On Thanksgiving
2006, the music industry, jazz, and big band swing lost one of the
last greats of the era, Anita O’Day!
Anita started
her long and distinguished career singing at the age of 14 for tips
while touring with dance marathons.
I could spend
a lot of time going back and rehashing her career and the ups and
downs of her drug-addicted years as a performer, but I think most
big band aficionados already know of the many great careers that
were critically diminished or destroyed by drug addiction, such
as those of Gene Krupa, Billie Holiday, and, of course, Anita O'Day,
just a few of the more famous names affected.
The drug problems
of today were no different than they were 65-75 years ago in the
music industry; it was just not looked at as leniently as it is
today! In late 1947, Anita and her husband got 90 days in jail for
smoking weed. Hell, today you might get 90 minutes! Don’t get me
wrong, I don’t condone drug use, but come on now, 90 days! That
was tough.
Anita and Roy
Eldridge teamed up with Gene Krupa in 1941 and produced one of the
all time great big band hits "Let Me Off Uptown!" It is
without a doubt one of my favorites. There was a unity of soul in
that piece of music. Roy Eldridge often commented that during this
period he achieved his greatest fame because of his association
with Anita.
In 1942, Down
Beat readers voted her into the top five big band singers of the
day. Anita was fourth on that list, with Helen O'Connell first,
Helen Forrest second, Billie Holiday third, and Dinah Shore fifth.
Boy, did they get that list right!
Anita continued
her career right up to her death of heart failure last year. Although
her repertoire wasn’t as extensive as some of her contemporaries,
she left a fabulous list of recordings with more than two dozen
albums recorded in her own right, excluding the hits she made for
the big bands with whom she sang.
Although Anita’s
drug and alcohol problems and her often erratic behavior related
to those problems earned her the nickname "The Jezebel of Jazz,"
she still survived longer than all her “sisters of swing” -- and
in my book was one of the hottest female singers to ever have sang
a note!
Sarah
Vaughn in Berlin 1969: Misty - by Spencer K. Smartt
I was stationed
in Butzbach Germany in 1969 with the US Army and had just married
my first wife when the fabulous Sarah Vaughn performed this version
of “Misty” by the great jazz pianist Erroll Garner in Berlin. I
didn’t get to make this concert but can you imagine being at that
performance!
Erroll was born in 1921
and began playing piano at the age of 3. He was an "ear player"
and he never learned to read music. At the age of 7, Garner began
appearing on radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh with a group called
the Candy Kids, and by the age of 11 he was playing on the Allegheny
riverboats. At age 16 in 1937 he joined local saxophonist Leroy
Brown.
Garner's ear and technique owed as much to practice as to a
natural gift. His distinctive self taught style could swing like
no other, but some of his best recordings are ballads, such as his
best-known composition, Misty. "Misty" is a jazz standard
written in 1954.
Originally composed as an instrumental following the traditional
32 bar format, the tune later had lyrics by Johnny Burke and became
the signature song of Sarah Vaughan. It has been covered numerous
times, perhaps most notably by Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis (1959),
and also by Ray Stevens (1975) as a country song.
Erroll Garner's version
of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1991, and
Johnny Mathis version of the song was inducted in 2002.
Garner had established himself an international reputation, and
from that point until his death on January 2, 1977, he made many
tours both at home and abroad, and produced a huge volume of recorded
work.
As I mentioned above, I served in the US Army from my 17th Birthday
on May 8th, 1964 until my separation on Sept 29th, 1970. I spent
15 months in Korea between 1965-66. The balance of my enlistment
was spent in West Germany. During this period in Germany, the GI
was held in high respect and a tour of duty was considered as “Prime”
duty, treasured by GIs lucky enough to have had the opportunity
to acquire it.
Most of this experience was spent dealing with the German population
at large as ambassadors of good will, living with and in the German
community. Our duty was part of the Army’s Project Partnership where
soldiers of equivalent rank had the opportunity to exchange jobs
and learn how our allies operated within their military.
American Jazz music and especially big band swing were extremely
popular with the German public and military. I had the opportunity
to experience on numerous musical occasions this wonderful and beautiful
music while stationed there.
