The Cocktail Piano Hour: Jazz, Easy-Listening and Pop Piano
Performed and Arrange by James Spencer
James Spencer is the concert pianist, arranger/composer performer of the award winning collection The Cocktail Piano Hour. His albums have been featured on international radio shows including The Cocktail Nation, Evenings at The Penthouse, The Martini Hour, The Jazz Connection, and Piano by Candlelight. James is one of the few pianists still recording and performing solo elegant cocktail piano of standards from the Great American Songbook, Stride/Ragtime, Cool, and Bossa Nova tunes as well as his own original compositions. James was close friends with several jazz greats and lounge pianists that include: George Shearing, Marian McPartland, Beegie Adair, Liberace and Roger Williams. Stay tune for new albums in the collection.
Sharing Shearing (2021)
Sharing Shearing (2021) was included in the Top 50 Lounge Albums of 2021 (Sydney Australia) and is the 3rd album in the The Cocktail Piano Hour series. James Spencer spent three years locating un-released George Shearing jazz piano charges and arranged them himself into new unique, sensual and sophisticated arrangements of standards from the 1950 and 1960s. This albums has been heard on Cocktail Nation.
Program
- Street of Dreams (Victor Young-Sam Lewis)
- Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Jimmy Van Heusen-Johnny Burke)
- Don't Blame Me (Jimmy McHugh-Dorothy Fields)
- For All We Know (J. Fred Coots-Sam Lewis)
- A Certain Smile (Sammy Fain-Paul Francis Webster)
- April Love (Sammy Fain-Paul Francis Webster)
- Spring is Here (Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart)
- Love Letters (Victor Young-Edward Heyman)
- The Things We Did Last Summer (Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn)
- Summer Song (Dave Brubeck)
- What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life? (Michel Legrand-Alan Bergman)
- Three Coins In the Fountain (Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn)
- Tender is the Night (Sammy Fain-Paul Francis Webster)
- Autumn in New York (Vernon Duke)
- Mack the Knife (Kurt Weill)
- Midnight Melancholy (James Spencer-Billy Strayhorn)
Noir (2018)
Awarded Best Lounge Album of 2018 (Cocktail Nation: Sydney Australia), and Best Cocktail Piano Album of 2018, James Spencer is currently one of the most celebrated solo jazz pianists in the world. His music currently heard on over 70 radio stations and streaming sites.
Noir, is a digital album with 24 tracks of James Spencer's original cool jazz piano cocktail arrangements of beloved, requested standards that appear in classic film noir noir cinema. A late night, sophisticated, sensual and romantic album, James transports you back to the cocktail piano bars of cosmopolitan cities like Los Angeles and New York City in the 1940s-1950s.
Program
- Nightfall (Peter de Rose, Charles Harold and Sam M. Lewis)
- Never Let Me Go (Jay Livingston-Ray Evans)
- Lady of the Evening (Irving Berlin)
- Shadowed Illusions (James Spencer based on a sketch by Ahmad Jamal)
- It's So Good To Want You Bad (James Spencer)
- Laura (David Raksin/Johnny Mercer)
- The Start of Our Affair (James Spencer)
- Night Tide (James Spencer)
- Bittersweet (Mike Corda/Johnny Mercer)
- 'Round Midnight (Thelonius Monk)
- I Can't Get Started (Vernon Duke/Ira Gershwin)
- I Cover the Waterfront (Johnny Green/Edward Heyman)
- Easy Living (Ralph Rainger/Leo Robin)
- Angel Eyes (Matt Dennis/Earl Brent)
- Stormy Weather (Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler)
- Ellingtonia (Duke Ellington)
- Misty (Erroll Garner)
- Tenderly (Walter Gross/Jack Lawrence)
- Our Love Is Here To Stay (George and Ira Gershwin)
- As Time Goes By (Herman Hupfeld)
- Autumn in New York (Vernon Duke)
- Stars Fell On Alabama (Frank Perkins/Mitchell Parish)
- Mercerville (Johnny Mercer)
- Dedicated To You (Saul Chaplin/Sammy Cahn)
Blue Mood(2018)
James Spencer's 2018 release Blue Mood has been played on radio stations around the world.
James is the founder of The Cocktail Piano Hour series of albums. Blue Mood combines original 1970s inspired compositions with beloved standards from the Great American Songbook, breezy bossa nova and light classical selections.
James' original title song Blue Mood has been compared to composers like Marvin Hamlisch, Michel Legrand and Johnny Mandel. First premiered on the radio show Cocktail Nation in 2013, James has toured the US in the early 2017, preferring to perform in intimate jazz venues.
Program
- In a Blue Mood (James Spencer)
- Arioso in A b (J.S. Bach)
- Nocturne in C (E. Grieg)
- Nocturne no. 5 (J. Field)
- This Time the Dream's On Me (H. Alren/J. Mercer)
- If I Could Be With You (J. P. Johnson/H. Creamer)
- I've Got a Crush On You (G. and I. Gershwin)
- It Only Happens When I Dance With You (I. Berlin)
- It's A Blue World (R. Wright/G. Forrest)
- Nocturnal Tangier (L. Godowsky)
- The Mysterious Jade Temple of Dahka (James Spencer)
- Blue and Sentimental (Count Basie)
- Blue Gardenia (B. Russell/L. Lee)
- Someone Please Belong to Me/Girl Talk (B. Troup/N. Hefti)