PRESENTS

Welcome to the Grapevine News. This section of the Mathis Chronicles contains my views about anything I find or am sent about Johnny Mathis on the Internet and elsewhere, that had been overlooked by the "official" sites. Occasionally, I report on things not directly related to Mathis but have a connection, may even make up a question to ask myself and try to answer. Readers are welcome to share their experiences here also. So enjoy and thanks for coming.

VOL. 3 NO. 9 - DECEMBER 30, 2004

MILESTONES: Well, since the last quarter, reknowned photographer Richard Avedon, 81, did not survive his fall. Avedon photographed some of Johnny Mathis' most classic album covers, notably the Killing Me Softly with Her Song album, which made numerous billboards back in its day, as well as the covers for The Heart of a Woman, and the Rhythms and the Ballads of Broadway. Avedon's covers were truly works of art, and I for one appreciate his wonderful work. There were other artists with a Mathis connection who left us recently:

Howard Keel died November 7 at age 85. He was one of Mathis' golf buddies and friends, and he was one of the first people to star in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma. Operatic singer Robert Merrill died October 23. He was in his mid 80s, I don't guess anybody knew for sure. I list him here because I think he and Mathis had a mutual friend in Beverly "Bubbles" Sills. Country singer Skeeter Davis died Sept. 19 at the age of 72. She had a hit song, "The End of the World", which Johnny Mathis re-recorded in 1989 on his album In the Still of the Night. Just today, December 30, the great bandleader Artie Shaw dies at age 94. It was his recording of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" (which was given new life by Johnny Mathis in a disco version) that signaled the beginning of the "big band" era. Mr. Shaw was also notable for hiring the great Billie Holiday to front his band during a time when most White bandleaders were reluctant to take on Black musicians.

OVER THE MOON: Well, still more good news since last quarter. The Grammy Award nominations have been announced, and arranger Victor Vanacore has been nominated for his stellar work on "Over The Rainbow", from the late Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company recording. The album itself is up for seven awards.

To think that it was Ray Charles' personal wish that OTR be played at his services. What an honor. The highest possible compliment anyone could have paid, better than ten Grammy awards. Wow. I wish Mr. Vanacore a lot of luck. We find out if he wins on February 13, 2005.

By the way, you can catch some more of Victor Vanacore's work on the PBS documentary on President Woodrow Wilson. He and his brother David Vanacore provide the music for the film.

ISN'T IT INTERESTING: JohnnyMathis.com has a decent write-up on Isn't It Romantic, the new album due out Tuesday, February 1st. They discuss producer Jorge Calandrelli, executive producer Jay Landers, and photographer William Claxton. I notice with dismay that the song choices are once again maddeningly sparse with only ten songs: "A Cottage For Sale", the title, "Our Love is Here To Stay", "This Can't Be Love", "There's a Kind of Hush", "The Rainbow Connection", "Almost Like Being In Love", "Dindi", "Day By Day", and "Over The Rainbow". God, can we not do better than that in 2005?! Is Johnny Mathis not worth more than this, Columbia?!

And yet, what interesting song choices they are! With only four exceptions, I believe this could have been a Nat King Cole album. Daughter Natalie Cole recorded "Dindi", a Tom Jobim song with English lyrics by Ray Gilbert and Portuguese lyrics by Aloysio de Oliveira, on her stellar album, Stardust...I wonder if it's one of the ones from Mathis' lost Brazilian album? "Day By Day" perks my ears up...could it be the one from the "Godspell" soundtrack? "The Rainbow Connection" was written for Kermit the Frog by Paul Williams (the same guy who wrote "We've Only Just Begun", the song Mathis began many of his concerts with in the '70s). I would never in a million years have considered that song either a standard or a romantic song, so I can only assume it's there purely because Mathis likes it! It wouldn't be the first Sesame Street song Johnny Mathis has recorded... I thought it downright weird, though, that the SonyMusicStore, which is taking pre-orders for it now, lists a duet of "Over The Rainbow" with Jane Monheit. Jane Monheit?! And they have him singing "The Rainbow Connection" with the Dixie Chicks! Have they completely lost their minds over there?!

Oh, and lest I forget, February 2005 will mark the 40th anniversary of the death of Nat "King" Cole. On January 25, 2005, Capitol Records, the house that Nat built, will release The World Of Nat King Cole, which will be a set of 28 remastered Cole classics that they somehow manage to get on one CD. On March 1, there will be a DVD documentary of the same name released along with another limited edition CD/DVD set which I don't know the name of. The documentary will be televised worldwide. I think this is right and fitting that they should do this; I've got several of the Nat King Cole show programs on videotape and have always loved and respected this great man's work...even though his sound was a tad different from the Motown sound I grew up with! Frankly, this all has me thinking, wishing, and hoping something similar is in the works for the 50th anniversary of Nat's heir apparent, Johnny Mathis, and it would be nice if they could put it together while he's still among the land of the living. Do something right, for a change, Charlie B..er, Columbia Records!

