Streaming Video

The great American love song

Leese, Ian, Campbell, Nicky

2015

Overview

20's and 30's New York produced, says Nicky, 'the best songs ever written'. In this film, he journeys to Manhattan to explore his lifelong musical passion for the golden age of songwriting when the music of packed Broadway theatres fused with the sounds of Harlem’s raunchy jazz clubs. Nicky sings, plays the piano and strums his ukulele as he unpacks six timeless love songs that he believes 'map every contour of the human heart in just three minutes'. And in celebrating the dazzling lyrics, unforgettable tunes and thrilling rhythms, he also discovers the troubled geniuses who wrote them: from George Gershwin, the gifted prodigy son of Jewish immigrants, to Fats Waller, Harlem’s larger-than-life lothario, and Cole Porter, sparkling socialite with a secret double life. Along the way Nicky meets a colourful cast of characters: singer/songwriter Annie Lennox, who shares Nicky’s passion for this music; hip hop artist Baba Brinkman, who raps Lorenz Hart's 1926 lyrics to Ira Gershwin; jazz singer, Harlem resident and Fats Waller enthusiast Michael Mwenso; David Lahm, son of the first successful female lyricist Dorothy Fields; and 81 year-old cabaret singer Marti Stevens, close friend of the late great Cole Porter.

• Publisher: Wingspan Productions Ltd
• Subject: Biographical television programs / Biography / Composers / Documentary television programs / History and criticism / Love songs / Popular music