{"id":645,"date":"2013-01-17T17:29:47","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T17:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peggylee.com\/wp\/?p=645"},"modified":"2021-08-04T10:19:28","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T14:19:28","slug":"peggy-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peggylee.com\/peggy-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"Peggy Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

by John Tynan<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a quotation from Michelangelo emblazoned on the wall of Peggy Lee\u2019s picturesque studio dressing room. It reads, “Perfection is made up of trifles; but perfection itself is no trifle.<\/p>\n

Realizing the innate truth and implied sadness in this observation, Peggy Lee, in everything she undertakes, watches out for the trifles. Whether she always achieves perfection in the finished article, be it a dramatic role, poem, painting, song lyric, music score, animated cartoon, or nightclub act, is not our purpose to say. What is certain, however, is that few contemporary figures in show business possess her many applied talents and fewer still can match her consistent record of distinguished artistic achievement. In paying attention to the trifles, she believes, the major problem at hand becomes that much simpler.<\/p>\n

“All through the years,” she recalled, “I\u2019ve had the good fortune to have someone around who acted as a big brother to me. When I started in the band business back in New York, Morty Palitz was Big Brother. He set down three rules for me. First, don\u2019t hang out on 52nd Street. Second, don\u2019t stay at the _____ Hotel. Third, if you overhear any of your boss\u2019s business, keep your mouth shut.<\/p>\n

“I guess I obeyed the rules,” she grinned, “because I\u2019ve been pretty lucky in this business.”<\/p>\n

She gestured toward manager Ed Kelly. “Right now Kelly\u2019s the one who sees to it that I don\u2019t overextend. He watches me like a hawk,” she chuckled. “You know, we just got back from Vegas and it takes days to readjust to home life. I\u2019m liable to go for a walk, take a wrong turn and get lost \u2013 just disappear. It\u2019s happened. Guess my mind is usually on some future project.”<\/p>\n

Peggy\u2019s concern with important details is evident in her choice of musicians for club and record dates. For the recent Sands engagement she had in her group pianist Lou Levy, bassist Max Bennett, Carlos Mejia on congas, drummer Mel Lewis, and harpist Stella Castellucci. “I use Larry Bunker a lot, too,” she said, “but he wasn\u2019t free to make the trip this last time. Mel is very fine and fits in beautifully.”<\/p>\n

On her new Decca album, Dream Street, Peggy has the cream of West Coast jazzmen in Levy, Bunker, Bennett, Shorty Rogers, Buddy Clark, Bob Cooper and Bud Shank, to name but a few. “For Dream Street I picked tunes I had really wanted to do for a long time. Different thinks like \u2018Too Late Now\u2019 and \u2018So Blue.\u2019 After all,” she laughed, “you can\u2019t play \u2018Lover\u2019 any faster. And I felt a need in myself to do material that would be different for me.<\/p>\n

“But I\u2019m still not content. I get so frustrated when I hear what I\u2019ve done. It\u2019s always got to be \u2018one more time.\u2019 Sometimes I think a singer gets so tired of hearing her own voice, she doesn\u2019t really know what\u2019s good and what\u2019s got to be done over.”<\/p>\n

In the groups with which Peggy\u2019s worked recently, she\u2019s been increasingly impressed with the high musical and personal criteria of the musicians. “Although these are progressive musicians,” she spoke thoughtfully, “it seems they\u2019ve passed the point of wanting to play just for themselves\u2026 They realize the value of showmanship when working with a singer. And they don\u2019t think it\u2019s silly to run through the show, to rehearse. It\u2019s maturity, that\u2019s all. Their personal behavior is just marvelous; many people at the Sands commented to me on that. Honestly, they give me so much confidence.”<\/p>\n

Peggy credits Benny Goodman with teaching her the value of thorough rehearsal. “He was a pretty hard taskmaster, but there\u2019s no one like him for getting the most from a band. Benny and Victor Young were my two biggest influences, I guess.”<\/p>\n

In recent years, she reflected, her work with the late Victor Young was most rewarding musically. “He taught me a degree of orderliness.” She chopped the side of her hand down on the table \u2013 one, two, three, four, as if dividing the table top into measures. “He\u2019d do that,” she said, “when he outlined procedure for me to follow. \u2018This is the way we\u2019ll do it,\u2019 he\u2019d say. The man had such an orderly mind and was able to accomplish a fantastic amount of work.” A shadow crossed Peggy\u2019s face as she expressed the opinion that “so much work probably hastened his untimely death.”<\/p>\n

The platinum blonde singer\/writer is still working on lyrics to some of Young\u2019s music. She has written a long poem to fit a theme of his recorded by Marty Paich under the title “New York City Ghost,” and hopes soon to record both music and lyrics to this.<\/p>\n

“Another arranger I learned a lot from is Gil Evans. Not just musically, but from the man\u2019s thinking. That\u2019s a key, I believe, in all fields of art\u2026 A musician must start to think before he can even become great. I once asked Mel Powell why he wanted to write more than play. At the time he\u2019d completed studies under Hindemith and was teaching music at Queens College. Mel said, \u2018The piano is something like the church; it helps build a bridge between me an It.\u2019 What he meant was that to him the piano was only a means to a personal end, his writing.”<\/p>\n

In rehearsal, Peggy has an unusual \u2013 for a singer \u2013 means of communicating with her musicians. She will outline what she wants by means of strange phonetic utterances much akin to those terms employed by the early bebop musicians to express vocally the sounds they created on their instruments. “Give me a clitter-de-bong,” she\u2019ll say, or ask for “feathers.” The musicians seem to comprehend exactly what\u2019s called for because everything invariably comes out kla-bom.<\/p>\n

Aside from the eight current projects itemized on the Lee agenda, the biggest things in her life are her husband, actor Dewey Martin, and 13-year-old daughter Nicki. Peggy\u2019s going to see more of them now while she works with the writers of a new television format, a half-hour series which she conceived and in which she\u2019ll star. Also helping to keep her at home with the family is her work writing verse for Buzza-Cardozo greeting cards and interest in a new animated cartoon character she originated called “Little Joe.”<\/p>\n

Then, too, there\u2019s a score in the works for George Pal; and “Leisure” Lee just finished one song for a film to which Frank DeVol is writing the title theme. And more record dates for a new album and singles aimed at that ever-mindful goal \u2013 a pop hit.<\/p>\n

Back in the Goodman days there was no carefully formulated plan for success, Peggy confesses. “I just knew that I wanted to be a singer when I was 14” \u2013 a time when she was Norma Egstrom of Jamestown, North Dakota, during the Depression. “I didn\u2019t have any path to follow when I was with Benny \u2013 although I knew it was a matter of waiting, of time. Meanwhile, I just wanted to sing. That attitude helped a lot when things were tough and the wolf was camped on my doorstep.”<\/p>\n

Today there\u2019s a big sign hanging over the front door of Mr. and Mrs. Martin\u2019s mountaintop dweldorado above Beverly Hills. It\u2019s directed at any stray wolves in the neighborhood and reads, “Get lost, man, get lost!”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by John Tynan There\u2019s a quotation from Michelangelo emblazoned on the wall of Peggy Lee\u2019s picturesque studio dressing room. It reads, “Perfection is made up of trifles; but perfection itself is no trifle. 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