Tag: jazz

Lena Horne | Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me

“In 1943 Duke Ellington and His Orchestra introduced ‘Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me’ with featured vocalist Al Hibbler.” (JazzStandards.com). “The record became a best-selling rhythm and blues hit and appeared on the R&B charts in early 1944, climbing all the way to #1, where it would stay for eight weeks … Despite the flurry of recording activity following its initial release with lyrics in 1944, this tune languished until pianist Oscar Peterson brought it back into favor in 1952. Again, the tune went into hiding for a few years when Peterson’s mentor, Art Tatum, dusted it off … Billie Holiday also revisited the number (1955).

‘Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me’ is considered by many as one of the high points, perhaps even a masterpiece, of Duke Ellington’s body of work. The song was created when Bob Russell fitted lyrics to the predominant theme of the 1940 Duke Ellington composition ‘Concerto for Cootie.’ … In The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America’s Great Lyricists, Philip Furia praises Russell’s ability to coax genuine sentiment out of an Ellington melody and calls it ‘probably the slangiest pledge of romantic fidelity ever written.'”

Lena Horne’s 1995 version is kitted out with full big band. The form is AABA; Horne’s version built in C major overall, with a diversion to Ab major during the first portion of the B section (0:42-0:51) before returning to the original key. Then the entire tune moves up to Db at 1:16. Even at age 78, her performance here shows her trademark range, built throughout her career with one foot in Hollywood and another in the music world. “Born in Brooklyn in 1917 … at the age of sixteen she was hired as a dancer in the chorus of Harlem’s famous Cotton Club,” (PBS). “There she was introduced to the growing community of jazz performers, including Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, and … Duke Ellington.” No wonder she seemed so very at home with this performance!

Nat King Cole | Sweet Lorraine

“Written in 1928, ”Sweet Lorraine” found modest popularity with a recording by Rudy Vallee and his Heigh-Ho Yale Collegians,” (JazzStandards.com). “In that same year clarinetist Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra made an instrumental recording of the song for the Vocalion label. Further recordings were made Isham Jones and His Orchestra (1932), and jazz violinist Joe Venuti (1933). It was Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra’s 1935 Brunswick recording, however, that made the pop charts for one week in October, rising to #17. ‘Sweet Lorraine’ was Clifford Burwell’s only hit composition.

The endurance of ‘Sweet Lorraine’ as a favorite among jazz performers may be attributed, at least in part, to Nat ‘King’ Cole, who kept the song in the limelight with his popular recordings. Cole’s fondness for ‘Sweet Lorraine’ began as a Chicago teenager listening to clarinetist Jimmie Noone play. ‘Sweet Lorraine’ would play a memorable part in Cole’s transition from piano player to vocalist … Initially Cole’s main interest was piano, but in 1938, while performing in a Los Angeles nightclub … Bob Lewis, the club owner, told Nat to sing — or else. So Nat sang ‘Sweet Lorraine’ … Lewis put a tinsel crown on Nat’s head and said, ‘I crown you Nat “King” Cole.'” Cole released the tune in 1940, when it became his first hit, and again in 1956.

Written with an AABA form, this version is written in G major overall. The B section, first heard from 0:57- 1:20 in this version, shifts to C major. We include another version by Dexter Gordon as well, since Cole’s interpretation of the tune was so much his own that the melody differed greatly from what was on the page!

Tatiana Eva-Marie + Avalon Jazz Band | La Mer (Beyond the Sea)

“Accruing around 80 million views on YouTube, Tatiana Eva-Marie was acclaimed as a millennial shaking up the jazz scene by Vanity Fair,” (Old Town School). “Though her interests have led her to explore a wide range of musical styles, Eva-Marie’s craft is always inspired by her own French and Romanian-Gypsy heritage; a love for the Parisian art scene era spanning the 1920s to the 60s; a passion for traditional Gypsy songs; a fascination for New Orleans music; and a deep connection to the Great American Songbook.

Nicknamed the ‘Gypsy-jazz Warbler’ by the New York Times, Tatiana Eva-Marie is a transatlantic bandleader, singer, author, and actress based in Brooklyn. She is known for singing French popular music derived from the Django tradition with Balkan Gypsy and folk influences.”

Written by Jack Lawrence, the tune’s original title was “La Mer” (‘The Sea’), (JonKutner.com) first released in 1945. “Its French lyric was written by Charles Trenet … “It would be three years until Trenet actually recorded the song … he was told that it was ‘not swing enough’ to be a hit; for this reason it sat in a drawer for three years … It was used in the 1948 movie Every Girl Should Be Married, which starred Cary Grant. The song wasn’t quite so imaginative when it was given an English lyric interpretation by Jack Lawrence, but nonetheless it earned Bobby Darin a gold disc.”

