Lester Young: Live at Birdland

Around the same time that the Billie Holiday Rare Live Recordings set came out, ESP also released Lester Young Live at Birdland, rare live 1950s radio performances broadcast from the legendary New York jazz club, Birdland.

Lester Young classics like Lester Leaps In and Three Little Words are mixed with great renditions of popular standards like These Foolish Things and my grandparents' favorite, Polkadots and Moonbeams (apparently, my grandmother was quite the "pug-nosed dream" back in the day!)

Billie Holiday often said that she tried to sing like Lester Young's horn. In an article called Lester Young: Master of Jive, Douglas Henry Daniels quotes Holiday saying:

I always try to sing like a horn--a trumpet or tenor sax, and I think Lester is just the opposite. He likes to play like a voice...Lester sings with his horn. You listen to him and you can almost hear the words.

That's definitely apparent on these live recordings. Young's smooth, sweet, lyrical sound is unmistakable. The disc is peppered with announcements encouraging listeners to invest in U.S. Savings Bonds (the radio series was sponsored by the U.S. Treasury, of all things), and the gooney announcer cuts in with his own 1950's flourishes like "Ca-rraaaa-zy!" which give the recordings a nice blast-from-the-past feel. I like imagining what it would have been like tuning in each week to Birdland on the radio. I suppose years from now people will say the same about old American Idol (or hopefully even Austin City Limits) episodes.

Here's another little taste of Lester Young. He's missing his porkpie hat in this one, but you can't miss the charming, cockeyed way he holds his sax:

Billie Holiday, Lester Young: Fine and Mellow (1957)

My favorite jazz duo of all time has to be Billie Holiday and Lester Young. I swear there was something magical in the way the mellow tone of his saxophone mixed with the melancholy in her voice. In the next couple weeks, in honor of Black History Month, I'll write a bit about some new Lester Young and Billie Holiday live and rare recordings that were released last month.

But to start things off, here's a great video of Billie Holiday singing "Fine and Mellow" in 1957. Lester Young is the second sax solo (though he's missing his signature pork pie hat). The rest of the amazing line-up of musicians includes: Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldridge, Doc Cheatham, Vic Dickenson, Danny Barker, Milt Hinton, and Mal Waldron. It doesn't really get much better than that...

I Fall in Love Too Easily: Miles Davis

A few weeks ago, I posted about the lovely Sammy Kahn & Jule Stine song I Fall In Love Too Easily. Since then, I came across this cool YouTube video of Miles Davis playing the song in 1969. It's a gorgeous rendition with Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, and Jackde Johnette in the band.

Chet Baker: I Fall in Love Too Easily

It's another dark, rainy June day here in Maine. The kind of day that makes you want to curl up on the couch with a soft blanket and a cup of tea and stay in your pajamas all day. On this kind of day, I always reach for my Chet Baker albums.

I know a lot of people think of the trumpet when they think of Chet Baker, but what I love is when he sings. His voice is somehow both sad, melancholy and reassuring, even soothing. His open, understated tone (almost reminiscent of Betty Carter at times) is just right for rained-in or snowed-in days.

And I think my most-loved Chet Baker tunes is his version of I Fall in Love Too Easily.

This gorgeous song was written in 1945 by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne (boy, did those two write a lot of great songs), and a quick Wikipedia search tells me that it was first heard sung by Frank Sinatra in the movie Anchors Aweigh. This kind of surprised me, because what I remember is discovering "I Fall in Love" through Chet Baker's version, years ago. But the reality is that as a child, I must have watched Anchors Aweigh at least 25 times (that's probably a severe underestimate). So I must have been predisposed to the song long before I ever heard Chet Baker sing. Ah, Wikipedia. A modern tool for self-discovery.

I fall in love too easily
I fall in love too fast
I fall in love too terribly hard
For love to ever last

My heart should be well-schooled
'Cause I've been burned in the past
And still I fall in love too easily
I fall in love too fast

I fall in love too easily
I fall in love too fast
I fall in love too terribly hard
For love to ever last

Grab Bag Friday: PBS Kids Jazz & Barack Obama Debate

Just in case you are wondering how PBS Kids Jazz & Barack Obama tie in to each other: they don't. Two completely unrelated topics of mention today...

1st topic: PBS Kids Jazz. I mentioned this earlier in the month at Songwriting for Kids Club, but I thought this site was so cool I'd mention it here, too. Kids will love going to this site and learning about jazz music (adults too...believe me, I spent some time here!) There are interesting profiles about some of the jazz greats--Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Billie Holliday to name a few. You can watch videos of musicians answering questions like "How does a jazz musician express an idea or feeling in a piece of music?"

Most exciting (for me)...you can play the Join the Jazz Band interactive multimedia game. First, it tests your musical knowledge (what is rhythm, melody, etc.) Then, it helps you determine what style of jazz you like (cool, swing, or bebop) by playing you a video of a jazz band playing each style of jazz. Then you learn about the different instruments and choose which one you'd like to play. Then you get your *certificate*: Certified Jazz Musician. Printable. With your name on it and everything! (I know, I know, I was one of those kids.)

