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ART TATUM

2009-11-02T06:19:00.001-08:00

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ART TATUM

2009-11-02T06:13:00.000-08:00

Art Tatum

Art Tatum

Background information
Birth name	Art Tatum
Born	October 13, 1909(1909-10-13)
Origin	Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
Died	November 5, 1956 (aged 47)
Genres	Jazz, Stride
Occupations	Jazz pianist
Instruments	Piano

Arthur Tatum Jr. (October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956), universally known as Art Tatum, was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso. He was nearly blind.

Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.^[1] Critic Scott Yanow wrote, "Tatum's quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh (and sometimes futuristic) ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries ... Art Tatum's recordings still have the ability to scare modern pianists." ^[2]

Biography

For a musician of such stature, there is very little published information available about Tatum's life. Only one full-length biography of Tatum has been published, Too Marvelous for Words, by James Lester.^[3] Lester interviewed many Tatum contemporaries for the book and drew from many articles published about Tatum.^[4]

[edit] Early life

Tatum was born in Toledo, Ohio. His father, Arthur Tatum, Sr., was a guitarist and an elder at Grace Presbyterian Church, where his mother played piano.^[5] He had two siblings, Karl and Arlene.^[6] From infancy he suffered from cataracts of disputed cause which left him blind in one eye and with only very limited vision in the other. A number of surgeries improved his eye condition to a degree but some of the benefits were reversed when he was assaulted in 1930 at age 20.^[7]

A child prodigy with perfect pitch, Tatum learned to play by ear, picking out church hymns by the age of three, learning tunes from the radio and copying piano-roll recordings his mother owned.^[8] He developed an incredibly fast playing style, without losing accuracy. As a child he was also very sensitive to the piano's intonation and insisted it be tuned often.^[9]

In 1925, Tatum moved to the Columbus School for the Blind, where he studied music and learned braille. Subsequently he studied piano with Overton G. Rainey at either the Jefferson School or the Toledo School of Music. Rainey, who was black and visually impaired, likely taught Tatum in the classical tradition, as Rainey did not improvise and discouraged his students from playing jazz.^[10] In 1927, Tatum began playing on Toledo radio station WSPD as 'Arthur Tatum, Toledo's Blind Pianist', during interludes in Ellen Kay's shopping chat program and soon had his own program.^[11] By the age of 19, Tatum was playing with singer Jon Hendricks, also an Ohioan, at the local Waiters' and Bellmens' Club.^[12] As word of Tatum spread, national performers, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Joe Turner and Fletcher Henderson, passing through Toledo would make it a point to drop in to hear the piano phenom.

Tatum drew inspiration from his contemporaries James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, who exemplified the stride piano style, and from the more 'modern' Earl Hines,^[13] six years Tatum's senior. A major event in his meteoric rise to success was his appearance at a cutting contest in 1933 in New York City that included Waller, Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith. Standard contest pieces included Johnson's "Harlem Strut" and "Carolina Shout" and Fats Waller's "Handful of Keys." Tatum triumphed with his arrangements of "Tea for Two" and "Tiger Rag", in a performance that was considered to be the last word in stride piano.^[14] Tatum's debut was historic because he outplayed the elite competition and heralded the demise of the stride era. He was not challenged further until stride specialist Donald Lambert initiated a half-serious rivalry with him.

Tatum worked in New York at the Onyx Club for a few months and recorded his first four solo sides on the Brunswick label in March, 1933.^[6] He returned to Ohio and played around the midwest in the mid-1930s and in 1937 returned to New York where he appeared at clubs and played on national radio programs.^[12] The following year he toured England^[15], playing for three months at Ciro's Club owned by bandleader Ambrose and in the late 1930s he played in Los Angeles and New York.

[edit] Style

Tatum built upon stride and classical piano influences to develop a novel and unique piano style. He introduced a strong, swinging pulse to jazz piano, highlighted with spectacular cadenzas that swept across the entire keyboard. His interpretations of popular songs were exuberant, sophisticated, grandiose and intricate. He sometimes improvised lines that presaged bebop and later jazz genres but generally he did not venture far from the original melodic lines of songs. Jazz soloing in the 1930s had not yet evolved into the free-ranging extended improvisations that flowered in the bebop era of the 1940s and 50's and beyond. But Tatum embellished those melodic lines with an array of signature devices and runs that appeared throughout his repertoire, sometimes too 'repetitiously' in the view of some. As he matured, Tatum became more adventurous in abandoning the melodies and elongating those improvisations. Although Tatum influenced the bebop movement, he did not embrace the bebop style, nor did he fraternize a great deal with its proponents.

Tatum was an innovator in reharmonizing melodies by changing the supporting chord progressions or by altering the root movements of a tune so as to more effectively apply familiar harmonies. Many of his harmonic concepts and larger chord voicings (e.g., 13th chords with various flat or sharp intervals) were well ahead of their time in the 1930s (except for their partial emergence in popular songs of the jazz age) and they would be explored by bebop-era musicians a decade later. He worked some of the upper extensions of chords into his lines, a practice which was further developed by Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, which in turn was an influence on the development of 'modern jazz'. Tatum also pioneered the use of dissonance in jazz piano, as can be heard, for example, on his recording of "Aunt Hagar's Blues",^[16] which uses extensive dissonance to achieve a bluesy effect. In addition to using major and minor seconds, dissonance was inherent in the complex chords that Tatum frequently used.

Tatum could also play the blues with authority,^[17] but his repertoire was predominantly Broadway and popular standards, whose chord progressions and variety better suited his talents. His approach was prolix, pyrotechnic, dramatic and joyous. His protean style combined stride, jazz, swing, boogie-woogie and classical elements, while the musical ideas flowed in rapid-fire fashion. He was playful, spontaneous and often inserted quotes from other songs into his improvisations.^[18] Tatum was not inclined toward understatement or expansive use of space. He seldom played in a simplified way, preferring interpretations that displayed his great technique and clever harmonizations. A handful of critics have complained that Tatum played too many notes or was too ornamental^[19] or was even 'unjazzlike'.

From the foundation of stride, Tatum made great leaps forward in technique and harmony and he honed a groundbreaking improvisational style that extended the limits of what was possible in jazz piano. His innovations were to greatly influence later jazz pianists, such as Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Billy Taylor, Bill Evans and Chick Corea. One of Tatum's innovations was his extensive use of the pentatonic scale, which may have inspired later pianists to further mine its possibilities as a device for soloing. Herbie Hancock described Tatum's unique tone as "majestic" and devoted some time to unlocking this sound and to noting Tatum's harmonic arsenal.^[20]

The sounds that Tatum produced with the piano were also distinctive. It was said that he could make a bad piano sound good. Generally playing at mezzoforte volume, he employed the entire keyboard from deep bass tones to sonorous mid-register chords to sparkling upper register runs. He used the sustain pedal sparingly so that each note was clearly articulated and chords were cleanly sounded. Tatum's harmonic invention produced tonal colors that identified his musical palette. He played with boundless energy and occasionally his speedy and precise delivery produced an almost mechanical effect not unlike the sound of a player piano.

[edit] Technique

Critic Gunther Schuller declared "On one point there is universal agreement: Tatum's awesome technique."^[21] That technique was marked by a calm physical demeanor and efficiency. He did not indulge in theatrical physical or facial expression.^[22] The effortless gliding of his hands over difficult passages puzzled most who witnessed the phenomenon. He especially mystified other pianists to whom Tatum appeared to be "playing the impossible."^[23] Even when playing scintillating runs at astounding velocity, it appeared that his fingers hardly moved. Using self-taught fingering, including an array of two-fingered runs, he executed the pyrotechnics with superb accuracy and timing. His execution was all the more remarkable considering that he drank prodigious amounts of alcohol when performing,^[24] yet his recordings are never sloppy. Tatum also displayed supreme independence of the hands and ambidexterity while improvising counterpoint with a command unparalleled in jazz piano. Ira Gitler declared that Tatum's "left hand was the equal of his right." ^[25] Around 1950 when Bud Powell was opening for Tatum at Birdland (jazz club), Powell reportedly said to Tatum: "Man, I'm going to really show you about tempo and playing fast. Anytime you're ready." Tatum laughed and replied: "Look, you come in here tomorrow, and anything you do with your right hand, I'll do with my left." Powell never took up the challenge.^[26]

Tatum played chords with a relatively flat-fingered technique compared to the curvature taught in classical training.^[27] Jimmy Rowles said "Most of the stuff he played was clear over my head. There was too much going on — both hands were impossible to believe. You couldn't pick out what he was doing because his fingers were so smooth and soft, and the way he did it — it was like camouflage."^[28] When his fastest tracks of "Tiger Rag" are slowed down, they still reveal a coherent, syncopated rhythm.

[edit] After Hours

After regular club dates, Tatum would decamp to after-hours clubs to hang out with other musicians who would play for each other. Biographer James Lester notes that Tatum enjoyed listening to other pianists and preferred to play last when several pianists played. He frequently played for hours on end into the dawn, to the detriment of his marriages.^[24] Tatum was said to be more spontaneous and creative in those free-form nocturnal sessions than in his scheduled performances.^[24] Evidence of this can be found in the recording entitled "20th Century Piano Genius" which consists of 40 tunes recorded at private parties at the home of Hollywood music director Ray Heindorf in 1950 and 1955. According to the review by Marc Greilsamer, "All of the trademark Tatum elements are here: the grand melodic flourishes, the harmonic magic tricks, the flirtations with various tempos and musical styles. But what also emerges is Tatum's effervescence, his joy, and his humor. He seems to celebrate and mock these timeless melodies all at once."^[29]

[edit] Group Work

Tatum tended to work and to record unaccompanied, partly because relatively few musicians could keep pace with his lightning-fast tempos and advanced harmonic vocabulary. Other musicians expressed amazed bewilderment at performing with Tatum. Drummer Jo Jones, who recorded a 1956 trio session with Tatum and bassist Red Callendar is quoted as quipping, "I didn't even play on that session [...] all I did was listen. I mean, what could I add? [...] I felt like setting my damn drums on fire."^[30] Buddy DeFranco said that playing with Tatum was "like chasing a train."^[25] Tatum said of himself: "A band hampers me."^[31]

Tatum did not readily adapt or defer to other musicians in ensemble settings. Early in his career he was required to restrain himself when he worked as accompanist for vocalist Adelaide Hall in 1932-33. Perhaps because Tatum believed there was a limited audience for solo piano, he formed a trio in 1943 with guitarist Tiny Grimes and bassist Slam Stewart, whose perfect pitch enabled him to follow Tatum's excursions. He later recorded with other musicians, including a notable session with the 1944 Esquire Jazz All-Stars, which included Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and other jazz greats, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. He also recorded memorable group sessions for Norman Granz in the early 1950s.

[edit] Repertoire

Tatum's repertoire consisted mainly of music from the Great American Songbook -- Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and other popular music of the 20's, 30's and 40's. He played his own arrangements of a few classical piano pieces as well, most famously Dvořák's Humoresque no. 7. Although Tatum was not a composer, his versions of popular numbers were so original as to border on composition.

[edit] Emulators

Mainstream jazz piano has gone in a different direction than that pioneered by Tatum. Nevertheless, transcriptions of Tatum are popular and are often practiced assiduously.^[32] But perhaps because his playing was so difficult to copy, only a handful of musicians — such as Oscar Peterson, Johnny Costa, Johnny Guarnieri, Adam Makowicz, Luther G. Williams, Steven Mayer and Christopher Jordan — have attempted to seriously emulate or challenge Tatum. Although Bud Powell was of the bebop movement, his prolific and exciting style showed Tatum influence. Phineas Newborn's playing, such as his recording of "Willow Weep For Me", is closely modeled on Tatum.

[edit] Recordings

Tatum recorded commercially from 1932 until near his death. Although recording opportunities were somewhat intermittent for most of his career due to his solo style, he left copious recordings.^[33] He recorded for Decca (1934–41), Capitol (1949, 1952) and for the labels associated with Norman Granz (1953–56). Tatum demonstrated remarkable memory when he recorded 68 solo tracks for Norman Granz in two days, all but three of the tracks in one take. He also recorded a series of group recordings for Granz with, among others, Ben Webster, Jo Jones, Buddy DeFranco, Benny Carter, Harry Sweets Edison , Roy Eldridge and Lionel Hampton.

[edit] Film

Although only a small amount of film showing Tatum playing exists today, several minutes of professionally-shot archival footage can be found in Martin Scorsese's documentary The Blues. Tatum appeared in the 1947 movie The Fabulous Dorseys, first playing a solo and then accompanying Dorsey's band in an impromptu song.

Tatum appeared on Steve Allen's Tonight Show in the early 1950s, and on other television shows from this era. Unfortunately, all of the kinescopes of the Allen shows, which were stored in a warehouse along with other now defunct shows, were thrown into a local rubbish dump to make room for new studios. However, the soundtracks were recorded off-air by Tatum enthusiasts at the time, and many are included in Storyville Records extensive series of rare Tatum recordings.

Tatum is portrayed briefly (by actor Johnny O'Neill) in Ray, a 2004 biopic about R&B artist Ray Charles. When Charles enters a nightclub he remarks "Are my ears deceiving me or is that Art Tatum?" O'Neill captures Tatum's cool and collected presence at the keyboard.

[edit] Death

Art Tatum died at Queen of Angels Medical Center in Los Angeles, California from the complications of uremia (as a result of kidney failure). He was originally interred at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, but was moved to the Great Mausoleum of Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery in 1991. He was survived by his wife, Geraldine Tatum.

[edit] Legacy and tributes

Tatum posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989.

Numerous stories exist about other musicians' respect for Tatum. Perhaps the most famous is the story that Tatum walked into a club where Fats Waller was playing, Waller stepped away from the piano bench to make way for Tatum, announcing, "I only play the piano, but tonight God is in the house."^[34] Fats Waller's son confirmed the statement. ^[35]

Charlie Parker (who helped develop bebop) was highly influenced by Tatum. When newly arrived in New York, Parker briefly worked as a dishwasher in a Manhattan restaurant where Tatum was performing and often listened to the legendary pianist. Parker once said “I wish I could play like Tatum’s right hand!”

When Oscar Peterson was still a young boy, his father played him a recording of Art Tatum performing "Tiger Rag". Once the young Peterson was finally persuaded that it was performed by a single person, Peterson was so intimidated that he did not touch the piano for weeks.^[36] Interviewing Oscar Peterson in 1962, Les Tompkins asked "Is there one musician you regard as the greatest?" Peterson replied "I’m an Art Tatum–ite. If you speak of pianists, the most complete pianist that we have known and possibly will know, from what I’ve heard to date, is Art Tatum."^[37] "Musically speaking, he was and is my musical God, and I feel honored to remain one of his humbly devoted disciples."^[38]

"Here's something new .... " pianist Hank Jones remembers thinking when he first heard Art Tatum on radio in 1935, " .... they have devised this trick to make people believe that one man is playing the piano, when I know at least three people are playing."^[39]

The jazz pianist and educator Kenny Barron commented that "I have every record [Tatum] ever made — and I try never to listen to them … If I did, I'd throw up my hands and give up!"^[40] Jean Cocteau dubbed Tatum "a crazed Chopin." Count Basie called him the eighth wonder of the world. Dave Brubeck observed, "I don't think there's any more chance of another Tatum turning up than another Mozart."^[41]

Dizzy Gillespie said "First you speak of Art Tatum, then take a long deep breath, and you speak of the other pianists."^[42]

The elegant pianist Teddy Wilson observed, "Maybe this will explain Art Tatum. If you put a piano in a room, just a bare piano. Then you get all the finest jazz pianists in the world and let them play in the presence of Art Tatum. Then let Art Tatum play ... everyone there will sound like an amateur."^[42]

Other luminaries of the day including Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Leopold Godowsky and George Gershwin marveled at Tatum's genius.^[24]

Classical composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff said "he has better technique than any other living pianist, and may be the greatest ever."^{[citation needed]}

Jazz critic Leonard Feather has called Tatum "the greatest soloist in jazz history, regardless of instrument."^[42]

In 1993, an MIT student invented a term that is now in common usage in the field of computational musicology: The Tatum. It means "the smallest perceptual time unit in music."^[43]

The Toledo Jazz Society presents an annual event dedicated to Tatum entitled the Art Tatum Jazz Heritage Festival.^[44]

Zenph Studios, a software company focused on precisely understanding how musicians perform, recorded a new album of Tatum’s playing with Sony Masterworks in 2007. They created re-performances of Tatum’s first four commercial tracks, from March 21, 1933, and the nine tracks from the April 2, 1949 live concert at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium. Sony recorded these anew in the same venue, in front of a live audience. These 13 tracks are on the album, “Piano Starts Here: Live from The Shrine,” which was recorded in high-resolution surround-sound and in binaural, as well as regular stereo. The binaural recording, when heard in headphones, let you hear what Tatum may have heard as he played on stage, with the piano spatially in front (bass on the left, treble on the right) and the live audience clearly downstage on the righthand side.^[45] Zenph’s re-performances have been performed live in numerous venues, including the Toronto Jazz Festival ^[46] and New York’s Apollo Theater. Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson requested a live presentation, which he heard in an emotional re-performance in his home in March 2007.

