Bob's Jazz Blog.

I am always on the look out for “songs nobody plays” , meaning songs that were composed by famous composers but hardly played by anyone. In earlier articles I wrote about “If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You” written by Rodgers & Hart and played by John Coltrane, or ‘Broken Wing”, written by Richie Beirach and played by Chet Baker, to name a few. On the Jazzforum “International Jazz & Business Forum” pianist Ed Mascari wrote about a composition that I believe falls in the “nobody plays” category, a song called “Little Man With A Candy Cigar”. It is written by composer Matt Dennis whom we all know from songs like “Angel Eyes” and “Violettes For Your Furs”. The lyrics have been written by Frank Kilduff whereas Dennis’ regular lyricist was Tom Adair. If you link to Ed’s article you will find an instructive way how to play this song in different styles. A special Dave Brubeck version is available on this YT video which seems to be one of the only two recorded versions of this song. The other one is by the Jan Lundgren Trio.