Big Band. The Legends - Glenn Miller

BIG BAND

A big band is a type of musical ensemble typically consisting of rhythm, brass and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians. A standard 17-piece instrumentation evolved in the big bands, for which many commercial arrangements are available. This instrumentation consists of five saxophones (most often two altos, two tenors and one baritone), four trumpets, four trombones (often including one bass trombone) and a four-piece rhythm section (composed o drums, acoustic bass od electric bass, piano and guitar).

In the 1920s the music of jazz began to migrate to a big band format combining elements of ragtime, black spirituals, blues, and European music. Duke Ellington, Ben Pollack, Don Redman, and Fletcher Henderson sported some of the more popular early big bands playing hot music. These bands contained burgeoning jazz stars and future big bandleaders like Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Red Allen, Roy Eldridge, Benny Carter, and John Kirby.

The Big Band era is generally regarded as having occurred between the years 1935 and 1945. It was the only time in history that the popularity of jazz music eclipsed all other forms of music in the U.S. Rightly or wrongly the appearance of Benny Goodman and his big band at the Palomar in Los Angeles in August of 1935 is often referred to as the official start of the Swing era.

The Legends - Part twelve

Glenn Miller

With his orchestra, bandleader Glenn Miller synthesized all the elements of big band jazz and gave a generation of young people the perfect example of smooth sophisticated dance music. Miller's popularity as a music maker began in 1939 and continued with standards such as "Moonlight Serenade," "In the Mood," and "Tuxedo Junction."

Miller was one of the most popular musicians of his time. Moreover, he was extremely patriotic and took his personal definition of "duty" very seriously. He used his power to create a successful military band on his terms. Then, just as he finally convinced the military to send his band to places where it could truly boost morale, he disappeared. Rumors circulated almost immediately, but Miller's fate remains a mystery.

Alton Glenn Miller was born on March 1, 1904 in Clarinda, Iowa. His parents, Lewis Elmer and Mattie Lou (Cavender) Miller, raised four children. The family moved quite often during his youth, to places including North Platte, Nebraska and Grant City, Oklahoma. In the latter town, Miller milked cows at the age of thirteen in order to earn enough money to purchase a trombone. According to Geoffrey Butcher in Next to a Letter from Home, his mother was the "main strength of the family," and Miller inherited his strong character and love of music from her.

Miller did not, apparently, count on music to be his career, because he finished high school and attended classes at the University of Colorado. During his time in college, though, he continued playing the trombone and worked briefly with Boyd Senter's band in Denver during the mid-1920s. The lure of music proved too strong and Miller left the university after three terms to try his luck on the West Coast.

Miller played with a few small bands in Los Angeles until 1927, when he joined Ben Pollack's orchestra as trombonist and arranger. This was a wonderful opportunity for Miller since Pollack's band was well known and respected. Pollack and his musicians moved to New York, and Miller was able to find so many opportunities to perform that he decided to strike out on his own. In addition to playing the trombone, he did arrangements for Victor Young, Freddy Rich, and many others. Miller felt optimistic enough about his burgeoning career by 1928 that he decided to marry Helen Burger, a woman he had met in his student days at the University of Colorado.

For the next ten years Miller gained experience by organizing bands and arranging or playing for them. This included serving as the trombonist and arranger for the Dorsey Brothers, as well as organizing a band for the internationally famous Ray Noble, who had come to the United States from Great Britain. Miller not only organized a band for him, he also arranged and played for it. As Dave Dexter, Jr. related in Down Beat magazine, "it was with Ray Noble's band that he first earned national attention."

Despite his success with Noble, Miller wanted to have a big band of his own, and turned down a lucrative job with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film company to work on this project. In March 1937, Miller's dream became reality when he put together musicians such as Charlie Spivak, Toots Mondello, and Maurice Purtill to form the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Though Purtill soon left to play with Tommy Dorsey, the orchestra carried on for the rest of the year, playing one-night stands in various cities.

