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A Sleepin' Bee |
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Written: 1953-1954 |
Music by: Harold Arlen |
Words by: Truman Capote |
Written for: House of Flowers |
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On the Main Stage at Cafe Songbook | |
| A Cafe Songbook "twofer": Diahann Carroll (c. 1982) and Janet Planet (2010) | |
Diahann Carrollperforming "A Sleepin' Bee"Ms. Carroll's Performance is introduced by Tom Bosley
More Performances of "A Sleepin' Bee" |
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Janet Planetperforming "A Sleepin' Bee"at Feinstein's at Loews Regency in New York City on August 14th, 2010. Ms. Planet is accompanied by Tom Theabo on guitar, Daniel Loomis on bass, and Ross Pederson on drums. More Performances of "title" |
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Cafe Songbook Reading Room"A Sleepin' Bee" |
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| About the Show House of Flowers / Origins of the Song | |||
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"A Sleepin' Bee" was introduced in the Harold Arlen / Truman Capote musical House of Flowers by Diahann Carroll (playing Ottilie, alias Violet) making her Broadway debut. "Who Is Harold Arlen?" House of Flowers, the musical, is based on Capote's story of the same title which was a success for the young author having won an O'Henry award for it in 1950. The story had its origins in Capote's travels to Haiti and his visits to the bordellos of its capital Port-au-Prince. Somewhat later he turned it into a play and sent it to the producer Arnold Saint Subber (later known only as Saint Subber). Even though Saint Subber had been charmed by "House of flowers" and had long been interested in Capote's writing, the play remained unproduced. Eventually, in 1953, the producer got the idea of making what had been intended as a straight drama into a musical and sent an early draft to Harold Arlen for his consideration. As Arlen biographer Edward Jablonski tells it, Capote's response to Saint Subber upon hearing he had sent the play to Arlen was, "Who is Harold Arlen?" But it only took a moment for Saint Subber to mention enough Arlen titles (e.g. "Stormy Weather," "Blues in the Night," "Over the Rainbow") to convince Capote that his play should become a musical and Harold Arlen should write the music. Arlen, however, was familiar with Capote's name as well as his work and initially felt, although he admired Capote, he was not the one to write the music for House of Flowers. Only after he reread the play several times was he drawn more and more into the Haitian ambience and folk culture until he couldn't resist giving it a try. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the collaboration between the members of this rather odd couple (mischievous, imp like writer and blues oriented composer) was the fact that for the first few months they remained thousands of miles apart. Arlen was living in California, Capote in Rome. The novitiate lyricist would mail a line here and there to Arlen who would respond by sending him "homemade phonograph records" on which Arlen could be heard playing passages that might fit this or that line, or even with Arlen singing and playing words and music together. Arlen would also include on the recording new ideas for Capote to consider. Arlen's source for the melody was an unused song he had written earlier for a film. The lyric he sings to Capote on the recording on which he introduces himself to Capote, he calls "a dummy lyric" (one that is supposed to be a stand-in for the final version) turns out to be very close to what is used in the final version of the song. Arlen Sings to Capote;
Speaking on the recording Arlen says to the writer, "Introducing little ol' me, Harold" and goes on to explain that he feels what he has sung would be good for the scene with Ottilie and the Houngan (witch doctor). He continues, "I am sure the tune has enough quality and captures the mood" and will "set quite a charming key for Miss Ottilie." Both before and after these recordings would travel across the ocean, the two would talk on the phone to work out details. Capote recalled for the writer and American Songbook guru William K. Zinsser:
Capote concludes it was oblivious to him that Arlen was "a gentle man . . . capable of immense intensity; and, had I not known differently, I would have thought he was a Negro" (Jablonski, p. 246). The finished product of the collaboration that included music by Arlen and words mainly by Capote but with contributions from Arlen had a Philadelphia tryout before the show opened on Broadway on December 30, 1954, at the Alvin Theatre. It played for 165 performances. Directed by Peter Brook in his first try at a musical, the cast included Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll, Juanita Hall, Ray Walston, and Geoffrey Holder. The reviews were not the best but the score has been praised for among other qualities "its mix of blues and calypso." "A Sleepin' Bee" is performed on stage by the character Ottilie (aka Violet), a young and very innocent "fleur" in the House of Flowers (a bordello) who sacrifices any advancement as a prostitute by saving herself for her true love, Royal. The song's theme derives from an island folk legend that says a girl who holds a bee in her hand while it is sleeping will find her true love if the bee does not waken and sting her. When Diahann Carroll as Ottilie sings "A Sleepin Bee" on stage, she is accompanied by three other young 'fleurs' who also work in the house. Pearl Bailey stars as Madame of one of several competing bordellos.
