Dizzy Gillespie - Swing low, sweet Cadillac

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I was listening to this earlier and, as ever, "Kush" really got to me. But it raised a couple of questions in my mind.

First, Diz does a little bit of a rap to the audience at the beginning, about Mama Africa. And the way he's talking, I had a distinct feeling that a very large proportion of the audience was black. I looked at the venue and it was Memory Lane, in LA. Was this a black club? Or mainly so? I think Red Holloway booked the acts there, but perhaps not as early as 1967. Not sure when he started doing that.

Second, James Moody, at the end of his solo plays a scale several times, up and down, getting slower and slower as he goes. It's not a scale I recognise, however. But it's something that isn't right off my mind. Can someone tell me what the scale is, please?

MG

[Big Beat Steve]

MG, unless this is read by a real Dizzyphile who knows every track ever recorded by Diz inside and out and rattles off the reply, it might make a reply easier if you tell us which version of that tune it is exactly you are talking about (recording date, release, original release/label etc.). Because Diz must have recorded this tune I don't know how many tmies.

I have two versions of this - one recorded for his Dee Gee label in 1951 and another one recorded live at Salle Pleyel in Paris in 1953 for Vogue. But these are not the ones you are talking about, of course.

[paul secor]

Believe that MG is talking about the track "Kush" from the 1967 Impulse album, Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac - see the title of the thread.

[Big Beat Steve]

Ah, I see - but now that's tricky. The title of an oft-recorded tune as the ALBUM title. Not the first thing that comes to mind when you read the THREAD title and are not that much into that period of Gillespiana. And amazingly not an album included in Goldmine's Price Guide (listing artist albums up to 1969).

Edited September 28, 2010 by Big Beat Steve

[jeffcrom]

Second, James Moody, at the end of his solo plays a scale several times, up and down, getting slower and slower as he goes. It's not a scale I recognise, however. But it's something that isn't right off my mind. Can someone tell me what the scale is, please?

MG

It's nothing unusual, although Moody's lowest note makes it sound a little exotic. It's F Dorian, which would be a common choice for a tune in F minor, as this one is. Moody plays it down to a low D, the lowest note of this scale/mode he can play on the alto saxophone. That means he ends on the major 6th of the key, which is not a "strong" note - that makes the scale sound more "foreign" that it really is.

[sonnymax]

...Memory Lane, in LA. Was this a black club? Or mainly so?

From what I've read, Memory Lane was one of the few African-American-owned clubs in LA. Interestingly, the most recent owner of the establishment was actress Marla Gibbs, who played "Florence" on The Jeffersons. Sadly, the club is now closed, a victim of long-standing financial problems.

Btw, another live album was recorded there in 1967, Nat Adderley's aptly named Live At Memory Lane.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Second, James Moody, at the end of his solo plays a scale several times, up and down, getting slower and slower as he goes. It's not a scale I recognise, however. But it's something that isn't right off my mind. Can someone tell me what the scale is, please?

MG

It's nothing unusual, although Moody's lowest note makes it sound a little exotic. It's F Dorian, which would be a common choice for a tune in F minor, as this one is. Moody plays it down to a low D, the lowest note of this scale/mode he can play on the alto saxophone. That means he ends on the major 6th of the key, which is not a "strong" note - that makes the scale sound more "foreign" that it really is.

Thank you very much, Jeff.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

...Memory Lane, in LA. Was this a black club? Or mainly so?

From what I've read, Memory Lane was one of the few African-American-owned clubs in LA. Interestingly, the most recent owner of the establishment was actress Marla Gibbs, who played "Florence" on The Jeffersons. Sadly, the club is now closed, a victim of long-standing financial problems.

Thanks Sonnymax.

Btw, another live album was recorded there in 1967, Nat Adderley's aptly named Live At Memory Lane.

Yes, I have that; also one done probably in 1966 - "Takin' care of business" by Gene Russell (later the proprietor of Black Jazz Records). And of course, the two albums Etta James recorded there in 1986 with Cleanhead Vinson, Red Holloway, Jack McDuff & Shuggie Otis. Taken all together, those artists seemed to add up to a different clientele from the usual run of jazz clubs, which is why I wondered.

MG