Jimmy McHugh Biography To Be Honored in Concert by Michael Feinstein

Michael Feinstein Carnegie Hall Concert and Barnes & Noble Booksigning Celebrate New Biography of Great American Composer Jimmy McHugh, "I Feel a Song Coming On: The Life of Jimmy McHugh" by Alyn Shipton.  This is the first biography of this remarkable composer. Available October 5th from the University of Illinois Press, the book will be launched in New York with a Michael Feinstein Zankel Hall concert at Carnegie Hall and a performance/booksigning event at Barnes & Noble.

The celebration is twofold, including first a concert starring Michael Feinstien entitled, "A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening...The Songs of Jimmy McHugh," with with special guest Wesla Whitfield on Wednesday, October 7 at 7:30 pm, Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall.

On Friday, October 9, 7:30 pm, Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Triangle at Broadway and 66th Street in Manhattan will host a booksigning by Author Alyn Shipton, accompanied by a performance from jazz vocalist and cabaret favorite Wesla Whitfield.  Whitfield will perform music from the McHugh Songbookand. McHugh's grandson Jimmy McHugh III will discuss the composer's.  

Writing such classics as "I'm in the Mood for Love," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street," McHugh is a one-man history of twentieth-century popular music. His career stretches from Tin Pan Alley to Harlem's Cotton Club and from Broadway to Hollywood. McHugh's music has been performed by Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Rod Stewart, and k.d. lang.

David Friend from Vanity Fair says, "From Tin Pan Alley to Beverly Hills, this book has vintage dish and vibrant back-stories about one of the giants of the American songbook."

Michael Feinstein adds, "This book...spills over with fascinating and important information about a rich and seminal era, much of which has been previously documented. If you care about the Great American Songbook, you'll love this book!"

Alyn Shipton is a jazz critic for the Times of London and a BBC Radio presenter. His books include A New History of Jazz and biographies of Fats Waller and Dizzy Gillespie.

I Feel a Song Coming On: The Life of Jimmy McHughm by Alyn Shipton; Cloth, $35.00, October 5, 2009 (C).