Following an AABA form, starting in C major, the tune shifts up for the B section (first to E major from 0:53 – 1:03, then to G major from 1:04 – 1:15) before returning to C major for the final A section.

Brad Mehldau | Don’t Let It Bring You Down

“Locked down in the Netherlands (during COVID), pianist Brad Mehldau decided to compose a 12-part cycle (Suite: April 2020) that reflects his response to our new normal (Downbeat) … Don’t come looking for Mehldau’s long, lustrous improvisations—or even short ones, though there might be some light embellishments here and there. This is a composer’s work. If its bite-size pieces are easily digestible, so are its penetrating melodies. Like the thinned-out harmonies, they emphasize the isolation at the heart of both the work and the context. Well, that and the pure strangeness …

Neil Young’s ‘Don’t Let It Bring You Down’ is fraught with tension …” The track, originally released by Young in 1970 and covered by Annie Lennox in 1995, alternates quickly between A minor and A major throughout. It’s only as the lone chorus arrives (1:41) that the piece settles into A major in earnest for more than a measure, but even that respite from ambiguity is briefly interrupted by A minor just before the piece ends in A major.

Thank you, Quincy Jones

In honor of Quincy Jones, the singular musician, performer, producer, educator, and mentor, we’re bringing back a post from 2022 which sheds a bright light on his extraordinary gifts. Jones passed away yesterday at the age of 91. Given that his career spanned the worlds of jazz, R+B, funk, and pop over many decades, it’s likely impossible to describe its full impact. But many of our posts here on MotD featured his work as a producer, even though the names of the artists and bands in question accompanied the songs’ titles.

~~~~~

“‘Quincy Jones was looking for artists for his new label, Qwest Records,” jazz/pop vocalist and guitarist George Benson remembered in a Guardian interview). ‘I’d started to cross over from jazz and Quincy asked: Do you want to make the world’s greatest jazz record – or go for the throat? I laughed and said: Go for the throat! … He said: George, put yourself in my hands. I know more about you than you do yourself. I was insulted at first, but calmed down, and things started happening.’

George was under pressure to have a crossover hit. Nobody yelled at each other but there was tension, because he wouldn’t always do what Quincy told him to. (The sessions for 1980’s ‘Give Me the Night’ were) a clash of the titans at first. ‘I asked for the same musicians he’d used on (Michael Jackson’s) Off the Wall. The sound they made inspired me. Quincy also brought in Rod Temperton, formerly of the band Heatwave … Rod was always in the background except for when something went wrong. He didn’t mind saying: George, you’re singing in the wrong key.” Patti Austin, now known for her own R+B, jazz, and pop material, was the accomplished background singer Jones hired. Austin remembers: “‘When I went into the studio, the tracks were already recorded. I used to be a jingle singer; you have to be able to walk in, sight-read, and make whatever product the jingle is plugging sound orgasmic. So I worked very quickly.'”

Built in F minor overall, the tune shifts to Ab minor for the chorus at 1:19 – 1:42, later repeating the pattern. The track crossed over with a vengeance; it wasn’t a smash hit, but managed to become a solid global presence (see below) while hitting top five on the US Pop, Soul, and Disco charts.

Jon Batiste | Für Elise

“Für Elise” is the first single released singer/songwriter/bandleader Jon Batiste’s solo piano album Beethoven Blues, which will be released next month. Batiste, who cites Stevie Wonder, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Django Reinhardt among his musical influences, has been nominated for 20 Grammy Awards and last year was featured in the documentary American Symphony, which explores his relationship with his wife, Suleika Jaouad, and his debut at Carnegie Hall.

We have featured Für Elise on the site before, but Batiste has a very different take than the version you typically hear at an intermediate piano recital. The piece, which has a rondo ABACA form, starts in A minor and modulates briefly to F major at 1:30 before returning to A minor at 2:14.

Jack Jones | I’ve Got a Lot of Livin’ To Do

Grammy-award winning singer Jack Jones included “I’ve Got A Lot of Livin’ To Do,” from the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, on his 1968 album Curtain Time, comprised entirely of Broadway covers. Jones appeared on many variety shows throughout his career and released dozens of records. He passed away from leukemia last week at age 86.

The track begins in Db and shifts up to D at 2:01.

Linda Ronstadt + the Nelson Riddle Orchestra | What’ll I Do

