New Singles: Twenty-Five Years / Moanin’ Low
Recorded for The Noir City Festival
Twenty-Five Years / Moanin’ Low
Debuted at The Paris Theater for Noir City NYC, in the The Listening Room is a 45 of two new recordings from my side project: One, an explosion of sound in the spirit of classic Elmer Bernstein soundtracks, and its opposite, a spare cover of a 1929 elegy of love and loneliness.
“Twenty-Five Years” is an original song I wrote as the theme for this year’s Noir City, Eddie Muller’s extraordinary festival celebrating classic film noir, now in its 27th year. I wanted to tell a very noir story of love, loyalty, and revenge while paying homage to some of my favorite moments in the genre’s jazz-soaked history. It was a joy to collaborate on the arrangements with J. Walter Hawkes (I gave him a very spare demo and shaped the process, but really, the instrumental arrangement is his baby) and to bring the song to life with such wonderful musicians.
Alongside it is “Moanin’ Low,” written by Ralph Rainger and Howard Dietz in 1929, forever associated in my mind with Claire Trevor’s unforgettable performance in Key Largo. It’s one of those songs that carries an entire world inside it. I wanted this to be incredibly spare, so we kept instrumentation to Jen Hodge’s bass, Matt Ray’s piano, and Walter’s trombone.
Putting these two recordings together felt like they belonged in conversation.
If you visit The Listening Room, you’ll find the stories behind both recordings, the full lyrics, and everyone who helped make them.
Thanks for stopping by. See you next at Joe’s Pub on August 3 to celebrate Tony Bennett’s 100th birthday.
xo,
Elizabeth