Wallowitch and Ross CD

Notes by James Gavin

WHEN A JUILLIARD-TRAINED pianist and composer teams with Martha Graham’s longtime lead dancer and choreographer for an evening of song, you might not expect to hear such titles as "Monkey Doodle-Do," "Bend Down, Sister," and "Up Yours." But John Wallowitch and Bertram Ross are on no lofty perch. Long before his shiny head and droll, deadpan singing became familiar in Manhattan through his late-night public-access TV show John’s Cabaret, and longer still before Tony Bennett, Shirley Horn, and Dixie Carter started recording his songs, John collected sheet music. Scavenging in yard sales and memorabilia shows, he found songs from Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood that sounded hilarious, often unintentionally.

Who knew in 1967, when he met the partner of Martha Graham, that he had found another elegant clown to share his passion? John and Bertram’s love story, both on and off stage, is told in Richard Morris and Sue Gandy’s 1998 documentary, Wallowitch & Ross: This Moment. It shows the two stars performing at the former Ballroom, the cabaret where their act debuted in 1984. Just to see them is to smile. John sits at the piano looking like a naughty professor; Bertram, handsome as a statue of a Roman general, stands erect with a tongue-in-cheek hauteur. Then he’ll point a finger and sing, in the voice of a Yiddish businessman on his deathbed: "Cohen owes me ninety-seven dollahs/And it’s up to you to see that Cohen pays!" Now all these songs that have delighted us are finally on CD.

Years before he and Bertram united, John had traded the struggles of a so-called "serious" music career for work in Greenwich Village cabarets. He coached aspiring performers (notably the future TV and theater star Dixie Carter); accompanied such artists as Joanne Beretta, a bewitching singer of some very intense ballads; and wrote his own recherché songs, while hoping to get them heard. Blossom Dearie, a singer-pianist of exquisite, offbeat taste, was among the first to recognize how special they were; through the years she has recorded many.

The New York Times would eventually compare him to an English icon, Noël Coward. But only the devoted New Yorker that John is could have dreamed up such characters as Binky, a surgically enhanced East Side dowager; or Bruce, a cross-dresser guided by Diana Vreeland. If John’s comic portraits are often surprisingly poignant, his ballads are poetic cries of the heart, with every defense shattered. Many of his love songs tell of the most idealistic love imaginable. It’s a love he knows all about, because he found it with Bertram. Dancing in Graham’s Clytemnestra, Circe, and other works he helped create, Bertram looked imperious, unattainable. At least, that’s what John thought before they met.

After leaving Graham in 1973, Bertram opened his own dance company, while practicing songs, coached by John. It was Greg Dawson, the brainy, risk-taking owner of the Ballroom – one of the most adventurous cabarets ever to grace New York – who encouraged John and Bertram to put together an act. They dedicate their CD to Greg. "We want him to know how very committed and thankful we are to him," John says.

Mention must also be made of their idol Irving Berlin, who wrote several of the rarities here. For years, John, Bertram, and a gang of friends have made Christmas Eve vigils to the Berlin home at 17 Beekman Place to sing "White Christmas." But not all the tunes on this album are antiques. Murray Grand, a sardonic singer-composer who has spiced up New York’s nightlife for decades, contributed "Up Yours," "You Must Remember to Forget," and the barely double-entendre "The Pussycat Song." Only one Wallowitch song is included: "Did Anyone Ever Really Know Joan?," a stark glimpse of a woman’s broken dreams.

"I hope you write that Bertram Ross is the love of my life," said John by phone in January 2002. He was at the Beverly Hills home of Dixie Carter, with whom he was giving some concerts. An ill Bertram had stayed behind in the brownstone apartment he and John share near Manhattan’s East River. To John, this album is one more permanent document of all Bertram means to him. For us, it’s a lot of fun.

-- James Gavin, New York City, February 2002

[James Gavin is the author of Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, published by Alfred A. Knopf]

Songs on the Wallowitch & Ross CD

Order the CD Top

1. A Cup Of Coffee, A Sandwich, And You 1:10
(Billy Rose, Al Dubin and Joseph Meyer)
Al Dubin Music Co; Harms Inc; Jo Ro Music

2. Turn On The Heat 2:37
(Buddy de Sylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson)
De Sylva, Brown and Henderson

3. You Stepped Out Of A Dream 2:46
(Gus Kahn and Nacio Herb Brown)
EMI Feist Catalog Inc

4. Panamania 1:33
(Al Siegel and Sam Coslow)
Famous Music Corporation

5. On The Swing Shift 2:37
(Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen)
Famous Music Corporation

6. I Wish I Had Died At The Altar 1:45
(Gerald Marks)
Marlong Music

7. Who Are You? 2:08
(Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers)
Lorenz Hart Publishing Co; Williamson Music Co

8. Too Good For The Average Man 3:15
(Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers)
Chappell & Co Inc; Williamson Music Co

9. Holiday For Strings 1:35
(Sammy Gallop and David D. Rose)
David Rose Publishing Co; Gallop Sammy Music

10. The Pussycat Song 2:08
(Murray Grand)
Sky Witch Music

11. Egyptian Ella 2:42
(Walter Doyle)
Skidmore Music Company Inc

12. Tokio Blues 1:42
(Irving Berlin)
Irving Berlin Music Co

13. Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars 3:00
(Irving Berlin)
Irving Berlin Music Co

14. The Monkey Doodle-Doo 2:31
(Irving Berlin)
Irving Berlin Music Co

15. I Can Always Find A Little Sunshine In The YMCA 1:43
(Irving Berlin)
Irving Berlin Music Co

16. I'll Take You Back To Italy 3:33
(Irving Berlin)
Irving Berlin Music Co

17. An Orange Grove In California 2:29
(Irving Berlin)
Irving Berlin Music Co

18. In My Harem 3:04
(Irving Berlin)
Irving Berlin Music Co

19. Did Anyone Ever Really Know Joan? 3:18
(John Wallowitch)
Sky Witch Music

20. The Red Rose Rag 2:34
(Edward Madden and Percy Wenrich)
Edwin H Morris & Co Inc; Remick Music Corp

21. Bend Down, Sister 1:46
(Con Conrad, Ballard MacDonald and Dave Silverstein)
Edwin H Morris & Co Inc

22. Up Yours 2:26
(Murray Grand)
Sky Witch Music

23. I'm Only Happy, That's All 2:44
(Hoagy Carmichael)
P S O Ltd; Songs of Peer Ltd

24. Some Little Bug Is Going To Find You Someday 3:37
(Benjamin Hapgood, Burt Roy Atwell, and Salvo Hein)
Sky Witch Music

25. You Must Remember To Forget 4:25
(Murray Grand)
Sky Witch Music

Order the CD!

Song List Top

Get it from CD Baby:

or order directly from Miranda Music. Write to us at

Miranda Music, Inc.
234 Lincoln Road
Brooklyn, NY 11225

Enclose your check for $15 for each CD, plus $3 shipping and handling for the first CD and $1.50 for each additional CD. Make checks payable to Miranda Music, Inc. Write "Wallowitch" on the memo line..

We ship using Media Mail.

Sorry, we don't yet take credit cards.