What are you listening to? right..... NOW!

Oh my what big beautiful ski’s you have

 

• Spinning some Vinyl

 

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz4q5UU1AkY

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8KDf2QdbtU

 

A lifetime ago I was in a band that got to play some shows with these guys; Skrape. They were pretty cool.

https://youtu.be/JmOjzDIxFXs?si=5bpODYMtB00RITOX

https://youtu.be/7nhhRDSzGZ8?si=WZZJ4tD3O2FPeJUA

https://youtu.be/K_sMQHae-2M?si=vioiPSbI60WPOosd

 

In glorious 9.2.6 Dolby Atmos

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlrvzLRgzdc

 

I might be seeing a pattern here.
If you can find a good rendition of Ellington at the '56 Newport Jazz Festival, fucking do it.

Ellington's career was circling the drain since his shift from the big band sound, and there weren't many new ideas hitting the jazz scene.
but when the duke took the stage he rolled that crowd like a mugger. they wanted more and the band couldn't deliver much more than what they already played.
it wasn't a bunch of new compositions, it was just a different delivery. the band went on with a short set, because some of the band members had never done Newport before... and were lost. They weren't lost on the road or anything. They were lost... at the festival.

But Ellington had to do a set, and he needed the gig bad. So they went on short-handed. for the better.
The crowd loved the scaled-down performance and the way Ellington re-worked familiar pieces, and they almost started a riot after the folks running the festival tried to get Ellington's group to leave the stage for a different band. It was new. And it was really good.

they responded to the way Ellington highlighted solo piano starts and especially Paul Gonsalves' sax performance in several pieces, it really struck a nerve with listeners.
It wasn't just technically jazz, it was distilled. The big band sound was starting to boil off, it was instrumentation being pulled away from conglomeration. it was players that showed attitude and their own sound and need for expression.

And that's pretty much what you're going to hear if you listen to a recording of the performance, because the recording set-up (in front of the piano and the brass section) is what Ellington could afford to cut a record. Just don't take the crowd response in the recording as gospel, because most of it (almost all of it) is overlaid afterwards because there weren't any real mics set up to record crowd noises. A lot of the crowd is taken from recordings of other Ellington performances.

Gonsalves' saxaphone is what held it together though. Which is a shame, because the microphone was mistakenly placed at the wrong end of the brass section for the recording. Gonsalves' saxaphone is muted in the recording, but the sound of the crowd is best when he does his saxaphone solo mid-set.

and the crowd was ready to burn the place to ground if they didn't get more. It was no longer polite chair-sitting music. if you wanted to hear, you needed to stand. It was involving.

And that's why Ellington is one of the greats in jazz. he brought it back from the edge of a cliff in interest. he gave it a fucking pulse.

The United States has imported a lot of it's culture form other places, but we made jazz. It's ours.

The Ellington at Newport album was deemed culturally significant last year by the Library of Congress.

https://youtu.be/wIX7fnYANak

 

Always loved this song. Seen it in a few WWII movies.

https://youtu.be/TvLo_MGTwa0?si=SIMrMB4grN8DF0ZS

 

the reason you saw it in World War 2 movies is because it's the informal official marching song of the Wehrmacht. so popular that they played it often at nazi party gatherings and public rallies.

as far as associations, it's right up there with edelweiss. nazi, but-not-officially. innocuous enough to be publicly presented, but not exactly lily-white innocent.

 

Yes you are quite right overall. However, I was familiar with it being used by marching Wehrmacht solders. Just to be clear. I, in no way condone Fascism or the Nazi party. i'm Scottish/Ukrainian Canadian. Musically just found the song about Erika lovely and it sounded great. My Scottish Grandfather worked in the coal mines in Scotland during the war. they would not let him serve as he was too valuable mining coal. Mined coal for 53 years!

Anyhow back to music...

I also love this song. At full volume of course. The bagpipes the crowd singing along. Listening to it right now on my old Sennheiser HD555's and I'm almost greetin, drinking a cold beer.

https://youtu.be/HeV379qCtX8?si=9h4bOdXz6YLeylxl

 

Thank you for the insight and history of a great Jazz legend and I will definitely look into this one. I’m relatively new to jazz well only about 7 or 8 years. I was introduced to jazz by a friend years ago and started out with Miles Davis and ventured off from there . It’s very therapeutic and relaxing for me even though I’m an old rock n roller lol . I like a variety of music but I really feel at home with jazz.
Another great recording is Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan in session. Blues I also really enjoy ..
https://youtu.be/4-apz26BfHY?si=-XCZrKANRc5wDB-u

 

https://youtu.be/JoCEdU0eYuA?si=kjUqMCHqo5WGX4vM

 

https://youtu.be/HEUIZWyieAk?si=w2PHDK3ANztwGcfo

 

https://youtu.be/FuU-WrfYL78?si=CxYsIRLVdnktJaD7

 

https://youtu.be/MVhBEtTSEcE?si=-zu3IWuXyfGD3LuX

 

https://youtu.be/fOmUEHxZFqU?si=wwArfY7lImYjpvwx

 

https://youtu.be/6WDSY8Kaf6o?si=QJD7CGXk1HlrGeKA