“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.”