In 1938, Miller temporarily suspended the band. Purtill's absence brought about problems with the orchestra's rhythm section that continued to plague its leader. The members were not meshing with one another the way Miller had hoped. He wanted to achieve a full ensemble sound, rather than spotlighting a soloist. Miller decided to reorganize, using only a few of the band's original members. Later that year the Glenn Miller Orchestra added singer, Marion Hutton, to its roster. By 1939, the band was playing to standing-room-only crowds in New York City. They made radio broadcasts and recordings, which did much to spread the Glenn Miller sound across the country. Their most famous recordings included "Moonlight Serenade," "In the Mood," and "Chatanooga Choo Choo."

Miller's orchestra was famous for its well-blended balanced sound. Critics have noted that it was not a vehicle for star soloists, but rather that emphasis was placed on the output of the entire band. Miller was known to discourage musicians who stood out from the rest of the orchestra, and praise those who combined well with their fellows. The Glenn Miller Orchestra was acclaimed by a large variety of fans because it played many different types of big band music-everything from hot jazz to popular ballads. Miller and his band had appeared in two motion pictures for Twentieth Century Fox: Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives. They had achieved both fame and wealth.

In 1942, during the Second World War, Miller decided to break up his orchestra in order to accept the rank of captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was past the age when he might expect to be called to service. Nonetheless, Miller felt that he could and should do more to contribute to the war effort than play on the radio, safe from the action. He did not want to use his fame to excuse himself from what he felt was his patriotic duty. On October 7th, Miller enlisted in the army and invited members of his band to join him. They declined.

Upon his induction into the Army Air Forces (AAF), Miller was named director of bands training for the Technical Training Command. He was initially thwarted from implementing some his more creative plans. Several months later, though, after helping to organize almost 50 other bands, he was permitted to form a band of his own.

Miller wanted to incorporate string instruments into his band, in order to transcend the conventional sound of a dance band, which usually only included brass, reed, and rhythm sections. This was a highly innovative concept, and not all of the military bandleaders were open to his idea. In fact, he was reprimanded for an interview he gave to Time magazine in their September 6, 1943 issue, in which he criticized army band music of the time. He asserted that it should be up-to-date, so that the soldiers could enjoy it. He was also quoted as specifically criticizing the compositions of Sousa, which were standards for the army bands. Naturally bandleaders who were admirers of Sousa's works took offense. Miller later claimed he had been misquoted, but the magazine declined to print a retraction.

In November 1943, Miller was released from his other band responsibilities, leaving him free to concentrate on the growth and development of his own band. He wanted an ensemble sound, so improvisation by individual musicians was not tolerated. Miller also refused to give furloughs for band members. He felt that they were living the easy life, compared to soldiers out on the front lines. On the other hand, he was always willing to help musically talented servicemen find their way into a band, if he could manage it.

Miller was anxious to go overseas. After repreated requests, he received permission in June 1944 to take his band to England. They performed in conjunction with the British Broadcasting Corportaion (BBC). Wartime London was the site of air raid warnings, rations on most items, and demolished buildings. Appalled by the conditions and concerned for the safety of his band, Miller made arrangements to move to nearby Bedford. Besides their weekly BBC broadcasts, the band also visited military hospitals and airfields to perform. The applause they received gave Miller and his band immense satisfaction.

Miller again grew restless. His next mission was to have the band sent to France. Once more, he met with opposition from the AAF, not to mention the BBC, which was concerned about their weekly program featuring the band. By November 15, he finally received approval.

Miller decided to fly to Paris to make arrangements before the arrival of his band. A Colonel Baessell was leaving for France and offered to let Miller ride along. They took off in a Norseman plane on the stormy afternoon of December 15, 1944. The plane, the pilot, and its passengers were never seen again. The plane never landed in France, according to flight records; nor was any wreckage found. The most-widely accepted theory asserted that the plane went down over the English Channel. Two months after his disappearance the Bronze Star was presented to Miller's wife, in recognition of his contribution to the war effort. On June 5, 1945, Glenn Miller Day was declared in the United States as a national tribute.

