Episode 396. Meet Shannon Bolin
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Today’s episode celebrates a prime example of that rara avis, the Broadway contralto, the fascinating and little-remembered Shannon Bolin (01 January 1917 – 25 March 2016). Her career covered the gamut from opera to Broadway covering all points along that continuum. In the year 1955, she and her husband, pianist, composer, and conductor Milton Kaye made two albums covering a range of material. The first, entitled Rare Wine, consists of “a bouquet of rare vintage,” lesser-known songs by Rodgers and Hart (and Rodgers and Hammerstein), George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, Vernon Duke and Ogden Nash, Bart Howard, Noël Coward, and Alec Wilder; the second LP consists entirely of songs of Alec Wilder, including his song cycle Songs for Patricia, composed to poems by Norman Rosten dedicated to his young daughter. The episode also includes two highlights from Bolin’s stage career, from Damn Yankees and the 1969 off-Broadway smash Promenade, and closes with my favorite Alec Wilder song, the heartbreaking “Did You Ever Cross Over to Sneden’s?” that serves as a memorial tribute to my dear friend from years gone by, Matthew Lau, whose death was just announced this past week.
Here’s a link to the interview with Patricia Rosten that I mentioned in the episode:
https://themarilynreport.com/2022/05/09/patricia-rosten-remembers-marilyn/
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
All songs feature Shannon Bolin, contralto and, unless otherwise noted, were recorded in 1955 and are accompanied by her husband Milton Kaye, either on piano, or leading his orchestra.
Alec Wilder, Arnold Sundgaard: Cedars Are Falling
Alec Wilder, James Stephens: The Colleen
Alec Wilder, Arnold Sundgaard: Where Do You Go?
Alec Wilder: The Plowman
Richard Adler: There’s Something About an Empty Chair (Damn Yankees film). Orchestra conducted by Ray Heindorf [1958]
Al Carmines, Maria Irene Fornes: I Saw a Man (Promenade). Orchestra conducted by Susan Romann [1969]
Rare Wine. Shannon Bolin, Milton Kaye and His Orchestra, arrangements by George Brackman [Vanguard Records, 1955]
Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields: I Got Love (I Dream Too Much)
Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart: He Was too Good to Me (Simple Simon)
George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin: Someone from Somewhere (Delicious)
Jerome Moross, John LaTouche: Yellow Flower (Ballet Ballads)
Frank Loesser: My Time of Day (Guys and Dolls)
Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II: Loneliness of Evening (cut from South Pacific)
Bart Howard: My Love Is a Wanderer
Johann Strauss II (adapted), Edward Eager: One More Spring (Waltz Down the Aisle)
Traditional Scots: I Know Where I’m Going
Vernon Duke, Ogden Nash: Just Like a Man (Two’s Company)
Noël Coward: The Party’s Over Now (Words and Music)
Songs for Patricia and Other Music of Alec Wilder. Shannon Bolin, Milton Kaye [Riverside Records, 1955]
Alec Wilder, Norman Rosten: Songs for Patricia.
- I. Now that you’re born
- II. Darling, those are birds
- III. Wake up
- IV. The year has wakened
- V. One day, from your sleep
- VI. This is my name
- VII. Shall I write you a poem?
- IX. What did you do outside today?
- IX. Before you went down the longest stair
- X. Goodbye, goodbye, I’m going away
Alec Wilder, Ben Ross Berenberg: Winter of Our Discontent (from Rare Wine)
Alec Wilder, Gerard Manley Hopkins: Margaret
Alec Wilder: Did You Ever Cross Over to Sneden’s?