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| Critics Corner | |||
  Wilfred Sheed, The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty , New York: Random House, 2007 (paper-bound ED. 2008 shown) |
For critic Wilfred Sheed, Truman Capote and Harold Arlen were very unlikely candidates to work together on anything not to mention the score for a musical, but Arlen "responded both artistically and personally [to Capote] and Capote returned the compliment by understanding Harold and his demons as well as anyone had." Capote felt Arlen "was obsessed with a tragic view of life" but Arlen, who despite this turn of mind, loved to laugh, found Capote very amusing and enjoyed all the gossip the writer shared with him. The result was "a remarkable score unlike anything else in Arlen's repertory, and unlike anything else a mass audience could assimilate." Finally Sheed sees the commercial failure of House of Flowers both on Broadway and off as bringing Arlen a little closer to the end of his life (Sheed, House That George Built, p. 91). | ||
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According to Thomas Hischak in his American Musical Theater Song Encyclopedia, Arlen's melody is "unconventional in its stark opening, its rich harmonies later in the number, and a base line that uses the pedal to create a humming dissonance reminiscent of a bee." | ||
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David Jenness and Don Velsey find "two exquisite ballads" in House of Flowers, a show they see as containing "any number of songs that rank at the very top of his [Arlen's] lifetime output." The first of the ballads is "I Never Has Seen Snow," which they call a "long song . . . [that] presses up against the boundaries of classic American pop, and can be considered a sort of aria." The other, "A Sleepin' Bee," they call "one of the greatest ballads" of the second half of the twentieth century. They claim that at first "A Sleepin' Bee" sounds more like Richard Rodgers than Arlen but quickly becomes unmistakably Arlen with musical elements "out of the jazz string-bass tradition." They conclude their comments writing "this ABAB song has an extraordinary glowing quality achieved by the most minimal means. . . ." (Jenness and Velsey, pp. 68-70).
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  Stephen Sondheim. Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Alfred A. Knoph, 2010 (pp. 25-26). |
Sondheim (in his book Finishing the Hat tells the story of how as a young man he was invited by Harold Arlen to join a group of songwriters for a dinner at Yip Harburg's apartment. Knowing that get-togethers such as these often involved the guests being urged to play and sing a few of their things for the others, the young Stephen carefully prepared "a suite" of his work ahead of time, feigning spontaneity at the piano. When he finished his boffo performance, he received a piece of quiet advice from Harold: "'Don't be afraid not to write a blockbuster,' he gently murmured. And I thought of his 'A Sleeping Bee' [sic] in House of Flowers . . . a mesmerizing song and moment, quietly arrived at and quietly gone. Harold taught me a lesson I've never forgotten: It's extremely satisfying to wow an audience, but to try to do it persistently carries an air of desperation" (Finishing the Hat, p. 22). | ||
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Credits("A Sleepin' Bee" page) |
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Performer/Recording Index
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1954
Notes: (reissued by Columbia / Sony with alterations, 2003 -- see below) "From the start of its unusual overture (with it's strange transitions) HOUSE OF FLOWERS is something unique. The Harold Arlen score has the proper Caribbean flavour, but is still rooted in the Broadway vernacular. Truman Capote's book and lyrics are more variable, and the show has failed twice (1954 and an off-Broadway revival in 1968, recorded by United Artists but not issued on CD) for the same reason most shows fail: A faulty or uninteresting book. Still, its not the book that is showcased on the CD." "Although Columbia's original 1954 LP release was a fairly full record for its day (53 min. 55 seconds) this CD offers longer takes of both "Mardi Gras" and "Slide Boy Slide" adding nearly 2 minutes to the album proper. The reissue also includes 12 minutes of bonus tracks making a very attractive mid-priced reissue. "The original LP artwork adorns the CD cover, and there are excellent liner notes and a synopsis. The original LP jacket did not include a synopsis, a rare omission for Columbia records. The LP also juggled some of the songs so the record actually ended with the Mardi Gras number (which actually belongs in the first act!) . . . ." (from the Amazon review by Mark Andrew Lawrence |