KENNEDY CENTER PERFORMANCE: Mathis is going to the Kennedy Center! Not as an honoree, as I've been suggesting for years, but to perform. My friend Jon-Daniel Durbin has performed there, too, and says it's quite the venue. I myself haven't been there since the year it opened, and I was eleven and we were there on a field trip. I can see now the hideously ugly statue of President Kennedy, and I can remember the rich, red carpeting that was even on the walls, so that everything I touched shocked me! Maybe the pain is why it sticks out in my mind after over 30 years...Anyway, maybe it's time to go back home. The concert is called Sentimental Journey, and the tickets are reasonably priced at $30 (which I guarantee you will not be a close seat, but it still might be a good one if you choose wisely). Mathis is sharing the bill with -- get this -- Aretha Franklin, opera singer Harolyn Blackwell, and the cream in the coffee, Dwight Yoakum.

LOOKING GOOD: I'm not as up on my photographers as I should be. William Claxton, I'm being assured, is very good news for the cover work for the new album. I've reviewed his website and he's high caliber in the vein of the late photographers George Hurrell and Richard Avedon. He seems to work mostly in black and white, which is fine by me. I love the look of black and white on an album cover, especially a Mathis album. The fourteen-year-old black and white Bret Lopez photo they used in the Essential Johnny Mathis compilation is exquisite, and I of course recalled earlier the gorgeous Avedon photo on the Killing Me Softly With Her Song album from the 70s which they continue to drag their feet about releasing. I'm looking forward to seeing what Mr. Claxton has chosen to do for the next Mathis studio album, only the third one of the new millennium.

I WISH: I always wish for the impossible when it comes to Johnny Mathis. For one thing, I wish they would have destroyed the master tape to Home for Christmas, that 1991 embarrassment that has a 56-year-old Mathis lip-synching to himself as a 22-year-old. Instead, they've released it to DVD. Go figure. I guess somebody somewhere likes to watch him be made a fool of. We can do so much better than this, people. I long for the day when a REAL Christmas video will come out, with him singing in real time and in his real voice with real musicians behind him! Dare I dream?

I wish Dionne Warwick would have included Johnny Mathis on her upcoming duets double album, My Friends and Me, that's coming out in a few months. (She has out right now her first holiday album ever, and I must say it's one of the best such albums I've ever heard. Ever. Of course, nobody knows about it because she's not Beyonce or otherwise current.) Instead, she chose Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Pink (?), Sir Elton John, George Benson, Patti LaBelle, Gloria Estefan, Mya, and (surprise!) Destiny's Child. Oh, well. That was one thing you could count on in days gone by; whenever Dionne was on television, her pal Johnny wasn't far behind. Check out this shot (the first picture) from the old Solid Gold TV show.

And I know he'll never do it, but I wish to goodness Mathis would finally leave Sony/Columbia and go to a jazz label like Verve or Concord, as did Anita Baker and the late Rosemary Clooney. I've even heard a suggestion that he solicit the help of Clive Davis, who brought Mathis back to Columbia in the 60s. That's a thought; with Luther under the weather, J Records needs another good balladeer. The main thing is, go to a label where they have the resources and the interest to get Mathis-style music to a public that's going to appreciate him, instead of fighting to get a few measly songs on a recording. I wish that he would find somebody somewhere who's going to go to work for him for a change and actually promote his music. Why? Because Mathis music is good music, good singing, and good songs, and because maybe one day maybe the recording industry will care about such things again. THAT is my wish for 2005.

THANKS AND THOUGHTS: So ends another year for The Mathis Chronicles; I know they have been few and far between these days, but let's face it...there's not a lot to tell these days! But I promise that as long as Johnny Mathis is around, so shall I be, starting with Vol. 4, No. 1, and with any book excerpts, internet news, and I'm not above a little hearsay anymore, either! Thank you to those who inquired as to my health; it is relatively good, but as of this writing there are many, many people throughout the world who need your thoughts and prayers a lot more than I do. So please send thoughts, prayers, money, food, whatever they need, as I will. We got the Republicans back for 4 more, unfortunately, so who knows what that will lead to. Here's hoping the year to come leaves us all relatively unscathed by the end of it, especially as we look forward to Johnny Mathis' 70th year on earth and his golden anniversary in the music business. See you next year!

UNTIL YOU COME BACK TO ME: The Lord chose not to take Luther Vandross for reasons only He knows, and I'm thankful. Aa new biography is in the stores, called simply "Luther" by Craig Seymour. Authorized biographies tend to be boring as hell and basically worthless, but I skimmed it and it looked pretty good. I hope you'll join me in continuing to send love and encouragement to Luther. He believes in the power of love, as well as the power of prayer, and so do I! I'm thinking of you, Luther! Keep fighting!

TOUR BUS: The bus stops next in Santa Rosa, California, Greenville, South Carolina, and Sarasota, Florida. Visit See Mathis Live! for details.

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