It's a pretty cool way to learn about jazz.

2nd topic: There's been a bit of interesting debate over at my last Grab Bag Friday post, 2008 Election: Get Involved! Have an opinion? Get involved. Stop on by and put in your two cents!

Hope you have a terrific weekend!

New Orleans' Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Support Live Jazz!

Louis Armstrong once said: Preservation Hall. Now that's where you'll find all of the greats. Since yesterday was Fat Tuesday, the last day of the Mardi Gras Carnival, I thought I'd spend some time on Preservation Hall & live jazz.

Preservation Hall opened its doors in New Orleans in 1961. At that time, the once vibrant, live New Orleans Jazz scene had lost a lot of its popularity. People were listening to Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvis, or Frankie Avalon, not old-time, old-style dixieland jazz. Most of the musicians who were still playing New Orleans Jazz were getting old, and many people thought that the music would die off with them.

So Preservation Hall was opened to try to preserve and honor the tradition. They have been putting on live New Orleans Jazz concerts ever since, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been performing and touring all over the world, featuring talented jazz musicians, both young and old.

There is a very cool video about Preservation Hall with lots of great live clips and music on the official website. It's about 10 minutes long, and it's worth watching if only for the toe-tapping, get-up-and-dance version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" at the end. (Choose the "Watch Movie" option on the homepage.)

During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Preservation Hall strongly supported the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund, which has now been transformed into the Renew Our Music Fund. If you would like to help rebuild, renew, and revive the New Orleans live music scene, please visit the website to find out what you can do.

Click here to find out when the Preservation Hall Jazz Band might be coming to your home town. I saw them a couple years back when they came to Camden, Maine, and it was *well* worth the 90 minute drive!

Or maybe this weekend, you could get out and support local jazz musicians right there in your own area. Check your local listings. Get out of the house. Relax. Tap your toes.

If you live in LA, find out who's playing at the Jazz Bakery (they always have 1/2 price tickets for students!).

If you're in Chicago, you could peek into the legendary Green Mill or visit the extensive ChicagoJazz.com site for the scoop on the hippest clubs in town.

Even if you happen to be live all the way out in Maine (like me), there is great live jazz to be found. The Steve Grover Septet is having their annual weekend-long Birthday Bash. It should be a great concert and maybe I'll see you there! You can check out the details here.

Download Preservation Hall Jazz Band's version of the rousing New Orleans favorite, "When the Saints Go Marching In"

Black History Month: Valaida Snow

Ok, so I'm officially starting Black History Month early (February's a short month, anyway!) All February, I'll be focusing on African American musicians and writers for my Monday book post & Wednesday music post. If you missed Monday's post on the Jubilee Singers, you can catch up here.

To me, Valaida Snow is one of the most interesting musicians of the 1920's & 30's. She was an incredibly talented trumpet player and arranger and had perfect pitch and impeccable timing. The only thing was, girls didn't play in the brass section in those days. It was considered improper, vulgar, far from feminine.

But Valaida had loads of talent and perseverence. She spent years playing in all-girl bands that were ridiculed or hired only as novelty acts, sleeping on floors and getting kicked out of club after club because of her race, her gender, or both. Eventually, she became quite a celebrity (complete with a lavender car and a pet monkey!) and began to spend most of her time touring in Asia and Europe, where many African American musicians found a friendlier social climate than they experienced in the U.S.

Louis Armstrong famously called Valaida Snow the 2nd best trumpet player in the world (next to himself, of course!)

The end of her life is a bit of a tragic mystery. The story I've always heard is that when World War II began and many African Americans in Europe began returning to the U.S. to avoid the Nazi regime, Valaida chose to stay, and in 1940 was detained in a concentration camp in Denmark for two years (this is the story that Valaida stuck to her whole life.) Well, yesterday I was browsing Wikipedia, and they tell quite a different story. Further research on the subject has shown that either story is plausible and could have happened, though no one seems to have any real evidence either way. By any account, she was never the same afterwards. She tried to return to performing, but with very little success and energy.

A good place to begin with Valaida Snow's music is Hot Snow: Queen of Trumpet and Song...it's a great 2 disc set of Valaida Snow's work. Her combination of trumpet playing and singing is full of joy, pizazz, and energy. If you like swing music, I think you'll love it!

A couple random sites with Valaida Snow biographies:
Valaida Snow: Queen of the Trumpet (audio program)
Nina Mae McKinney's "Valaida Snow: The Real Queen of Jazz"

Anita O'Day: Let Me Off Uptown

One of my all-time favorite singers passed away in 2006. Anita O'Day has been an absolute inspiration to me...she had perfect timing, an ear for melodic twists and rhythmic tweaks that make you smile every time, a style that seemed effortless and laid back, but was fiercely aggressive and never let up. You hear her music and you can't help but hear the fun she had just singing! When I was younger, I wanted to grow up to be a singer just like her, and I was constantly disappointed that I missed out on the Big Band Era.

