The musical selection for this month is my piano tribute to a dozen songs from the year 1934 – the year I was born 88, years ago this past month.

             The year 1934 – in the depths of the Great Depression – was an extraordinarily productive year for American popular music, with all the leading composers of the day – Porter, Kern, Rodgers, Ellington, Arlen, Warren, Duke, Green and Coward – turning out tunes. (The only one missing was George Gershwin, who was fully absorbed with writing “Porgy & Bess”.)

             In 2008, I recorded an album titled 34 From ’34, from which I’ve selected a dozen of my favorites for this blog entry. (See my liner notes for some of the 22 other well-known tunes from that year on the album.) Here are the dozen in the order they appear in this 26-minute blog segment:

1.     Moonglow

2.     Anything Goes

3.     Autumn in New York

4.     I Get a Kick Out of You

5.     Deep Purple

6.     Blue Moon

7.     I Won’t Dance

8.     Solitude

9.     What is There to Say?

10. What a Difference a Day Makes

11. Miss Otis Regrets

12. East of the Sun

             I hope you enjoy these songs of ’34.