Tatum's work was used and referenced heavily in the WB TV series Everwood (2002-2006), with some actual sound recordings used and compositions being performed in concerts by Ephram Brown (portrayed by Gregory Smith) in select episodes. James Earl Jones' character Will Cleveland introduced these works to young Ephram, who was an aspiring pianist, in the second season episode "Three Miners From Everwood".

For his 2008 album “Act Your Age,” Gordon Goodwin wrote a new big band arrangement to accompany Zenph’s re-performance of “Yesterdays,” and the track was recognized with a Grammy Nomination for Best Instrumental Arrangement.^[47]

Discography

Footnotes to Jazz, Vol. 2: Jazz Rehearsal, II- Art Tatum Trio, Folkways Records, 1952
Makin' Whoopee, Verve, 1954
The Greatest Piano Hits of Them All, Verve, 1954
Genius Of Keyboard 1954–56, Giants Of Jazz
Still More of the Greatest Piano Hits of Them All, Verve, 1955
More of the Greatest Piano Hits of All Time, Verve, 1955
The Art Tatum-Ben Webster Quartet, Verve, 1956, reissued as The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Volume Eight, Pablo, 1975
The Essential Art Tatum, Verve, 1956
Masterpieces, Leonard Feather Series MCA2-4019, MCA, 1973
God is in the House , Onyx, 1973 [re-released on High Note, 1998]

Piano Starts Here, Columbia, 1987
The Complete Capitol Recordings, Vol. 1, Capitol, 1989
The Complete Capitol Recordings, Vol. 2, Capitol, 1989
Solos 1940, Decca/MCA, 1989

The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 6, Pablo, 1990
The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 7, Pablo, 1990
The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 4, Pablo, 1990
The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 2, Pablo, 1990
The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 3, Pablo, 1990
The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 1, Pablo, 1990
Art Tatum at His Piano, Vol. 1, Crescendo, 1990
The Complete Pablo Group Masterpieces, Pablo, 1990

Classic Early Solos (1934–37), Decca Records, 1991
The Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces, Pablo, 1991
The Best of Art Tatum, Pablo, 1992
Standards, Black Lion, 1992
The V-Discs, Black Lion, 1992
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 1, Pablo, 1992
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 3, Pablo, 1992
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 4, Pablo, 1992
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 5, Pablo, 1992
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 6, Pablo, 1992
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 7, Pablo, 1992
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 8, Pablo, 1992

I Got Rhythm: Art Tatum, Vol. 3 (1935–44), Decca Records, 1993

Fine Art & Dandy, Drive Archive, 1994
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 2, Pablo, 1994
Marvelous Art, Star Line Records, 1994
House Party, Star Line Records, 1994
Masters of Jazz, Vol. 8, Storyville (Denmark), 1994
California Melodies, Memphis Archives, 1994
1934–40, Jazz Chronological Classics, 1994

1932–44 (3 CD Box Set), Jazz Chronological Classics, 1995
The Rococo Piano of Art Tatum, Pearl Flapper, 1995
I Know That You Know, Jazz Club Records, 1995
Piano Solo Private Sessions October 1952, New York, Musidisc (France), 1995
The Art of Tatum, ASV Living Era, 1995
Trio Days, Le Jazz, 1995
1933–44, Best of Jazz (France), 1995
1940–44, Jazz Chronological Classics, 1995

Vol. 16-Masterpieces, Jazz Archives Masterpieces, 1996
20th Century Piano Genius (20th Century/Verve, 1996
Body & Soul,Jazz Hour (Netherlands), 1996
Solos (1937) and Classic Piano, Forlane, 1996

Complete Capitol Recordings, Blue Note, 1997
Memories Of You (3 CD Set) Black Lion, 1997
On The Sunny Side Topaz Jazz, 1997

1944, Giants Of Jazz, 1998

Standard Sessions (2 CD Set), Music & Arts, 1996 & 2002/Storyville 1999

Piano Starts Here - Live at The Shrine (Zenph Re-Performance), Sony BMG Masterworks, 2008

Art Tatum - Ben Webster: The Album (Essential Jazz Classics) 2009

THE DOZENS: ART TATUM AT 100 by Ted Gioia

Art Tatum would be celebrating his 100th birthday this week. His death at age 47 back in 1956 is now a distant event, and only a small and shrinking number of fans are still around to testify what it was like to hear this prepossessing artist in person. Yet for all the talk of progress and modernity, Tatum hardly sounds old-fashioned nowadays, and much of his keyboard vocabulary remains unassimilated by today’s crop of players. I am not just talking about Tatum’s much-vaunted technical command of the piano. His way of working the changes was almost as difficult to imitate as those top-to-bottom piano runs at breakneck speed, and you could listen to a thousand jazz bands and not hear a single one that can replicate his magnificent way of slicing and dicing the progressions.

Critics have often complained about Tatum’s baroque sensibility. But pianists have usually jumped to his defense. When Leonard Feather was compiling his Encyclopedia of Jazz in the mid-1950s, he polled a number of musicians about the players they themselves most admired on their respective instruments. More than two-thirds of the pianists surveyed put Tatum at the top of the list. Gene Lees conducted a similar poll thirty years later, and again Tatum dominated the results.

I’m not sure whether this artist is still widely heard by jazz fans today—the old scratchy pre-high-fidelity recordings may not satisfy the aural fixations of the new millennium. But I am certain that the keyboardists are still paying close attention. After all, no one has yet stepped forward to take Tatum’s place, and in any imaginary cutting contest the smart money must inevitably back the fellow from Toledo who, even with a century under his belt, looks pretty formidable against all comers.

Art Tatum: Sophisticated Lady (1933)

Track

Sophisticated Lady

Artist

Art Tatum (piano)

CD

Piano Starts Here (Columbia 501655)

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Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano).

Composed by Duke Ellington, Irving Mills & Mitchell Parish

Recorded: New York, March 21, 1933

Rating: 90/100 (learn more)

Only five weeks after Duke Ellington recorded his version of this now popular standard, Art Tatum features it at the session that produced his debut solo 78s. Tatum is clearly attracted by the four-chords-to-a-bar hook that Ellington employs in the second and fourth measures of the main theme. Tatum adds further ornamentation to this part of the song—but it's like too much frosting on the cake. Tatum's technique is (as always) impressive, and even three-quarters of a century later remains the benchmark against which all jazz keyboard virtuosos are measured. But the master's music is sometimes haunted by a mechanical quality—like a player piano on steroids—and this early performance has more flash than flesh. Not enough sophistication to this lady for our taste. Tatum's later recording of this same composition as part of Norman Granz's Solo Masterpieces project is more nuanced, and a far superior performance. Even so, one needs to bow to an artist who is playing with this much confidence and dexterity at his debut leader date.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Art Tatum: Sweet Georgia Brown

Track

Sweet Georgia Brown

Artist

Art Tatum (piano)

CD

God is in the House (High Note HCD 7030)

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Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano),

Ebenezer Paul (bass), Frankie Newon (trumpet)

Composed by Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard & Kenneth Casey

Recorded: Live at Monroe's Uptown House, New York, September 16, 1941

Rating: 100/100 (learn more)

Jerry Newman was a student at Columbia University with a passion for jazz and—even more important!—a portable disk-cutting recording machine that he brought to some of the most exciting jazz events of the early 1940s. His archive of amateur recordings is a treasure trove of historically important material, but his documentation of pianist Art Tatum's work in casual after hours sessions is a revelation. André Hodeir and other critics have accused this pianist of playing elaborate set pieces rather than improvising, and true many of Tatum's recordings reveal the rote delivery of set arrangements. Yet the artist captured here is a different one entirely. After hearing this music for the first time, New Yorker critic Whitney Balliett concluded that there must have been "two Tatums": "one was the virtuoso who moved with consummate ease through a world owned and run by whites, and the other was the secret genius who went uptown after his regular hours and played unbelievable music for his own pleasure in black clubs for black audiences."

Balliett thought that Tatum might have been parodying the beboppers in the opening passages of "Sweet Georgia Brown," yet it is just as likely that Tatum was simply showing that he knew more tricks than the new cats on the scene. Based on the amused laughter from the audience, I assume that some bop player had been playing the piano shortly before Tatum took over the keys. But even more ear-shattering is a passage at the 2:10 mark that can be only described as a taste of Free Jazz, circa 1941. Trumpeter Frankie Newton tries vainly to follow Tatum's solo, but Art doesn't make it easy. He throws out substitute harmonies from another dimension, sometimes four to a bar, and even reprises his avant-garde bag in the background. There is plenty more here worth hearing—indeed, a whole alternative piano vocabulary that you won't encounter on the better known Norman Granz recordings of this artist. At more than seven minutes, "Sweet Georgia Brown" ranks as one of Tatum's longest recorded performances, but it still seems all too brief.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Art Tatum: Élégie

Track

Élégie

Artist

Art Tatum (piano)

CD

Decca Presents Art Tatum: Solos (1940) (Decca-MCA 42327)

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Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano).

Composed by Jules Massenet

Recorded: Los Angeles, February 22, 1940

Rating: 97/100 (learn more)

This was the side of Tatum that drove his critics mad. Instead of trying to raise jazz composition to the next level, he was out there "ragging the classics" like the old stride players. And not even the serious classics. The numbers he favored, such as "Élégie" and "Humoresque," are more often played by clumsy piano students than real concert hall artists. But Tatum snubbed his nose at the highbrows, adding flourish after flourish in his grandiloquent reworkings of middlebrow parlor favorites.

Respect "Élégie" you must, however, since no one has ever topped this way of one-upping the virtuoso tradition of the classical world from an outside perspective. Tatum at age thirty was a monster at the keys, and his dynamics, tone control, and clarity of execution are little short of stunning here. The performance itself may be more a game than a serious attempt to grapple with the potential of jazz, yet even games have their masters and moments of profundity. If you want to understand Tatum, you need to sample this side of his multifaceted musical persona.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Art Tatum & Ben Webster: My Ideal

Track

My Ideal

Artist

Art Tatum (piano) and Ben Webster (tenor sax)

CD

The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 8 (Pablo 2405431)

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Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano), Ben Webster (tenor sax), Red Callender (bass),

Bill Douglass (drums)

Composed by Newell Chase, Richard A.Whiting, and Leo Robin

Recorded: Los Angeles, CA, Sept. 11, 1956

Rating: 100/100 (learn more)

Many superlatives have been lavished on the so-called "Tatum Group Masterpieces"—Norman Granz's mid-1950s recordings of the pianist in a range of jazz combos featuring many of the leading players of the Swing Era. Yet much of this work strikes me as the musical equivalent of an abattoir tour. Too many of these guest artists decide that they will match Tatum's speed and technique with their own best virtuoso devices, and the result is all too predictable. Not only can the pianist play faster and wilder, but he often refuses to wait for his own solo to prove it. His comping takes over the performance, leaving the rest of the band rattled and the listener dismayed. Tatum may walk away with the bloody victory, but at the expense of group chemistry and cohesion.

But Ben Webster knew how to deal with this situation. He refuses to play Tatum's game, but sets his own ground rules from the start. The pianist takes the opening melody statement, but when Webster enters he plays the melody again, and his rendition is gorgeous, full of the whispering and lingering tones that were the tenorist's calling cards. His solo is more of the same, and gets deep inside the inner meaning of the song—the lyrics are a bittersweet pledge of love to an imagined ideal partner who may never appear, or might possibly be waiting around the corner. I was so moved when I first heard this recording, years ago, that I learned the words and music of the song and added it to my repertoire.

Tatum came to every session with plenty of ammunition, but Webster has effectively disarmed him. The saxophonist has established a level of emotional honesty that forces the pianist into a completely different frame of mind. Strange to say, Art Tatum comes across more introspective and subdued here than on any of the other group sessions, and reveals aspects of his own musical personality that rarely surfaced on record. His comping stays in the background—never a given with this artist—and when it's time for his own improv, Tatum plays with a light swing that seems almost Nat-King-Cole-ish. This is not a characteristic performance by the pianist, but it is, nonetheless, one of his finest.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

The Esquire All Stars: I Got Rhythm

Track

I Got Rhythm

Group

The Esquire All Stars

CD

Esquire All Stars: At the Met, Volume 2 (Arpeggio Jazz)

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Musicians:

Red Norvo (xylophone), Art Tatum (piano), Barney Bigard (clarinet), Jack Teagarden (trombone), Sid Catlett (drums), Oscar Pettiford (bass), Louis Armstrong (trumpet), Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Al Casey (guitar).

Composed by George and Ira Gerswhin

Recorded: Metropolitan Opera House, New York, January 18, 1944

Rating: 100/100 (learn more)

The time was January 1944, and the first bebop band (led by Dizzy Gillespie) had just been hired on 52nd Street. Meanwhile the masters of the old school were assembled at the Metropolitan Opera House, blissfully ignorant of the cataclysmic changes that would transform the jazz world over the next several years.

But let's forget the coming revolution for a moment, and instead enjoy the world that was about to end. The greatest soloists of early 20th-century jazz are assembled on a single stage, and engage in some gentlemanly one-upmanship on the most familiar jam session chord changes of the day, courtesy of George Gershwin. Everybody has a chance to shine, but I especially like Eldridge (who seems inspired by his chance to go toe-to-toe with Louis Armstrong), the drumming of Sid Catlett, who energizes the whole proceedings, and the lead-off soloist on the track, the underappreciated Red Norvo. And what a delight hearing Art Tatum, pulled out of the solo and trio settings where he could run roughshod over his accompanists and forced to adjust to a roomful of talents—and egos—as large as his own. If I could bring back one rhythm section from the era for a command fantasy performance, it might very well be this Tatum-Catlett-Pettiford unit.

I am reminded here of the claims of ardent medievalists, who will tell you that the waning of the Middle Ages was a time in which many great things came to fruition, and that the Renaissance spoiled much of the beauty of what went before. You could make a similar case for this final flowering of Swing Era majesty, put on display at this historic concert. Soon these same players would be considered passé, but you would never guess it by listening to this performance, which represents a type of perfection that bop and free and all the other later styles can never dispel. They got rhythm.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Art Tatum: Someone to Watch Over Me

Track

Someone to Watch Over Me

Artist

Art Tatum (piano)

CD

The Complete Capitol Recordings of Art Tatum (Capitol 7243 8 21325 2 3)

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Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano).

Composed by George & Ira Gershwin .

