms that morphe into an Afro-Cuban feel during the dramatic interlude.

 

• Sweet Substitute

  
  
  Audio Transcript

  My man went away

  Thought I’d miss him every night and day

  But I began to look around

  Let me tell you just what I found

  Sweet substitute, sweet substitute 

  She tells me she’s mine all mine

  Does anything I tell her cause love is blind

  Got such loving ways, got my head in a daze

  My new recruit is mighty sweet and cute,

  I’m crazy bout my substitute (don’t want no regular)

  Crazy ‘bout my substitute 

 

Eliot Kamenitz

Sweet Substitute was written by Ferdinand LaMothe "Jelly Roll" Morton, the self-proclaimed inventor of Jazz, at the end of his career in the late 1930s, with lyrics by Roy Carew.
Morton was a New Orleans native of Creole descent, and this arrangement doesn't stray from the musical devices of the time, using call and response and collective improvisation.
Foreshadowing a future in which one can always find a "sweet substitute", the sounds of traditional New Orleans jazz speak to this never-ending cycle of Love and Back Again.