Despite his untimely death at the age of 40, Glenn Miller is remembered today not only for the beloved music he produced, but also for his influence on the evolution and commercial success of swing, and for his patriotic devotion in a time of war. Over the years, Glenn Miller's Estate has supported incarnations of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, which still captivate civilian and military audiences. In addition, several biographical books and a film, The Glenn Miller Story (1953), have paid tribute to the life of this great man and musician. Though the Big Band era has passed and the 100th anniversary of Glenn Miller's birth occurred in March 2004, his music still holds the same allure today that it did during his life. The melodies and sounds of the Glenn Miller Orchestra charm audiences of all ages.

Here is my top 10 of his compositions:

1.   "In The Mood" 
2.   "Chattanooga Choo Choo"
3.   "Sunrise Serenade"
4.   "Over The Rainbow" 
5.   "Boogie Woogie"
6.   "A String Of Pearls"
7.   "Pennsilvania 6-5000"
8.   "Little Brown Jug"
9.   "Oh So Good"
10. "Georgia On My Mind"

North Sea Jazz Festival. The Legends - Nina Simone

The first edition of the North Sea Jazz Festival took place in 1976 in the Nederlands Congresgebouw in The Hague. Some numbers in those early days: six venues, three hundred artists and about nine thousand visitors. In this very first festival year internationally renowned jazz legends performed, such as Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz, as well as most Dutch avant-garde artists. In 2006, the festival moved to its current, bigger, location in Rotterdam. 

Nowadays the North Sea Jazz Festival is staggering in size, touted as the world's largest indoor jazz festival and that's certainly a good bet. With 13 stages running from late afternoon until the early morning hours, it's far more than a smorgasbord. More like an avalanche, but one where the music fan happily stands at the bottom of the mountain. North Sea Jazz is known all over the world because of the many musical genres it has to offer, ranging from traditional New Orleans jazz, swing, bop, free jazz, fusion, avant-garde jazz and electronic jazz; to blues, gospel, funk, soul, R&B, hip hop, world beat and Latin.

I had an opportunity to attend on the North See Jazz Festival in 2010 and indeed it was very impressive.  It was the 35th edition of North Sea Jazz Festival, and I have enjoyed performances by Earth Wind and Fire, Diana Krall, Corinne Bailey Rae, Pat Metheny Group, Joss Stone, Sonny Rollins and Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Macy Gray and many others.

The Legends - Part Eleven

Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone, was born in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21st, 1933. The child prodigy played piano at the age of four. With the help of her music teacher, who set up the "Eunice Waymon Fund", she could continue her general and musical education. She studied at the Julliard School of Music in New York.

To support her family financially, she started working as an accompanist. In the summer of 1954 she took a job in an Irish bar in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The bar owner told her she had to sing as well. Without having time to realize what was happening, Eunice Waymon, who was trained to become a classical pianist, stepped into show business. She changed her name into Nina ("little one") Simone ("from the French actress Simone Signoret").

In the late 50's Nina Simone recorded her first tracks for the Bethlehem label. These are still remarkable displays of her talents as a pianist, singer, arranger and composer. Songs as Plain Gold Ring, Don't Smoke In Bed and Little Girl Blue soon became standards in her repertoire.

One song, "I Loves You, Porgy", from the opera "Porgy and Bess", became a hit and the nightclub singer became a star, performing at Town Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival. Even from the beginning of her career on, her repertoire included jazz standards, gospel and spirituals, classical music, folk songs of diverse origin, blues, pop, songs from musicals and opera, African chants as well as her own compositions.

Her gift to give new and deeper dimensions to songs resulted in remarkable versions of "Ain't Got No... I Got Life" (from the musical "Hair"), Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne", Bee Gees songs as "To Love Somebody", the classic "My Way" done in a tempo doubled on bongos, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and four other Bob Dylan songs. This gift culminated on her record "Emergency Ward": she set up an atmosphere that left no illusions and no escape, performing two long versions of George Harrison songs: "My Sweet Lord" (to which she added a David Nelson poem, Today is a Killer) and "Isn't it a Pity".

But Nina tried to escape anyway. She felt she had been manipulated. Disgusted with record companies, show business and racism, she left the USA in 1974 for Barbados. During the following years she lived in Liberia, Switzerland, Paris, The Netherlands and finally the South of France. In 1978 a long awaited new record was released, "Baltimore", containing the definite rendition of Judy Collins' My Father and an hypnotizing Everything Must Change.

