Another Interview with K$
Q: To get things started, tell us about your problem with the La Mediterranee Ella Fitzgerald
tape.
A: Okay. As you and my acquaintances probably know, I like to have a nice after work bevvy at their Fillmore Street location. They usually play various cassettes of worldish-type music as background/atmosphere sound wallpaper. For years all they seemed to play was a Django Rheinhardt tape.
Q: Good God, I remember that.
A: And I love Django, but kee-rist, it must have driven the employees crazy. Anyway, one of the tapes in their rotation is a compilation of Ella Fitzgerald's early recordings. It's young Ella, you can tell, because she sings in that cloying, little girl voice that's like fingernails on the blackboard of my soul. And that's not the worst part. The songs are atrocious. After she had a hit with "A- Tisket A-Tasket," her record company people kept feeding her horrible novelty songs in hopes of repeating the successful formula. Its most extremely obnoxious level is reached on the very creepy "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." Ugh.
Q: And you plead with the waitresses to take the tape off?
A: Yes, and they very nicely do so. It makes me feel a little bad because I happen to love Ella Fitzgerald--just not her infantile material.
Q: Which brings us to this morning's vinyl listen, The Best of Ella on Decca.
A: Yeah, except in no way is it the "Best" of Ella. Some of the best, perhaps...
Q: Duly noted. You had a point to make about this not-Best of Ella?
A: Yes. Side one, especially is a good example of my opinion about early Ella. That material, covering 1938 to 1945, shows E literally finding her voice. From the little girl-voiced Chick Webb days with "A-Tisket A-Tasket" and "Undecided" to the groovy 1945 version of "It's Only a Paper Moon," you can hear Ella becoming her own woman.
Q: And the other three sides?
A: They're okay, but again, not the "Best" of Ella. It's a strange mix of classic material (The Gershwins and Sammy Cahn) and novelty-writing nobodies. Just not the best choice of tunes.
Q: As opposed to what we're listening to right now: The Rodgers and Hart Songbook.
A: You got it, brother. Here's Ella in full command of her craft. Her warm throaty vibrato with its hint of womanly-girlishness on the edges, if that makes any sense.
Q: Kinda.
A: But it's the songs of course that give Ella something to sink her teeth into. Rodgers and Hart--"Everything I've Got"; "My Funny Valentine"; "Thou Swell." And so on.
Q: How about them arrangements?
A: Oh yeah. The Buddy Bregman Orchestra. I don't know anything about 'em, but they swing lightly on the uptempo numbers and provide a sensitive but not syrupy backing on the ballads.
Q: And this is the same orchestra that backed Ella on her Cole Porter Songbook--the first of these composer-themed albums?
A: Indeed. And now's a good as place as any to admit that, incredibly, this is the one Ella Songbook I don't own.
Q: Yeesh! How embarrassing!
A: I know. I see it at Amoeba all the time! I plan on getting it soon and will put it in the "F" listening annex.
Q: Okay. We'll hold you to that promise. Oh, and I see that you're consulting the Penguin Guide to Jazz?
A: Yes, it appears that the Buddy Bregman Orchestra was based in Hollywood and worked with Bing Crosby, among others...Oh, and I should mention, as the Psychedelic Eskimo reminded me, today is Ella Fitzgerald's birthday! Pretty cosmic, wouldn't you say?
Q: Pretty cosmic, alright. And speaking of cosmic, let's change the subject here and talk about your Coltrane CD listen of the day. Interstellar Space?
A: Nice segueway, pal. I don't need the record guides to tell me what an exciting listen this is. It's just Coltrane on tenor (and bells) accompanied by Rashied Ali on percussion. Recorded not quite five months before he died, it's one of his final spiritual statements, cutting right to the heart of things. It's ecstatic, driving music, recorded under the sign of Pisces (recording date: Feb 22, 1967).
Q: That's your sign, baby.
A: You know it. A pretty great day of listening. As Rock Photographer commented on the previous entry, listening to Ella and Coltrane is heaven.
Q: Before we close things, did you want to mention a mistake you made in the previous entry?
A: I did. In the previous entry I wrote that at one point in their rendition of "My Favorite Things"(on Live at the Village Vanguard Again), Coltrane plays a flute accompaniment to Pharoah Sanders' tenor sax. The CD info tells me that Sanders is playing flute. Coltrane might be playing tenor or even the bass clarinet(the CD booklet lists it as one of his instruments). It's hard to tell because he's blasting away so ferociously. It is interesting to note that Coltrane is playing flute and bass clarinet--two of Eric Dolphy's favorite axes. The spirit of Dolphy was definitely at the Vanguard that night!
tape.