Miles
Davis - Concierto De Aranjuez (Adagio)
- by Spencer K. Smartt
"Concierto
de Aranjuez" is the beautiful score by Joaquin Rodrigo,
who was steeped in the culture of his native Spain and began
learning music at an early age, from Baroque music of the
early Spanish church to folk melodies and traditional Spanish
folk instruments, especially the guitar.[1]
Rodrigo
was born in Sagunto, Valencia, in 1901; he was blinded at
the age of three. However, his keen ear for music allowed
him to become a talented pianist as well as composer over
the years. He wrote works for various soloists, including
20th century greats such as guitarist Andrés Segovia,
flutist James Galway, and cellist Julian Lloyd Webber.[2]
Rodrigo
won honors early for his 1924 work, Cinco piezas infantiles,
receiving encouragement from his fellow countryman, composer
Manuel de Falla. In 1940 Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez premiered
in Barcelona with guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza. It was
a rousing success and brought Rodrigo international fame.[3]
Joaquin
Rodrigo, Alexandre Tansman, and Andrés Segovia
in August 1959.
The opening
demonstrates Rodrigo's ability to balance the quieter guitar
against a full orchestra. The guitar enters with a strummed
passage, joined by agile counterpoint from the woodwinds that
never overpowers the soloist, and then the strings enter with
quickly bowed chords sounding for all the world like a giant
guitar.
Supposedly
written about the 300-acre gardens of Aranjuez, part of an
18th-century summer palace of the Bourbon kings of Spain,
Rodrigo described his concerto as capturing "the fragrance
of magnolias, the singing of birds and the gushing of fountains"
-- in short, the beauties that a blind man such as he could
appreciate.[1]
Jazz great
Miles Davis, trumpeter and composer, in his "Sketches
of Spain" album in 1960, recorded his version of the
piece. Gil Evans was the arranger and conductor. The album
quickly become a jazz classic. Davis and Evans had earlier
collaborated on several best-selling jazz albums.
Davis,
who belongs to the great tradition of jazz trumpeters of such
greats as Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy
Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie, performs the concerto with such
grace and ease that he pays homage to the composer and the
work itself. The concerto has also become the most popular
concerto of the 20th-century, being arranged for many other
solo instruments.
Miles
Davis’ greatest achievement as a musician, however, was to
move beyond being regarded as a distinctive and influential
stylist on his own instrument and to shape whole styles and
ways of making music through the work of his bands, in which
many of the most important jazz musicians of the second half
of the Twentieth Century made their names.[4]
Davis
was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
on March 13, 2006. He has also been inducted into the St.
Louis Walk of Fame and the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.[4]
In 1992,
in honor of Rodrigo's 90th birthday, King Juan Carlos I of
Spain awarded him the hereditary title Marqués de los
jardines de Aranjuez (Marquis of the gardens of Aranjuez).[2]
A few
more of my tidbits of history gleaned from Wikipedia and YouTube!
Aren't those sites wonderful!
Country
music legend Chet Atkins was asked one time to make a list
of the 10 greatest guitarists of the 20th century. At the
top of that list he placed Django Reinhardt and himself at
the fifth position. DigitalDreamDoor.com’s list of the 100
most influential guitarists of all time (regardless of genres)
shows 1. Andres Segovia, 2. Django Reinhardt, 3. Jimi Hendrix,
4. Chet Atkins and 5. Wes Montgomery. It seems that Chet almost
had his list right on the money! Who could dispute Segovia’s
place at the top of any list of great guitarists?
One of
the greatest jazz guitarists of all time, Django Reinhardt
has been admired and respected by musicians worldwide. Guitar
greats such as blues legend B.B. King, Les Paul, Joe Pass,
Charlie Christian, George Benson, Wes Montgomery are just
a few who held Django in high regards. Willie Nelson wore
a Django Reinhardt T-shirt on tour in Europe in 2002, stating
in an interview that he admired Django's music and ability.