Recorded: Los Angeles, July 13 & 25, 1949

Rating: 99/100 (learn more)

It's hard for me to pick between this studio version of the Gershwin standard and the live recording Tatum made of the same song a few weeks earlier at the Shrine Auditorium. The bottom line: both are dramatic, pull-out-all-the-stops performances. Just shy of his 40th birthday, this pianist was playing as well as at any stage in his career. His speed and clarity are the benchmarks by which future jazz keyboard virtuosos will be measured. The opening rubato intro is so crammed full of pyrotechnics that you can hardly imagine what Tatum will do to top it. But at the 1-minute mark he settles into a medium tempo Harlem stride that looks back to his own musical roots and shows that, in the Age of Bop, you could still top the youngsters with some old-school pianism. No wonder that the composer of this song, George Gershwin himself, counted himself among Tatum's admirers.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Art Tatum: Willow Weep for Me (live 1949)

Track

Willow Weep for Me (live 1949)

Artist

Art Tatum (piano)

CD

Piano Starts Here (Columbia 501655)

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Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano).

Composed by Ann Ronell

Recorded: Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, April 2, 1949

Rating: 100/100 (learn more)

Erroll Garner and Art Tatum at Birdland, 1952
Photo by Marcel Fleiss

Tatum's April 2, 1949 live recording at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles is a must-have CD for fans of jazz piano. He plays at top form, and seems invigorated by the move from smoky jazz clubs to the concert hall setting. "Willow Weep for Me" was one of his favorite songs -- at least a half-dozen recordings of Tatum playing it survive from the late 1940s and 1950s -- but he never delivered a better version than in this setting. Every last detail is perfect, from the rich harmonies of his classic intro, through the racecourse stride, all the way to the dramatic conclusion. Tatum owns this song, and any pianist who wants to tackle a solo version must operate in the expansive willow tree shadow of this memorable performance.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Art Tatum & Roy Eldridge: Night and Day

Track

NIght and Day

Artist

Art Tatum (piano) and Roy Eldridge (trumpet)

CD

The Tatum Group Masterpieces Vol. 2 (Pablo 2045-425)

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Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano), Roy Eldridge (trumpet), John Simmons (bass), Alvin Stoller (drums).

Composed by Cole Porter

Recorded: Los Angeles, March 29, 1955

Rating: 96/100 (learn more)

Art Tatum had performed with Roy Eldridge back in 1944 at a famous concert by the Esquire All-Stars, but their paths rarely crossed afterwards until Norman Granz brought them into the studio a decade later as part of the producer's "Group Masters" project. The idea of matching Tatum with top-notch horn players sounded fine in theory, but with some exceptions, found the pianist playing over rather than with his colleagues. Yet his outing on "Night and Day" with trumpeter Roy Eldridge coheres better than one might expect. Eldridge was no stranger to battles on the bandstand, but here he focuses on sheer swing rather than try to match Tatum note-for-note. Simmons and Stoller are energized by his presence, and create a more supple pulse than one usually finds on the Granz-Tatum projects. The pianist is hardly chastened by this change of affairs, and continues to throw out his baroque runs and elaborate reconfigurations, but even he is infused with the groove. This may not quite match the impromptu give-and-take that Tatum achieved after hours in casual jams, but it comes closer than most of his studio sessions to capturing that ambiance.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Art Tatum: Have You Met Miss Jones?

Track

Have You Met Miss Jones?

Artist

Art Tatum (piano)

CD

Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 1 (Pablo PACD-2405-432-2)

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Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano).

Composed by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart

Recorded: Recorded between 1953 and 1955

Rating: 97/100 (learn more)

Has Art Tatum met Miss Jones? By the end of this five-minute track, Art has taken her uptown, downtown, out back, and round the block twice. He can even tell you if she has any sisters at home, and describe that birthmark behind her knee. Yes, he knows Miss Jones, and relates every detail in this keyboard jaunt. Here are all the Tatum trademarks: the effortless stride, the rapid-fire runs played with machine-like clarity, the modulations into the stratosphere and back, the "Look, Ma, three hands!" pyrotechnics. All well and good. But, after this, there isn't much left of Miss Jones for the next pianist.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Art Tatum: I Cover the Waterfront

Track

I Cover the Waterfront

Artist

Art Tatum (piano)

CD

The Complete Capitol Recordings of Art Tatum (Capitol 7243 8 21325 2 3)

Buy Track

Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano).

Composed by Johnny Green & Edward Heyman

Recorded: Los Angeles, July 13 & 25, 1949

Rating: 96/100 (learn more)

Art Tatum covers the whole keyboard, as well as the waterfront, on this bravura ballad. The late 1940s were a fertile period for Tatum. He was at the peak of his abilities and had a seemingly endless variety of piano tricks up his sleeves. He follows his usual formula here, playing the opening chorus out of tempo, then slipping into a steady stride at the midpoint of his journey. But even if his approach is tried and true, the song never gets boring when Tatum is running the show. I especially like the harmonic games he plays here, with passing chords and substitute changes to beat the band. Well, there was no band to beat, since the band beat it when they saw Tatum walk into the studio. But Tatum alone is band enough for me any day.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Art Tatum: Sophisticated Lady (Solo Masterpieces version)

Track

Sophisticated Lady

Artist

Art Tatum (piano)

CD

Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 1 (Pablo PACD-2405-432-2)

Buy Track

Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano).

Composed by Duke Ellington, Irving Mills & Mitchell Parish

Recorded: Recorded between 1953 and 1955

Rating: 97/100 (learn more)

Art Tatum recorded this same piece at his first commercial session back in 1933, but this updated performance shows how much he had matured during the intervening two decades. No he doesn't play any faster than he did back in the Great Depression -- he was already at the Einsteinian limits of keyboard speed from his first appearance on the scene. But his rhythmic approach on the later version is much freer, and his harmonic inventions even more inspired. He starts with an out-of-tempo melody statement, but soon is pulling out all his patented tricks -- two-handed acrobatics, heavy stride, bluesy asides, dipsy-doodle runs, and those thick chords that sound like twelve or thirteen fingers are spread out on the keyboard. A very sophisticated lady.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Art Tatum (performance recreated by Zenph Studios): I Know That You Know

Track

I Know That You Know

Artist

Art Tatum (piano)

CD

Piano Starts Here: Live at the Shrine (Sony Classical)

Buy Track

Musicians:

Art Tatum (piano),

Performance recreates Tatum’s live recording made on April 2, 1949 in this same location with Zenph Studio’s “re-performance” technology

Composed by Otto Harbach, Anne Caldwell O’Dea and Vincent Youmans

Recorded: Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, September 23, 2007

Rating: 100/100 (learn more)

Fats Waller once famously introduced Art Tatum with these oft-quoted words: "I just play the piano, but God is in the house tonight." Well, this performance concocted by the tech wizards at Zenph Studios must qualify as the artificial intelligence equivalent of God. Richard Dawkins will be happy about that, but jazz fans have even more reason to celebrate. This recording takes Tatum's brilliant 1949 concert at Shrine Auditorium, with its murky sound quality, and recreates it with Zenph's proprietary and controversial technology in a crystal-clear modern digital version.

Purists have carped about this (don't they always?), but I find it hard to understand how any jazz lover can listen to this music and not be exhilarated. I have cherished the original Tatum performance since my high school years, but now I can hear nuances and aspects of this familiar track that were lost until now. "I Know That You Know" is impressive even by Tatum's high standards. This must be one of the fastest solo piano outings in the history of jazz, and there are points where the pulse reaches a defibrillator-charged 400 beats per minute. Even the uninitiated will be awestruck by the dexterity required, but I am just as impressed by the harmonic movement in the half-time section, and the odd displacement of the left-hand accents in the opening melody statement. This is Tatum the trickster at his trickiest, and anyone who is blasé about Zenph's miracle-making or the music presented here gets sent off for six months hard labor at Czerny and Hanon before they are allowed a second listen.

Reviewer: Ted Gioia

LESTER YOUNG

2009-10-31T16:39:00.000-07:00

LESTER YOUNG

2009-10-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

Lester Young

)

Lester Young
Lester Willis Young
Background information
Birth name	Lester Willis Young
Also known as	"Prez"
Born	August 27, 1909(1909-08-27) Woodville, Mississippi
Origin	Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Died	March 15, 1959 (aged 49) New York City, New York
Genres	Jazz
Occupations	Saxophonist, clarinetist
Instruments	Tenor saxophone, clarinet
Years active	1933–1959
Labels	Verve

Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959^[1]) nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He was also known to play the trumpet, violin, and drums.

Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young is remembered as one of the finest, most influential players on his instrument, playing with a cool tone and sophisticated harmonies. He also became a jazz legend, inventing or popularizing much of the hipster ethos which came to be associated with the music.

[edit] Early life and career

Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi and grew up in a musical family. Young's father, Willis Handy Young, was a respected teacher, his brother Lee Young was a drummer, and several other relatives played music professionally. His family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana when Lester was an infant and later to Minneapolis. His father taught him to play the trumpet, violin, and drums in addition to the saxophone. He played in his family's band in both the vaudeville and carnival circuits. He left the family band in 1927 because he refused to tour in the Southern United States, where the Jim Crow Laws were in effect.

[edit] With the Count Basie Orchestra

In 1933 he settled in Kansas City, where after brief membership of several bands he rose to prominence with Count Basie, playing in a relaxed style which contrasted sharply with the aggressive approach of Coleman Hawkins, the dominant tenor player of the day.

Young left the Basie band to replace Hawkins in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra,^[2] but finding intolerable the pressure from Henderson's wife to play more like Hawkins, he soon left Henderson to join the Andy Kirk band (for six months) and, eventually, returned to Basie.

While with Basie he made small-group recordings for Milt Gabler's Commodore Records, The Kansas City Sessions, which although they were in fact recorded in New York (in 1938, with a reunion in 1944), are named after the group, the Kansas City Seven, and comprised Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, Basie, Young, Freddie Green, Rodney Richardson and Jo Jones. Young played clarinet as well as tenor on these sessions; he was a master of the clarinet, and there too, his style was entirely his own. As well as the Kansas City Sessions his clarinet work from 1938-39 is documented on recordings with Basie, Billie Holiday, Basie small groups, and the obscure organist Glenn Hardman. His clarinet was stolen in 1939, and he abandoned the instrument until about 1957, when Norman Granz gave him one and urged him to play it (with far different results at that stage in Young's life - see below).

[edit] Eccentric icon

Since the days of Joe "King" Oliver, jazz has bestowed lofty titles upon its ace practitioners. Bessie Smith graduated from "Queen of the Blues" to "Empress of the Blues," Benny Goodman was proclaimed "King of Swing", there was a "Duke" Ellington, a "Count" Basie, and Lester Young was dubbed Prez (short for president, a title given to him by Billie Holiday). "We called my mother 'the Duchess,'" Holiday said in a 1959 interview, "so he [Lester Young] named me 'Lady Day' and I called him 'Prez'--we were the royal family."^[3] It has been suggested that Young was called "Prez" long before meeting her, but there is no evidence of that.

Young was viewed as an eccentric by those he chose to exclude from his circle (those he did not trust). He did so by creating his own language that his friends could understand, that might baffle outsiders. Those on the outside viewed it as a rococo and often inscrutable personal slang, famously referring to a narcotics detective or policeman as a "Bob Crosby" (referring to Bob and Bing Crosby if multiple police officers were present), a rehearsal as a "molly trolley", and an instrumentalist's keys or fingers as his "people". He dressed distinctively, especially in his trademark pork pie hat. When he played saxophone, particularly in his younger days, he would sometimes hold the horn off to the right side at a near-horizontal angle, like a flute. Joop Visser believes that it was Lester's residence in the stuffy Reno Club with the Count Basie Band that caused this idiosyncrasy, as by holding it that way it was the only way Lester could keep his tenor sax from knocking into someone else's instrument. He is considered by many to be an early hipster, predating Slim Gaillard and Dizzy Gillespie.

[edit] Leaving Basie

Young left the Basie band in late 1940. He is rumored to have refused to play with the band on Friday, December 13th of that year for superstitious reasons, spurring his dismissal, although the truth of this rumor has been widely disputed. In any event, Lester did leave the band around that time and subsequently led a number of small groups that often included his brother, noted drummer Lee Young, for the next couple of years - some very notable live and broadcast recordings from this period exist.

During this period, Young accompanied Billie Holiday on a couple of studio sessions in 1940 and 1941, and also made a small set of recordings with Nat "King" Cole (their first of several collaborations) in June 1942. His studio recordings are relatively sparse during the 1942 to 1943 period, largely due to the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban of that period that reflected (the need of vinyl for) the war effort.

In December 1943, Young returned to the Basie fold for what ended up being a 10-month stint, cut short by his army induction (see below). Recordings made during this and subsequent periods suggest Young was beginning to make much greater use of a plastic reed, which tended to give his playing a somewhat heavier, breathier tone (although still quite smooth compared to that of many other players). While he certainly never abandoned the wooden reed, he did utilize the plastic reed a significant share of the time from 1943 until the end of his life. Another cause for the thickening of his tone around this time was a change in saxophone mouthpiece from a metal Otto Link to an ebonite Brilhart. In August 1944, Young appeared alongside drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, and fellow tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet in Gjon Mili's short film Jammin' the Blues.

[edit] Army induction and its effects

In September 1944, Young and Jo Jones were in Los Angeles with the Basie Band when they were inducted into the U.S. Army. Unlike many white musicians, who were placed in band outfits such as the ones led by Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw, Young was put in the 'regular army' where he wasn't allowed to play his saxophone. Young was based in Ft. McClellan, Alabama when marijuana and alcohol were found among his possessions. The army also discovered that he was married to a white woman. Racist mistreatment followed and he was soon court-martialed. Young did not fight the charges and was convicted. He served one year in a detention barracks^[2] and was dishonorably discharged in late 1945. His experience in the detention barracks inspired his composition "D.B. Blues" (with D.B. standing for detention barracks).

Some jazz historians have argued that Young's playing power declined in the years following his traumatic army experience, though critics such as Scott Yanow disagree with this entirely. Recordings show that his playing began to change before he was drafted. Some argue that Young's playing had an increasingly emotional slant to it, and the post-war period featured some of his greatest renditions of ballads.

[edit] Post-war recordings

Whatever the changes in his playing style, his career after World War II was far more prolific and lucrative than in the pre-war years, in terms of recordings made, live performances, and annual income. Young joined Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) troupe in 1946, touring regularly with them over the next 12 years, and made a significant number of studio recordings under Granz's supervision for his Verve Records label as well, including more trio recordings with Nat King Cole. Young also recorded extensively in the late 1940s for Aladdin Records (1946-7, where he had made the Cole recordings in 1942), and for Savoy (1944, '49 and '50) some sessions of which included Basie on piano.

While the quality and consistency of his playing arguably ebbed gradually in the latter half of the 1940s and into the early 1950s, he did give some brilliant performances during this stretch. Particularly noteworthy are his performances with JATP in 1946, 1949, and 1950—his solo on "Lester Leaps In" at the 1949 JATP concert at Carnegie Hall stands as perhaps one of the greatest solos by any jazz musician ever. The line-up for that concert included Charlie Parker and Roy Eldridge.

[edit] Struggle and revival

From around 1951, Young's level of playing began to decline more precipitously, as he began to drink more and more heavily. His playing increasingly demonstrated reliance on a small number of clichéd phrases and reduced creativity and originality, despite his claims that he did not want to be a "repeater pencil" (Young coined this phrase to describe the act of repeating one's own past ideas). A comparison of his studio recordings from 1952, such as the session with pianist Oscar Peterson, and those from 1953–1954 (all available on the Verve label) also demonstrates a declining command of his instrument and sense of timing, possibly due to both mental and physical factors. Young's playing and health went into a tailspin, culminating in a November 1955 hospital stint following a nervous breakdown.

