Mel Torme
Mel Torme
Melvin Howard Tormé, nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, best known as a singer of jazz standards. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, drummer, and actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books. He composed the music for the classic holiday song "The Christmas Song"and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJazz Singer
Date of Birth13 September 1925
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
Talking money is crass; so I'm not going to tell you what I made last year.
Because obviously the whole purpose of putting records out is purely and simply to make money.
I want to sing for the broadest possible audience.
I'm going to continue to talk to the people, because I do believe that if they get to know you and what you are as a human being, they can more appreciate what you are as a performer.
I don't want to compete with - I want to be very careful how I say this - the majority of amateurs who weekly break into the business.
I didn't really have an act per se - a theatrical performance, as opposed to just: here I am, folks, and you're all supposed to be dead quiet while I sing eight or nine songs, then get off the stage.
So I'm sorry, I'm going to continue to talk to the people, because I do believe that if they get to know you and what you are as a human being, they can more appreciate what you are as a performer.
As Buddy Rich, for instance, broke into the business at the age of three, I think it was, on drums, so indeed did I break into the business at the age of four as a singer.
But, in fairness to them, too, the popular song per se is really a pretty shallow medium to perform in.
Since the advent of Benny Goodman, there have been too few clarinetists to fill the void that Goodman left. Ken Peplowski is most certainly one of those few. The man is magic.
To me, nostalgia is nothing more than a mindless plundering of the past for the commonplace.
I got into radio when I was eight, and I was one of the busiest child dramatic actors in America.
I hadn't been a recording artist all that long when albums came on the scene, and I was one of the first singers to point the way to how varied an album's contents could be.
It may sound a bit like an army barracks, but the truth of the matter is: there must be some time laid aside for arranging, time for working on either a book or an article - I've written two articles in the last four months for the New York Times book review section.