The Harold Arlen Celebration at The Blue Note

The Arlen concert last night was mesmerizing! I especially enjoyed the singular talents of a lady I had never heard of before: Ms. Paula West. She needs to blow off The Blue Note and go out to Hollywood to make a much deserved million dollars per MINUTE! Ann Hampton Callaway, Andy Bey and another lady sang but they paled in comparison to Paula. The jazz musicians were superlative and performed flawlessly. My friend Jim and I had excellent seats just one row back from the stage. I could have reached out and touched all the performers except the piano player who was a bit further away! GRIN The concert continues tonight and tomorrow night just in case anyone's interested. There's also a Carnegie Hall celebration on February 14; this is the day before what would have been Harold Arlen's 100th birthday.
It was also great to see Jim; I never saw him looking better in the 16 years I've known him. We hadn't seen each other in a while and he looked like he was really enjoying life. I think his girlfriend is good for him! GRIN
Thanks for everyone's comments about this new blog of mine. Unfortunately the way this web site sets things up I would have to download and use something called ActiveX to upload a picture of myself. I am so sorry but my Windows XP software indicated to me that this was not a good idea. There's a picture of me at my Yahoo! home page. My Yahoo! handle is nynavelman. Sorry again for the inconvenience. Please take care and be well, guys! --Matt

Harold Arlen tomorrow night

Tomorrow night at The Blue Note in Manhattan I am going to a Harold Arlen celebration. His name is very much unknown although many people do in fact know his classic works. Arlen wrote the music for The Wizard of Oz, as well as "I've Got The World On A String," "Blues In The Night," "Let's Fall In Love," "Stormy Weather," "That Old Black Magic," "Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive," "Come Rain Or Come Shine," "It's Only A Paper Moon," "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road," "The Man That Got Away," and countless other songs. Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and Lena Horne sung many, many songs he worked on. Try Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Harold Arlen Song Book CD set for an excellent introduction to his superb brilliance. We were lucky to have Arlen; he passed away in 1986 and is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

My first blog post

This seems to be an interesting way for people like myself to share things about their lives. As a gay New Yorker I have received several emails and ICQ messages from gay people the world over asking me how to handle their sexuality in parts of the world where homosexuality is not allowed. I tell them that I believe that God loves all his children and that in God's eyes we are all equal. I hope this helps them; I don't always hear back but I feel I've done my best. Any polite suggestions? Let me know! Thanks, Matt