Her next album, "Fodder On My Wings", was recorded in Paris in 1982 and is based on her self-imposed "exile" from the USA. More than ever determined to make her own music, Nina wrote, adapted and arranged the songs, played piano and harpsichord and sang in English and French. The 1988 CD re-release of this album included some bonus tracks, e.g. her extraordinary version of "Alone Again Naturally", reminiscing her father's death.

In 1984, one of her concerts at Ronnie Scott's in London was filmed, resulting in a captivating video, featuring Paul Robinson on drums. A song from her very first record, "My Baby Just Cares For Me", became a huge hit and "Nina's Back" was not only the title of a new album; her concerts would take her all over the world again.

In 1989 she contributed to Pete Townsend's musical "The Iron Man". In 1990 she recorded with Maria Bethania; in 1991 with Miriam Makeba. That same year, her autobiography, "I Put A Spell On You" was published. It was translated into French ("Ne Me Quittez Pas"), German ("Meine Schwarze Seele") and Dutch ("I Put A Spell On You, - Herinneringen").

In 1993 a new studio album was released. "A Single Woman" includes several Rod McKuen songs, Nina's own "Marry Me", her version of the French standard "Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux" and a very moving "Papa, Can You Hear Me?"

No less than five songs from her repertoire were used in the 1993 motion picture sound track of "Point Of No Return" (also called "The Assassin", code name: "Nina"). Many other films feature her songs (e.g. "Ghosts of Mississippi", 1996: "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free", "Stealing Beauty", 1996: "My Baby Just Cares For Me "and "One Night Stand", 1997: "Exactly Like You").

Her music continues to excite new and young listeners. "Ain't Got No... I Got Life" was a big hit in 1998 in The Netherlands, just as it had been there 30 years before...

Together with her regular accompanists Leopoldo Fleming (percussion), Tony Jones (bass), Paul Robinson (drums), Xavier Collados (keyboards) and her musical director Al Schackman (guitar), she still excites audiences all over the world. At the Barbican Theatre in London in 1997 she sang Every Time I Feel The Spirit as a tribute to one of America's first and foremost leaders in the cause of Civil Rights, peace and brotherhood, singer and actor Paul Robeson. More spirituals and "blood songs" would follow: Reached Down And Got My Soul, The Blood Done Change My Name and When I See The Blood.

Nina was the highlight of the Nice Jazz Festival in France in 1997, the Thessalonica Jazz Festival in Greece in 1998. At the Guinness Blues Festival in Dublin, Ireland in 1999 her daughter, Lisa Celeste, performing as "Simone", sang a few duets with her mother. Simone has toured the world, sung with Latin superstar Rafael, participated in two Disney theatre workshops, playing the title role in Aida and Nala in The Lion King.

On July 24, 1998 Nina Simone was a special guest at Nelson Mandela's 80th Birthday Party. On October 7, 1999 she received a Lifetime Achievement in Music Award in Dublin. In 2000 she received Honorary Citizenship to Atlanta (May 26), the Diamond Award for Excellence in Music from the Association of African American Music in Philadelphia (June 9) and the Honorable Musketeer Award from the Compagnie des Mousquetaires d'Armagnac in France (August 7).

Dr. Simone passed away after a long illness at her home in her villa in Carry-le-Rouet (South of France) on April 21, 2003. As she had wished, her ashes were spread in different African countries.

Here is my top 10 of her songs:

1.   "My Baby Just Cares For Me"
2.   "I Loves You Porgy"
3.   "Feeling Good"
4.   "Sinnerman"
5.   "Don't Smoke In Bed"
6.   "Mississippi Goddam"
7.   "My Way"
8.   "Here Comes The Sun"
9.   "Love Me Or Leave Me"
10. "I Put Spell On You"

Clarinet. The Legends - Benny Goodman

The modern orchestral clarinet is widely considered one of the most versatile of all modern instruments. Its ancestor is the chalumeau, from which it was developed somewhere around 1700. The creator was J.C. Denner, a German instrument-maker. The clarinet can be heard in many different types of musical groups from military bands to orchestras to jazz groups. In jazz groups, the very bright and sassy clarinet can provide a wonderful solo as well as enhance others.