He emerged from this treatment considerably improved, as evidenced by his January 1956 Granz-produced sessions with pianist Teddy Wilson (who had led the Billie Holiday recordings with Young in the 1930s). Another success that year was the Jazz Giants '56 session with Roy Eldridge, trombonist Vic Dickenson and other swing-era artists. All things considered, 1956 was a relatively good year for Lester Young, including a tour of Europe with Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Quartet and a successful stint at Olivia's Patio Lounge in Washington DC.

Throughout the 1940s and 50s Young had sat in on Count Basie Orchestra gigs from time to time. The best-known of these is their July 1957 appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, the line-up including many of Lester's old buddies: Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, Illinois Jacquet and Jimmy Rushing. His playing was in better shape than usual at this time, and he even managed to produce some of the old, smooth toned flow of the 1930s. Among other tunes he played a moving "Polkadots and Moonbeams", which was a favorite of his at that time.

[edit] The final years

On December 8, 1957, he appeared with Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, and Gerry Mulligan in the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz, performing Holiday's tunes "Lady Sings The Blues" and "Fine and Mellow". It was a reunion with Holiday, with whom he'd fallen out of contact for years, and who was also in decline at the end of her career, and the occasion elicited particularly moving performances from them both. Young's solo was brilliant, considered by many jazz musicians an unparalleled marvel of economy, phrasing and extraordinarily moving emotion. However, Young seemed gravely ill, and was the only horn player who was seated (except during his solo) during the performance. By this time his self-destructive habits had begun to take hold terminally. He was eating significantly less, drinking more and more, and suffering from liver disease and malnutrition. Young's sharply diminished physical strength in the final two years of his life yielded some recordings that manifested a frail tone, shortened phrases, and, on rare occasions, an alarming difficulty in getting any sound to come out of his horn at all.

Lester Young made his final studio recordings and live performances in Paris in March 1959 with drummer Kenny Clarke at the tail end of an abbreviated European tour during which he ate next to nothing and virtually drank himself to death. He died in the early morning hours of March 15, 1959, only hours after arriving back in New York, at the age of 49. He was buried at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn.^[4] According to renowned jazz critic Leonard Feather, who rode with Holiday in a taxi to Young's funeral, she told Feather on the ride over, "I'll be the next one to go." She died only four months later at the age of 44.

[edit] Posthumous dedications and influence

Charles Mingus dedicated an elegant elegy, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", for Young only a few months after his death.^[5] Wayne Shorter, then of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, composed a tribute, called "Lester Left Town".

Young's playing style influenced many other tenor saxophonists. Perhaps the most famous and successful of these were Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon, but he also influenced many in the cool movement such as Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Gerry Mulligan. Paul Quinichette modeled his style so closely on Young's that he was sometimes referred to as the 'Vice Prez'.^[6] Sonny Stitt began to incorporate elements from Lester Young's approach when he made the transition to tenor saxophone. Lester Young also had a direct influence on young Charlie Parker ("Bird"), and thus the entire be-bop movement. Indeed, recordings of Parker on tenor sax are similar in style to that of Young. Lesser known saxophonists, such as Warne Marsh, were strongly influenced by Young^{[citation needed]}.

Don Byron recorded the album Ivey-Divey in gratitude of what he learned from studying Lester Young's work, modeled after a 1956 trio date with Buddy Rich and Nat King Cole. "Ivey-Divey" was one of Lester Young's common eccentric phrases.

Young is a major character in English writer Geoff Dyer's 1991 fictional book about jazz, But Beautiful. "The Resurrection of Lady Lester" by OyamO (Charles F. Gordon) is a play and published book depicting Young's life; subtitled "A Poetic Mood Song Based on the Legend of Lester Young".

In the 1986 film Round Midnight, the fictional main character Dale Turner, played by Dexter Gordon, was partly based on Young - incorporating flashback references to his army experiences, and loosely depicting his time in Paris and his return to New York just before his death.

Acid Jazz/boogaloo band the Greyboy Allstars song "Tenor Man" is a tribute to Young. On their 1999 album "Live", saxophonist Karl Denson introduces the song by saying, "now some folks may have told you that Lester Young is out of style, but we're here to tell you that the Prez is happenin' right now." Those were literally the lyrics Rahsaan Roland Kirk wrote and sang to the melody of the Charles Mingus elegy, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat".

Peter Straub's short story collection Magic Terror (2000) contains a story called "Pork Pie Hat", a fictional account of the life of Lester Young. Straub was inspired by Young's appearance on the 1957 CBS-TV show, The Sound of Jazz, which he watched repeatedly, wondering how such a genius could have ended up such a human wreck.[1]

He is said to have popularized the term cool as slang for something fashionable.^[7] Another slang term he coined was the term "bread" for money. He would ask "How does the bread smell?" when asking how much a gig was going to pay. ^[8]

[edit] Discography

This section requires expansion.

The Complete Lester Young Studio Sessions on Verve - 8-CD boxed set (includes the only 2 Young interviews in existence)
Count Basie The Complete Decca Recordings (1937-39) -
The Kansas City Sessions (1938 and 1944) Commodore Records
The Complete Aladdin Recordings (1942-7) the 1942 Nat King Cole session and more from the post-war period
The Lester Young Trio (1946) - with Cole again, and Buddy Rich Verve Records
The Complete Savoy Recordings (1944-50)
One Night Stand - The Town Hall Concert 1947 - live recording
Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio (1952) Verve Records
Pres and Teddy (1956) Verve Records
The Jazz Giants '56 (1956) -
Lester Young in Washington, D.C., 1956 (5 volumes), with house-band the Bill Potts Trio.
Count Basie - At Newport (1957)

[edit] References

^ Lester Young at Find a Grave
^ ^a ^b The African American Registry - Lester Young
^ Interview with Chris Albertson at WHAT-FM, Philadelphia.
^ Lester Young at the Evergreens Cemetery
^ Mingus Ah Um at Allmusic - retrieved on July 17 2009
^ Jazz Legends: Paul Quinichette on Jazzimprov.com
^ - Online Eymology Dictionary
^ [ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112255870 - NPR Retrieved Aug. 28, 2009 ]

Luc Delannoy. Pres: The Story of Lester Young. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-264-1.

[edit] External links

The Legendary Lester Young: an article in the TLS by John Mole, July 18th 2007.
A detailed chronology of recordings featuring Lester Young
Who 2
Lester Young multimedia directory
Why Lester Young Matters by Ted Gioia (jazz.com)

DEXTER GORDON

2009-10-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

DEXTER GORDON

2009-10-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon
In concert with Dizzy Gillespie, Toronto August 19, 1978 Photo: Jean-Luc Ourlin
Background information
Also known as	Long Tall Dexter
Born	February 27, 1923(1923-02-27)
Origin	Los Angeles, CA, U.S.
Died	April 25, 1990 (aged 67)
Genres	Swing, Bop, Hard bop
Occupations	Composer, Bandleader, Musician, Actor
Instruments	Tenor saxophone
Years active	1940 – 1986
Labels	Blue Note, Savoy, Columbia
Associated acts	Dizzy Gillespie

Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923–April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and actor. He is considered one of the first bebop tenor players. A famous photograph by Herman Leonard of Gordon smoking a cigarette during a set at the Royal Roost in New York City in 1948 is one of the most iconic images in the history of jazz.

Gordon's height was 6 feet 6 inches (about 198 cm), and so consequently he was also known as 'Long Tall Dexter'. He played a Conn 10M 'Ladyface' tenor ^[1] until the early 1960s, at which point he switched over to a Selmer Mark VI. His saxophone was fitted with an Otto Link metal mouthpiece, which can be seen in various photos.

Gordon's father, Dr. Frank Gordon, M.D., is one of the first prominent African-American physicians and a graduate from Howard University.

Dexter's maternal grandfather is Captain Edward L. Baker, one of the 5 Medal of Honor winners (9th Cav.) in the Spanish-American War and served in the 9th and 10th Cavalries - in the group known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Gordon was born and grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a doctor who counted Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton among his patients. He played clarinet from the age of 13, before switching to saxophone (initially alto, then tenor) at 15. While still at school, he was playing in bands with such contemporaries as Chico Hamilton and Buddy Collette.^[2]

Between 1940 and 1943, Gordon was a member of Lionel Hampton's band, playing in a saxophone section alongside Illinois Jacquet and Marshall Royal. In 1943 he made his first recordings under his own name, alongside Nat Cole and Harry Edison. During 1943-44 he featured in the Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson bands, before joining Billy Eckstine.

By 1945, Gordon had left the Eckstine band and was resident in New York, where he was performing and recording with Charlie Parker, as well as recording under his own name. Gordon was a virtuoso particularly famous for his titanic saxophone duels with fellow tenorman Wardell Gray, that were a popular live attraction and that were documented in several albums between 1947 and 1952.

Many would characterise Gordon's sound as being 'large' and spacious (a feature partially owed to his big'n'tall physical stature), and his tendency to play behind the beat is discernible. One of his major influences was Lester Young. Gordon, in turn, was an early influence on John Coltrane during the 1940s and 1950s. Coltrane's playing, however, during his early period from the mid to late '50s or early '60s influenced Gordon's playing from then onward. Similarities in their styles include their clear, strong, metallic tones, their tendencies to bend up to high notes, and their abilities to single-tongue and still swing. One of Gordon's idiosyncrasies was to recite the lyrics of each ballad before playing it.

[edit] Blue Note recordings

Dexter Gordon in Amsterdam (1980)

Gordon was saxophonist for the L.A. production of the Jack Gelber play The Connection' in 1960, replacing Jackie McLean who performed and recorded the Freddie Redd score in New York City. By this time he had begun recording for Blue Note Records a collaboration that was to produce some of his most highly-regarded work on the albums Doin' Alright, Dexter Calling..., Go, and A Swingin' Affair. The first two, his Blue Note debuts, were recorded over three days in May 1961 with Freddie Hubbard, Horace Parlan and others. The last two were recorded in August 1962 just before Gordon left for his extended stay in Europe. On these albums the rhythm section was Blue Note staples Sonny Clark, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins.

[edit] Years in Europe

After that, he spent 15 years in Europe, mostly in Paris and Copenhagen, where he played regularly with fellow expatriate jazzmen such as Bud Powell, Ben Webster, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Kenny Drew, Horace Parlan and Billy Higgins. Gordon also visited the States occasionally for further recording dates with Blue Note Records. From this period Our Man in Paris, One Flight Up, and Gettin' Around are regarded as among his finest sessions. Our Man in Paris was a Blue Note session recorded in Paris, France in 1963 with a quartet including pianist Bud Powell, drummer Kenny Clarke, and French bassist Pierre Michelot. One Flight Up features an extended solo by Gordon on the track "Tanya" recorded in Paris in 1964 with trumpeter Donald Byrd, while Gettin' Around was recorded during a visit back to the US in May 1965, as was the unreleased album Clubhouse.

Less well-known, but of similar quality, are the albums he recorded during the same period for the Danish label SteepleChase (Something Different, Bouncin' With Dex, and a few dozen others). They feature American sidemen but also such Europeans as Spanish pianist Tete Montoliu and Danish bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen.

Gordon found Europe in the 1960s a much easier place to live, saying that he experienced less racism and greater respect for jazz musicians. Furthermore in America he had experienced drug addiction and imprisonment (twice), and must have found the change of location helpful. While in Copenhagen, Dexter Gordon and Kenny Drew's trio appeared onscreen in Ole Ege's theatrically released hardcore pornographic film Pornografi (1971), for which they composed and performed the score^[3].

From 1965-1973 he switched from Blue Note to Prestige Records but stayed very much on the hard-bop track, while the rest of the jazz-world was getting funky Gordon was making classic bop albums like 1972's Tangerine with Thad Jones, Freddie Hubbard, and Hank Jones. Some of the Prestige albums were recorded during visits back to North America while he was still living in Europe, others were made in Europe including live sets from the Montreux Jazz Festival. The American recordings included The Chase a tenor battle with Gene Ammons cut in Chicago in 1970.

[edit] Homecoming

at The Village Vanguard in 1977

Gordon finally returned to the United States for good in 1976. He appeared at the Village Vanguard, NY, for a gig that was dubbed as his 'homecoming;' and was recorded and released under that title. He noted 'There was so much love and elation; sometimes it was a little eerie at the Vanguard. After the last set they'd turn on the lights and nobody would move'.

After this appearance, Gordon recorded several more albums that proved he was as good if not better than before his years in Europe, and he finally gained appreciation as one of the great jazz tenors. The increased attention that he received because of Columbia Records promotions has been seen as a turning point in jazz because they focused on acoustic jazz rather than the commercial cross-over styles which had been heavily promoted during the first part of the 1970s.

Gordon made several notable film appearances. The first occurred, oddly enough, while he was in prison for possession of heroin. He portrayed an inmate playing in the prison band in Unchained, though the soundtrack was later overdubbed. In 1986, Gordon starred in the movie Round Midnight as 'Dale Turner', an expatriate jazz musician much like himself; the role might even be a thinly veiled biography of him, though Lester Young and Bud Powell were its main inspirations. Gordon received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal. In addition, he had a non-speaking role in the film Awakenings, which was released after his death. Between these two roles, Gordon made a guest appearance on the Michael Mann series Crime Story.

Gordon died of kidney failure on April 25, 1990, at age 67. He was voted musician of the year by Down Beat magazine in 1978 and 1980, and in the latter year was inducted into Down Beat's Jazz Hall of Fame.

[edit] Family

Dexter Gordon had a total of six children, from the oldest to the youngest: Robin Gordon (Los Angeles, CA), James Canales Gordon (Oakland, CA), Deidre (Dee Dee) Gordon (Los Angeles, CA), Mikael Gordon-Solfors (Stockholm, Sweden), Morten Gordon (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Benjamin Dexter Gordon (Copenhagen, Denmark)and three grandchildren Raina Moore(Brooklyn, NY), Jared Johnson (Los Angeles, CA), Matthew Johnson (Los Angeles, CA).

When he lived in Denmark, he became friends with the family of the future Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, and subsequently became Lars's godfather.^[4]

[edit] Discography

[edit] As Leader

Dexter Rides Again (1945)
The Hunt w Wardell Gray (1947)
The Duel w Teddy Edwards (1947)
Daddy Plays the Horn (1955)
Dexter Blows Hot and Cool (1955)
The Resurgence of Dexter Gordon (1960)
Doin' Alright (1961), Blue Note Records
Dexter Calling (1961), Blue Note
Go! (1962), Blue Note
A Swingin' Affair (1962), Blue Note
Our Man in Paris (Paris 1963), Blue Note - w Bud Powell
One Flight Up (Paris, 1964) - Blue Note
King Neptune (1964)
Gettin' Around (New York, 1965)
Tangerine (1965)
The Squirrel: Live at Montmartre (1967)
Tower of Power (1969) - w James Moody
More Power (1969)
The Panther (1970) w Tommy Flanagan and Alan Dawson. Prestige Records
The Chase (1970) w Gene Ammons Prestige
Tangerine (1972) hard bop with Freddie Hubbard and others - Prestige
The Apartment (1974) - SteepleChase
Something Different (1975), SteepleChase
Bouncin' with Dex (1975), SteepleChase
Homecoming: Live at the Village Vanguard (1976)
True Blue w/ Al Cohn (1976; Xanadu Records)
Silver Blue w/ Al Cohn (1976; Xanadu Records)
Sophisticated Giant (1977) with 11-piece big-band including Woody Shaw, Slide Hampton, Bobby Hutcherson - Columbia Records
Gotham City (1980), Columbia Records
American Classic [featuring: Grover Washington Jr. and Shirley Scott] (1982) Elektra Entertainment
Round Midnight (Soundtrack) (1986), Columbia Records
The Other Side of Round Midnight (1986) Blue Note Records
Biting The Apple (1976) - SteepleChase

[edit] References

^ http://www.mantor.info/Einar%20Iversen/Bilder/Dexter%20_Gordon.jpg
^ Joop Visser, essay booklet with Settin' the Pace
^ Jazz on the Screen
^ http://books.google.com/books?id=6LwTMoqykcYC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=dexter+gordon+ulrich&source=bl&ots=RKt5LcM-M1&sig=ZpwJjocoJqqXncNN6hDXj5YgnRM&hl=en&ei=5bPqSZyUIpKEtwejysCdBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9

[edit] External links

The Official Dexter Gordon Website
Dexter Gordon: 12 Essential Tracks by Eric Novod (www.jazz.com)
Sophisticated Giant: The Dexter Gordon Discography
Dexter Gordon at the Internet Movie Database
Dexter Gordon Multimedia Directory

ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT

2009-10-29T04:07:00.002-07:00

BLUE MONK

2009-10-29T04:07:00.001-07:00

THELONIOUS MONK

2009-10-29T04:02:00.000-07:00

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk, foreground, performing at Expo 67 in Montreal. (Credit: Library and Archives Canada)
Background information
Birth name	Thelonious Monk
Born	October 10, 1917(1917-10-10) Rocky Mount, North Carolina, U.S.
Origin	Rocky Mount, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	February 17, 1982 (aged 64) Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, bebop, hard bop
Occupations	Pianist, composer
Instruments	Piano
Labels	Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, Columbia
Website	http://www.monkzone.com

Thelonious Sphere Monk^[1] (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer who, according to The Penguin Guide to Jazz, was "one of the giants of American music".^[2] Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy," "'Round Midnight," "Blue Monk," "Straight, No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't."

