Lush Life (Strayhorn biography)

[JSngry]

And I get that there will be those who aren't inclined to warmly embrace all that. It's the disdain for it as expressed in ways that go after it is a form of basic incompetence that I will not accept.

It's like the folks who say they don't want to do 4/4 swing, ever, never. For some it's a sincere embrace of where they are in their lives, and yeah, that's right, they can do that and want to do it precisely because they dig what it is that they are choosing not to do. and then there's the people who you sense are really...uncomfortable with all sorts of the socio-physical things that are implied by a hard 4/4 swing thing, and they are happy to be able to let it fade away, they never really liked it in the first place, and now they have a means of fashionably denying it's vitality at all, whew, glad THAT'S over, it took long enough.

Same thing with the Ellington criticisms...I know that Basie loved Duke, but Basie also never, EVER wanted his band to sound like that (a "reliable source" told me that when asked (in a casual conversation) about his opinion of Thad's band, Basie's answer was "eh....sounds too much like Duke"), but all that aside, surely Basie recognized that they were two different worlds, neither hostile to the other.

I mean, there's ways to express not liking something personally that still recognize the validity of that other thing's existence. And then there's ways to just send the message that you wish this thing had never happened, how could it have, yuck, ARRRRGH, KILL IT!!!

On a possible similar note, I had a conversation with this one friend of mine about section intonation, and he was like, well, Duke's thing, yeah, but Fela's horns, OH MY GOD!!!! And I'm like dude, wake up, pitch creates shapes, pitch creates colors, pitch creates dimension. As luck would have it, we were outside and there was a big gnarly oak tree close by. I pointed to the leaves and said, hey, those leaves, that's Duke's sound. That big gnarly-ass knot down here on the trunk, that thing that looks like it's a hole but isn't, that goes neither in nor out but just...around, yeah, that thing, that's Fela's horns sound.

I got a nervous laugh that I took to mean that, not a horn section is not a tree, but your point is something I will think about eventually, and that was that, no hating, maybe some inadvertent hating nipped, close enough. But I hate it when people use pitch as a weapon against itself. Again, A-440 only has relevancy in music that is designed for A-400, and not all music is, not even.

Quite apart from all that, though, I would love to encourage any music lover to have fun and take some time to listen to any and all music that has section work going on. Don't just hear the lead players, here the bottom, and especially the inside players, here the sound, not the lead. It's a wonderful thing to hear, really it is. Big band, string quartet, full orchestra, three horn front line, whatever. Blend, phrasing, dynamics, when a section plays as a section, it's a statement!

[fasstrack]

17 hours ago, medjuck said:

The Hajdu book shone a welcome light on Strayhorn but he was wrong to imply that Ellington never gave Strays  credit.  I have many, many concert recordings where  Ellington names Strayhorn as the composer of  the numbers he wrote. I like Hajdu's writings, but he's not one to let nuance get in the way of a good story. 

Good point. Thanks...

A musician (don't remember which one) once observed that the Ellington sax section was the only one that played in front of the beat. All the others played behind, said he. My comment on the latter observation is that the weight of the horns---particularly the slower-moving bari---(and they all had to sound like one) is the reason for playing behind in most orchestras.

[paul secor]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

.

Same thing with the Ellington criticisms...I know that Basie loved Duke, but Basie also never, EVER wanted his band to sound like that (a "reliable source" told me that when asked (in a casual conversation) about his opinion of Thad's band, Basie's answer was "eh....sounds too much like Duke"), but all that aside, surely Basie recognized that they were two different worlds, neither hostile to the other.

I mean, there's ways to express not liking something personally that still recognize the validity of that other thing's existence. And then there's ways to just send the message that you wish this thing had never happened, how could it have, yuck, ARRRRGH, KILL IT!!!

 

Too bad that John Hammond didn't have the same attitude of acceptance that Basie had.

[JSngry]

Which raises the issue of "ownership", not just financially but mentally, spiritually, psychologically. When you are attracted to something that you yourself intuitively know that you can never have/own, how does that make you feel? Does it leave you humble and impressed and actually delighted, or does it leave you feeling threatened and make you a pissy little bitch about it?

I mean, we all got things to own, but so does everybody else. so...just chill out with the metrics and the monetizations of life, time, music, PITCH for crying out loud, just handle your own business and be happy that somebody else is handling thier's. Don't be threatened that you are not the only badass in the room, be delighted that there are all these other badasses in the room with you, that's rarefied company, dude, be happy and do right with it.

You want an example of a life fighting for ownership, against hostile takeovers, fully willing to make a good deal and almost obsessive about making a great one lest it turn into a sneak-attack surrender, that's Duke Ellington. and I think that still bothers some people.

[fasstrack]

4 hours ago, paul secor said:

Too bad that John Hammond didn't have the same attitude of acceptance that Basie had.

I heard he was narrow-minded. He once asked an old girlfriend of mine who approached him for advice or a possible deal if she thought she 'had any (musical) talent'. He was right, she didn't. He gave her $500, though, before basically telling her to scram. 

She wound up with a song on the album of a certain trumpet player trying to 'crossover' as her claim to fame...

Edited July 29, 2016 by fasstrack

[JSngry]

Tom Browne?

[fasstrack]

On 29/07/2016 at 9:34 AM, JSngry said:

 

I re-read Kelley's biography of Monk, my 3rd time through. IMO it's way better than Lush Life---in fact the best biography of any musician I have read to date.

Now I await the arrival of Something to Live For, and hope it has insights into Strayhorn's music that Lush Life did not...

[six string]

On July 29, 2016 at 9:15 AM, JSngry said:

Which raises the issue of "ownership", not just financially but mentally, spiritually, psychologically. When you are attracted to something that you yourself intuitively know that you can never have/own, how does that make you feel? Does it leave you humble and impressed and actually delighted, or does it leave you feeling threatened and make you a pissy little bitch about it?

I mean, we all got things to own, but so does everybody else. so...just chill out with the metrics and the monetizations of life, time, music, PITCH for crying out loud, just handle your own business and be happy that somebody else is handling thier's. Don't be threatened that you are not the only badass in the room, be delighted that there are all these other badasses in the room with you, that's rarefied company, dude, be happy and do right with it.

You want an example of a life fighting for ownership, against hostile takeovers, fully willing to make a good deal and almost obsessive about making a great one lest it turn into a sneak-attack surrender, that's Duke Ellington. and I think that still bothers some people.

Great post.  Here, here.

[JSngry]

Tubby Hayes on subbing in the Ellington saxophone section: http://www.jazzwax.com/2017/01/tubby-hayes-paul-gonsalves.html

Playing in that section was wonderful The quality of sound was quite frightening at times. And they didn't seem to be blowing over-loud.

[l p]