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1959
Notes: On all of the tracks of this album, Bennett is accompanied by his long time musical partner pianist Ralph Sharon making the entire enterprise a duet performance of very high quality, what many feel is one of Bennett's best albums. CD Universe notes that "Bennett rises above the casual nature of the session with studied, near-spiritual readings of beauties like 'I'm Through With Love' and 'My Funny Valentine.' There is actually a preponderance of Rodgers and Hart here, including a short fillip of 'I Didn't Know What Time It Was,' as well as 'Bewitched' and 'Where Or When'." |
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1960
Notes: The song selection on this album consists of standards or near-standards written for Broadway shows by such composers as Leonard Bernstein, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Harold Arlen and other central figures of The Songbook. Paiche's "arrangements kick these well-known songs into high gear. showing Torme is at his swinging peak on the classics 'Just in Time' and 'Too Darn Hot'" (from CD Universe Product Description). The album pictured on the video above is a "twofer" (two albums on one CD), one of which is Swings Shubert Alley. |
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1961, 1963 and 1999 1963
Notes: In the history of Streisand's repertoire as well as in the recorded history of "A Sleepin' Bee," her performances hold an important place. Her first recording of "A Sleepin' Bee" was a studio performance arranged and conducted by Peter Matz for her first album the 1963 Barbra Streisand Album. (Listen just above.) For that album she won Grammys for Album of the Year and Best Female Vocalist -- certainly an auspicious debut. A live performance of the song from this era came on The Jack Paar Show (an early version of The Tonight Show) in 1961, when she was nineteen. 1961 A later live performance came on the last day of the millennium, December 31, 1999, and appears on the 2000, CD and DVD Barbra Streisand -- Timeless -- Live in Concert. In her introduction to the audience for "A Sleepin Bee," she informs them that when she first performed the Harold Arlen/Truman Capote song (written for their Broadway show House of Flowers) it was her first performance of a Broadway show song. 1999
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1961
Notes: The album is "an excellent collaboration of the Nancy Wilson voice with the Cannonball Adderly alto sax from the early '60s. While this 1961 recording was the first time Wilson was with Adderley in the studio, it was not the first time they had worked together. After singing with Rusty Bryant's band, Wilson had worked with Adderley in Columbus, OH. (It was there that Adderley encouraged her to go to N.Y.C. to do some recording, eventually leading to this session.) Not entirely a vocal album, five of the 12 cuts are instrumentals." Other Songbook tracks include a lovely slow-tempo treatment of the Vernon Duke-Ira Gershwin masterpiece, "I Can't Get Started" (from description by Dave Nathan at CD Universe). |
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1963
Notes: Recorded in New York City, December 18, 1963, at Webster Hall for Verve records, the trio consisted of Bill Evans on piano, Paul Motian on drums and Gary Peacock on bass. "The conservatism that some perceive in the music of Bill Evans is countered by the fact that his records almost always flew in the face of trends. When making his own recordings he was not a hard bopper, did not jump on the soul-jazz train and never threw song structure out the window. A chamber musician who just happened to dig jazz, Evans proved that formalism and sensitive pianistic touch had a place in music that swung. . . . Interplay amongst these three [Evans, Peacock and Motian] on standards and oddities is highly personal without sacrificing the kinetic energy essential to great jazz. All in all there is a palpable geniality to this session recorded on one day in December '63. It is Evans and company in a decidedly extroverted, somewhat lighthearted mode. What other serious jazz musician would put "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" in their set and yield such felicitous results?" (from CD Universe Product Description)" |
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1963