Often regarded as a founder of bebop, Monk's playing style later evolved away from that style. His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are impossible to separate from Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations.

Monk's manner was idiosyncratic. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctively "hip" sartorial style in suits, hats and sunglasses. He was also noted for the fact that at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. One of his regular dances consisted of continuously turning in a counterclockwise fashion, which has drawn comparisons to ring-shout and Sufi whirling.

He is one of only five jazz musicians to be featured on the cover of Time (the other four being Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, and Dave Brubeck).^[3]

Early life

Monk was born October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of Thelonious and Barbara Monk, two years after his sister Marion. A brother, Thomas, was born a couple of years later. In 1922, the family moved to 243 West 63rd Street, in Manhattan, New York City. Monk started playing the piano at the age of six. Although he had some formal training and eavesdropped on his sister's piano lessons, he was essentially self-taught. Monk attended Stuyvesant High School, but did not graduate. He briefly toured with an evangelist in his teens, playing the church organ, and in his late teens he began to find work playing jazz.

Monk is believed to be the pianist featured on recordings Jerry Newman made around 1941 at Minton's Playhouse, at a time when Monk was the house pianist at the Manhattan club. Monk's style at this time was later described as "hard-swinging," with the addition of runs in the style of Art Tatum. Monk's stated influences include Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, and other early stride pianists. Monk's unique piano style was largely perfected during his stint as the house pianist at Minton's in the early-to-mid 1940s, when he participated in the famous after-hours "cutting competitions" that featured most of the leading jazz soloists of the day. The Minton's scene was crucial in the formulation of the bebop genre and it brought Monk into close contact and collaboration with other leading exponents of bebop, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker and later, Miles Davis.

Mary Lou Williams, among others, has spoken of Monk's rich inventiveness in this period, and how such invention was vital for musicians since at the time it was common for fellow musicians to incorporate overheard musical ideas into their own works without giving due credit. "So, the boppers worked out a music that was hard to steal. I'll say this for the `leeches', though: they tried. I've seen them in Minton's busily writing on their shirt cuffs or scribbling on the tablecloth. And even our own guys, I'm afraid, did not give Monk the credit he had coming. Why, they even stole his idea of the beret and bop glasses."^[4]

[edit] Early recordings (1944–1954)

In 1944 Monk made his first studio recordings with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet. Hawkins was among the first prominent jazz musicians to promote Monk, and Monk later returned the favor by inviting Hawkins to join him on the 1957 session with John Coltrane. Monk made his first recordings as leader for Blue Note in 1947 (later anthologised on Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1) which showcased his talents as a composer of original melodies for improvisation. Monk married Nellie Smith the same year, and in 1949 the couple had a son, T. S. Monk, who is a jazz drummer. A daughter, Barbara (affectionately known as Boo-Boo), was born in 1953.

In August 1951, New York City police searched a parked car occupied by Monk and friend Bud Powell. The police found narcotics in the car, presumed to have belonged to Powell. Monk refused to testify against his friend, so the police confiscated his New York City Cabaret Card. Without the all-important cabaret card he was unable to play in any New York venue where liquor was served, and this severely restricted his ability to perform for several crucial years. Monk spent most of the early and mid-1950s composing, recording, and performing at theaters and out-of-town gigs.

After his cycle of intermittent recording sessions for Blue Note during 1947–1952, he was under contract to Prestige Records for the following two years. With Prestige he cut several under-recognized, but highly significant albums, including collaborations with saxophonist Sonny Rollins and drummer Art Blakey. In 1954, Monk participated in a Christmas Eve session which produced most of the albums Bags' Groove and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants by Miles Davis. Davis found Monk's idiosyncratic accompaniment style difficult to improvise over and asked him to lay out (not accompany), which almost brought them to blows. However, in Miles Davis' autobiography Miles, Davis claims that the anger and tension between Monk and himself never took place and that the claims of blows being exchanged were "rumors" and a "misunderstanding".

In 1954, Monk paid his first visit to Europe, performing and recording in Paris. It was here that he first met Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter, a member of the Rothschild banking family of England and a patroness of several New York City jazz musicians. She would be a close friend for the rest of Monk's life.

[edit] Riverside Records (1955–1961)

At the time of his signing to Riverside, Monk was highly regarded by his peers and by some critics, but his records did not sell in significant numbers, and his music was still regarded as too "difficult" for mass-market acceptance. Indeed, with Monk's consent, Riverside had managed to buy out his previous Prestige contract for a mere $108.24. His breakthrough came thanks to a compromise between Monk and the label, which convinced him to record two albums of his interpretations of jazz standards.

His debut for Riverside, which featured bass innovator Oscar Pettiford, was built around Monk's distinctive interpretations of a selection of well-known pieces by Duke Ellington, including "Caravan" and "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". The resulting album, Thelonious Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington, was designed to bring Monk to a wider audience, and pave the way for a broader acceptance of his unique style.

Finally, on the 1956 LP Brilliant Corners, Monk was able to record his own music. The complex title track, which featured tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, was so difficult to play that the final version had to be edited together from multiple takes. The album, however, was largely regarded as the first success for Monk; according to Orrin Keepnews, "It was the first that made a real splash."

After having his cabaret card restored, Monk relaunched his New York career with a landmark six-month residency at the Five Spot Cafe in New York beginning in June 1957, leading a quartet with John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Wilbur Ware on bass, and Shadow Wilson on drums. Unfortunately little of this group's music was documented due to contractual problems, Coltrane being signed to Prestige at the time. One short studio session was made for Riverside (only released later by its subsidiary Jazzland in 1961) and a larger group recording featuring Coltrane was split between that album and Monk's Music; an amateur tape from the Five Spot (not the original residency, but a later September 1958 reunion with Coltrane sitting in for Johnny Griffin) was issued on Blue Note in 1993; and a recording of the quartet performing at a Carnegie Hall concert on November 29, previously "rumoured to exist",^[5] was recorded in high fidelity by Voice of America, was rediscovered in the collection of the Library of Congress in 2005 and released by Blue Note.

The Five Spot residency ended Christmas 1957, Coltrane left to rejoin Miles Davis's seminal sextet, and the band was effectively disbanded. Monk did not form another long-term band until June 1958, when he began a second residency at the Five Spot, again with a quartet, this time with Griffin (and later Charlie Rouse) on tenor, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums.

On October 15, 1958, the residency having ended and en route to a week-long engagement for the quartet at the Comedy Club in Baltimore, Maryland, Monk and de Koenigswarter were detained by police in Wilmington, Delaware. When Monk refused to answer the policemen's questions or cooperate with them, they beat him with a blackjack. Though the police were authorized to search the vehicle and found narcotics in suitcases held in the trunk of the Baroness's car, Judge Christie of the Delaware Superior Court ruled that the unlawful detention of the pair, and the beating of Monk, rendered the consent to the search void as given under duress. State v. De Koenigswarter, 177 A.2d 344 (Del. Super. 1962). Monk was represented by Theophilus Nix, the second African-American member of the Delaware Bar Association.

[edit] Columbia Records (1962–1970)

In 1962, Monk signed to Columbia Records, one of the big four American record labels of the day along with RCA Victor, Capitol, and Decca. He had not recorded a studio album since 5 By Monk By 5 in June of 1959, a year that had seen the dual innovations of free jazz by Ornette Coleman, and modal jazz by Miles Davis via his landmark LP on Columbia, Kind of Blue, enter the jazz world. Monk jumped ship to Columbia as he ran out his contract to Riverside via a series of live albums, working with producer Teo Macero on his debut for the label.^[6] Featuring a stable line-up that had been with him for two years, tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse (who worked with Monk from 1959 to 1970), bassist John Ore, and drummer Frankie Dunlop, sessions in the first week of November yielded the Columbia debut released in 1963, Monk's Dream.

Columbia's resources allowed Monk to be promoted more widely than earlier in his career. Monk's Dream would remain the best-selling LP of his lifetime,^[7] and on February 28, 1964, Monk appeared on the cover of Time magazine, being featured in the article, "The Loneliest Monk".^[8] He continued to record a number of well-reviewed studio albums, particularly the debut, Criss Cross also from 1963, and Underground from 1968. But by the Columbia years his compositional output was limited, and only his final Columbia studio record Underground featured a substantial number of new tunes, including his only waltz time piece, "Ugly Beauty".

As had been the case with Riverside, his period with Columbia Records contains many live albums, including Miles and Monk at Newport (1963), Live at the It Club and Live at the Jazz Workshop, both recorded in 1964, the latter not being released until 1982. After the departure of Ore and Dunlop, the remainder of the rhythm section in Monk's quartet during the bulk of his Columbia period was Larry Gales on bass and Ben Riley on drums, both of whom joined in 1964 and would, along with Rouse, be his longest-serving band for over four years.

[edit] Later life

Monk had disappeared from the scene by the mid-1970s, and made only a small number of appearances during the final decade of his life. His last studio recordings as a leader were made in November 1971 for the English Black Lion label, near the end of a worldwide tour with "The Giants of Jazz", a group which also included Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding, Sonny Stitt, Al McKibbon and Art Blakey. Bassist Al McKibbon, who had known Monk for over twenty years and played on his final tour in 1971, later said: "On that tour Monk said about two words. I mean literally maybe two words. He didn't say 'Good morning', 'Goodnight', 'What time?' Nothing. Why, I don't know. He sent word back after the tour was over that the reason he couldn't communicate or play was that Art Blakey and I were so ugly."^[9] A different side of Monk is revealed in Lewis Porter's biography, John Coltrane: His Life and Music; Coltrane states: "Monk is exactly the opposite of Miles [Davis]: he talks about music all the time, and he wants so much for you to understand that if, by chance, you ask him something, he'll spend hours if necessary to explain it to you."^[10]

The documentary film Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988) attributes Monk's quirky behaviour to mental illness. In the film, Monk's son, T. S. Monk, says that his father sometimes did not recognize him, and he reports that Monk was hospitalized on several occasions due to an unspecified mental illness that worsened in the late 1960s. No reports or diagnoses were ever publicized, but Monk would often become excited for two or three days, pace for days after that, after which he would withdraw and stop speaking. Physicians recommended electroconvulsive therapy as a treatment option for Monk's illness, but his family would not allow it; antipsychotics and lithium were prescribed instead.^[11]^[12] Other theories abound: Leslie Gourse, author of the book Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk (1997), reported that at least one of Monk's psychiatrists failed to find evidence of manic depression or schizophrenia. Others blamed Monk's behavior on intentional and inadvertent drug use: Monk was unknowingly administered LSD, and may have taken peyote with Timothy Leary. Another physician maintains that Monk was misdiagnosed and prescribed drugs during his hospital stay that may have caused brain damage.^[11]

As his health declined, Monk's last six years were spent as a guest in the New Jersey home of his long-standing patron, Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter, who had also nursed Charlie Parker during his final illness. Monk didn't play the piano during this time, even though one was present in his room, and he spoke to few visitors. Monk died of a stroke on February 17, 1982 and was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. In 1993, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award,^[13] and in 2006, Monk was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.^[14]

[edit] Tributes

Poster for the the Clint Eastwood produced documentary film Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser

Gunther Schuller wrote the work Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk (1960, for 13 instruments) for Monk. It was later performed and recorded by other artists, including: Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and Bill Evans.

In the 2005 movie Dave Chappelle's Block Party, drummer Questlove shares the information that of the two songs which Dave Chappelle can play on the piano, one is Monk's Round Midnight. Chappelle plays two versions of the song during this revelation.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Blue Note Records (1948-1952)

Main article: Thelonious Monk Blue Note Sessions

Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1 (1947 Blue Note recordings)
Wizard of the Vibes (Milt Jackson: 1948 Blue Note recordings)
Genius of Modern Music: Volume 2 (1951–1952 Blue Note recordings)

[edit] Prestige Records (1952-1954)

Thelonious Monk Trio (Prestige 7027), 1952-4
Monk (Prestige 7053) recorded 1953-4
Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins (Prestige 7075), recorded 1953-4

Bean and the Boys (Prestige 7824) 1944

With Miles Davis

Bags' Groove (Prestige, 1954)
Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (Prestige, 1954)

With Sonny Rollins

Moving Out (Prestige 7058) 1954 (on one track)
Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 (Blue Note, 1957)

With Gigi Gryce

Nica's Tempo (Savoy, 1955)

With Clark Terry

In Orbit (Riverside, 1958)

[edit] Compilations

Monk's Greatest Hits (1968)
April in Paris (Monk album)|April in Paris (1981 2-LP set of the 18 April 1961 Paris recordings)
Monk's Classic Recordings (1983)
Blues Five Spot (1984, unissued recordings from 1958-61, with various saxophonists and Thad Jones, cornet)
Live at Monterey Jazz Festival '63 (sept. 21-2, 1963, MFSL, 2 vols. issued 1996-7 )
Something in Blue, Nice Work in London, Blue Sphere and The Man I Love (all 1971 recordings, collected in The London Collection 1988, three CDs)
Midnight at Minton's (c.1941, issued 1973 under Don Byas' name. Monk does not play on all tracks of this or the other two CDs of 1941 material)
After Hours (1973 album)|After Hours (c.1941, issued 1973 under Charlie Christian's name)
After Hours in Harlem (c.1941, issued 1973 under Hot Lips Page's name
The Complete Prestige Recordings of Thelonious Monk (2000, 3 CD, Prestige)
The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk (1994, 4 CD, Blue Note)
The Complete Riverside Recordings of Thelonious Monk (1991, 15 CD, Riverside)
Monk Alone: The Complete Solo Studio Recordings of Thelonious Monk 1962-1968 (1998, 2 CD, Sony)
The London Collection (1988, 3 CD)
The Columbia Years: '62-'68 (2001, 3 CD, Sony)
The Complete Vogue Recordings/The Black Lion Sessions (1954-71) (3LP, Mosaic Records|Mosaic)

NINA SIMONE LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME

2009-10-25T23:46:00.000-07:00

NINA SIMONE AIN'T GOT NO ......

