Legendary jazz musician David Lee has worked with stars from Judy Garland to Louis Armstrong – his latest musical partner is Cantor David Rome
December 31, 2024 13:34
David Rome was 18 when he became the UK’s youngest cantor at Ilford United Synagogue, then one of Europe's largest. In a new facet to his career as minister and cantor at Sutton and District United Synagogue, Rome is now collaborating with the legendary jazz pianist David Lee, the long-time accompanist to Judy Garland.
A member of Kingston United Synagogue, David Lee wrote the hit track Goodness Gracious Me for Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers, and the last song sung by Nat King Cole, No Other Heart, before Cole passed away in 1965. Lee also worked with many famed artists including Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Duke Ellington, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, and was resident musical director on the satirical BBC programme That Was the Week That Was.
Now, at the age of 98, he and Rome have recorded new renditions of songs including A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, A Foggy Day in London Town, Embraceable You and Lullaby of Birdland, and released them on YouTube. They have also collaborated on Once Upon a Time, written by David Lee with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and recorded once by Dennis Lotis, with more renditions to come.
Rome came across Lee when he was “wowed” by a video of him playing a piano arrangement on Yom Ha'atzmaut last year, sent out by Kingston shul. “I saw this video and I thought, ‘Wow, this is incredible,’” Rome recalls. He asked a few people in the know how I could meet David Lee, and it was duly arranged. As a relative of Oscar Rabin, leader of one of the most successful Jazz and British dance bands of the 1950s, Rome discovered that he and Lee had many things in common and an unlikely friendship developed.
“He was the leader of the Johnny Dankworth band, and my father Philip had a venue in Scotland back in the 70s/80s before I was born and had John Dankworth perform with Cleo Laine and various other artists of the time,” says Rome. “I always dreamt of meeting and learning from someone who knew all these composers like Ira Gershwin, and then by chance I met David Lee.”
Rome’s instant response to meeting and collaborating with Lee was, “This man has such energy and light.” He adds, “When you come out his house, you feel uplifted, positive and you feel his dynamism. I've got friends my age, and people in their 30s can be really old in the way they are, yet there are people in their 90s or 100s who are as bright as anything. David has this kind of energy. He’s just incredible.
“Collaborating with him is laid back and fun. One particular song we did, neither of us had performed before, and we did it on the first take. It’s about enjoying it, really feeling the beat, and just going for it. He’s very kind in the way that he works with people, he encourages without any pressure.”
Rome has long had a keen interest in intergenerational musical collaborations, since he grew up with influential seniors around him, such as his grandfather who was a rabbi in south London for 45 years and feels “a natural connection" with them.
“Our collaboration is interlinking the two generations, and I've always loved that kind of music. I was thinking of songs that have personal anecdotes for David as a composer going back to the Fifties, and then David can tell a story, and we can perform the song with a personal touch.”
One of those anecdotes is about Ira Gershwin, the younger brother and lyrical collaborator of famed jazz musician George. “Ira was as much a genius lyricist as George was a genius musician, and people forget that,” Lee recalls. “When I met and spoke with Ira Gershwin, he told me the most interesting things about the way he wrote with George because they were both geniuses. He said he would write a lyric and hand it to George who would look at it, put it up on the piano and immediately compose a song to it there and then. And if he wanted to change just one word in the lyrics, George would say ‘fine’, but he wouldn’t keep the same tune, he would just throw the whole song away and start again. He was so full of melodies.”
As the more religious of the two, George heard the melody of a chazan singing at synagogue, and the brothers decided to base an entire song around that melody, resulting in the creation of The Man/ Girl I Love.
“I tried to work out which part of the mode of prayer that's from, and the only thing I can think of is the Neila Kaddish,” says Rome. "This beautiful anecdote demonstrates the importance of our Jewish musical heritage. Out of biblical cantillation, misinai melodies and the various modes of prayer comes the incredibly rich tapestry of modern music.”