On August 8, Michael Moran threw a gala 40th birthday party for Matthew George, his other half and the other half of the ‘M & Ms,” at Belvedere Guest House on the Great South Bay, catered by Top of the Bay restaurant, and the featured surprise guest was 85-year-old jazz great Annie Ross, songwriter and first singer of Matthew’s ‘theme song,’ since he was a child, “Twisted.”
Much of the Grove turned out to help Matthew and Michael celebrate; admire the ornate dream palazzo that is Belvedere Guest House for Men, which many were entering for the first time; enjoy drinks and the hors d’oeuvres prepared by Top of the Bay co-owner and chef Brian Shurin; have a piece of the red velvet birthday cake, adorned with an image of the Ruby Slippers; and listen to Annie Ross’ songs in the Belvedere living room.
Assisted by pianist Tardo Hammer on the Casio keyboard and Kevin Ray on sound, Ross held everyone spellbound with “Twisted,” which she explained that she wrote as an alternative to continuing to see a psychiatrist. She went on to Billie Holiday song “Travelin’ Light” and to Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s “Nobody Else but Me (I’m in love with a lover who loves me as I am),” written for the 1946 revival of “Show Boat.” Ross gave us a medley of George and Ira Gershwin classic “Someone to Watch over Me,” from “Oh, Kay!,” and Irving Berlin’s “They Say It’s Wonderful” and “I Got Lost in His Arms,” from “Annie Get Your Gun.” She concluded with Nat King Cole song “The Beginning of the End.”
What a ‘marvelous party!’