For the 20th century history of the clarinet jazz has played a major part. Adopted by jazz musicians from the birth of the movement, the clarinet continues to play an important part of the modern jazz scene, and some of the most famous clarinet players in history have been jazz musicians. The clarinet was included in some of the earliest jazz ensembles, especially groups known as "Dixieland" bands. This commonly consisted of clarinet, cornet, baritone, tuba, drums, and piano. The clarinet was in its jazz heyday with the arrival of the Big Bands and "Swing Era", a sound synonymous with the Second World War period. This time in jazz is also associated with the most famous jazz clarinetist of all time, Benny Goodman. After a period in Chicago that involved some classic recordings, Goodman moved to New York, where he worked as a freelancer before putting together the first of his jazz bands. Since the big band era, that clarinet has been eclipsed as a jazz woodwind instrument by the saxophone, though there are some modern day clarinetists who are renowned jazz players.

The Legends - Part Ten

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David Goodman was born on May 30, 1909 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the eighth child of immigrants David Goodman and Dora Grisinsky Goodman, who left Russia to escape anti-Semitism. His father worked for a tailor to support his large family, which eventually grew to include a total of 12 children, and had trouble making ends meet. When Benny was 10 years old, his father sent him to study music at Kehelah Jacob Synagogue in Chicago. There, Benny learned the clarinet under the tutelage of Chicago Symphony member Franz Schoepp, while two of his brothers learned tuba and trumpet. He also played in the band at Jane Addams' famous social settlement, Hull-House.

Benny's aptitude on the clarinet was immediately apparent. While he was still very young, he became a professional musician and played in several bands in Chicago. He played with his first pit band at the age of 11, and became a member of the American Federation of Musicians when he was 14, when he quit school to pursue his career in music. When his father died, 15-year-old Benny used the money he made to help support his family. During these early years in Chicago, he played with many musicians who would later become nationally renowned, such as Frank Teschemacher and Dave Tough.

When Benny was 16, he was hired by the Ben Pollack band and moved to Los Angeles. He remained with the band for four years, and became a featured soloist. In 1929, the year that marked the onset of the Great Depression and a time of distress for America, Benny left the Ben Pollack band to participate in recording sessions and radio shows in New York City. Then, in 1933, Benny began to work with John Hammond, a jazz promoter who would later help to launch the recording careers of Billie Holiday and Count Basie, among many others. Hammond wanted Benny to record with drummer Gene Krupa and trombonist Jack Teagarden, and the result of this recording session was the onset of Benny's national popularity. Later, in 1942, Benny would marry Alice Hammond Duckworth, John Hammond's sister, and have two daughters: Rachel, who became a concert pianist, and Benji, who became a cellist.

Benny led his first band in 1934 and began a few-month stint at Billy Rose's Music Hall, playing Fletcher Henderson's arrangements along with band members Bunny Berigan, Gene Krupa and Jess Stacy. The music they played had its roots in the Southern jazz forms of ragtime and Dixieland, while its structure adhered more to arranged music than its more improvisational jazz counterparts. This gave it an accessibility that appealed to American audiences on a wide scale. America began to hear Benny's band when he secured a weekly engagement for his band on NBC's radio show "Let's Dance", which was taped with a live studio audience. The new swing music had the kids dancing when, on August 21, 1935, Benny's band played the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles. The gig was sensational and marked the beginning of the years that Benny would reign as King: the Swing Era. Teenagers and college students invented new dance steps to accompany the new music sensation. Benny's band, along with many others, became hugely successful among listeners from many different backgrounds all over the country.

During this period Benny also became famous for being colorblind when it came to racial segregation and prejudice. Pianist Teddy Wilson, an African-American, first appeared in the Ben ny Goodman Trio at the Congress Hotel in 1935. Benny added Lionel Hampton, who would later form his own band, to his Benny Goodman Quartet the next year. While these groups were not the first bands to feature both white and black musicians, Benny's national popularity helped to make racially mixed groups more accepted in the mainstream. Benny once said, "If a guy's got it, let him give it. I'm selling music, not prejudice".

