Blue Serge and other haunting & beautiful music

[chrisdescor]

Hello,

I'm from Australia.

I'm not too much of a Jazz fanatic but do love some of it.

I have a few records but not really what I want.

I recenty heard Duke Ellington's Blue Serge for the first time, and am deeply obsessed with it.

I've always wanted that exact feelin to happen upon me, and I'd tried to search for it, but as luck has it, it came to me by accident.

Blue Serge is exactly what I want from Jazz.

I admit I'm not a fan of the typical New Orleans or whatever, kind of happy fun crazy hot music.

Nor vocal stuff. Though I do love some the Ella Fitzgerald stuff.

So yeah, I'm not really into much of the happy/frantic dance/wild jazz sort of stuff you might hear in a woody allen films, though I do like some.

I love Miles Davis' Cool Jazz stuff, and those early works; Kind of Blue etc and he others.

I very much love his stuff of that callibar.

If you've seen The Shining, well theres that marvellous scene in the Ballroom which i cant even express how it gives me feelings and images, but the music has such a major play in giving haunting feelings to me. The music is of course, Midnight the Stars and You i believe by Al Bowley. And I cant forget to mention the filmakers' use of that heavy fog ghost reverbaration/echo that wets the music in that ballroom allowing it to create another world of perceptions and sensations.

So thats another exact sound I love in Jazz, though again I havent been able to find much that paralells those feelings it creates.

Ealry this year I travelled to New Orleans, and as I was walking throught the French Quater, this music was coming from this shop, the man said it was Leon Kelner, so I tired later on to find some, a man at the jazz museum said a shop in town had some, but we only had 30 mins left to get to the airport so I didnt get to find the shop.

I bought a record off ebay this year and downloaded a recorded set of Leon Kelner from the 50s/60s but wasnt like what I had heard coming from that shop.

The music as I remember it was like Blue Serge, very very haunting and slow, and brooding. Parallel feelings of beauty sadness fear, everything, all contained in music.

East St.Louis Toodle-Oo is another one I love. I had previously thought "East St.Louis Toodle-Oo" was a style or genre that was mentioned by Burroughs, but now I know it is a song by Ellington. I wish it was a style so that I could have heard more music in this vein.

So I write this mesage in the hope, that one of you people that have a rich history of Jazz music knowledge could help me, point me in the right direction of where to look.

I've tried myself and never find what i'm hearing in my head.

I love the cinematic haunting slow memories-sounding, you could say, type/style of jazz music.

Blue Serge, East St.Louis Toodle-Oo, Midnight the Stars and You. etc

I desperatley want to know more!

So please help/guide me. Recommendations please!

Thank you!

[Hardbopjazz]

Anything by Cecil Taylor would be what you're after.

[jlhoots]

Anything by Cecil Taylor would be what you're after.

Wise guy - I guess.

[Guest Bill Barton]

The mention of "Blue Serge" reminded me of Serge Chaloff's exquisite recording of "A Handful of Stars." It's one of those tunes that seems to be familiar although it really isn't.

[chrisdescor]

thanks

Edited November 12, 2008 by chrisdescor

[BruceH]

The mention of "Blue Serge" reminded me of Serge Chaloff's exquisite recording of "A Handful of Stars." It's one of those tunes that seems to be familiar although it really isn't.

Yes, and the whole Blue Serge album by Serge Chaloff (which "A Handful of Stars" appears on) is a great album that you would probably like.

Another Ellington track, "Ko Ko," from around the time of "Blue Serge," would probably be something you would dig. Almost anything from the so-called "Blanton/Webster band" a period in the history of Duke Ellington's career when he had both bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster in his lineup (around 1940-41)---this was a charmed period for Ellington, when almost everything they recorded is now considered a classic. If you're downloading individual tunes, then I particularly recommend

Ko Ko

Concerto For Cootie

Harlem Air Shaft

Cotton Tail

And perhaps "After All," "Solitude," "Raincheck," "Chelsea Bridge," "Jack the Bear," and "Warm Valley."

[blajay]

I recommend Ellington's New Orleans Suite. Excellent album and definitely haunting for the simple reason that the tune "Blues for New Orleans" is Johnny Hodges' last recording, and you have to imagine what he would have been like on the tune "Portrait of Sidney Bechet" on soprano if he hadn't suddenly died with Paul Gonsalves filling in instead.

[BruceH]

Also the ...And His Mother Called Him Bill album. Highly recommended, and perhaps the best version of "Blood Count" ever.