[Dixielandjazz] Sharp singers -- Lucille Bogan

Wed Dec 25 05:23:25 EST 2019

 Apart from one or two private recordings which survived from studio dates, and an occasional one with less aggressive language (Ms. Bogan can be heard very rude on YouTube and was discussed by Paul Oliver in a chapter called THE BLUE BLUES) she did like one or two other unladylikes manage to skate-sing, as it might be called, deliberately off-pitch. This gave performances a remarkable edge, when she managed the resulting dissonances -- there are some striking examples recorded with her frequent accompanist Walter Roland, who as far as I can make out also engaged in what might be called drumming on the piano, not rolling but attaining to a tremolo effect by striking right hand chords in rapid repetition. I should imagine that could ruin a normal pair of hands. There is also a complete recording of Verdi's opera     NABUCCO on which the massive baritone singer Giangiacomo Guelfi puts an edge to his voice by likewise distancing the lines he sings from accurate pitching. Sometimes I have despaired of a "folkie" type singer being unable to do anything of the sort, and sounding plain dull, tame. Like the man on pitch was afraid he sounded when he'd to follow a guy who played sharp. 
I gather that one of the reasons why musicians who came to the fore in the 1930s set such store by the Great American Songbook was that like Art Tatum, and of course Willie the Lion Smith, with his Jewish background, there were practical demonstrations of harmonic complexities and possibilities of transcribing by ear various relationships. I remember the outline of a lecture on the topic from Jake Hanna one afternoon in Edinburgh, just before Jake for the very first time heard the 86-year-old Benny Waters and declared him the greatest living saxophonist. At the same time, Benny for the first time heard the guitarist gypsy Fapy Lafertin, whom guitarists have told me knew more chords than anybody dead or living -- the fact that Benny and Fapy were playing together minutes after their first meeting (the festival gig had been billed for months) was another novelty. The duly esteemed bassist Dave Green also heard Jake's pocket lecture, and then he was bowled over by Benny's clarinet playing,
happy daze, and MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY !!!!
Robert R. Calder

    On Tuesday, 24 December 2019, 19:20:02 GMT, dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com <dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com> wrote:  

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Today's Topics:

  1. Re: Sarah Vaughan - > Listen To Quarter Tones (Charles Suhor)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2019 20:51:44 -0600
From: Charles Suhor <csuhor at zebra.net>
To: Al Levy <alevy at alevy.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Sarah Vaughan - > Listen To Quarter Tones
Message-ID: <29D8A3B5-987E-45FA-9AEE-D490F5A92E91 at zebra.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"

Thanks, Al. I'm far from having perfect pitch, but as a drummer I could usually tell when one sax player in a section was out of tune, or when a trumpeter had the annoying habit of playing sharp. My bro Don used to complain that in the latter case, he would seem to have a "dead' sound when he soloed after the trumpet man.  "Is  It True What They Say About Dixie?"?Naw, not the Dixie of romantic legend. But so many are stuck in the legend. Have I sent the attached article?

Charlie

> On Dec 14, 2019, at 3:00 PM, Al Levy <alevy at alevy.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi again Charlie, 
> 
> I am repeating this message because you couldn't hear my midi file. 
> 
> I have attached an MP3 of the same "score". (F to G)
> 
> Any person in this group can request a copy of the notation file and I'll send something along.    
> 
> For the record - 
> 
> a) I do not have perfect pitch. I have pretty good "relative" pitch.  
> 
> b) Intonation is very important to performance! Musicians hear it. 
> 
> c) Musicians (and music lovers) do not need theory books, they need ears. 
> 
> And just to keep this message in tune with the group title "Is  It True What They Say About Dixie?" 
> 
> I just love Phil Harris. 
> 
> ---------------------------------
> On 12/13/2019 4:00 PM, Charles & Jane Freeman wrote:
>> Dear Al -
>> 
>> I couldn?t open your file, but I?ll weigh in anyway.
>> 
>> 
> <QTONES.mp3>_______________________________________________
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