Benny's success as an icon of the Swing Era prompted Time magazine in 1937 to call him the "King of Swing". The next year, at the pinnacle of the Swing Era, the Benny Goodman band, along with musicians from the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands, made history as the first jazz band ever to play in New York's prestigious Carnegie Hall. Following the concert at Carnegie Hall, the Benny Goodman band had many different lineup changes. Gene Krupa left the band, among others, and subsequent versions of the band included Cootie Williams and Charlie Christian, as well as Jimmy Maxwell and Mel Powell, among others.

The Swing Era began to come to a close, as America got more involved in World War II. Several factors contributed to its waning success, including the loss of musicians to the draft and the limits that gas-rationing put on touring bands. However, though the big band days were drawing to a close and new forms of music were emerging, Benny continued to play music in the swing style. He dabbled in the "bop" movement of the 1940s, but never succumbed, as the rest of the world did, to the allure of rock and roll influences in the 1950s and 1960s. Instead, Benny tried his hand at classical music, doing solos with major orchestras, and studying with internationally acclaimed classical clarinetist Reginald Kell. These appearances further demonstrated Benny's range as a musician. His talent was unquestionable from the time he was 10 years old, and in recording sessions throughout his career, he very rarely made mistakes. Krell had helped him to improve some of his techniques, making Benny's playing even stronger.

Benny Goodman and Nikita Khrushchev

In 1953, Benny's band planned to join Louis Armstrong and his All Stars in a tour together, but the two band leaders argued and the tour never opened at Carnegie Hall, as had been planned. It is not certain whether the tour was canceled due to Benny's illness or the conflict between the bandleaders. The rest of the decade marked the spread of Benny's music to new audiences around the world. The Benny Goodman Story, a film chronicling his life, was released in 1955, exposing new and younger audiences to his music. Benny also toured the world, bringing his music to Asia and Europe. When he traveled to the USSR, one writer observed "the swing music that had once set the jitterbugs dancing in the Paramount aisles almost blew down the Iron Curtain".

During the late 1960s and 1970s, Benny appeared in reunions with the other members of his quartet: Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa and Lionel Hampton. In 1978, the Benny Goodman band also appeared at Carnegie Hall again to mark the 30th Anniversary of when they appeared in the venue's first jazz concert. In 1982, Benny was honored by the Kennedy Center for his lifetime achievements in swing music. In 1986, he received both an honorary doctorate degree in music from Columbia University and the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement. He continued to play the music that defined his lifetime in occasional concert dates until his death in June 1986, of cardiac arrest. Through his amazing career, Benny Goodman did not change his style to conform to the latest trends, but retained the original sound that defined the Swing Era and made him the world renowned King of Swing.

Here is my top 10 of his compositions:

1.   "Sing, Sing, Sing"

2.   "Caprice Paganini XXIV"

3.   "Bugle Call Rag"

4.   "Saint Louis Blues"

5.   "Moonglow"

6.   "Sweet Georgia Brown"

7.   "I Got Rhythm"

8.   "Roll 'Em"

9.   "Flat Foot Floogie"

10. "Swingtime In The Rockies"

Bebop. The Legends - John Coltrane

Bebop, also called bop,  the first kind of modern jazz, which split jazz into two opposing camps in the last half of the 1940s. It was a style of jazz in great contrast to the music of the big bands.The word is an onomatopoeic rendering of a staccato two-tone phrase distinctive in this type of music. When it emerged, bebop was unacceptable not only to the general public but also to many musicians. The resulting breaches - first, between the older and younger schools of musicians and, second, between jazz musicians and their public - were deep, and the second never completely healed.

Whereas earlier jazz was essentially diatonic (i.e., basing melodies and harmonies on traditional Western major and minor 7-note scales comprising 5 whole and 2 half steps), much of the thinking that informed the new movement was chromatic (drawing on all 12 notes of the chromatic scale). Thus the harmonic territory open to the jazz soloist was vastly increased.

Bebop took the harmonies of the old jazz and superimposed on them additional "substituted" chords. It also broke up the metronomic regularity of the drummer’s rhythmic pulse and produced solos played in double time with several bars packed with 16th notes. The result was complicated improvisation.

