Last night we attended 'All That Jazz' at the Waterfront Hall - no, not the film but the live concert with Cleo Laine, Johnny Dankworth, Jacqui Dankworth and Alec Dankworth (as Sly & the Family Stone say - 'it's a family affair). This is the one sad and sorry photo I managed to capture before the battery gave up on my wee digital.
Dame Cleo Laine and Sir John Dankworth (to give them their full titles) are both octogenarians but have more vitality and energy than the likes of Ms Sinead O'Connor - they, and their family, gave an outstanding performance (sadly it was probably not recorded). It was a delight to sit through a concert of highly professional and entertaining performers. Dame Cleo's voice has lost none of its edge over the years, she may have slowed down a bit but there was no diminution in quality. Her daughter, Jacqui, also has a powerful voice and together they were just incredible - their rendition of 'Woman Talk' was, for me, one of the highlights of the night.
This was another of those concerts which we left feeling that we had not been short-changed. Here was a group of people who not only performed professionally but enjoyed what they were doing, as did the audience (from the 5 week old baby to the 90 year old woman - though one of them did sleep through the whole performance). From the word go Johnny, Cleo et al achieved instant rapport with the audience by chatting to (and with) us about the music and even a little bit of family history. It was a night to remember and hopefully one to be repeated - we all hope with Johnny that it will not be another 7 years before they are invited back.
I just love this song and even after fifty years it still sounds better than most modern pop.
This is the scene from 'Guys and Dolls' where Jean Simmons (as the non-drinking Salvation Army captain) becomes drunk on a few 'sweet milks' (Dolce de leche) i.e. milk and bacardi.
I have been watching a documentary about Peggy Lee and they have been extolling her rendition of this song - mainly because it was not Peggy's normal style and she went against the studio bosses to record it. BUT to my mind Peggy's version cannot match this one by Cristina for power and cynicism. This, to me, is the definitive version .
Is That All There Is? is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and recorded by Peggy Lee in 1969.
It was a popular single, reaching number 11 on the U.S. pop singles chart and doing even better on the adult contemporary scene. It won Lee the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and then later was named to the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The lyrics of this existentialist song are written from the point of view of a person who is disillusioned with events in life that are supposed unique experiences. The singer tells the story of when she saw her family's house on fire when she was a little girl, when she saw the circus and when she fell in love for the first time. After each story, she expresses her disappointment in each experience. She suggests that we "break out the booze and have a ball — if that's all — there is", instead of worrying about life. She also explains that she'll never kill herself either because she knows that death will be a disappointment as well.
The song was inspired by the story "Disillusionment" by Thomas Mann, written in 1896. The narrator in Mann's story tells the same stories of when he was a child.
One difference between the story and the song is that the narrator in Mann's story finally has a sensation to feel free when he sees the sea for the first time and laments for a sea without a horizon. Most of the lyrics of the chorus are actually spoken in the story.
This song has been covered by assorted artists, including Chaka Khan, Bette Midler, Sandra Bernhard, P.J. Harvey, Alan Price and Firewater. An altered version by No Wave singer Cristina in 1980 offended Leiber and Stoller, who sued and were able to get it suppressed for some time. wikipedia Cristina Monet-Palaci
It is with sadness that I have to announce once again the death of another great jazz musician, humphrey Lyttleton who died on Friday, 25 April 2008 ...
Steve Voce writing in the independent says .... he excelled at everything that he chose to do. He was a trumpeter, bandleader, calligrapher, cartoonist, writer, journalist and broadcaster. Well, not quite everything. He admitted to being no good at ice-skating, but attributed his lack of success to the failure of anyone to make size 13½ skating boots to suit his feet.
His career began when he gained fame for his declamatory trumpet style and he ended up contributing more to the British jazz scene than anyone else, bestriding it for more than half a century.
Lyttelton came from a respected family, filled with eccentrics, that had distinguished itself over the centuries. It was, he said, “a long line of land-owning, political, military, clerical, scholastic and literary forebears. Not a musician amongst them”. His ancestor Humphrey Littleton was notorious for having been, after an atypically bad career move, hanged, drawn and quartered for his part in the Gunpowder Plot.
Lyttelton liked to claim that Littleton was subsequently buried in Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire. Sadly, or perhaps happily, the account of the original Humphrey’s fate has subsequently been discredited. Independent
As you may have noticed I haven't posted for a few days - this is due to having been flat on my back with a dose of the flu. Thankfully I'm starting to recover so to make up for missing Jazz Wednesday here is another great piece of music from the wonderful Candy Dulfer.
Castle Ward is an interesting 18th-century mansion, famed for its mixture of architectural styles, with one Classical and one Gothic façade and is located in a dramatic setting overlooking Strangford Lough.
During the summer months they hold a jazz event in the grounds every sunday - if the weather is wet then it is held in a marquee. Today the weather was more than kind, with the sun splitting the trees picnics on the lawn were a very enjoyable experience relaxing to the sounds of the Martello Jazz band. These are 2 short videos I took, so sit back and relax for a minute.
It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of another of the great jazz performers, George Melly.
Jazz singer and author George Melly has died at his London home at the age of 80, his wife Diana has announced.
The flamboyant performer had been diagnosed with lung cancer and vascular dementia, a condition which affects the brain after small strokes.
Despite his illness, the jazz veteran was still appearing on stage in the weeks leading up to his death. BBC:
"As a surrealist, I quite enjoy having dementia," he once quipped, making light of his disabilities.
I saw George perform at the Brecon Jazz Festival in Wales about 1990, when he was still in good health and he gave an outstanding performance as usual. He also thought of others - making a public protest on stage about landlords of local pubs displaying signs stating 'No Hippies'. He said that he was so incensed by the first he saw of these that he turned round and walked out of the pub. He also pointed out that the landlords were going to lose a lot of trade because as he said at the time he liked to put away a lot of drink. I also saw him perform at The Ulster Hall in Belfast in an equally impressive performance
George, we are really going to miss your humanity, your flamboyance, your humour and your artistry. So long, George.
BBC: With his flamboyant suits, oversize hats and Havana cigars, George Melly was a good-time Renaissance man who indulged, often over-indulged, his passions for jazz, film, art, fishing, writing, drink and sex. He was born in Liverpool in 1926 and educated at the ultra-liberal Stowe public school in Buckinghamshire, where he pursued his interests with vigour and without inhibition.
At school, he first became interested in art, particularly Surrealism.
He served as an able-seaman in the Royal Navy towards the end of World War II, where he got into trouble for distributing anarchist literature.
He moved to London in 1948 to work in an art gallery run by Belgian artist ELT Mesens, a leading light in the International Surrealist movement.
Melly became recognised as an authority on the subject and later wrote a book, Paris and the Surrealists.
According to his memoirs, it was at this time that he augmented the promiscuous homosexuality of his schooldays, indulging in a series of menages a trois, initially with Mesens and his wife Sybil. He had also developed a love of jazz, and started singing with Mick Mulligan's band in 1949. His voice was described by John Mortimer as possessing "the raucous charm of an old negress".
A fan of Bessie Smith and Fats Waller, he was to become famous for his routine of singing jazz numbers from the 1920s, interspersed with ribald jokes and saucy asides.
The band's drink and sex-fuelled wild adventures were recalled in Melly's first book, Owning Up.
An article by George written in April 2006) for The Guardianthat seems so pertinent now. (This may have been George's last column)
