SHOWS AVAILABLE
TORMÉ 100
Tormé 100 celebrates Mel’s extraordinary contribution to jazz, film and culture, telling his story with 20 legendary songs, spotlighting arrangers who help make Mel’s music sound so fresh all this time later.
As part of a special salute to fellow jazz centurion Marty Paich (also in his 100th year) James performs an Ella Fitzgerald arrangement by Marty that’s only ever been sung by Ella herself, and a Ray Charles arrangement that has only ever been performed by Ray himself.
The show also introduces multiple brand new arrangements of songs Mel wrote (eg: Born to be Blue) to show where a new generation is taking Mel’s music in 2025.
If AV/multimedia is available, a special Mel personal history video & photo sequence can be included.
Available with Jazz Orchestra, Big Band / 9-Piece ‘Little Big Band’, Trio or Small group configurations.
Featured songs: Lulu’s Back in Town, Comin’ Home Baby, On The Street Where You Live, The Lady is a Tramp, Black Magic, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, Whatever Lola Wants, Love For Sale, Sent for you Yesterday, The Way You Look Tonight, Down For Double, In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down) and more! Featured arrangers: Johnny Mandel, Shorty Rogers, Bill Byers, Russ Garcia, Billy May, Bill Holman, Marty Paich, Mel Tormé.
A VERY TORMÉ christmas: CELEBRATE THE 80TH anniversary of ‘the christmas song’ (CHESTNUTS ROASTING) ON MEL’S CENTENNIAL YEAR!
Celebrating AN INCREDIBLE MOMENT IN TIME…
On the year of Mel’s 100th birthday, celebrate the 80th anniversary of “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)”.
This one-of-a-kind concert features Mel’s own sophisticated versions of all the best winter classics, arranged by the best in the business!
At the show’s climax, James fulfills a long-held family ritual: the tells the story of, then sings his father and Bob Wells’ legendary perennial,“The Christmas Song” (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire).
Written by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells in ‘45 then released the next year, “The Christmas Song” was the first mainstream holiday song ever to be introduced the public by an African-American recording artist. A significant cultural breakthrough, the subsequent popularity of the song helped pave the way for other minority artists in music, film, sports and American life, at large. Now considered a symbol for pioneering inclusivity in the arts, the song was recently inducted into the Library of Congress due to its historical and cultural significance. .
*Available in Full symphony, big band or smaller configurations.
Mel & MARTY 100
Vocal jazz gets no better. On the centennial year of both men, James Tormé celebrates the musical partnership between his father Mel, and arranger Marty Paich.
From the albums Marty arranged for Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Anita O’Day, Sammy Davis Jr. and Aretha Franklin to his piano playing with Stan Getz, Art Pepper, Stan Kenton, Shorty Rogers and countless others, Marty Paich proved time after time that he could access staggering levels of creativity.
However, many feel that Marty’s genius is best exemplified in the cool jazz albums he recorded with Mel Tormé.
In this once-in-a-century show, James uses his award-winning vocal capabilities, special access to the music from the Tormé and Paich archives to reveal the kinship and wizardry of Mel, The Velvet Fog, and of Marty, of the man they called The Picasso of jazz, reminding us why those LP’s remain so beloved by music fans, the world over.
Can be performed with 11 piece (8-horns w/trio), 9-piece (6 horns w/trio) or trio/small group.
OTHER TITLES (AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST)
BORN TO BE BLUE
A rebirth of the late-night Playboy after Dark atmosphere/vocal jazz scene that once boasted the likes of Nancy Wilson, Sammy Davis Jr., Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae, James’ internationally sold-out Born To Be Blue show brings the very artists and songs that inspired James’ own jazz journey. We are transported to the filter-tipped, laid-back late-night jazz world of yesterday, as an incredible era of music is brought back to life.
*Can be performed with jazz trio, quartet or quintet.
DIG THE DUKE, DIG THE COUNT
First half Ellington, second half Basie. Tormé all the way.
A stunning reinvention of Mel Tormé’s legendary 1961 Verve LP , arranged by the great Johnny Mandel, Dig the Duke, Dig the Count is comprised of twelve big-band songs from the album, plus a few other Basie/Ellington surprises. It’s the perfect canvas for James to inject his own instincts and style, as he pulls new colors, textures, and moods out of a this collection of Basie & Ellington arrangements.
THE BIRTH OF THE WEST COAST
James salutes the music that defined California’s West Coast (aka Cool Jazz) sound, while uncovering new magic from this indelible chapter in jazz history.
From Nat ‘King’ Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Anita O’Day, Chet Baker, Lou Rawls, Miles Davis and Peggy Lee, to James’ own father Mel, Birth Of The West Coast shines light on a myriad of legendary West Coast singers and their arrangers, putting all these great artists into perspective.
*Can be performed with Big Band, Dek-tette (8 horn jazz group), Little Big Band (with 6 horns) or smaller formats, including jazz quintet, quartet and trio.
EAST ON MELROSE
“The feeling of the 80’s - the peak of pop songwriting - just came back.
But it’s different this time...”
James Tormé’s East On Melrose LP and eponymous West Cost collective offers a blissfully fresh, sophisticated exploration of pop-jazz-fusion, centered around the songwriting of Tormé (vocals), keyboardist Robert Turner (Dr. Dre, Stevie Wonder) and Grammy winning drummer Lyndon Rochelle (Esperanza Spaulding). Instantly discernible are some of the swathe of childhood British and American influences often mentioned by Tormé in the past — Michael Jackson. Prince. Wang Chung. Steely Dan. Earth Wind & Fire. Michael McDonald. Tormé’s songs seem to be imbued with the soul and sophistication of an era when these acts were at their absolute peak. Yet there is no attempt here to copy anything that’s been done before. One is confronted by an unusual occurrence in todays’s music scene: brand new music that feels and sounds as good as what once was.
Tormé recounts the project’s genesis, “A few summers ago I was feeling some severe creative frustration. I called Bobby and convinced him to write some tracks with me. I hadn’t seen (or talked to) him in like 13 years. Robert had moved to China for as almost a decade, in order to tour out there. I’d always thought of him as a musical genius. So when somebody told me he was back in the Western Hemisphere, I made it my business to track him down.
Bobby and I agreed to do ‘a reunion project’ together, and right away a steady flow of musical concepts started streaming into my phone from his, day and night. The feeling coming back together after such a long time apart helped create nostalgia for the project. Robert had come up with a unique, synth bass-driven Minneapolis/Philly-derived, retro-future sound, which he now augmented with chord progressions that could have come from Jimmy Jam and Teddy Riley in the late 8o’s, or even Rod Temperton a decade earlier. I loved it all, and wrote songs pretty much as fast as he could tracks to me. Crucially, neither of us over-thought what we were doing, at any point. We just stayed on our specific little journey. But we both knew something special was happening. Then Lyndon came on board on drums. He is so talented, it’s literally disturbing.”
EOM’s debut appearance at Bottlerock Music Festival 2022 in Napa Valley garnered a stellar response.
The eponymous album is set for release in late 2025.
““This s**t is retro-future 🔥.
”