Benni's Xanga

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Tue, 30 Dec 2003 00:27:54 GMT

For all you LiveJournal users out there, you can now view The Kingdom of Swing as a syndicated feed on your friends list! I'm sure this feature will be even better once I get some real content back up.

Thursday, December 25, 2003

Thu, 25 Dec 2003 11:25:06 GMT

Merry Christmas!

I know I haven't really posted anything in a while, but I should have something good soon . . .

Saturday, December 06, 2003

Sat, 06 Dec 2003 23:52:14 GMT

Haha! It's been 1001 days since I've joined Xanga! Too bad I didn't check yesterday.

Saturday, December 06, 2003

Sat, 06 Dec 2003 16:28:24 GMT

A friend and I recently came up with what we think are probably the two best-known, most-recognized bass lines associated with a specific song (rather than something generic, like a boogie bass line): "Linus and Lucy" and "Peter Gunn."

Agree? Disagree? Have another to add to the list?

Thursday, December 04, 2003

Thu, 04 Dec 2003 10:13:48 GMT

Well, what the heck . . . I wrote this for English (I don't know if I mentioned it before, but my English class is entirely music-focused), but it looks like something I'd put up here. In fact, it's probably a little better than some of the stuff I put up here because I was forced to focus in on the details (and I realize I tend to be a bit vague at times).

B.G. and Big Tea in NYC (Decca/GRP)
«««««

This reissue is a collection of recordings on Brunswick, Vocalion, Melotone, and Decca united by a common thread – each track showcases the work of Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden together as sidemen in various bands from 1929 through 1934. The CD deserves a five-star review and features practically an all-star lineup. The first session is under Red Nichols’ name and includes bandleaders-to-be Glenn Miller and Gene Krupa (in addition to Benny and Tea, of course), as well as eminent sidemen Manny Klein, Babe Russin, and Arthur Schutt. "Dinah" is taken at a moderately slow tempo, but falls into the groove and doesn’t sound the least bit like it’s dragging. Great work by all can be heard in this piece, but of course BG and Tea are the most notable. In fact, it is this piece that represents Tea in the Smithsonian.

The second session is again under Nichols, but has a few personnel changes, including the addition of Jack’s brother Charlie. "Sweet Georgia Brown" finds Tea doing his slide-and-water glass trick on the last chorus for a complete change of the mood and some interesting texture. Benny shows some of his gritty side as well in his lively solo on "China Boy." He is followed by Joe Sullivan doing some rhythmically powerful piano work to Krupa’s crisp backing. Also, the song opens and closes with two very laid-back cadenzas by Tea. More of that relaxed, bluesy trombone playing comes through in "The Sheik of Araby" along with Teagarden’s equally warm vocal. Like his trombone playing, his singing is both lazy and lively at once. The opening exchange of dialogue also pokes fun at the hackneyed crooning typical of the 1920’s.

Next up are four sides recorded under Irving Mills featuring Bix Beiderbecke and Joe Venuti. The two takes of "Loved One" don’t differ a great deal, but the second take finds Bix sounding more alert, despite his failing health and general decline. On "Deep Harlem," everyone (especially Bix) is in great form, and Benny plays a wailing, heart-wrenching solo underscored with some moaning blue strains from Tea. Krupa takes the band through the tempo and mood changes quite well.

The next four sides are by Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang and their All-Star Orchestra. Of course we are treated to the great interplay between Venuti and Lang on these tracks, and two feature Teagarden vocals. On "Beale Street Blues," the entire band sounds supremely relaxed and the feeling is carried over to the beginning of "After You’ve Gone," with Tea singing the lyrics as only he could, followed by Venuti putting the tempo into high gear for an exciting finish. Goodman does a bit of call-and-response with himself as he goes between registers in "Farewell Blues," a delightfully effective idea he would take to a greater extent with his own band later in "Get Happy."

Adrian Rollini and his bouncing bass saxophone front the last four sides, with Ella Logan (not particularly known for being a jazz singer, per se) doing some excellent jazz vocals on the first side, "It Had to Be You." Rollini shows the sweet and lovely side of his bass sax in the opening to "Sugar," followed by the moving tribute of "Davenport Blues," an homage to Bix using one of his own compositions only three years after his death. The band plays with an almost melancholy tone, yet there isn’t a trace of the music being dragged down. A cheery and snappy arrangement of Gershwin’s "Somebody Loves Me" perks things up, followed by a lively rendition of "Riverboat Shuffle" (also a Bix tribute). Rollini bounces into the number with power and swing, making way for great individual and group work and a satisfying way to close the album.

