| Attending a John Eaton concert is as cozy as sitting | | | | Wonderful Wizard of Song" (2007), is one of Eaton's |
| on the piano bench with your best friend while every | | | | favorite composers. Younger audiences unfamiliar with |
| glorious song you've ever loved pours forth. Between | | | | Arlen, he points out, find him fascinating in the way he |
| each number, Eaton regales you with amusing and | | | | incorporates blues and jazz elements. Unlike Gershwin, |
| erudite tidbits about the reason for the song's | | | | Rodgers, and Porter, Arlen was not self-promotional |
| existence, be it comic, tragic, or financial necessity. | | | | and had only one major Broadway success, "Bloomer |
| A graduate of Yale University, the legendary jazz | | | | Girl." Most of his songs that became famous in the |
| pianist, singer, raconteur, historian, and wit became a | | | | 1930s were those he wrote for Cotton Club artists. At |
| Steinway Concert Artist in 1988 and has been sharing | | | | the time, they gained scant publicity and were not |
| his keyboard genius and perceptive insights ever since. | | | | smash successes; today, however, they rank among |
| His venues include jazz clubs, the Kool Jazz Festival, | | | | the classics. |
| the Smithsonian Institution, Wolf Trap, and frequent | | | | In Volume III, "Blowin' in the Wind - The 60's Music |
| broadcasts on NPR and Radio Smithsonian. One of his | | | | Revolution" (2008), Eaton bows to the Baby Boomers |
| fondest memories is a command performance in the | | | | and the music that emerged when a great divide |
| East Room of the White House. An annual perk is his | | | | sprang up in the 1960s between Berlin, Gershwin, |
| concert for members and staff of the U.S. Supreme | | | | Porter and their contemporaries on one side and |
| Court each May, always a packed event regardless | | | | newcomers like the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Paul |
| of political leanings. | | | | Simon on the other. He followed it in 2009 with "The |
| Eaton grew up in Washington, DC listening to the radio | | | | Jazz Connection - Hoagy Carmichael and Fats Waller." |
| and enjoying the mainstream music of the 1930s, 40s | | | | From a deprived childhood, during which his sister died |
| and 50s. Today his extraordinary knowledge of the | | | | because the family lacked money for necessary |
| composers of that period and the stories behind their | | | | medical care, to a law degree from Indiana University, |
| songs add zest to his popular concerts. Armed with | | | | multiple appearances in film and on television, and a |
| only a Steinway and whichever one of his two | | | | shared Oscar with his frequent colleague Johnny |
| favorite bassists, Tommy Cecil and Jay Leonhart, is | | | | Mercer for "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," |
| not engaged elsewhere, he meanders down memory | | | | Carmichael remained a lover of the honky-tonk piano. |
| lane, sharing jewels by America's great composers | | | | Like Carmichael, Waller, one of music's greatest stride |
| and lyricists of the 20th century. | | | | pianists, had multiple talents. From an early age, he |
| Never out of material or words, he has been a | | | | performed in Harlem, played Bach organ works, and |
| mainstay at the Smithsonian for more than three | | | | composed many popular songs, never receiving credit |
| decades and at the Barns of Wolf Trap for more than | | | | for some he sold to other composers in order to |
| two. He had been presenting packed musical lectures | | | | survive during a period of poverty. Two that remain |
| both places based on a specific composer, style, or | | | | evergreen are Grammy Hall of Fame winners |
| era when he decided to preserve his forays on | | | | "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Ain't Misbehavin,'" |
| videos. Several of these ran as a television series | | | | Eaton's series reached the halfway mark in March |
| before Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts | | | | 2010 with the release of "Hooray for Hollywood." It |
| approached him with an offer to become the first | | | | features the music of Harry Warren, the first |
| artist representing its new record company. | | | | American composer to write primarily for film. Eleven |
| Entitled "John Eaton Presents the American Popular | | | | Academy Award nominations and three Oscar |
| Song," the planned series of ten began with the | | | | winners number among the 800 tunes Warren penned, |
| release in 2006 of "Richard Rodgers - One Man and | | | | not to forget "Chattanooga Choo Choo," the first gold |
| His Lyricists." Eaton says that the subject was a | | | | record ever. Most of the songs Warren contributed to |
| natural because Rodgers' music spans more | | | | 56 feature films are beloved by fans of the Great |
| generations than does that of most contemporaries. | | | | American Songbook. Surprisingly, few recall his name |
| He and his first collaborator, Lorenz Hart, began writing | | | | or the fact that he composed the score of "42nd |
| together in 1919 while at Columbia University and | | | | Street," the first blockbuster film musical, later a |
| produced dozens of blockbuster hits before Hart's | | | | Broadway hit. |
| death in 1943, the same year that "Oklahoma" hit | | | | One of Eaton's most popular concerts, "Jazz, Blues & |
| Broadway. The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical marked | | | | Broadway," encapsulates the 20th century in music, |
| the first collaboration of Rodgers with Oscar | | | | beginning with the songs of Scott Joplin and W.C. |
| Hammerstein II, already a veteran lyricist with Jerome | | | | Handy and closing with favorites by Gershwin and |
| Kern and others. More than six decades later, "South | | | | Porter, two composers certain to be featured in his |
| Pacific," their popular 1949 musical based on James | | | | upcoming recordings. No matter which musical genius |
| Michener's book about his World War II experiences, is | | | | he venerates on his piano with incomparable |
| still enjoying a run of more than two years at New | | | | legerdemain, Eaton inevitably reveals a hitherto |
| York's Lincoln Center, playing to the grandchildren of | | | | unknown story about the life and times that prompted |
| those who saw the original show and bought the | | | | a particular song. As his fervent fans proclaim time and |
| record album featuring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza. | | | | again, John Eaton is truly one of America's treasures. |
| The focus of Volume Two "Harold Arlen, The | | | | |