So used have jazz musicians and fans
“standards” that the positioning
of these great songs in actual shows
has been largely forgotten, despite
the efforts of some in past decades to
turn entire stage musicals into jazz.
So we know “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly”,
“I Could Have Danced All Night”, “I’ve
Grown Accustomed to Her Face”, without
necessarily knowing where they fit into
the Pygmalion narrative of the original
show. And that is to miss something
important. Here they are presented in
their full original context, delivered
with improvisational embellishment
and sung by the original Broadway
cast. Hearing them as such doesn’t
reduce these little masterpieces to
mere chord-patterns; instead, it makes
freshly clear why they were singled out
in the first place.