Nice Work If You Can Get It: My Life in Rhythm and Rhyme

In 1977, Feinstein, who had since childhood been a passionate collector of records, sheet music and other material relating to classic American popular music, went to work for Ira Gershwin, cataloguing his private collection of rare recordings. This led to a close relationship with the aged lyricist during which he acted as the older man's archivist and formed a friendship that lasted until Gershwin's death in 1983. In his entertaining book, Feinstein tells of those years, his reverence for Gershwin and his subsequent career as a cabaret artist specializing in the interpretation of the music of the Gershwins and other American songwriters. He includes the story of the 1982 discovery, in a warehouse in Secaucus, N.J., of a cache of unpublished music manuscripts that included works by the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart and Jerome Kern. Feinstein also relates the saga of his friend Harry Warren, a prolific songwriter who suffered lack of name recognition; and he offers a chapter on the art of writing song lyrics and a description of life as a piano-bar performer. Feinstein's enthusiasm for the music of the golden age of American popular songwriting is infectious. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)