The development of bebop is attributed in large part to Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. The unique styles of Gillespie and Parker contributed to and typified the bebop sound. They experimented with unconventional chromaticism, discordant sounds, and placement of accents in melodies. In contrast to the regular phrasing of big band music, Gillespie and Parker often created irregular phrases of odd length, and combined swing and straight eighth-note rhythms within the swing style. By the mid-1950s musicians (Miles Davis and John Coltrane among others) began to explore directions beyond the standard bebop vocabulary.

The Legends - Part Nine

John Coltrane

Born September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina, John Coltrane (Trane) was always surrounded by music. His father played several instruments sparking Coltrane’s study of E-flat horn and clarinet. While in high school, Coltrane’s musical influences shifted to the likes of Lester Young and Johnny Hodges prompting him to switch to alto saxophone. He continued his musical training in Philadelphia at Granoff Studios and the Ornstein School of Music. He was called to military service during World War II, where he performed in the U.S. Navy Band in Hawaii.

After a yearlong stint in the Navy, Coltrane began playing gigs in and around Philadelphia. During this time he became involved in drug and alcohol use, vices that would follow him throughout his career and ultimately lead to his death. 

Prior to joining the Dizzy Gillespie band, Coltrane performed with Jimmy Heath where his passion for experimentation began to take shape. However, it was his work with the Miles Davis Quintet in 1958 that would lead to his own musical evolution. "Miles music gave me plenty of freedom," he once said. During that period, he became known for using the three-on-one chord approach, and what has been called the "sheets of sound," a method of playing multiple notes at one time.

In 1960 he formed his own group - The John Coltrane quartet - with Coltrane playing tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyler on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Jimmy Harrison on bass. It was during the first years of this group that Coltrane graduated from an above-average tenor saxophonist to an elite bandleader, composer, and improviser. "My Favorite Things", the epic album featuring "Every Time We Say Goodbye", "Summertime", "But Not For Me", and the title track, was recorded in 1960. This was undoubtedly Coltrane's most successful and popular album, and granted him the commercial success that had eluded him thus far in his career. Perhaps due to this success, Coltrane's approach to his music began to shift during 1961-62, moving towards a more experimental, improvisational style. This "free-jazz" alienated many of the fans Coltrane had collected after "My Favorite Things", but at the same time expanded the horizons and definition of jazz.  Coltrane's continuing desire to break new boundaries with his music, though, led to the end of the group in January 1966.

In 1967, liver disease took Coltrane’s life leaving many to wonder what might have been. He died of liver cancer, entering the hospital on a Sunday and expiring in the early morning hours of the next day.

In 1965, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1972, "A Love Supreme" was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over half a million copies in Japan. This album, as well as My Favorite Things, was certified gold in the United States in 2001. In 1982, the RIAA posthumously awarded John Coltrane a Grammy Award of " Best Jazz Solo Performance" for the work on his album, "Bye Bye Blackbird". 

In 1997 he received the organizations highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award. On June 18, 1993 Mrs. Alice Coltrane received an invitation to The White House from former President and Mrs. Clinton, in appreciation of John Coltrane’s historical appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. In 1995, John Coltrane was honored by the United States Postal Service with a commemorative postage stamp. Issued as part of the musicians and composers series, this collectors item remains in circulation. In 1999, Universal Studios and its recording division MCA Records recognized John Coltrane’s influence on cinema by naming a street on the Universal Studios lot in his honor. In 2001, The NEA and the RIAA released 360 songs of the Century. Among them was John Coltrane’s "My Favorite Things."

Here is my top 10 of his compositions:

1.   "My Favorite Things"

2.   "Kind of Blue" (with Miles Davis)

3.   "Equinox"

4.   "Spiritual" 

5.   "In A Sentimental Mood" (with Duke Ellington)

6.   "Every Time We Say Goodbye"

7.   "Ruby, My Dear" (with Thelonious Monk)

8.   "My One And Only Love" (with Johnny Hartman)

9.   "But Not For me"

10. "Impressions"

Newport Jazz Festival. The Legends - Billie Holiday

Founded in 1954, the Newport Jazz Festival was the first annual jazz festival in America. It has been host to numerous legendary performances by some of the world's leading established and emerging artists. Historic moments since its inception include performances by Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Referred to as the grandfather of all jazz festivals, the event draws thousands of people from all over the world to Newport, Rhode Island, a city, which is famed for its spectacular coastal scenery and awe-inspiring architecture.