2009-10-25T23:45:00.001-07:00

NINA SIMONE

2009-10-25T23:44:00.001-07:00

BIOGRAPHY

(Photograph by Javier Collados)

Nina Simone

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Nina Simone
Nina Simone in 1969. The photo by Jackie Robinson was used as the cover of Simone's posthumous compilation album Forever Young, Gifted & Black
Background information
Born	February 21, 1933(1933-02-21) Tryon, North Carolina United States
Died	April 21, 2003 (aged 70) Carry-le-Rouet France
Genres	Jazz, blues, soul, R&B, folk, gospel
Years active	1954—2003
Labels	RCA Victor, Philips, Bethlehem, Colpix, Legacy Recordings
Website	www.ninasimone.com

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone /ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/ (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist. Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is arguably^[who?] most associated with her performance of jazz music. Simone originally aspired to become a classical pianist, but her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles that include classical music, jazz, the blues, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop music. Her vocal style is characterized by intense passion, a loose vibrato, and a slightly androgynous timbre, in part due to her unusually low vocal range which veered between the alto and tenor ranges (occasionally even reaching baritone lows). Also known as The High Priestess of Soul, she paid great attention to the musical expression of emotions. Within one album or concert she could fluctuate between exuberant happiness and tragic melancholy. These fluctuations also characterized her own personality and personal life, worsened by bipolar disorder with which she was diagnosed during the mid-1960s, but was kept secret until 2004 after her death.^[1]

Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, the greatest body of her work being released between 1958 (when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue) and 1974. Songs she is best known for include "My Baby Just Cares for Me", "I Put a Spell on You", "Four Women", "I Loves You Porgy", "Feeling Good", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Sinnerman", "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", "Mississippi Goddamn", "Ain't Got No, I Got Life" and "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl".

Her music and message made a strong and lasting impact on culture^[2], illustrated by the numerous contemporary artists who cite her as an important influence (see "Legacy and influence"). Many hip hop and other modern artists sample and remix Simone's rhythms and beats on their tracks. In particular, Talib Kweli and Mos Def routinely pay tribute to her outstanding and soulful musical style. Many of her songs are featured on motion picture soundtracks, as well as in videogames, commercials and TV series.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Youth (1933–1954)

Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina one of eight children in a poor family. She began playing piano at the age of 3, her first song she learned was "God be With You, Till we Meet Again" and she continued to play at her local church and showed talent with this instrument. Her concert debut, a classical piano recital, was made at the age of twelve. During her performance, her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for Caucasian people. Simone says she refused to play until her parents were moved back to the front.^[3]^[4] This incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement.

Cover of Simone's debut album Little Girl Blue (1958), also known as Jazz as Played in an Exclusive Side Street Club

Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon (who lived into her late 90s) was a strict Methodist minister; her father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman and sometime barber who suffered bouts of ill-health. Mrs. Waymon worked as a maid and her employer, hearing of Nina's talent, provided funds for piano lessons.^[5] Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist in Eunice's continued education. At age 17, Simone moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Simone encountered more racism here when applying for a scholarship at a local college. She completed a paper testing her skills and passed admirably, and there were people around who could clearly see the talent she possessed. Yet she failed to get a scholarship. When Simone confronted the examiner and asked why she was not accepted for a scholarship, the examiner told her "because you're black." Another black 'child prodigy' of the same period who apparently experienced this blatant racism of rejection was Philippa Schuyler from New York City.

This is where Simone's real passion about the Civil Rights Movement started. Whilst here she taught piano and accompanied singers to fund her own studying as a classical music pianist at New York City's Juilliard School of Music. With the help of a private tutor she studied for an interview to further study piano at the Curtis Institute, but she was rejected. Simone believed that this rejection was related directly to her being black, as well as being a woman.^[6]

[edit] Early success (1954–1959)

Simone played at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City to fund her study. The owner said that she would have to sing as well as play the piano in order to get the job. She adopted the stage name "Nina Simone" in 1954 because she did not want her mother to know that she was playing "the devil's music". "Nina" (from "niña", meaning "little girl" in Spanish) was a nickname a boyfriend had given to her and "Simone" was after the French actress Simone Signoret, whom she had seen in the movie Casque d'or.^[7] Simone played and sang a mixture of jazz, blues and classical music at the bar, and by doing so she created a small but loyal fan base.^[8]

After playing in small clubs she recorded a rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess) in 1958, which was learned from a Billie Holiday album and performed as a favor to a friend. It became her only Billboard top 40 success in the United States, and her debut album Little Girl Blue soon followed on Bethlehem Records. Simone would never benefit financially from the album; she sold the rights for $3000, missing out on more than $1 million of royalties (mainly because of the successful re-release of "My Baby Just Cares for Me" during the 1980s).^[9]

[edit] Becoming "popular" (1959-1964)

After the success of Little Girl Blue, Simone signed a contract with the larger company Colpix Records, followed by a string of studio and live albums. Colpix relinquished all creative control, including the choice of material that would be recorded, to her in exchange for her contracting with them. Simone, who at this point only performed popular music to make money to continue her classical music studies, was bold with her demand for control over her music because she was indifferent about having a recording contract. She would keep this attitude towards the record industry for most of her career.^[10]

[edit] Civil rights era (1964–1974)

This photo of Simone on the cover of Silk & Soul (1967) is characteristic of her stage appearance in the mid-sixties

During 1964, she changed record distributors, from the American Colpix to the Dutch Philips, which also meant a change in the contents of her recordings. Simone had always included songs in her repertoire that hinted about her African-American origins (such as "Brown Baby" and "Zungo" on Nina at the Village Gate during 1962). But on her debut album for Philips, Nina Simone In Concert (live recording, 1964), Simone for the first time openly addresses the racial inequality that she believed was prevalent in the United States with the song "Mississippi Goddam". It was her response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four black children. The song was released as a single, being boycotted in certain southern states.^[2]^[11] With "Old Jim Crow" on the same album she reacts to the Jim Crow Laws.

From then onwards, a civil rights message was standard in Simone's recording repertoire, where it had already become a part of her live performances. Simone performed and spoke at many civil rights meetings, such as at the Selma to Montgomery marches.^[12] She covered Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" (on Pastel Blues (1965)), a song about the lynching of black men in the South, and sang the W. Cuney poem "Images" on Let It All Out (1966), about the absence of pride in the African-American woman. Simone wrote Four Women, a song about four different stereotypes of African-American women.^[2]. and sings it on Wild Is the Wind (1966).

Simone moved from Philips to RCA Victor during 1967. She sang "Backlash Blues", written by her friend Langston Hughes on her first RCA album, Nina Simone Sings The Blues (1967). On Silk & Soul (1967) she recorded Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Turning Point". The album Nuff Said (1968) contains live recordings from the Westbury Music Fair, April 7, 1968, three days after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. She dedicated the whole performance to him and sang "Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)", a song written by her bass player directly after the news of King's death had reached them.^[13]

Together with Weldon Irvine, Simone turned the late Lorraine Hansberry's unfinished play "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" into a civil rights song. She performed it live on the album Black Gold (1970). A studio recording was released as a single, and the song has been covered by Aretha Franklin (on 1972s Young, Gifted and Black) and Donny Hathaway.^[2]^[14]

[edit] Later life (1974–2003)

Cover of Simone's last album A Single Woman (1993)

Simone left the United States during September 1970. She flew to Barbados, expecting her husband and manager, Andrew Stroud, to communicate with her when she had to perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance (and the fact that she had left behind her wedding ring) as a cue for a divorce. As her manager, Stroud was also in charge of Simone's income. This meant that after their separation Simone did not have any knowledge about how her business was managed and what she was actually worth. Upon returning to the United States, she also learned that she was wanted for unpaid taxes, causing her to go back to Barbados again to evade the authorities and prosecution.^[15] Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time, and had a lengthy affair with the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow.^[16]^[17] A close friend, singer Miriam Makeba, persuaded her to go to Liberia. After that she lived in Switzerland and the Netherlands, before settling in France during 1992.

She recorded her last album for RCA Records, It Is Finished, during 1974. It was not until 1978 that Simone was persuaded by CTI Records owner Creed Taylor to record another album, Baltimore. While not a commercial success, the album did get good reviews and marked a quiet artistic renaissance in Simone's recording output.^[18] Her choice of material retained its eclecticism, ranging from spiritual songs to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl". Four years later Simone recorded Fodder On My Wings on a French label. During the 1980s Simone performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, where the album Live at Ronnie Scott's was recorded during 1984. Though her on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her audiences by recounting sometimes humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and soliciting requests. In 1987, the original 1958 recording of My Baby Just Cares For Me was used in an advert for Chanel No. 5 perfume in the UK. This led to a re-release which stormed to number 5 in the UK singles chart giving her a brief surge in popularity in the UK. Her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, was published during 1992 and she recorded her last album, A Single Woman, in 1993.

During 1993 Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. She had been ill with breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône on April 21, 2003. Her funeral service was attended by singers Miriam Makeba and Patti Labelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actor Ossie Davis and hundreds of others. Elton John sent a floral tribute with the message "We were the greatest and I love you".^[19] Simone's ashes were scattered in several African countries. She left behind a daughter, Lisa Celeste, now an actress/singer who took on the stage name Simone who has appeared on Broadway in Aida.^[20]

[edit] Musical style

[edit] Simone standards

Throughout her career, Simone gathered a collection of songs that would become standards in her repertoire (apart from the civil rights songs) and for which she is still remembered, even though most of these songs didn't do well on the charts at the time. These songs were self-written tunes, cover versions (usually with a new arrangement by Simone), or songs written especially for Simone. Her first hit song in America was a cover of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (1958). It peaked at number 18 in the pop singles chart and number 2 on the black singles chart.^[21] During that same period Simone recorded "My Baby Just Cares for Me", which would become her biggest success years later in 1987, when it was featured in a Chanel no. 5 perfume commercial. A music video was then created by Aardman Studios.^[22]

Well known songs from her Philips albums include "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964), "I Put a Spell on You", "Ne Me Quitte Pas" (a Jacques Brel cover) and "Feeling Good" on I Put A Spell On You (1965), "Lilac Wine" and "Wild Is the Wind" on Wild is the Wind (1966).^[23] Especially the songs "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Feeling Good" and "Sinnerman" (Pastel Blues, 1965) have great popularity today in terms of cover versions (most notably The Animals's version of the former song), sample usage and its use on various movie-, TV-series- and videogame soundtracks. "Sinnerman" in particular has been featured on movies like The Thomas Crown Affair, Miami Vice and Inland Empire, and sampled by artists like Talib Kweli and Timbaland. The song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was sampled by Devo Springsteen on "Misunderstood" from Common's 2007 album "Finding Forever, and by little-known producers Rodnae and Mousa for the song "Don't Get It" on Lil Wayne's 2008 album "Tha Carter III". The song "See-Line Woman" was sampled by Kanye West for "Bad News" on his '808's and Heartbreaks' album

Simone's years at RCA-Victor spawned a number of singles and album songs that were popular, particularly in Europe. In 1968 it was "Ain't Got No, I Got Life", a medley from the musical Hair from the album Nuff Said (1968) that became a surprise hit for Simone, reaching number 2 on the UK pop charts and introducing her to a younger audience.^[24] In 2006, it returned to the UK Top 30 in a remixed version by Groovefinder. The following single, the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" also reached the UK top 10 in 1969. "House of the Rising Sun" featured on Nina Simone Sings The Blues in 1967, but Simone had recorded the song earlier in 1961 (featuring on Nina At The Village Gate, 1962), predating versions by Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan.^[25]^[26] It was later picked up by The Animals and became their signature hit.

[edit] Performing style

Simone's regal bearing and commanding stage presence earned her the title "High Priestess of Soul". Her live performances were regarded not as mere concerts, but as happenings. In a single concert she could be a singer, pianist, dancer, actress, or activist, all simultaneously.^[27] On stage, Simone moved from gospel to blues, jazz and folk, to numbers infused with European classical styling, and counterpoint fugues. She incorporated monologues and dialogues with the audience into the program, and often used silence as a musical element.^[28] Simone compared it to "mass hypnosis. I use it all the time"^[14] Throughout most of her live and recording career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Flemming and guitarist and musical director Al Schackman.^[29]

Simone had a reputation in the music industry for being volatile and sometimes difficult to deal with, a characterization with which she strenuously took issue. In 1995, she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with a pneumatic pistol after his laughter disturbed her concentration.^[30] She also fired a gun at a record company executive whom she accused of stealing royalties.^[31] It is now recognized that this "difficulty" was the result of bipolar disorder. Simone reluctantly took medication for her condition from the mid-1960s on.^[1] All this was only known to a small group of intimates, and kept out of public view for many years, until the biography Break Down And Let It All Out written by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan revealed this secret in 2004.

[edit] Personal life

This article is missing information about personal life. This concern has been noted on the talk page where it may be discussed whether or not to include such information. (December 2008)

[edit] Views on race

Simone advocated violent revolution during the civil rights period as opposed to Martin Luther King's non-violent approach^[32], and hoped that the African Americans could, by so fighting, obtain a separate state. Simone was not, however, a racist, and stated, in her autobiography, that her family and indeed herself regarded all races equal.^[14]

[edit] Legacy and influence

[edit] Music

A contemporary view of Simone on the cover of Remixed and Reimagined

Nina Simone is often cited by artists from diverse musical fields as a source of inspiration. Musicians who have cited her as important for their own musical upbringing are among others Elkie Brooks, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Cat Stevens, Peter Gabriel, Mary J. Blige, Michael Gira, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Amanda Palmer and Jeff Buckley.^[2] ^[33] ^[34] ^[35] John Lennon cited Simone's version of "I Put a Spell on You" as a source of inspiration for the Beatles song "Michelle".^[35] Musicians who have covered her work (or her specific renditions of songs) include Carola, Aretha Franklin, Marilyn Manson, Donny Hathaway, David Bowie, Elkie Brooks, Roberta Flack, Jeff Buckley, The Animals, Muse, Cat Power, Katie Melua, Timbaland, Feist, Shara Worden, and Michael Bublé. Simone's music has featured in soundtracks of various motion pictures and video games, including but not limited to the The Big Lebowski (1998), Point of No Return (AKA The Assassin, 1993) Notting Hill (1999), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), The Dancer Upstairs (film) (2002), Before Sunset (2004), Inland Empire (2006), Sex and the City (2008), Revolutionary Road (2008), and Watchmen (2009). Her music is frequently used in remixes, commercials and TV series.

