Jazz music: Eddie Jefferson genius vocalese
by Warren
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Eddie Jefferson Makes Me Smile
Trane’s Blues
Eddie Jefferson (3 August 1918 – 9 May 1979) was a celebrated jazz vocalist and lyricist.
He is credited with having invented vocalese, a musical style in which lyrics are set to an instrumental composition or solo. Perhaps his best-known song is “Moody’s Mood for Love”, though it was first recorded by King Pleasure, who cited Jefferson as an influence. Jefferson’s songs “Parker’s Mood” and “Filthy McNasty” were also hits.
One of Jefferson’s most notable recordings “So What”, combined the lyrics of artist Christopher Acemandese Hall with the music of Miles Davis to create a masterwork that highlighted his prolific skills, and ability to majestically turn a phrase, in his style [jazz vocalese].
Jefferson’s last recorded performance was at the Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase in Chicago and was released on video by Rhapsody Films.
Wiki
So What
The first time I heard his studio version of “So What” it just knocked me out. He captured Miles’ lyricism and openness perfectly…all the while singing a paean to the trumpeter. The live version is a bit faster, and Richie Cole plays great.
Here’s a studio recording from 1976 of “Sherry”
His voice is so full of warmth and welcome. I always felt that Eddie Jefferson was my friend.
Although there were a couple obscure early examples (Bee Palmer in 1929 and Marion Harris in 1934, both performing “Singing the Blues”), Eddie Jefferson is considered the founder, and premier performer of vocalese, the art of taking a recording and writing words to the solos, which Jefferson was practicing as early as 1949.
Eddie Jefferson’s first career was as a tap dancer but in the bebop era he discovered his skill as a vocalese lyricist and singer. He wrote lyrics to Charlie Parker’s version of “Parker’s Mood” and Lester Young’s “I Cover the Waterfront” early on, and he is responsible for “Moody’s Mood for Love” (based on James Moody’s alto solo on “I’m in the Mood for Love”). King Pleasure recorded “Moody’s Mood for Love” before Jefferson (getting the hit) and had his own lyrics to “Parker’s Mood,” but in time Jefferson was recognized as the founder of the idiom.
Jefferson worked with James Moody during 1955-1957 and again in 1968-1973 but otherwise mostly performed as a single. He first recorded in 1952 (other than a broadcast from 1949) and those four selections are on the compilation The Bebop Singers. During 1961-1962 he made a classic set for Riverside that is available as Letter from Home and highlighted by “Billie’s Bounce,” “I Cover the Waterfront,” “Parker’s Mood,” and “Things Are Getting Better.”
“Filthy McNasty”
environment Politics: Lindsey Graham whining
by Warren
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Month 3, Day 17: Graham is a Cracker
Read earlier today that Huckleberry Graham was getting his knickers in a twist because the Democrats were going to pass Health Care Reform through reconciliation. If they do this, he whined, why, it’ll jus’ make it impossible for anythin’ to get done afterwards.
This is the Republican who’s working with Kerry and Lieberman on a climate bill. Ick. It sure sounds to me like he’s preparing to abandon the process.
“Now that those dreadful Democrats have gone and ruined bipartisanship, I just can’t bring myself to associate with any of ’em!” (sobs, dabs temples with eau de cologne)
What a jackass. So I wrote him a letter.
Dear Senator Graham,
I’d written to you, Senator Kerry and Senator Lieberman recently on the issue of your work on climate change legislation. It is self-evident to any thinking person that global climate change is the most important existential threat that humanity will face in the coming century.
I was distressed to learn of your recent statements on ABC’s “This Week” to the effect that if Health Care legislation is passed using the reconciliation process, it might “poison the well” as far as creating any sort of bipartisan initiative on another issue.
Really? This sounds to me like you’re not as serious about climate legislation as your previous statements would indicate. If you agree that the future of this country and of the planet we all inhabit is at stake, then it is terribly immature to allow pique at being legislatively outmaneuvered to stop you from doing productive work elsewhere.
It is too important for all of us that the U.S. Senate gets meaningful climate legislation passed this year. There is no time to waste, and there is a lot more at stake than Senatorial ego.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Warren Senders
Education music Warren's music: games improvisation
by Warren
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Musical Game Structures
Quite early in my musical life I became interested in Game Structures. I’ve already mentioned discovering some avant-garde composers through my high-school library’s bizarre decision to subscribe to “Source: Music of the Avant-Garde” during my junior year (two issues/year…and at the end of the year, noting that I was the only person who ever read them, and that I read them constantly, the librarians gave the magazines to me; they’re on the shelf behind me as I write). A few years later, living in Cambridge, I worked with Karl Boyle, who was writing some quite astonishing music that radically transformed the conceptual frameworks of everyone who participated in it.
Particularly important was a set of three pieces called the “Sound/Movement Murals,” an attempt to create performance structures which would engage musicians and dancers in the interpretation of a single set of instructions; all of us were “reading off the same score.” They were performed on stage in Boston; if I recall correctly it was as part of a festival of performance art.
These pieces have continued to influence me, off and on, for the last thirty years or so. Perhaps Karl has them somewhere in his files, and perhaps he would consider releasing them for others to learn from. I hope so.
In 1996 I was developing a music and music-making curriculum for the City of Boston’s After School program. As part of the materials, I wanted to include samples of alternative “notations,” so I generated a few pieces for inclusion in the curriculum (which is still available through Arts in Progress under the title “Ways of Listening”)