Same old song

As a songwriter, I found it disturbing that Don Heckman’s otherwise excellent piece on Andy Bey (“A Comeback Is Complete,” Feb. 15), and his subsequent review of five singers showed that they had overwhelmingly recorded jazz standards -- and some of the most overworked ones imaginable. As great as they are, do we really need to hear “Satin Doll” or “Fly Me to the Moon” ever again?

I was just part of a jazz panel in New York during the International Assn. of Jazz Educators titled “Beyond the Great American Songbook,” which addressed this problem. We had such wonderful contemporary writers as Lorraine Feather, Bob Dorough and the moderator Marilyn Harris perform finely crafted new tunes that have not been done to death. The overflow audience of 400 people (mostly singers) gave us a standing ovation, then thanked us for introducing them to so much good new material.

For jazz singing to remain vital and alive it needs great voices like Andy Bey and Tierney Sutton, but it needs new material too -- or it’s just music for the museums.

Mark Winkler

Los Angeles