TEA FOR TWO - 2014

Steven Wagner - Stevan Vagner, Podrum COLLEGIUM MELODIUM, World music museum in Belgrade, PEDJA and LJUBICA JOVICEVIC, present, "Tea for Two" a song from the 1924 musical No, No, Nanette with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Irving Caesar. It is a duet sung by Nanette and Tom (Louise Groody and Jack Barker) in Act II as they imagine their future.In October 1927, the conductor Nikolai Malko challenged Dmitri Shostakovich to do an arrangement of a piece in 45 minutes. His "Tea for Two" arrangement, Opus 16, was first performed on 25 November 1928. It was incorporated into Tahiti Trot from his ballet The Golden Age first performed in 1929. Shostakovich wrote it in response to a challenge from conductor Nikolai Malko: after the two listened to the song on record at Malko's house, Malko bet 100 roubles that Shostakovich could not completely re-orchestrate the song from memory in under an hour. Shostakovich took him up and won, completing the orchestration in around 45 minutes
"Tea for Two" became a jazz standard and was recorded by numerous bands and instrumentalists. Early notable performances and a recording of the song were made by jazz virtuoso Art Tatum in 1939. Pianist Thelonious Monk knew the song well, reharmonizing the song and recording it with a bebop-style melody in 1952 with the name "Skippy" and returning to the original melody with a charming arrangement for his 1963 album Criss Cross. Anita O'Day's rendition of the song at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival was considered one of the festival's highlights.
"Tea for Two" was the most played song on the Lawrence Welk TV show, with over 1000 different broadcast episodes, "Tea for Two" was played on 67 different shows due to its popularity.