Most of my favorite Anita O'Day songs are the ones that she performed with the Gene Krupa Orchestra. Let Me Off Uptown: The Best of Anita O'Day is a good compilation of that era and covers some of my favorites from "Skylark" to "Drumboogie" and of course "Let Me Off Uptown."

Interesting Anita O'Day fact: when Anita was a young girl, a doctor accidentally cut off her uvula while removing her tonsils. (As Ms. O'Day once described it...when a cartoon opera singer opens their mouth to sing, and you see the fleshy piece in the back of the throat that hangs down and vibrates around...that's the uvula.) Because of this medical error, she had a very small range and hardly any vibrato at all. One of the things I love about her singing is that she makes the most of simplicity. You don't need 20 notes, you just need one or two very cool notes, perfectly placed. And of course, those were her strengths. Choosing wisely. Perfect placement.

You can listen to Anita O'Day singing "Stompin' at the Savoy" and "Don't Be That Way" on NPR's Basic Jazz Record Library
There are lots of interesting audio clips from interviews with Anita O'Day on Jazz Profiles from NPR
For more info, please visit The Official Anita O'Day Website

Duke Ellington: Come Sunday

I have the good fortune this winter of singing as a guest vocalist for the Richard Nelson Quintet, a jazz quintet based here in Maine. We’re doing a holiday-ish concert in December that Richard is calling “A Concert in the Spirit of Peace and Serenity” (concert details are on my website). One of the first songs Richard asked me to sing for this show is one of my favorite melodies written by Duke Ellington: Come Sunday.

Besides the fact that “Come Sunday” has a gorgeous melody sung by one of my musical heroines, Mahalia Jackson, I’ve always been intrigued by the album it came from, Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige. It’s interesting to me because we tend to see people in certain ways. When they move outside of that view we’ve created it can be, well, disconcerting to say the least.

Up until the 1940’s Duke Ellington was known pretty specifically for his big band and for popular songs like “Take the A Train” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got that Swing.” Ellington was an extremely talented composer, and he began to experiment with even more complex music. In 1943, he performed an original symphony at Carnegie Hall: “Black, Brown, and Beige” which

"represented the story of African Americans in the United States. Black presented the people at work and at prayer, brown celebrated black soldiers who fought in American wars, and beige depicted African American music of Harlem." (Doris Greer)

The symphony wasn’t exactly jazz music, and it wasn’t exactly classical music. The critics couldn’t fit it into any set category of music, and their reviews and responses were so fiercely negative that Ellington never performed the entire piece in public again.

Luckily, he later recorded some of the music from this concert (though never the entire repertoire) on the album Black, Brown, and Beige, and it is there that we can here the lovely Mahalia Jackson singing Part IV: Come Sunday.

More information on Duke Ellington:
The “official” website
Ellington on Wikepedia
Smithsonian Jazz

Betty Carter: I'm Yours, You're Mine

Thanksgiving, as I've already established, is my favorite holiday. Food, family, counting your blessings...it doesn't get much better.

That being said, as with most holidays, it can get overwhelming. So my pick for today is a song by Betty Carter, who is possibly the greatest jazz vocalist who ever existed (anyone want to fight me on this?) Betty Carter brought a whole new approach to jazz singing, and her voice was not just a melody-producing prop, but an integral instrument that filled out the rest of the band in surprising and inspirational ways. I'm Yours, You're Mine was released in 1996, two years before Betty Carter died, and the title song is my favorite of her entire career.

It is impossible to listen to this song without feeling the tension release from your jaw and your shoulders. Truly impossible. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out yet how to put music clips on this blog, or I would give you an example. You're just going to have to take my word for it. Go to iTunes or Rhapsody or wherever you buy music these days.

Download this song.

Then when the turkey is taking too long, the kids are getting cabin fever, or the dishes are piling up way too high, take 9 minutes and 41 seconds out of your day.

Step out of the kitchen.

Put on your headphones or turn up the stereo.

Listen to Betty Carter's long, low tones, and the only words in the song:

Gee but it's nice
To see you again
It's nice to see you
See you again

Then go back and embrace your family.


Info on Betty Carter:
Betty Carter Biography on Wikipedia
Betty Carter Fan Page
Verve Records' Betty Carter Page

Welcome to Please Come Flying

Thanks for visiting my very first blog post!

My plan for this blog is to share some things that I think are amazing...books, music, people, organizations, maybe even a recipe or two. Rachel Carson once wrote:

If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

This is what I hope to do. Share some things that work toward fostering that indestructible sense of wonder. This is an "all ages" site, so don't be surprised to find some kid-lit strewn about here and there!

Well, are you ready?
Please come flying...












Photo by eqqman