Too Marvelous for Words: Monica Ramey Sings The Music of Johnny Mercer

Friday, June 26th, 7:30 PM

Nashville Jazz Workshop

Monica Ramey continues her year-long residency at the Nashville Jazz Workshop with an evening devoted to one of the most beloved songwriters in the history of American music. Johnny Mercer was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1909, and in some sense he never really left the South behind. He carried that warmth, that ease, that sun-drenched drawl into everything he wrote, and it gave his words a feeling that no one else in Tin Pan Alley could quite replicate.

He arrived in New York in the late 1920s hoping to become an actor, but the songs took over. His first big hit came with "Lazybones," written with Hoagy Carmichael, and from there his career took off in every direction at once. He wrote for radio, for Hollywood, for Broadway. He sang duets with Bing Crosby and Jack Teagarden. He co-founded Capitol Records in 1942, signing Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, and Stan Kenton in the process. He won four Academy Awards for Best Original Song, including "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses," both written with Henry Mancini. He was the only lyricist to receive his own volume in Ella Fitzgerald's legendary Songbook series.

And yet what sets Mercer apart isn't the resume. It's the words. He had a genius for colloquial poetry, for finding the phrase that felt both casual and inevitable. One for My Baby. Skylark. Come Rain or Come Shine. Autumn Leaves. That Old Black Magic. Blues in the Night. Fools Rush In. Each one lands with the same quality: like someone just said exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment. One scholar called him "at heart a jazz musician rather than a Tin Pan Alley lyricist," and you can feel it in every syllable.

Monica Ramey brings her deep intelligence and warmth to this songbook, and the result is an evening that is, well, too marvelous for words.

About Monica Ramey

Nashville Scene's Ron Wynn put it simply: Monica Ramey has "a real feel for and understanding of the jazz tradition." And that's exactly right, though it barely scratches the surface.

A native of Francesville, Indiana, Monica grew up singing and dancing on stage alongside her mother, a music teacher who directed her high school show choir. She studied Music Performance at Indiana State University and interned with the NARAS Foundation in Los Angeles before making her way to Nashville in 2000, where she discovered the Nashville Jazz Workshop and found a second family.

Her long musical partnership with the legendary jazz pianist Beegie Adair defined much of her career: together, they recorded multiple albums, sold out venues across the country, and became a fixture at Birdland Jazz Club in New York. The Tennessean once described Monica stepping onstage and opening her mouth to deliver "a smooth, velvety voice formed by years of study and countless performances, putting her own fresh spin on jazz standards." Broadway World called her vocals "impeccable" and named her "one of the best jazz vocalists."

About the Residency

Too Marvelous for Words is the fifth installment of Monica Ramey's year-long residency at the Nashville Jazz Workshop, in which she brings her deep love for the Great American Songbook to the Jazz Cave one composer at a time. Previous evenings have explored the Cole Porter Songbook (May 15), the music of Blossom Dearie (June 26), the music of Harold Arlen (July 17), and the music of George Gershwin (August 28). More dates will be announced throughout the year.