Brown toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic for 18 years playing in Europe, the Far East and the US, appearing in nearly every major club and concert hall. In the late '60s, Brown composed "Gravy Waltz;" the tune became the Steve Allen Show's theme song and a best-selling record that won him a Grammy Award.
Ray Brown was the bassist for all of Frank Sinatra's specials, and has been a part of some of the most outstanding television musical events in the business. He guided the Hollywood Bowl Association in producing jazz concerts, was Director of the Monterey Jazz Festival for two years, and was Music Director for the Concord Summer Festival in 1976 and 1977. He has been honored with innumerable awards including the All-Star Poll Award in Playboy every year since its inception in 1958. The unparalleled bassist has received Grammy Awards, Downbeat Reader's Poll Awards, Jazz Critic's Poll Awards and many, many others.
Ray Brown first appeared on the Telarc label in 1989 with André Previn and Mundell Lowe on After Hours. In 1993, Ray Brown's own trio with Benny Green and Jeff Hamilton recorded their first album for Telarc called Bass Face. He also joined forces with Oscar Peterson and Milt Jackson for 1999's The Very Tall Band, a landmark collaboration recorded live at the Blue Note in November 1998. In February 2001, the Ray Brown Trio released the first ever Live at Starbucks album, recorded in Seattle.
Mona Lisa
The Ray Brown Trio Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You're so like the lady with the mystic smile
Is it only cause you're lonely they have blamed you
For that Mona Lisa strangeness in your smile
Do you smile to tempt a lover Mona Lisa?
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?
Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep
They just lie there, and they die there
Or just a cold and lonely, lovely work of art.
Do you smile to tempt a lover Mona Lisa?
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?
Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep
They just lie there, and they die there
Are you warm, are you real Mona Lisa?
Or just a cold and lonely, lovely work of art.
Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa.
The lyrics to The Ray Brown Trio’s song Mona Lisa capture the enigmatic and captivating essence of one of the world’s most celebrated paintings, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The song wonders who the mysterious woman in the painting is and what her story could be. The opening lines of the song indicate that men have named her Mona Lisa and that she resembles a lady with a mystic smile, further fueling the fascination that people have with her. Then, the song asks whether her strangeness in the smile is due to her loneliness or something else.
The lyrics then dive deeper into questioning the intent behind her smile. Is she smiling to seduce a lover or to conceal a broken heart? The song theorizes that many people have come to her doorstep with dreams and ambitions, but they all died unfulfilled, leaving her with a cold and lonely existence. The song ends on a rhetorical question, wondering if Mona Lisa is just a beautiful work of art, or if there is more to her than meets the eye.
Overall, The Ray Brown Trio’s song Mona Lisa is a poignant reflection on the mystique of the famous painting and what may lie behind the enigmatic smile of the woman depicted therein.
Line by Line Meaning
Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa men have named you
People have given you the name Mona Lisa
You're so like the lady with the mystic smile
You resemble the woman with the enigmatic grin
Is it only cause you're lonely they have blamed you
Are they only accusing you of being strange because you're lonely?
For that Mona Lisa strangeness in your smile
They attribute the strangeness in your smile to you
Do you smile to tempt a lover Mona Lisa?
Are you smiling to entice a lover, Mona Lisa?
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?
Or is it your defense mechanism to conceal your heartbreak?
Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep
Many aspirations have been presented to you
They just lie there, and they die there
They lay there and wither away
Are you warm, are you real Mona Lisa?
Are you expressive and genuine, Mona Lisa?
Or just a cold and lonely, lovely work of art.
Or merely a detached and solitary, yet beautiful, object of art.
Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa.
Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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