Which jazz standard was featured in a musical based on a James A. Michener book?
South Pacific (musical) South Pacific is a musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The work premiered in 1949 on Broadway and was an immediate hit, running for 1,925 performances. The plot of the musical is based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book "Tales of the South Pacific" and combines elements of several of those stories. Rodgers and Hammerstein believed they could write a musical based on Michener's work that would be financially successful and, at the same time, would send a strong progressive message on racism.
Nobody Else But Me "Nobody Else But Me", sometimes called "Nobody Else But You", is a 1946 jazz standard composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II for the 1946 Broadway revival of the musical "Showboat". The record, played in the key of E flat major, was originally "aimed at the light "cocktail jazz" market. It was recorded by guitarist Joe Pass for his album "Simplicity". "The Best of Joe Pass" by Wolf Marshall describes Pass's playing as follows: "Pass treats Nobody Else But You [Me] as would a jazz wind player, confining his statements to elegant single-note lines. In the head, he plays with the melody, embellishing the basic theme from his opening notes with a variety of rhythmic variations, short bop and swing licks, myriad phrasing nuances." "Saturday Review" said, "The cool melancholy of Pass's guitar has its charm, but it is a relict when the temperature rises a little and the musicians swing out on "Nobody Else But Me." "