B.G. and Big Tea in NYC is one of those CDs that will quickly find a home in your stereo and not leave for quite some time. In short, it’s some great jazz featuring many brilliant musicians in rising careers. But for a moment, forget all the fame these jazzmen would achieve; it’s just some great jazz, period.

Monday, December 01, 2003

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 14:52:11 GMT

Hmm, well, I've been rather busy, I'm going to continue being busy, and I was in Minnesota for the past week, so please pardon any lack of updating and/or reading up on the sites I read!

Sunday, November 16, 2003

Sun, 16 Nov 2003 23:20:56 GMT

Hey, this thing is pretty nifty . . . It's a free program from some people at MIT called Hyperscore where you create music using a very visual interface. You use little raindrops to compose motives that you assign colors to and draw with in the harmony window. The more you read the documentation and play around with it, the more you can see how it corresponds to typical written music and possibly compose some more coherent pieces. Either way, it's lots of fun!

Thursday, November 13, 2003

Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:56:24 GMT

Overall, I liked Sweet and Lowdown . . . The documentary-style "talking heads" were a good element and allowed for multiple takes on similar stories. There were funny moments, but overall, as my friend who decided to watch it with me put it, it portrayed "how awesome of a guitarist he was, but he was such a jerk in real life." It captures the basics of the lives of several musicians, rolling them into the one generic jazz musician of Emmet Ray.

The music used in the film is a combination of classic recordings and things they recorded for the movie. The fact that I recognized about 80-90% of the tunes made it even more enjoyable. Also, as seen by the pic below, Vince is (briefly) in it!

[Edited to add: One of my favorite quotes from the movie is when Blanche says, "Not only are you vain and egotistical, you have genuine crudeness!"]

Thursday, November 13, 2003

Thu, 13 Nov 2003 15:49:11 GMT

So, guess what movie I rented . . .

. . . review to come!

Thursday, November 06, 2003

Thu, 06 Nov 2003 13:45:25 GMT

So, my paper's finally done, but it still needs some polish before it goes up here. Here's the reference, list, though - linkified for your clicking pleasure! (Ah, the joys of APA formatting. Apologies for the lack of hanging indents, but I don't know how to do them in HTML. )

References

Altman, J. (1976). John Altman remembers Adrian Rollini. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2003, from http://www.jazzprofessional.com/report/John%20Altman_Rollini.htm

Associated Press. (1956, May 16). Adrian Rollini, 52, dies. New York Times, p. 35 :4.

Becker, F. (1998). The WPA Federal Art Project, New York City: A reminiscence. Massachusetts Review, Vol. 39 Issue 1, p. 74. Retrieved Oct. 14, 2003, from EBSCOhost.

Cullum, Jr., J. (n.d.). The saga of the bass saxophone. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2003, from http://landing.com/stories/basssax.htm

Davern, K., & Sudhalter, C. (2003). Kenny Davern and Adrian Rollini’s sax pad. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2003, from http://jazzascona.ch/cms/8,139,5100/en/a5ef2084cddc44d3e2dfc66302c87cbc/New_Orleans.htm

Eekhoff, H. (1997). The Little Ramblers: 1924-1927 [liner notes]. Wageningen, Holland: Timeless Records.

Francis, H. (n.d.). Adrian Rollini. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2003, from http://www.jazzprofessional.com/Francis/Francis_Adrian%20Rollini.htm

Goggin, B. (2003, August 2). Re: Adrian Rollini – he was a bit accident prone. Message posted to http://mississippirag.com/ragboard/messages/1365.html (Note: I forget why I cited this particular post because it's not very accurate, but you can get to the other posts in the thread from there.)

Keillor, G. (Host). (2002, April 8). A prairie home companion. Retrieved Oct. 27, 2003, from http://www.prairiehome.org/performances/20000408/index.shtml

Kernfield, B. D. (2002). The new Grove dictionary of jazz (2^nd ed). New York, London: Grove’s Dictionaries.

Rollini, A. F. (1987). Thirty years with the big bands. Urbana and Chicag University of Illinois Press.

Smith, S. (2003). Discovering Adrian Rollini [Electronic version]. Journal of the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors. Retrieved Oct. 15, 2003, from http://testdesigns.com/adrianrollini.htm

Sudhalter, R. M. (2001). Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz 1915-1945. New York: Oxford University Press.

The Little Ramblers. (Group). (1926). And then I forget (142537-3). New York: Columbia.