Notes: "Over the years, Johnny Hartman had worked with big bands and small combos, interpreting everything from romantic pop to elegant jazz -- without achieving the star status his talent so richly deserved. So behind all the debonair trappings of I JUST DROPPED BY TO SAY HELLO, one can detect a certain world weariness, which only adds to the after-hours mystique that makes I JUST DROPPED BY TO SAY HELLO one of the great jazz vocal recitals. Everything clicks -- from the cat-like brushwork of Elvin Jones and the lyric refinement of brother Hank Jones, to the rock-solid bass-lines of Milt Hinton and the bluesy romantic machismo of tenor giant Illinois Jacquet. Hartman's accompanists aren't simply hired hands -- they're a band. Just listen to Jacquet's epic testimony on "Stairway To The Stars," guitarist Jim Hall's probing counterpoint on "Charade," or the Jones brothers' brilliant coda to the title tune -- the group rapport is telepathic." Recorded on October 9 & 17, 1963. Includes liner notes by Sid Mark. -- (from CD Universe Product Description). |
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1964
Notes: "Guitarist Kenny Burrell alternates blues and ballads on this swinging quintet set with pianist Will Davis, bassist Martin Rivera, drummer Bill English, and Ray Barretto on congas. The music is melodic and boppish, although no real surprises occur. By this time, Burrell was a very respectful player, upholding the tradition rather than offering any real innovations. This CD reissue will still be enjoyed by his fans" (iTunes album review). |
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1967
Notes: The album Sweet Blossom Dearie (a live album on which Blossom is accompanied by herself on piano and by Freddie Logan, Bass and Alan Ganley - Drums) was a 1967 UK release. Not easy to get inexpensively.) |
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1984
Notes: William Ruhlmann writes for CD Universe, "As the album's title, drawn from a song used in Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, suggests, Broadway and nightclub singer Karen Akers explores the impact of love in her fifth album for DRG Records, which, as usual, consists of show tunes." He continues by suggesting how the chosen songs reflect this theme. He notes, " "A Sleepin' Bee," Harold Arlen and Truman Capote's ballad from House of Flowers, discusses how to recognize love. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Accompanied only by pianist Don Rebic, Akers tackles well-known songs as well as relative obscurities here, and she gives them all the same clear, straightforward readings, in some cases transforming meaning through context and juxtaposition, but always trusting to the songs to make her points for her." |
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1998
Notes: This album features., along with Allen on tenor sax, the Tommy Flanagan trio (Tommy Flanagan, piano, Peter Washington, bass, and Lewis Nash, drums) and some tunes associated with Tommy Flanagan through the years. Five tracks feature Allen with the full trio (Flanagan, Peter Washington, and Lewis Nash) and six tracks are Allen/Flanagan duets. "Allen at moments sounds like Ben Webster (the breathy quality of tone at some points), at moments even like Lester Young, but basically he is a genuine mainstream swing musician; with probable influences ranging from Coleman Hawkins and Zoot Sims to Stan Getz" -- from Amazon reviewer Nikica Gilic |
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2000
Notes: "This recording devoted mostly to Harold Arlen standards "would seem to be a retrenchment. On closer inspection, not so. Anybody who would risk comparisons with Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland by recording 'A Sleepin Bee' and 'The Man That Got Away' isn't playing it safe. McDonald comes out fine, though, not because she's better than her elders, but because she's different. What pop singers do with rhetorical flourishes, the operatically trained McDonald does with color and phrase shape. . . ." -- from-David Patrick Stearns Amazon Editorial Review |
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2005
Notes: Bill Charlap - piano, Jay Leonhart - bass, Bill Stewart - drums |
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2007
Notes: Forty some years after Kenny Burrell does his jazz guitar version of "A Sleepin' Bee," this father and son team of jazz guitarists do this album of standards and a few other selections including the same Harold Arlen tune. |
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2008
Notes: "Cassandra Wilson continues her reign as one of the best jazz vocalists of the late 20th and early 21st century on 2008's Loverly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a first-rate jazz album that makes the Great American Songbook irresistible again." |
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