“While the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inexplicably remained immune to her charms, few artists have had the career of Linda Ronstadt,” (The Second Disc). ” She’s racked up 38 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including ten that went Top Ten. On the album chart, she’s placed 36 entries, including ten that reached the Top Ten there too (her magic number!) and three that hit pole position.  And consider this: after playing a vital role in the country-rock scene with the Stone Poneys and their hit recording of Mike Nesmith’s ‘Different Drum’ on which she sang lead, Ronstadt embarked on a solo career definitively interpreting some of the greatest songs of the California rock genre. 

Ronstadt never could stay in one place for long, though, which may account for her great longevity as a vital artist and performer.  While she kept racking up hits from both her contemporaries and the voices of an early generation – think of “When Will I Be Loved,” “It’s So Easy,” “You’re No Good” or “That’ll Be The Day,” and chances are you might think of Ronstadt over those songs’ originators – she was looking for new directions and new challenges … In 1983, Linda Ronstadt teamed with Nelson Riddle, the man responsible for many of Frank Sinatra’s most famous orchestrations, for What’s New … It spent 81 weeks on the Billboard chart … In any format, What’s New is a classy excursion into timeless pop teaming one of the most familiar voices of all time with arguably the greatest arranger of them all.”

Ronstadt and Riddle’s version of Irving Berlin’s classic 1923 waltz ballad “What’ll I Do?” begins with a brief string intro leading to a short additional vocal section. The tune begins in earnest at 0:57, launching into a textbook AABA form built in Ab major overall. The B section (1:37 – 1:58) shifts up to Db major. The piece modulates wholesale up into A major at 2:18 with two instrumental A sections; Ronstadt rejoins the band on the B section at 2:59. The rubato outro spirals out of the otherwise measured arrangement, its closing bars off-kilter and unresolved.

Dan Wilson | Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot

“Growing up in Akron, Ohio, Dan Wilson spent the majority of his youth within the church community, where his musical path began,” (DanWilsonGuitar.com). “Traces of his major guitar influences – including Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass, and George Benson to name a few – can be discerned through his playing, but his musical identity has been shaped by everything from gospel and blues to traditional jazz, hip-hop and horn players like Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.

After graduating from Hiram College, Wilson made his recording debut with pianist Joe McBride and performed to worldwide acclaim with Joey DeFrancesco and Christian McBride’s Tip City, eventually recording his debut as a leader To Whom It May Concern. Wilson has had the honor of sharing the stage with jazz greats including Eric Marienthal, Russell Malone, Les McCann, René Marie, Jeff Hamilton, David Sanborn and Dave Stryker.”

Wilson covered Sting’s 1996 release “Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot” on his 2023 album Things Eternal. The gospel and blues-infused ballad transforms the mid-tempo straight time of the original into an arrangement with an insistent swing feel, multiple vocalists, and a much more subdued tempo. Along the way, two modulations gently fall into place: Bb major to Db major at 1:39 and then an another shift up a minor third to E major at 3:32 after a short but dramatic pause.

Säje feat. Jacob Collier | In the Wee Small Hours

“The female vocal ensemble säje brought their ethereal, contemporary jazz to the Grammys recently, winning the award for best arrangement,” (KUOW.org). “Their winning song featuring Jacob Collier, ‘In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,’ is off the group’s debut self-titled album, säje … You’re likely to find säje categorized as ‘jazz’ or ‘vocal jazz,’ … the group has been most influenced by Black American music. ‘There is a small subset of that in the jazz community that really prides itself on this concept of amplification of voices,’ vocalist Sarah Gazarek said. ‘Amplification of social issues. Intentional creation of music that means something beyond just romance and dreams, that is curious about music, that isn’t just nostalgic references.’

It’s that kind of support for each other and for underrepresented voices that makes säje what it is: an independent phenom. ‘It feels like so much of it is sort of gate-kept by these major labels and big publicists and big marketing machines,’ Gazarek said. ‘But at the end of the day, the majority of the music community is fighting tooth and nail. So, hopefully, that win felt like it was a win for [the independent music] community, because that’s the community that we inhabit.'”

“In the Wee Small Hours,” written in 1955 by David Mann with lyrics by Bob Hilliard, was first released by Frank Sinatra on his album of the same name. Säje’s version with Collier takes the original soft-spoken classic jazz ballad and deconstructs it further. The new arrangement’s rubato whisper is accompanied only by Collier’s piano. The transcription video shows where the several key changes occur within the arrangement, but the the video of the studio recording session is a must-see!