Ken Bloom

Ken Bloom is a Grammy Award-winning authority on American popular song and musical theatre. As a co-founder of Harbinger Records, he has produced fifty albums including performing artists Peggy Lee and Maxine Sullivan (Grammy nomination), and songwriters Harold Arlen, Bock and Harnick, Cy Coleman, Hugh Martin, Jones and Schmidt, Charles Strouse, Kander and Ebb, among many others. He and Richard Carlin won the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes for "Shuffle Along." Ken has written sixteen books on Broadway, Hollywood, popular songs, theatre anecdotes, and has most recently co-authored "Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm and Race." His books have won the George Freedley Award, New York Times’ top reference book of the year, Choice Magazine Award, and have sold over 100,000 copies. On radio he was an arts reporter for NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition.” He most recently co-produced, directed, and wrote the documentary "Merely Marvelous: The Dancing Genius of Gwen Verdon." A complete biography can be found on Wikipedia.

Livestream Review: Dawn Derow “Gypsy in My Soul—The Music of Eydie Gormé”

Ken Bloom
After more than a year’s drought, cabarets are finally reopening. And that’s very good news. I wasn’t able to get to Birdland to see Dawn Derow in her show Gypsy in My Soul—the Music of Eydie Gormé, but I was able to stream it the very next night. Obviously, streaming can’t compare to sitting in...

CD Review: “Chip Deffaa’s Irving Berlin: Sweet and Hot—Rare Songs, with an All-Star New York Cast”

Ken Bloom
Props to Chip Deffaa who specializes in recording rare songs from the American Songbook. Of course, one’s definition of “rare” depends on how much knowledge you bring to the party. There are certainly some extremely rare songs on this album, some of which are getting their first recordings. Then there are songs like “Alexander’s Ragtime...

Rebecca Angel “For What It’s Worth”

Ken Bloom
Those of us of a certain age remember the heyday of recorded singles. Two songs on either side of a 45 rpm record with a large hole in the center. For many of us, when the hit bands and singers from the Fifties through the Sixties dropped their new single, we paid attention. They were...

CD Review: Luba Mason “Triangle”

Ken Bloom
First things first: I’m a huge fan of Luba Mason. She’s smart, funny, sensitive, playful, and has a great way with a song. But despite of all these superior qualities I find her new CD, Triangle, somewhat disappointing. I like the songs, her interpretations and the accompaniments all individually, but, as a total listening experience,...