[edit] Film

The documentary Nina Simone: La Legende (The Legend) was made in the '90s by French filmmakers.^[14] It was based on her autobiography I Put A Spell On You and features live footage from different periods of her career, interviews with friends and family, various interviews with Simone herself while she was living in the Netherlands, and on a trip to her birthplace. A significant amount of footage from The Legend was taken from an earlier 26-minute biographical documentary by Peter Rodis, released in 1969 and titled simply Nina.^[36]

Plans for a Nina Simone biographical film were released at the end of 2005. The movie will be based on Simone's autobiography I Put A Spell On You (1992) and will also focus on her relationship in later life with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who died in 2006. TV writer Cynthia Mort (Will & Grace, Roseanne) is working on the script, and singer Mary J. Blige will play the lead role. The movie is scheduled for 2012.^[37]

[edit] Honors

On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington DC more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Simone.^[38]^[39] Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities from the University of Massachusetts and Malcolm X College.^[40] She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her.^[41] Only two days before her death, Simone was awarded an honorary diploma by the Curtis Institute, the school that had turned her down at the start of her career.^[42]

[edit] Discography

Year	Album	Type	Label	Billboard
1958	Little Girl Blue	Studio	Bethlehem Records
1959	Nina Simone and Her Friends	Studio	Bethlehem Records
	The Amazing Nina Simone	Studio	Colpix Records
	Nina Simone at Town Hall	Live and studio
1960	Nina Simone at Newport	Live		23 (pop)
1960	Forbidden Fruit	Studio
1962	Nina at the Village Gate	Live
1962	Nina Simone Sings Ellington	Live
1963	Nina's Choice	Compilation
1963	Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall	Live
1964	Folksy Nina	Live
	Nina Simone in Concert	Live	Philips Records	102 (pop)
	Broadway-Blues-Ballads	Studio
1965	I Put a Spell on You	Studio		99 (pop)
1965	Pastel Blues	Studio		8 (black)
1966	Nina Simone with Strings	Studio (strings added)	Colpix
	Let It All Out	Live and studio	Philips	19 (black)
	Wild Is the Wind	Studio		12 (black)
1967	High Priestess of Soul	Studio		29 (black)
	Nina Simone Sings the Blues	Studio	RCA Records	29 (black)
	Silk & Soul	Studio		24 (black)
1968	Nuff Said	Live and studio		44 (black)
1969	Nina Simone and Piano	Studio
1969	To Love Somebody	Studio
1970	Black Gold	Live		29 (black)
1971	Here Comes the Sun	Studio		190 (pop)
1972	Emergency Ward	Live and Studio
1974	It Is Finished	Live
1978	Baltimore	Studio	CTI Records	12 (jazz)
1980	The Rising Sun Collection	?	Enja
1982	Fodder on My Wings	Studio	Carrere
1984	Backlash	Live	StarJazz
1985	Nina's Back	Studio	VPI
1985	Live & Kickin	Live	VPI
1987	Let It Be Me	?	Verve
1987	Live at Ronnie Scott's	Live	Hendring-Wadham
1993	A Single Woman	Studio	Elektra Records	3 (top jazz)
	Additional
1969	A Very Rare Evening	Live	PM Records (Japan)
1975	The Great Show Live In Paris	Live	RCA?
1997	Released	Compilation	RCA Victor Europe
2003	Gold	Studio Remastered	Universal/UCJ
2003	Anthology	Compilation	RCA/BMG Heritage
2004	Nina Simone's Finest Hour	Compilation	Verve/Universal
2005	The Soul of Nina Simone	?	RCA DualDisc
2006	The Very Best of Nina Simone	Compilation	Sony BMG
	Remixed and Reimagined	Remix	Legacy/SBMG	5 (contemp.jazz)
	Songs to Sing: the Best of Nina Simone	Compilation/Live Compilation	Deluxe
	Forever Young, Gifted & Black: Songs of Freedom and Spirit	Remix	RCA
2008	To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story	Compilation	Sony Legacy

ANITA O'DAY THE MAN I LOVE

2009-10-24T04:45:00.000-07:00

ANITA O'DAY

2009-10-24T04:44:00.000-07:00

ANITA O'DAY

2009-10-24T04:42:00.000-07:00

ANITA O'DAY–THE LIFE OF A JAZZ SINGER-visit the official website for the critically aclaimed doc on Anita.

"Oh, how we'll miss you tonight, miss you when the lights are low.

Oh, how we need you tonight, more than you'll ever know.

You did your best on the floor, now you are not here anymore.

Though are poor hearts are aching and our hearts are breaking.

Old Pal, How we miss you tonight."

- the official walkathon elimination song

Anita O'Day, the last surviving member of the pantheon of great jazz singers (whose ranks also include Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan), passed away Thanksgiving morning at the age of 87. Born in Chicago, O'Day gained national attention as the girl singer with drummer Gene Krupa's orchestra on the hit record "Let Me Off Uptown." After two tenures with Krupa and one, inbetween, with Stan Kenton and his Orchestra, O'Day became a solo star and, along with Fitzgerald and Vaughan, a founding fore-mother ofmodern jazz vocals. Known for her inventive scatting as well as her touching balladeering, O'Day recorded several dozen classic albums, mostly for the Verve label in the 1950s. Ms. O'Day was often as flamboyant visually as she was innovative vocally, evidence of which can be found in the films "The Gene Krupa Story" and "Jazz On A Summer's Day. A survivor of both heroin and alcohol addiction, she was also the author of one of the great jazz memoirs, "Hard Times, High Times" and the subject of a full-length documentary film, 'Anita O'Day - The Life of A Jazz Singer' which is currently in the final stages of completion.

---Will Friedwald November 23, 2006

AN APPRECIATION

Substance, not style, set her apart Anita O'Day could be elegant, but her fortitude was what made her great.

---By Don Heckman Special to The Times (LA) November 25, 2006

Anita O'Day, who died Thursday at 87, was never just another big-band canary. That's not to say that she lacked the physical attributes to compete with the other Swing era vocalists — frilly eye candy occasionally taking the microphone to offer jaunty riffs on the latest pop tunes — who sat on stage with the Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Harry James ensembles.

There's a photo of O'Day on the cover of her autobiography, "High Times, Hard Times," in which she is perched, nylon-clad legs crossed, on top of a piano in a pose that could have been an inspiration for Michelle Pfeiffer's sexy lounge singer in "The Fabulous Baker Boys." The elegance was always a veneer covering an inner toughness, the hard life lessons learned that made her a superb jazz singer, one of the best of her generation — or of any generation. At a time when most female vocalists tended to emphasize the sweet timbres of their voice, she chose to follow a path blazed by the one major jazz singer who emphasized message over medium — Billie Holiday.

Like Holiday, O'Day combined the soaring freedom of a jazz instrumentalist with the storytelling lyricism of a poet. She often said she was a "stylist," not a "singer," which was correct, but only in a minimal sense.

From the moment she broke through to a national audience via the briskly swinging encounter with trumpeter Roy Eldridge in the Gene Krupa Band's recording of "Let Me Off Uptown" to her splendid Verve recordings of the '50s, and her comebacks in the '70s and again in the '90s, she was instantly recognizable, an utter original. Yes, "stylist," but much more. Like Frank Sinatra, she balanced the rhythmic songs that were generally considered to be her forte with an approach to ballads that varied from seductive intimacy to sardonic irony.

When I wrote about her in 1990, she was as feisty as ever, personally — discussing another hard-luck encounter with the vagaries of the record business — and still singing with the killer phrasing that made every song an adventure. Eight years later, I reviewed her again, this time after she had made an astonishing return to singing after a near-fatal encounter with pneumonia and blood poisoning. And again she was remarkable, as she was in her final performances before her death — to the very end, never just another big-band canary.

* Note: This is the official web-site, owned and operated by The Estate of Anita O'Day.

UPDATED Jan 26 2009

If you would like to sign this beautiful guest book and read some thoughts about Anita click here for The Legacy Guest Book

the official web site of Anita O'Day

Recordings

Performance

Documentary Anita O'Day the Life of a Jazz Singer

ANITA ON VERVE REMIX 4 ........in stores now...iTunes etc...

This is a really groovy, very modern remix of Tenderly by Mocky. The original version is from her album, "Sings the Winners." and available on "Verve Unmixed 4," an album with the original versions to go along with new hip mixed versions. Anita also has a track on Verve Remixed 3, Sing, Sing, Sing.....that mix is by RSL to purchase go to Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon, iTunes or your local indy shop!

Cick here to listen to a sample of Tenderly Remix by Mocky

GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD

2009-10-22T05:02:00.000-07:00

DIANA KING AIN'T NOBODY

2009-10-22T04:53:00.001-07:00

I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER - RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK

2009-10-22T04:49:00.000-07:00

GRIGHT MOMENTS

2009-10-22T04:48:00.001-07:00

bright moments

Bright moments
is like eating your last pork chop in London, England ... because you ain't gonna get no more ... cooked from home.
Bright moments
is like being with your favourite love ... and you're sharing the same ice-cream dish ... and you get mad when she gets the last drop. ... and you have to take her in your arms and get it the other way.

(Bright Moments, 1974)

RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK

2009-10-22T04:46:00.000-07:00

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Background information
Birth name	Ronald Theodore Kirk
Born	7 August 1935
Died	5 December 1977 (aged 42)
Genres	jazz (hard bop)
Occupations	musician, composer, arranger, bandleader
Instruments	tenor saxophone, clarinet, stritch, manzello, flute, whistles
Labels	King, Chess, Prestige, Mercury, Limelight, Verve, Atlantic, Warner Brothers
Website	http://www.alfanet.hu/kirk/index2.html

Rahsaan Roland Kirk (August 7, 1935^[1] – December 5, 1977) was a blind American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments. He was perhaps best known for his vitality on stage, where virtuoso improvisation was accompanied by comic banter, political ranting, and the ability to play several instruments simultaneously.

[edit] Biography

Kirk was born Ronald Theodore Kirk^[1] in Columbus, Ohio, but felt compelled by a dream to transpose two letters in his first name to make Roland. He became blind at an early age as a result of poor medical treatment. In 1970, Kirk added "Rahsaan" to his name after hearing it in a dream.

Preferring to lead his own bands, Kirk rarely performed as a sideman, although he did record with arranger Quincy Jones and drummer Roy Haynes and had notable stints with bassist Charles Mingus. His best-known recorded performance is probably the lead flute and solo on Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova," a 1964 hit song repopularized in the Austin Powers films (Jones 1964; McLeod et al. 1997).

His playing was generally rooted in soul jazz or hard bop, but Kirk's knowledge of jazz history allowed him to draw on many elements of the music's past, from ragtime to swing and free jazz. Kirk also regularly explored classical and pop music by composers such as Smokey Robinson or Burt Bacharach as well as his beloved Duke Ellington, John Coltrane and the other classics of jazz. The live album Bright Moments (1973) is an example of one of his shows. His main instrument was the tenor saxophone, supplemented by other saxes, and contrasted with the lighter sound of the flute. At times he would play a number of these horns at once, harmonising with himself, or hold a note endlessly by using circular breathing, or play the flute through his nose. All this, plus the fact that many of his instruments were exotic or even home-made gave him a reputation as a vaudeville showman, but the music, even with two or three saxophones in his mouth at once, was intricate, powerful jazz with a strong feeling for the blues.

Kirk was also very political, using the stage to talk on black history, civil rights and other issues, which he was always capable of tipping over into high comedy.

In 1975, Kirk suffered a major stroke which led to partial paralysis of one side of his body. Despite this, he continued to perform and record, modifying his instruments himself to enable him to play with only one arm. At a live performance at Ronnie Scott's club in London he even managed to play two instruments, and carried on to tour internationally and even appear on TV.

He died from a second stroke in 1977 after performing in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana University Student Union in Bloomington, Indiana.

[edit] Instruments and technique

Kirk played and collected a number of musical instruments, mainly various saxophones, clarinets and flutes. His main instruments were tenor saxophone and two obscure saxophones: the stritch (a straight alto sax lacking the instrument's characteristic upturned bell) and a manzello (a modified saxello soprano sax, with a larger, upturned bell). Kirk modified these instruments himself to accommodate his simultaneous playing technique.

He typically appeared on stage with all three horns hanging around his neck, as well as a variety of other instruments, including flutes and whistles, and often kept a gong within reach. Kirk also played clarinet, harmonica, English horn, and recorders, and was a competent trumpeter. He often had unique approaches, using a saxophone mouthpiece on a trumpet or playing nose flute. He additionally used many non-musical devices, such as alarm clocks, sirens, or a section of common garden hose (dubbed "the black mystery pipes"). His studio recordings also used tape-manipulated musique concrète, and primitive electronic sounds (before such things became commonplace).

Listen to this audio clip · (info)

Rahsaan simultaneously playing flute and singing, punctuated with a siren whistle. (audio help)

Listen to this audio clip · (info)

Rahsaan playing black mystery pipes. (audio help)

Listen to this audio clip · (info)

Rahsaan simultaneously playing multiple saxophones. (audio help)

Kirk was also an influential flautist, employing several techniques that he developed himself. One technique was to sing or hum into the flute at the same time as playing. Another was to play the standard transverse flute at the same time as a nose flute.

Some observers thought that Kirk's bizarre onstage appearance and simultaneous multi-instrumentalism were just gimmicks, especially when coming from a blind man, but these opinions usually vanished when Kirk began to play. He used the multiple horns to play true chords, essentially functioning as a one-man saxophone section. Kirk insisted that he was only trying to emulate the sounds he heard in his head.

Kirk was also a major exponent and practitioner of circular breathing. Using this technique, Kirk was not only able to sustain a single note for virtually any length of time; he could also play sixteenth-note runs of almost unlimited length, and at high speeds. His circular breathing ability enabled him to record "Concerto For Saxophone" on the Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle LP in one continuous take of about 20 minutes' playing with no discernible "break" for inhaling. His long-time producer at Atlantic Jazz, Joel Dorn, believed he should have received credit in The Guinness Book of World Records for such feats (he was capable of playing continuously "without taking a breath" for far longer than exhibited on that LP), but this never happened.

The Case of the 3 Sided Dream in Audio Color was a unique album in jazz and popular music recorded annals. It was a two-LP set, with Side 4 apparently "blank," the label not indicating any content. However, once word of "the secret message" got around among Rahsaan's fans, one would find that about 12 minutes into Side 4 appeared the first of two telephone answering machine messages recorded by Kirk, the second following soon thereafter (but separated by more blank grooves). The surprise impact of these segments appearing on "blank" Side 4 was lost, of course, on the CD reissue of this album. These spoken-word segments reflected the tenor of the times, so to speak, with the rather pessimistic theme that humanity had "blown" its chance to live in a world of peace and harmony. But this was entirely in keeping with the fact that, despite his loss at an early age of his sight, Rahsaan was very much on top of societal developments, racial and economic injustice and disparity. Indeed, he had participated many years previously in protests against the failure of TV show hosts like Merv Griffin to hire any non-white musicians.

He gleaned information on what was happening in the world via audio media like radio and the sounds coming from TV sets. His later recordings often incorporated his spoken commentaries on current events, including Richard M. Nixon's involvement in Watergate. The "3-Sided Dream" album was a "concept album," somewhat akin to the Beatles' "psychedelic" phase in the incorporation of "found" or environmental sounds and tape loops, tapes being played backwards, etc. Snippets of Billie Holiday singing are also heard briefly. The album even confronts the rise of influence of computers in society, as Rahsaan threatens to pull the plug on the machine trying to tell him what to do.

