A good example of contrasting styles can be heard on the first two songs (the only ones, on this otherwise solo piano album, that feature Dmitri Kolesnik on bass) – from the '20s. the Rodgers and Hart classic, Manhattan (#1), followed by Billy Joel's evocative New York State of Mind (#2) from the '70's. We move from there to the album's title song, Charles Strouse's beautiful Once Upon a Time (#3), written in the '60's but with a melancholy quality that places it back among the fine ballads of earlier years. I dedicated this album to my mother, Marcella Freund, who was about to celebrate her 100th birthday, and included one of her (and my) favorites, Jimmy Van Heusen's But Beautiful (#23).
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