(Wikipedia)
Reinhardt,
born in Belgium in 1910 first played the violin before learning
the banjo-guitar. His first known recordings (in 1928) were
of him playing the banjo. The concept of the "lead guitar"
and backing "rhythm guitar" was developed by Django and his
1934 “Quintette du Hot Club de France".
He recorded
with many American Jazz legends such as Coleman Hawkins, Benny
Carter, Rex Stewart and played a jam-session with jazz legend
Louis Armstrong. Later he was one of the first to appreciate
and understand the music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
(Wikipedia)
After
World War II, he rejoined Stephan Grappelli and toured the
United States, opening for Duke Ellington, and played Carnegie
Hall. He realized that his efforts and music was not being
recognized for what he expected and returned to Europe discouraged
by his rejection of American music fans. In May 1953 he collapsed
outside his house from a brain hemorrhage and died before
the doctor got to him.
For years
I too have admired Django as one of the greatest guitarists
of the 20th century. My grandmother, who lived to the age
of 97, was an accomplished guitarist who could “finger pick”
with the best, often spoke of Django and his ability to “finger
pick” the way she had learned.
In her
way of thinking it was from Merle Travis that Django had picked
up this style of playing. She was unaware of Django’s deformed
hand as a result of a fire when he was 18 years old.
What really
impressed me was her ability to play the guitar using the
neck of an old whiskey bottle she had acquired sometime during
the depression to warble the strings. You would think that
she was playing a steel guitar the way she played that old
whiskey bottle neck. I sure miss hearing her play her old
guitar!
"Henderson
Stomp"
Fletcher Henderson and His Orch.
"Sing,
Sing, Sing"
Benny Goodman/Chicago Jazz Festival Orch. (1979)
Over
the last five months, I have submitted a number of pieces
covering various band leaders and their music, along with
my thoughts on these subjects. I have discussed various instruments
and the artists who have played them. I have evaluated and
posted the results of my efforts for all to digest and comment
on. But for some reason, I have never really stopped and looked
at how the swing era really came about.
We all know that
the jazz and the big band era had a slow development out
of the southern states beginning in the late 19th century
with the likes of King Oliver in New Orleans and up the
Mississippi river to Memphis and on north to Chicago, New
York and other prominent cities during the Roaring 20’s
with Dixieland jazz and Ragtime as the music of the time.
Musical greats
of the time were Paul Whiteman, W.C. Handy, Ben Pollock,
and a few others who were responsible for helping the fledging
recording industry get on its feet by recording much of
the music of time, insuring that much of that music would
be saved for prosperity.
Many young innovators
of the time were also experimenting with this new music.
One was the incomparable Louis Armstrong who by the 1920’s
was making his way into history. Another of these young
men was Fletcher Henderson, a young black college graduate
from Georgia who had traveled north in search of work as
a chemist. Because of his race, he wound up selling music
for the W.C. Handy Music Company. He left Handy to become
a manager at the Black Swan Recording Company.
By 1922, Fletcher
had formed a band to support the company’s recording artists,
primarily Ethel Waters. He soon had his own band playing
at the Roseland Ballroom and was responsible for bringing
in many of the future greats of the big band era.
In 1924, Fletcher
hired the up and coming Louis Armstrong away from King Oliver
for his new orchestra. This band also included such greats
as Coleman Hawkins, Buster Bailey, and Don Redman. Some
of the other greats to come out of that band were Benny
Carter, Roy Eldridge, and Fats Waller, all of whom would
go on to make history during the big band era. Fletcher’s
band played to packed audiences for the next ten years at
the Roseland and his orchestra toured and recorded until
1939 when he finely disbanded and joined another of the
greats of the time.
In 1934, another
young innovator formed a band. We all know him as The
King of Swing, credited by most Swing Era enthusiasts
as the person most responsible for the Swing Era: Benny
Goodman!
Benny’s first
band was known as Benny Goodman’s Boys. It included Tommy
Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and the great Ben Pollock. It soon
became Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, featuring Gene Krupa,
Bunny Berigan, Harry James, and a host of other jazz greats.