[edit] Legacy and influence

Kirk's technique of humming while playing the flute was adopted later by many other players, including Jeremy Steig, Thijs van Leer, and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, (who covered the Kirk tune "Serenade to a Cuckoo" on Jethro Tull's first album This Was in 1968)
In 1978 the number one UK single "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" by Ian Dury and the Blockheads featured saxophonist Davey Payne playing a solo with two saxes simultaneously, in a manner possibly imitative of Kirk
Dana Colley of Morphine and Twinemen occasionally plays "double sax". Examples are "Super Sex" and "Radar" on the Morphine album Yes and "Wishing Well" on Like Swimming
Virtuoso guitarist Jimi Hendrix "idolized" Kirk, and even hoped to one day collaborate with him
British reed player Dick Heckstall-Smith also emulated Kirk in playing multiple saxophones simultaneously
Jeff Coffin, solo artist and member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, plays multiple saxophones simultaneously
David Jackson, of Van der Graaf Generator, was also highly influenced by the style and technique of Kirk, and he plays multiple saxophones simultaneously
Jack Lancaster, saxophonist of British band Blodwyn Pig, plays multiple saxophones simultaneously^{[citation needed]}
Courtney Pine, a saxophonist from the UK, also uses circular breathing and plays two saxophones at once in live performance
Rahsaan Roland Kirk is the namesake of jazz artists Roland and Rahsaan Barber, brothers who play trombone and saxophone respectively
Jonny Greenwood, the guitarist and multi-instrumentalist of Radiohead, acknowledged his respect and love for Kirk's music on the band's blog
Trombonist Steve Turre was strongly influenced by Kirk's music (and by his use of a conch shell as a second instrument)
Thurston Moore wore a Rahsaan Roland Kirk t-shirt for a promo shoot for Sonic Youth's album Goo
Drummer Ramon Lopez paid tribute to Rahsaan Roland Kirk in his 2002 album Duets 2 Rahsaan Roland Kirk, inviting nine differents artists (Joëlle Léandre, Thierry Madiot, Harry Beckett, Majid Bekkas, Beñat Achiary...) for nine duets on nine compositions of Kirk's
Guitarist Michael Angelo Batio mentioned in an interview with Ultimate Guitar Archive that Kirk's playing of two saxophones at once inspired him to create his "double guitar"
T.J. Kirk was a cover act that took its name from the three artists making up its catalog: Thelonious Monk, James Brown, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Formed by eight-string guitarist Charlie Hunter as a side group to his own self-titled and San Francisco-based band, other members include Scott Amendola, Will Bernard and John Schott.
Otomo Yoshihide recorded a cover of Kirk's version of I Say a Little Prayer for Ground Zero's Plays Standards album.
Paul Weller cited I Talk with the Spirits as one of his 'Most Influential Albums' in an interview with The Times

[edit] Discography

[edit] As leader

King Records

1956 - Triple Threat

Argo/Cadet/Chess Records

1960 - Introducing Roland Kirk

Prestige Records

1961 - Kirk's Work - with Jack McDuff on organ

Mercury Records

1961 - We Free Kings - with Richard Wyands on piano
1962 - Domino
1963 - Reeds & Deeds
1964 - The Roland Kirk Quartet Meets the Benny Golson Orchestra
1964 - Kirk in Copenhagen
1964 - Gifts & Messages

Limelight Records

1964 - I Talk with the Spirits - album of Kirk playing the flute
1965 - Slightly Latin
1965 - Rip, Rig and Panic - fast bop with Jaki Byard on piano, Richard Davis on bass, and drummer Elvin Jones

Verve Records

1967 - Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith

Atlantic Records

1965 - Here Comes the Whistleman (Live) - including all Kirk's banter between tracks
1965 - A Meeting of the Times w ex-Duke Ellington singer Al Hibbler
1967 - The Inflated Tear
1968 - Left & Right
1968 - Volunteered Slavery - a meltdown of pop tunes, hard bop, African chanting
1970 - Rahsaan Rahsaan
1971 - Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata - mostly Kirk alone, on many instruments
1971 - Blacknuss
1973 - Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle
1973 - Bright Moments - live at Keystone Korner, San Francisco
1975 - The Case of the 3 Sided Dream in Audio Color
1976 - Other Folks' Music

Warner Bros. Records

1976 - The Return of the 5000 Lb. Man
1977 - Kirkatron
1977 - Boogie-Woogie String Along for Real

Posthumous releases of new material

I, Eye, Aye: Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, 1972 (Rhino)
The Man Who Cried Fire (Night)
Dog Years in the Fourth Ring (32 Jazz)
Compliments of the Mysterious Phantom (Hyena)
Brotherman in the Fatherland - Recorded "Live" in Germany 1972 (Hyena)

Compilations

Rahsaan: The Complete Mercury Recordings Of Roland Kirk
Does Your House Have Lions: The Rahsaan Roland Kirk Anthology
Simmer, Reduce, Garnish & Serve - compilation from his last three albums
Talkin' Verve: Roots of Acid Jazz
The Art of Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Third Dimension and Beyond combines Triple Threat and Introducing Roland Kirk
Left Hook, Right Cross combines Volunteered Slavery and Blacknuss
Aces Back to Back combines Left & Right, Rahsaan Rahsaan, Prepare Thyself to Deal With a Miracle, and Other Folks' Music
A Standing Eight combines The Return of the 5000 Lb. Man, Kirkatron and Boogie-Woogie String Along for Real

[edit] As sideman

With Charles Mingus

With Roy Haynes

Out of the Afternoon (1962)

With Tubby Hayes

Tubby's Back in Town (1962)

With Quincy Jones

Big Band Bossa Nova (1962)
Explores Music of Henry Mancini (1964)
Walking in Space (1969)

With Tommy Peltier

The Jazz Corps Under the Direction of Tommy Peltier

With Jaki Byard

The Jaki Byard Experience (1968)

With Les McCann

Les McCann Live at Montreux (1972)

[edit] Bibliography

Jones, Quincy (Composer). (1964). Big band bossa nova [Phonograph]. Mercury. (Reissued on compact disc by Verve in 1998, 2005)
Kruth, John: Bright Moments. The Life and Legacy of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Welcome Rain Publishers, New York 2000 ISBN 1-56649-105-3
McLeod, Eric (Producer), & Roach, Jay (Director). (1997). Austin Powers: International man of mystery [DVD]. New Line Home Video

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Kernfeld, Barry. "Kirk, Roland." The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed. Ed. Barry Kernfeld. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Retrieved on 2009-02-01. "The year of his birth has been widely given as 1936, but his birth certificate gives 1935 and confirms Ronald, not Roland."

[edit] External links

the Rahsaan Roland Kirk website
Stopping the white wash - Rahsaan Roland Kirk on TV
Roland Kirk Discography (Jazz Discography Project)
Sound?? film of Kirk with John Cage at UbuWeb
Video: Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1975)
Video: Rahsaan Roland Kirk and The Vibration Society (1972)

BUD POWELL

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Bud Powell

Piano, Composer
September 27, 1924 -- July 31, 1966

Bud Powell

"He was a very dynamic person on the instrument, and I liked that, the way he approached it, you know. I was inspired a lot by Bud."

--McCoy Tyner

From 1940 Bud Powell took part in informal jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse, New York, where he came under the tutelage and protection of Thelonious Monk and contributed to the emerging bop style. By 1942--44, when he played in the band of his guardian Cootie Williams, he had already developed his individual style in most of its essentials. After sustaining a head injury during a racial incident in 1945, he suffered the first of many nervous collapses, which were to confine him to sanatoriums for much of his adult life.
Thereafter, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he appeared intermittently in New York clubs with leading bop musicians or in his own trio. From the mid-1950s, as his mental health and musical powers deteriorated, he gradually restricted his public appearances. He moved in 1959 to Paris, where he led a trio (1959--62) with Kenny Clarke, the third member of which was usually Pierre Michelot, and enjoyed a certain celebrity status. After returning to the USA in August 1964, he made a disastrous appearance at Carnegie Hall (1965), and soon was obliged to abandon music altogether.
Powell was the most important pianist in the early bop style, and his innovations transformed the jazz pianism of his time. A prodigious technician, he was able at will to reproduce the demanding styles of Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson, echoes of which can sometimes be heard in his ballad performances. At fast and medium tempos, however, he preferred the spare manner that he devised in the early 1940s: rapid melodic lines in the right hand punctuated by irregularly spaced, dissonant chords in the left. This almost antipianistic style (which was adopted by most bop pianists of the time) left him free to pursue linear melody in the manner of bop wind players, and it was as a melodist that Powell stood apart from his many imitators.
At its best, Powell's playing was sustained by a free unfolding of rapid and unpredictable melodic invention, to which he brought a brittle, precise touch and great creative intensity. Except in his later years, when his virtuosity flagged and he selfconsciously adopted a primitivism resembling Monk's, Powell never altered this basic approach, but worked ceaselessly within it to devise new melodic ideas, harmonies, and ways of coupling the hands. He greatly extended the range of jazz harmony by reducing his chordal underpinning to compounds of 2nds and 7ths, and achieved an extraordinary variety in his phrase lengths, which range from brief flurries to seemingly inexhaustible lines that ignore the structure of the original.
Although most at ease in a trio setting, Powell was stimulated to his best work in competition with other leading bop soloists such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, J.J. Johnson, Sonny Stitt, and especially Fats Navarro. Powell also composed a number of excellent jazz tines, among them "Un Poco Loco," "Dance Of The Infidels," "Tempus Fugit," and "Bouncing With Bud," as well as the remarkable "The Glass Enclosure," a musical impression of his experiences in mental asylums, which points to a talent for composition that was unfortunately left undeveloped.

--J. BRADFORD ROBINSON,
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz

A selected discography of Bud Powell albums.

The Bud Powell Trio, 1949-51, Verve.
The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1, 1949-51, Blue Note.
The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 2, 1951-53, Blue Note.
Bud Plays Bird, 1957, Roulette.
The Scene Changes, 1958, Blue Note.
Tribute To Cannonball, 1961, Columbia.
A Portrait Of Thelonious, 1961, Columbia.
Bouncing With Bud, 1962, Delmark.

MAX ROACH

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Max Roach

Drums
January 10, 1924 -- August 16, 2007

Max Roach

"I think of Sid Catlett as being the last of the swing drummers. Max Roach, to me, is the first bebop drummer. Kenny Clarke was the bridge."

--Barney Kessel

Max Roach first played drums at the age of ten in gospel bands; this early involvement with black religious music had a significant influence on his musical develpment, though he also studied formally at the Manhattan School of Music.
In 1942 he became associated with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and others and, as the house drummer at Monroe's Uptown House, participated in the jam sessions there and at Minton's Playhouse that led to the development of the bop style. From the 1940s Roach played and recorded frequently with bop groups in New York, notably as a member of quintets led by Gillespie (1944), Charlie Parker (intermittently 1945-53), and Bud Powell.
During the same period, however, he also performed with musicians as dissimilar as Louis Jordan, Henry "Red" Allen, and Coleman Hawkins (with whom he made his first recording in in 1943--Rainbow Mist, Delmark), and took part in sessions with Miles Davis (1948-50) which were later issued as Birth of the Cool.
From 1954 to 1956, with Clifford Brown, Roach led an important quintet; this group produced a number of seminal recordings, including Study In Brown and At Basin Street, that epitomized the style of jazz known as hard bop.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s Roach made a series of recordings that prefigured developments associated with free jazz. In the 1960s Roach became an articulate spokesman and activist in the black-American cultural arts movement. Roach has continued to work regularly with his own groups.
Roach holds a significant position in the history of jazz. His imaginative performances as a soloist and his mature technique of improvisation, which is based on the use of deft interaction of pitch and timbral variety, subtleties of silence and sound, rhythmic and metrical contrast, and a refreshingly flexible approach to the fixed pulse, establish him as one of the most outstanding and innovative drummers of his time. "Drum Conversation" [mp3] from 1953.

--OLLY WILSON, from The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz.

A selected discography of Max Roach albums.

Max Roach Quartet, 1953, Debut.
Max Roach Plus Four, 1956, EmArcy.
Max, 1958, Chess.
Deeds, Not Words, 1958, Riverside.

J.J. JOHNSON

2009-10-22T04:25:00.001-07:00

J.J. Johnson

Trombone
January 22, 1924 -- February 4, 2001

J.J. Johnson

"I remember when we did drag J.J. on up there [onstage], Benny Carter said, 'Go ahead, man, play something.' And he's sweating and scared to death. Man, he turned 'Body & Soul' inside out."

--Earl Coleman

It was not until the summer of 1955 that J.J. Johnson, name band musician and soloist respected and imitated during the past decade by innumerable performers all over the world, finally won a Down Beat poll. In informed quarters there were audible murmurs of "About time too"; in other sympathetic hip circles the reaction was "Better late than never."
Blue Note record fans were way ahead of the critics who awarded Jay Jay this belated crown. The amazing young trombonist has been an important part of the Blue Note catalog ever since his first appearance years ago with Howard McGhee's All Stars on BLP 5012. He was heard as sideman with Miles Davis on 1501 and 1502 and with Kenny Dorham on 5065 in addition to appearing as a leader in the three outstanding sessions listed and described below.
The place of Jay Jay Johnson in jazz history parallels that of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker on their respective instruments. He was the first, and by all odds the foremost, of those who showed in the mid-1940s that it was possible to translate the rhythmic, melodic and harmonic innovations of bop into terms of that cumbersome and not too easily manipulated instrument, the slide trombone.
Jay Jay earned his nickname from his fist and last initials: he was born James Louis Johnson. A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, he showed his first musical talent as a pianist in 1935, when he was eleven years old, and took up trombone three years later. After working with Clarence Love and Snookum Russell in 1941-2, he acquired his first taste of widespread recognition as a member of he Benny Carter band, with which he toured from late '42 until '45 (Max Roach was a member of the orchestra during this period). When Count Basie decided a new sound was needed in his trombone section, Jay Jay was the one who instilled it, for several months in 1945-6. Then came a long period of free-lancing with various combos in the hectic whirl of the jumping Fifty-second Street of those days. Jay Jay free-lanced with Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman and a flock of bop units. For more than a year he was on the road with Illinois Jacquet's band.
By this time Jay Jay was the acknowledged king of his style in modern jazz circles. A board of critics and musicians assembled by Esquire had elected him the new trombone star of the year in 1946. Before long his fame had reached international proportions. With the advent of war in the Far East, Jay Jay teamed up with Oscar Pettiford in a USO unit that entertained the troops in Korea and Japan. On returning home, though, Jay Jay found that the bottom seemed to be falling out of the music business. The pickings were so lean during the next few months that in August, 1952 he took a job as a blueprint inspector at a Sperry factory in Long Island, limiting his musical activities to an occasional one-night gig or record session. Then things began looking up again, and in June 1954 Jay was able to give up his daytime chores to return to the occupation for which his talent and years of patient practice had originally designed him. "Coffee Pot" [mp3] from 1954. He has worked pretty steadily since then, often in partnership with Kai Winding. During all the ups and downs he has never lost the esteem in which jazzmen and fans always held him.

--LEONARD FEATHER, from the liner notes,
Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Vol 1.

A selected discography of J.J. Johnson albums.

J.J. Johnson Jazz Quintets, 1946, Savoy.
The Eminent J.J. Johnson, Vol. 1, 1953, Blue Note.
The Eminent J.J. Johnson, Vol. 2, 1954-1955, Blue Note.
Blue Trombone, 1958, Columbia.
J.J. Inc., 1960, Columbia.
Quintergy: Live at the Village, 1988, Antilles.
Standards: Live at the Village, 1988, Antilles.

SONNY ROLLINS

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Sonny Rollins

Tenor Saxophone
September 7, 1930 --

Sonny Rollins

"I've never seen anyone in love with the tenor saxophone the way Sonny is. He's the best player of that instrument I've ever seen."

--Steve Lacy

Sonny Rollins first learned piano, studied alto saxophone from about the age of 11, and took up the tenor in 1946. In high school he led a group with Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew, and Art Taylor. He rehearsed with Thelonious Monk for several months in 1948, and from 1949 to 1954 recorded intermittently with a number of leading bop musicians and groups, including J.J. Johnson, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Monk, and the Modern Jazz Quartet.
His most frequent associate during these early years was Miles Davis, with whom he performed in clubs from 1949 and recorded from 1951. In 1954, [on Davis's Bag's Groove, Prestige] he introduced three compositions of his own which later became jazz standards: "Airegin," "Doxy," and "Oleo."
In 1955, while overcoming his dependence on drugs, he worked in Chicago and, in December, joined the Clifford Brown--Max Roach Quintet. He remained with Roach until May 1957, then performed briefly in Davis's quintet; thereafter, however, he has led his own groups.
During the years 1956 to 1958 Rollins was widely regarded as the most talented and innovative tenor saxophonist in jazz. Nevertheless, he was discontented and voluntarily withdrew from public life from August 1959 to November 1961. During this period of retirement his habit of practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York became legendary.
Except for a six-year retirement from 1966 to 1972, Rollins has remained active, touring the USA, Europe, and Japan, and recording a fusion of bop and soul music with his quintet.
Rollins has adhered to the bop practice of varying and elaborating a large repertory of fomulas and, in a wide range of material, shows a rhythmic imagination, harmonic subtlety, and freedom of design that have perhaps been surpassed only by Charlie Parker.

--BARRY KERNFELD,The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz

A selected discography of Sonny Rollins albums.

With The Modern Jazz Quartet, 1951-53, Prestige.
Moving Out, 1954, Prestige.
Sonny Rollins Plus Four, 1956, Prestige.
Saxophone Colossus, 1956, Prestige.
Sonny Rollins, Vol. 1, 1956, Blue Note.
Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2, 1957, Blue Note.
The Bridge, 1962, Bluebird.

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT - WAYNE SHORTER

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