[Dixielandjazz] Gil Evans - Miles "Porgy & Bess"

[Al Levy]

I knew both Gil and Miles, fairly well,
I was intrigued by the comments. I never liked "smooth Jazz"
what ever the hell that is.

My daughter enjoyed some other classification of music with stars such 
as Yani  (?)
Many composers and arrangers that I  knew all told the same "joke".
It didn't matter whether you played forwards or backwards, it will sound 
the same.

Back to Miles, Gil and Porgy.
I found it on Spotify. My wife and I listened to "Summertime" and I 
"Love's You Porgy".
  Call it what you want: not my taste.

The critics applauded Miles because he changed styles with each Columbia 
release.
His "Birth Of The Cool" is enjoyable if you like the West Coast sounds 
of Gerry Mulligan,
Marty Paich,  Shorty Rodgers et al. I loved that sound. Miles was not first.

West Coast sound had amazing scoring and voicing of instruments.
  I also loved Alec Wilder, Marty Napoleon and his family, there were
  4 Brothers and an uncle in the music biz.

I also bought albums (78 rpm) of Eddie Condon Plays Gershwin.

My likes are far wider in taste than my dislikes.
While visiting New Orleans I sat in with a few of the "traditional" jazz 
bands - They called it Dixieland.

Marty (Napoleon) gave me a test pressing of an Lp that was never released.
"Marty Plays Chopin and Others" - all classical selections.
Not Horowitz but it was Marty and lovely.

My point: You need not box yourself in.
Because you like some form of music does not deny you the privilege of 
enjoying other forms or other artists.

In 1950 there was a new guy on the block. His name was Sam Goody.
He leased a number of trucks to drive cross country North, West and South.
The truck drivers stopped at all the record shops along the way.
They purchased all the recordings that the store owner thought he could 
not sell.
Especially the new fangled Lp recordings.
The recordings were purchased from thirteen cents to fifty cents each,
Sam had a store on 49th street in Manhattan just a few  steps away from 
Broadway.
In my life I had never seen such a huge store dedicated to recordings.
Probably the size of your local Walmart,
I worked at 1650 Broadway on the corner of 49th and Broadway.
I could be wrong about the street but I know the building very well.

I visited "shopped" at Sam Goody's at least 3 times a week. In the store 
I met
  Charles Aznivour buying Frank Sinatra albums, Barbra S buying
Judy Garland at the Palace, and many other Broadway and Carnegie Hall 
people
buying Lp's. I think the retail price was about $6.00

Goody would put the out on the counter, neatly grouped by alphabet and 
"category"
Jazz on one counter, Country on another etc.

It was amazing. You could buy a full opera and never have to turn the 
disc over!

Fast forward a few years:
A new company called "Bethlehem" produced an album of Porgy and Bess.
My eyes popped. How much for the two record set?  $23.50
O.M.G. He had close to 100 boxes of this set but I couldn't afford the 
price.
Symphony Sid (D.J.) played "I Loves You Porgy" with Mel Torme' , Frances 
Faye
and Marty Paich conducting.

I already had five 78 rpm albums of Porgy
but I WANTED this new version expressed by many jazz musicians.
The list is too long but Duke Ellington, Russ Garcua, Herbie Mann, Sam Most,
Bill Holman, Johnny Hodges, Ralph Sharon, Sal Salvador, Clark Terry, Sal 
Salvador, Maynard
Ferguson  and Conte Candoli,  come to mind. Jazzbo Collins narrates 
between songs.

The cover of the box set had a man's jacket picture.
The jacket had a real real red cloth posing as a handkerchief
hanging out of the pocket and signed by every artist on the recording.

I went to Sam Goody's time and again.

One day I saw the album with a reduced price of three dollars.
Guess what. You are correct.

Till today it is one of my top favorite recordings of
it is not a show.
Like an opera because there are no spoken words all recitative!
It is not an opera
It almost fits the definition of an operetta nut not quite.

The fact is, it is Porgy And Bess and that's it!

We saw it performed on Broadway in the 50's. Powerful.
The movie starring Harry Belafonte.. sorry I went.

I know it was released on a three cd with booklet set.

*  I don't have a link but I can email an mp3 from the set to you.*
So far I do not like any of the re-mastered tracks from any album that I 
have heard.

Amazing to me: the Mel Torme' Frances Faye duet.

Mel's voice is kinda soft and high.
Frances has a low register and very raucous voice.

We heard Mel perform this duet with Cleo Laine. Wow!
Mel Torme' does not improvise. His scatting is practiced and
does not change.

Is he a jazz singer? Can he be compared to Mark Murphy?
I just pulled a few 10 inch Lp recordings from a shelf.
Here are some of the albums I bought in 1949 - 1950
The Sauter Finnegan Orchestra
Introducing Pete Rugolo and His Music
Red Nichols and His Five Pennies
Alec Wilder Octets
Art  Tatum (on Decca) has a picture of white hands on the piano {white 
hands matter?}
George Feyer "Echoes Of Italy"
Erroll Garner - on Mercury

I never regretted buying any of them. jazz? Not jazz? Who cares.
It is not the "label" it is the music.




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