FRAN LANDESMAN RIP
Fran died peacefully at home on 23rd July 2011.
JAY LANDESMAN RIP 15.7.1919 - 20.2.2011
Jay died on Sunday 20th February 2011 at home in London.
PERFORMANCES OF FRAN'S WORK
Tuesday 10th January 2012, Ian Shaw & Gwyneth Herbert perform songs by Fran Landesman & Joni Mitchell at Pizza Express Dean Street, Soho, London W1. Ian is at the club through to Sat 14th with different guests each night. www.pizzaexpresslive.com
Friday 28th October 2011, Poetry Olympics Super-Jam Parts 1 & 2, at The Venue, University of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY, A Tribute to Fran Landesman by Miles Landesman & friends, Sarah Moule & Simon Wallace will be part of this evening of poetry and jazz and takes place in Part 2, at 7.30pm. See Poetryolympics.com for further information.
Sunday 21st August, BBC Radio 2, 21.00h, Russell Davies talks about Fran and plays some of his favourite Landesman songs.
Farrago Poetry gig organised by John-Paul O'Neill dedicated to Fran at RADA on 5th August, see www.facebook.com/farago.poetry
Friday, 5th August, 7:30pm
@ RADA Foyer Bar, Malet St, WC1.
Nearest Tube: Goodge St.
www.facebook.com/farago.poetry
www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?pc=WC1E+7H
Volume 1 of the Landesman/Wallace Songbook is now available from [email protected]
Links to some of the many obituaries for Fran:
www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/aug/10/fran-landesman-obituary
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8663810/Fran-Landesman.html
www.nytimes.com/.../fran-landesman-lyricist-with-a-bittersweet-edge-dies-at- 83.html and follow to Archive
www.bbc.co.uk/.../Last_Word_John_Stott_Stan_Barstow_Derek_ BryceSmith_David_Dunseith_and_Fran_Landesman/ follow link to iplayer
news.scotsman.com/obituaries/Obituary-Fran-Landesman-.6811292.jp
Fran Landesman was the poet laureate of lovers and losers:
her songs are the secret diaries of the desperate and the
decadent. No one could convey the bitter-sweet joys of melancholy
or the exhilaration of living on the edge like Fran.
The
jazz world's answer to Dorothy Parker, New York born lyricist
Fran Landesman's acid wit and penetrating insights first emerged
in her 1950s collaborations with composer Tommy
Wolf. Songs such as “Spring
Can Hang You Up The Most” and “The
Ballad Of The Sad Young Men” were picked up
by Jackie and Roy and soon became
standards boasting recordings by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald,
Barbra Streisand, Sarah Vaughan and Bette Midler. Nearly half a century later
Fran's lyrics are sharper and more perceptive than ever. She lived in London and for the past 18 years had been writing
superbly crafted songs with the eclectic, Welsh born, world
travelled composer Simon Wallace.
Music and lyrics work together to create a tough, witty, ironic
expression of contemporary love and life in songs that caress
the heart and remain in the head long after the music is over.
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