A: Okay. As you and my acquaintances probably know, I like to have a nice after work bevvy at their Fillmore Street location. They usually play various cassettes of worldish-type music as background/atmosphere sound wallpaper. For years all they seemed to play was a Django Rheinhardt tape.
Q: Good God, I remember that.
A: And I love Django, but kee-rist, it must have driven the employees crazy. Anyway, one of the tapes in their rotation is a compilation of Ella Fitzgerald's early recordings. It's young Ella, you can tell, because she sings in that cloying, little girl voice that's like fingernails on the blackboard of my soul. And that's not the worst part. The songs are atrocious. After she had a hit with "A- Tisket A-Tasket," her record company people kept feeding her horrible novelty songs in hopes of repeating the successful formula. Its most extremely obnoxious level is reached on the very creepy "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." Ugh.
Q: And you plead with the waitresses to take the tape off?
A: Yes, and they very nicely do so. It makes me feel a little bad because I happen to love Ella Fitzgerald--just not her infantile material.
Q: Which brings us to this morning's vinyl listen, The Best of Ella on Decca.
A: Yeah, except in no way is it the "Best" of Ella. Some of the best, perhaps...
Q: Duly noted. You had a point to make about this not-Best of Ella?
A: Yes. Side one, especially is a good example of my opinion about early Ella. That material, covering 1938 to 1945, shows E literally finding her voice. From the little girl-voiced Chick Webb days with "A-Tisket A-Tasket" and "Undecided" to the groovy 1945 version of "It's Only a Paper Moon," you can hear Ella becoming her own woman.
Q: And the other three sides?
A: They're okay, but again, not the "Best" of Ella. It's a strange mix of classic material (The Gershwins and Sammy Cahn) and novelty-writing nobodies. Just not the best choice of tunes.
Q: As opposed to what we're listening to right now: The Rodgers and Hart Songbook.
A: You got it, brother. Here's Ella in full command of her craft. Her warm throaty vibrato with its hint of womanly-girlishness on the edges, if that makes any sense.
Q: Kinda.
A: But it's the songs of course that give Ella something to sink her teeth into. Rodgers and Hart--"Everything I've Got"; "My Funny Valentine"; "Thou Swell." And so on.
Q: How about them arrangements?
A: Oh yeah. The Buddy Bregman Orchestra. I don't know anything about 'em, but they swing lightly on the uptempo numbers and provide a sensitive but not syrupy backing on the ballads.
Q: And this is the same orchestra that backed Ella on her Cole Porter Songbook--the first of these composer-themed albums?
A: Indeed. And now's a good as place as any to admit that, incredibly, this is the one Ella Songbook I don't own.
Q: Yeesh! How embarrassing!
A: I know. I see it at Amoeba all the time! I plan on getting it soon and will put it in the "F" listening annex.
Q: Okay. We'll hold you to that promise. Oh, and I see that you're consulting the Penguin Guide to Jazz?
A: Yes, it appears that the Buddy Bregman Orchestra was based in Hollywood and worked with Bing Crosby, among others...Oh, and I should mention, as the Psychedelic Eskimo reminded me, today is Ella Fitzgerald's birthday! Pretty cosmic, wouldn't you say?
Q: Pretty cosmic, alright. And speaking of cosmic, let's change the subject here and talk about your Coltrane CD listen of the day. Interstellar Space?
A: Nice segueway, pal. I don't need the record guides to tell me what an exciting listen this is. It's just Coltrane on tenor (and bells) accompanied by Rashied Ali on percussion. Recorded not quite five months before he died, it's one of his final spiritual statements, cutting right to the heart of things. It's ecstatic, driving music, recorded under the sign of Pisces (recording date: Feb 22, 1967).
Q: That's your sign, baby.
A: You know it. A pretty great day of listening. As Rock Photographer commented on the previous entry, listening to Ella and Coltrane is heaven.
Q: Before we close things, did you want to mention a mistake you made in the previous entry?
A: I did. In the previous entry I wrote that at one point in their rendition of "My Favorite Things"(on Live at the Village Vanguard Again), Coltrane plays a flute accompaniment to Pharoah Sanders' tenor sax. The CD info tells me that Sanders is playing flute. Coltrane might be playing tenor or even the bass clarinet(the CD booklet lists it as one of his instruments). It's hard to tell because he's blasting away so ferociously. It is interesting to note that Coltrane is playing flute and bass clarinet--two of Eric Dolphy's favorite axes. The spirit of Dolphy was definitely at the Vanguard that night!
posted by ken at 9:00 PM
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