Most of the early festivals were broadcast on Voice of America radio and many performances were recorded and have been issued by various record labels.

The Newport Jazz Festival moved to New York City in 1972 and became a two-site festival in 1981 when it returned to Newport and also continued in New York. The festival was known as the JVC Jazz Festival from 1984 to 2008.

Two of the most famous performances in the festival's history are Miles Davis’s 1955 solo on “Round Midnight” and the Duke Ellington Orchestra's lengthy 1956 performance of "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue".

The 1957 performances of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Carmen McRea were released in 1958 on the album Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport.

The Legends - Part Eight

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a limited range, she used it like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist, stretching and condensing phrases in an ever-shifting dialogue with accompanying musicians. Famous for delivering lyrics a bit behind the beat, she alternately endowed them with sadness, sensuality, languor, and irony. Rarely singing blues, Holiday performed mostly popular material, communicating deep emotion by stripping down rather than dressing up words and lines. "If you find a tune that's got something to do with you, you just feel it, and when you sing it, other people feel it, too," Holiday once explained. White gardenias, worn in her hair, became her trademark.

Born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her life was a study in hardship. Her parents married when she was three, but her musician father was seldom present and the couple soon divorced. Receiving little schooling as a child, Holiday scrubbed floors and ran errands for a nearby brothel so she could listen to idols Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith on the Victrola in its parlor. Brutally raped at ten, she was sent to a reformatory for "seducing" her adult attacker; at fourteen she was jailed for prostitution.

In her difficult early life, Holiday found solace in music, singing along to the records of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong. She followed her mother who had moved to New York City in the late 1920s and worked in a house of prostitution in Harlem for a time. Around 1930, Holiday began singing in local clubs and renamed herself "Billie" after the film star Billie Dove.

At the age of 18, Holiday was discovered by producer John Hammond while she was performing in a Harlem jazz club. Hammond was instrumental in getting Holiday recording work with an up-and-coming clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman. With Goodman, she sang vocals for several tracks, including her first commercial release "Your Mother's Son-In-Law" and the 1934 top ten hit "Riffin' the Scotch."

Around this time, Holiday met and befriended saxophonist Lester Young, who was part of Count Basie’s orchestra on and off for years. He even lived with Holiday and her mother Sadie for a while. Young gave Holiday the nickname "Lady Day" in 1937 - the same year she joined Basie's band.

By the mid-1940s Billie had been arrested many times for narcotics violations, and after one arrest in 1947, at her own request, was placed for a year and a day in a federal rehabilitation center. Just ten days after being released she gave a concert at Carnegie Hall, but thenceforth was barred by New York City police licensing laws from working in any place that served liquor. The absence of a cabaret card in effect meant that she could never again appear in a New York nightclub.

Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald

Billie made her final public appearance in a concert at the Phoenix Theatre, New York City, on May 25, 1959. In early 1959 she found out that she had cirrhosis of the liver. The doctor told her to stop drinking, which she did for a short time, but soon returned to heavy drinking. By May she had lost twenty pounds. On May 31, 1959, Holiday was taken to Metropolitan Hospital in New York suffering from liver and heart disease. She was arrested for drug possession as she lay dying, and her hospital room was raided by authorities. Police officers were stationed at the door to her room. Holiday remained under police guard at the hospital until she died on July 17, 1959. In the final years of her life, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with $0.70 in the bank and $750 (a tabloid fee) on her person.

Billie Holiday was posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Four of her albums were awarded to the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album.

Here is my top 10 of Lady Day's songs:

1.   "Body And Soul"

2.   "I Love You Porgy"

3.   "Blu Moon"

4.   "The Man I Love"

5.   "I'm A Fool To Want You"

6.   "My Man"

7.   "Georgia On My Mind"

8.   "Solitude"

9.   "The Blues Are Brewin" (with Louis Armstrong) 

10. "All Of Me"