Liner Notes and Credits
Something Irresistible: Songs of Fran Landesman + Simon Wallace
Shepley Metcalf is a lyric searcher. Part of her mission as a singer is finding great but less familiar songs, whether by the famous or the forgotten. Lyrics that move her, lyrics that speak to her, lyrics that have something to say to all of us, this is the gold she pans for as she listens to old LPs and leafs through songbooks.
A year ago, Shepley, impressed by the smart and poignant 1955 standard, “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,” went on the hunt. Who was this lyricist, Fran Landesman? Online searching revealed that Fran was living in London—and still writing!
Fran’s website offered many lyrics, but few charts. No published songbooks could be found. Further sleuthing led to contact with the British composer and pianist Simon Wallace, Fran’s collaborator since 1994. Lo and behold, Simon was just finishing up the first Landesman /Wallace songbook, and he would bring it with him to New York, where he was heading to an engagement at the Café Carlyle. So down to New York went Shepley, returning to Cambridge with a spiral-bound treasure trove of Fran’s words set to Simon’s music.
Shepley and her musical partner and pianist, Ron Roy, crazy about the material, began adding more and more of these brilliant and unforgettable tunes to their repertoire.
Bringing things full circle, at the end of ‘09 Shepley traveled to England to meet Fran, who, at 83, not only has all her marbles (she probably had more than most people to begin with), but continues to be remarkably prolific. Shepley spent a marvelous afternoon with Fran and Simon at the Landesman’s home in North London, the three of them talking, laughing, and—sweetest of all—singing.
Fran Landesman (b. 1927), poet and jazz lyricist nonpareil, inhabits the land of the hip, where no topic is off limits, where joy and misery mingle, where wit is not the enemy of feeling. In her lyrics, emotions are vibrant, attitudes cool, humor sardonic. It all adds up to the chilled-out truth of Fran, bohemian extraordinaire.
A native New Yorker, Fran became a denizen of Greenwich Village, where she met her husband, Jay Landesman, and followed him back to his hometown of St. Louis. There, unable to find a hip nightlife scene, Jay and his brother opened the Crystal Palace, booking such emerging talents as Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Nichols and May, and Lenny Bruce.
One night Fran slipped a poem into the pocket of Tommy Wolf, the Crystal Palace pianist. That was the beginning of a beautiful partnership, with Fran writing the words and Tommy penning the tunes. Some of those songs—“Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,” “The Ballad of the Sad Young Men”—became jazz standards, covered by such greats as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Bette Midler.
In 1964, the Landesman family decamped to London. Arriving in the midst of the Swinging Sixties, they were swept up in the psychedelic whirlwind, with their North London house as counterculture central. Meanwhile, Fran’s fame as a lyricist kept spreading among those in the know; “The Ballad of the Sad Young Men” was recorded by Ricki Lee Jones, Keith Jarrett, and Gil Evans.
In 1994, Fran met Simon Wallace, known in Great Britain for his work as a jazz accompanist, arranger, and composer for theater and TV. Their astonishingly creative partnership continues to this day. Wallace and Landesman is a great musical marriage; Simon’s music takes listeners on an express train straight to the inimitable world of Fran.
Credits
All songs by Fran Landesman (lyrics) and Simon Wallace (music)
Published by David Platz Music Inc (BMI), Admin by The Royalty Network Inc
Shepley Metcalf: vocals
Ron Roy: piano
Chris Rathbun: acoustic bass
Gene Roma: drums
Arrangements by Ron Roy (with the exception of “Scars” by Simon Wallace)
Produced by Shepley Metcalf and Ron Roy
Recorded at Dreamworld Productions, Lynn, MA
Engineered and mixed by Doug Hammer
Design by Nancy Given
Liner notes by Susan J. Miller
Photos by Eric Antoniou (cover) Akos Szilvasi (credits, back)