QUOTABLE

“The best background for a lyricist is not poetry. A newspaperman is the perfect background for a lyricist, because a popular songwriter faces the same problems as a newspaperman. The story has to be told in 32 or 40 bars. It’s a very small canvas, and you haven’t got time for a lot of imagery. If you don’t have the idea across in four bars, you might as well not finish the song.”

--Composer Johnny Mandel (“The Shadow of Your Smile”), in the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection magazine the Note