In the summer
of 1935, Benny took his show on the road. By August, Goodman
found himself with a band that was nearly broke, disillusioned,
and ready to quit. It was at this moment that everything
changed for the band -- and jazz. The last stop on that
tour was on August 21st at the Palomar Ballroom. The rest
is history!
Benny had been
using Fletcher Henderson’s arrangements for the previous five
years. By 1939, when Fletcher had finely disbanded, he agreed
to become Benny’s arranger. The man who had really started
it all had became part of the most prominent band of the Swing
Era!
Even though Benny
is for all intents and purposes credited for starting the
swing era, it really was Henderson and his music who was really
the real father of Swing!
Hoagy
Carmichael and Swing (1939)
- by Spencer K. Smartt
The Hoagy
Carmichael Orchestra was the proving grounds for bandleaders
and music greats! The band recorded from 1929 to 1934 with
the following roster: Bix Beiderbecke (cornet), Artie Bernstein
(bass), Arnold Brilhart, (tenor), Irving Brodsky (piano and
celeste), Jimmy Dorsey (clarinet and alto), Tommy Dorsey (trombone),
Bud Freeman (tenor), Benny Goodman (clarinet), Harry Goodman
(tuba), Manny Klein (trumpet), Gene Kardos (alto), Carl Kress
(guitar), Gene Krupa (drums), Eddie Lang (guitar), Bubber
Miley (trumpet), Fred Murray (trumpet), Red Norvo (xylophone),
Ray Lodwig (trumpet), Dick Robertson (vocals), Carson Robinson
(vocals), Mischa Russell (violin), Jack Teagarden (trombone),
Joe Venuti (violin), and Bob Vollmer (drums).
The names
pop out at you! Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Gene
Krupa, Bix, Red Norvo and Jack Teagarden! Some of them had
also played for Paul Whiteman or Ben Pollack.
Hoagy
started out learning to be a lawyer during college where he
played in a band experimenting with the new music of the age
-- red hot jazz!
He wrote a couple of songs that he recorded in 1924. After
hearing his songs re-recorded by another band, he went back
into the music business full time. He played for Paul Whiteman
as a guest pianist and vocalist.
In 1929,
Hoagy started his own big band (mentioned above) when he recorded
some of his best work. By 1935, he was fully entrenched in
the Hollywood scene where he won an Oscar in 1951 for his
hit “ In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” performed by
Bing Crosby.
In addition
to being quite apt at music and song, Hoagy was also involved
with radio and television. He was featured in 14 movies. Carmichael
also wrote two autobiographies.
He is
best known for writing the melody to "Star Dust" (1927) --
one of the most-recorded American songs of all time. If you
haven’t listened to another of his songs, “Georgia on My Mind”
sung by Anita O’day with Gene Krupa, you really need to hear
that!
According
to Alec
Wilder, Hoagy Carmichael was "the most talented, inventive,
sophisticated and jazz-oriented" composer of popular songs
during the first half of the 20th century. He died 26 years
ago on December 27, 1981.
Born
in Palmer, Tennessee to a World War II veteran, a coalminer
and a house maker who loved to swing to the big bands in
the heart of country music.
Moved
to Arizona at age 10, completed elementary and high school
in Phoenix schools before entering the US Army in 1964.
Served in Korea and Germany before being discharged 1n 1970.
Attended
junior college in Phoenix and Scottsdale before completing
education at Arizona State University in 1977.
Employed
by the Veterans Administration while attending college during
the 1970’s on the GI Bill, all the while serving the needs
of America’s veterans returning from Vietnam.
A “Lifetime”
member of the VFW.
Formed
and operated a very successful employee benefits service
business during the 1980’s before relocating to the Dallas
area in 1991.
After
a short stint dabbling in the oil business with a step brother,
formed and operate a construction company building new residential
“Green” homes. Visit our website at: www.labranzahomes.net.
Hobbies
include wood turning, woodworking, painting, writing and
photography.
Favorite
music! Obviously America’s music! The big bands, the Swing
Era!
Can’t
sing! Don’t play an instrument of any kind and can’t dance
too hot either, BUT I love music!
