I said this blog was about blues, but a lot of people would prefer to put this song in the jazz category. So which is it? It's both, blues and jazz are both hard to quantify and categorize, and I think one ought not try. They have influenced each other in uncountable ways, and if you take away one, the other would inevitably suffer.
Today I have chosen perhaps my favorite song, from one of my all-time favorite blues and jazz artists. Billie Holiday will always be one of the finest female vocalists, even with a range just wider than one octave. This video features not only Billie, but many other of my favorites. The first saxophonist is Ben Webster, followed by Lester Young*. Next comes Vic Dickinson on the trombone, followed by an artist very dear to my heart, Bari Saxist Gerry Mulligan; for a white guy, the dude can swing (maybe there's hope for me, yet). Then Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldridge (screech Trumpet) round out the piece in all it's glory. For those of you who don't know much about jazz and blues, this is an incredible line-up. Imagine all of the best contemporary indie rockers doing one song on TV with an amazing vocalist like Billie. Each was at the top of their respective game for some time. Either way, I hope you listen to the whole piece, it is 8 minutes of heaven. Enjoy!
* I want to mention that Lester and Billie were very, very close friends. She called him The Prez, and of course to him she was Lady Day. They remained close until the day he died, although they were never lovers.
it's interesting to me that Billie says she never sings the same song twice, that her singing depends on how she feels. so many artists, and their audiences (or maybe because of their audiences), want uniformity to the point that singers would rather lip sync than sound off. and i have seen very few singers who visibly enjoy the music as much as billie. what a woman!
ReplyDeleteThis is very much a Jazz and Blues type of thing. Jazz and Blues artists were always trying to push to create and change the things they were doing. You could go to an artist performing the same songs at a bar for a week and not hear the same thing happen. John Coltrane used to go into the Men's room after his shows to keep playing because he wasn't finished creating.
ReplyDeleteMiles Davis once told a band member he was going going to have a solo, and that if Miles heard anything the man had ever played before he would fire him.