Genius of Jimmy Webb

This post could probably qualify as a piece for the TCCAN blog which I also author. I am doing a mini-cabaret set in Oct (which will get plenty of marketing in a few weeks) and it all centers on the fabulous music of Jimmy Webb. If you think you don't know him - you do. MacArthur Park/ Up Up and Away/ Didn't We/ Witchita Lineman. I have always been drawn to his incredible writing and it seemed the time to put something highlighting him onto a stage for me.

The difficulty I found, was that despite being so prolific and recorded by so many greats, his music is difficult at best to come by. There are snippets of his major hits available on line - mostly in horrible keys. I found an old reference book at the library authored by "Jim Webb" dated 1972 and was able to copy a few pieces from it. Mary Keepers was gracious enough to lend me another old piano/vocal selections she had with tattered pages. Of course I did not want to limit myself to just the obvious songs when there is other great material to mine.

So I used the wonder of the internet and tracked down his site and started a long conversation with Laura Savini who I later found out was his wife via some liner notes on CD. It took a while for contact to be returned. But we have since had some helpful conversations on his lesser known works. She obviously has connections. I was so delighted yesterday to find Dropbox links sharing two of his original charts. How lucky and fortunate is that!? It just goes to show - it never hurts to ask. Stay tuned for the October TCCAN gig.