Willow Weep for Me

 It’s uncommon for a songwriter to dedicate a composition to another composer, but Ann Ronell said she had to dedicate her 1932 masterpiece to her friend and mentor George Gershwin. ““George was sacred to me,” she said many years later. “He was my idol. I became like a sister to the family, and I was his protege.” And, man, what a wonderful song to speak to anybody’s memory. Ann’s “Willow Weep for Me” has been lovingly treated by nearly every jazz great of the past 90 years, from Art Tatum and Sarah Vaughn to Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, from Wes Montgomery and Tony Bennett to Oscar Peterson and Etta James. So, here’s the tune from a recent Flood rehearsal. Listen as Veezy Coffman sketches out Ronell’s beautiful melody and takes the first flight, then hands it off to Doug Chaffin for a couple of choruses before the two of them bring it on back home.

(When She Wants Good Lovin') My Baby Comes to Me

 Many of us grew up listening to The Coasters, the iconic 1950s band that bridged the gap between doowop and R&B, that brought humor and sass to the birth of rock ’n’ roll. “Yakety Yak” and “Charlie Brown,” “Along Came Jones” and “Poison Ivy,” “Wake Me, Shake Me” and “Little Egypt.” But, you know, before any of those tunes topped the charts, it was a lesser known Coasters cut that grabbed us. Picture it: Hot summer, 1957, and into our new transistor radios, The Coasters came sashaying into our ears with a sexy little song that said, yeah, she may go to the baker for cake and to the butcher for steak, but when she wants good lovin’? …well! Now, back in The Flood’s beginnings in the ‘70s, Dave Peyton, Rog Samples and Charlie Bowen started playing around with this Jerry Leiber / Mike Stoller composition because it definitely had jug band vibe going on, but the song’s been asleep in our consciousness, well, until this winter when it started popping up again at our practice sessions. Here then, from a rehearsal just a few weeks ago, with Doug and Veezy trading riffs between the verses, it’s “(When She Wants Good Lovin’) My Baby Comes to Me.”

Cry Me a River

 Here’s a song that’s been kicked around a bit, but like any good jazz ballad, but it has kicked right back. “Cry Me a River” was written by Arthur Hamilton originally for Ella Fitzgerald to sing in the 1955 jazz-infused movie called “Pete Kelly’s Blues,” but when that scene was cut from the film, the song had to go hunting for someone else to love. It was pitched to song stylist Peggy King, but Columbia Records A&R chief Mitch Miller didn’t like it, so that didn’t happen. Well, the director of that Pete Kelly movie, Jack Webb — yep, THAT Jack Webb, Sgt. Friday on “Dragnet” — was married at the time to an up and coming jazz vocalist named Julie London. And when Miss London took a turn with the tune, it turned to gold, hitting Billboard’s top 10 in 1956. Since then, there have been nearly 500 different recordings of the song over the past 65 years. Take that, Mitch Miller. Now, we first started playing with the song at last night’s rehearsal, and, hey, we were not 15 seconds into Veezy’s scintillating sax solo when we knew we had a new number for The Flood’s regular been repertoire.

Wayfaring Stranger 3.0

 In our world, songs — or at least, their musical arrangements  — evolve. A case in point is the wonderful old 19th century gospel song called “Wayfaring Stranger.” Now, back in the 1970s, Roger Samples and Charlie Bowen used to do this one as a duet, with the simple, folksy chords and harmonies that we did back then. Over time, we moved on to other tunes, and this one got put on the shelf for, well, a couple of decades. Then about 10 years ago, “Wayfaring Stranger” came back into The Flood world when Randy Hamilton joined the band. We whipped up a new arrangement with more interesting chords, and the song became a show piece for his beautiful tenor voice. In fact, Randy’s stellar performance of “Wayfaring Stranger” claimed its rightful place on our “Live, In Concert” album, which we brought in 2016. Well, when Randy left the band about a year and a half ago, we kind of thought maybe the song went with him. But lo and behold, it’s back. And this time it’s evolved into an instrumental. Listen to this moment from a recent rehearsal and the moody, lovely improvisational meditations by Doug Chaffin, Vanessa Coffman and Paul Martin.

Backwater Blues

 After a long rehearsal, with lots of new material to work on, it’s always good to end up back on familiar ground, which for us usually means the blues. And more often than not, the blues means a shoutout to The Flood’s household deity, Miss Bessie Smith. Here’s a tune that Smith recorded almost a century ago. It’s since been recorded by everybody from Lead Belly, Josh White and B.B. King to Bob Dylan, Dinah Washington and Count Basie. Here’s The Flood’s 2021 rendering of the song, with a couple of solos by everybody in the room last night, Doug, Veezy and the two Pauls.

Black Coffee

 A very happy moment for us in is whenever a new member of the band is comfortable enough to start suggesting new tunes for us to try. That happened a couple of weeks ago when our newest Floodster, Vanessa Coffman, dropped Charlie an email saying, “Hey, just a though. Are you familiar with an old song called ‘Black Coffee”? I’m doing some music stuff here right now, and I thought I’d see if you wanted to give it a shot, too.” Well, yes, and yes, and oh my! Last night’s rehearsal was our first ride on this old Sonny Burke composition that the great Sarah Vaughn charted with in 1949. Ah, and just listen here as Doug Chaffin’s guitar and Veezy’s sax share some musical thoughts … well, over coffee, as it were…

Blues for Toy Stores and Records Stores

 Some songs don’t have names, just stories and moods. Here’s an example. Between the tunes at a recent rehearsal, we started reminiscing about some of the things we missed from our childhood. Well, listening to all that from the sidelines, our tribal elder, Doug Chaffin, started improvising an appropriately nostalgic blues lick from his own rock ’n’ roll roots. Take a listen and, as this track begins, you can hear our Mistah C, Paul Callicoat, wrapping up the conversation just before jumping in with his bass. Well, if this merry little ride — which features Doug trading musical ideas with Veezy Coffman — ever comes around again, we’ll just have to call it “Blues for Toy Stores and Records Stores…”