Stairway to Heave - Richard Cheese

Okay, so this is something that is a little bit different...

Richard Cheese is a Lounge Singer from Las Vegas, that has become very famous for taking iconic songs and turning them into swing, jazz, or just downright goofy interpretations of the original source. What made me think of him, was how, yesterday in class, you were showing us some examples of Thelonius Monk taking classic songs, and changing them into bepop styles.

The song begins with a typical Richard Cheese intro, where he makes it appear that he just doesn't care about it. He then proceeds to tell the band to 'swing it.' The bass starts in with a descending scale, in quick 2/4 time. The piano accompanies it soon after, swinging into it very lightly, making a play on the guitar part from the original.

After the intro, Richard starts singing, changing the lyrics a little bit for a comedic factor, and sings the first two verses. He even adds some scat in their very quickly which is a nice little touch.

Then he goes into a repeat of the style of the first phrase, so we have ABA, with an addition of a snare and cymbal, then we roll into D where he breaks it down into an almost bridge at the beginning of the song. The snare and cymbal stay with us, adding to the rising cacophony of the song's style. After this he goes right back into A again.

Then Richard requests Bobby to 'change the road.' At which point, the song pauses, and he launches into a piano solo, with the bass and drums accompanying with the same beat. Then we're back to D from earlier before, with different lyrics that Richard is singing. He repeats D three times, before going into the ending.

The ending slowly winds down, with the piano falling into it. We have one more pause, at which point Richard begins to sing the last line of the song, emphasizing, with the help of the band using staccato notes after each word, to a comical point the high notes before pausing before the last two words, "...to heaven." After this, we have a quick comical outro from the piano.

An interesting note, as short and as goofy as this song is, it is the hardest that I have tried to analyze so far. Partially because of it's speed, and partially because of the different changes in phrases and sections. I had to pause it many times and go back and make sure everything I had typed was correct.

Thelonius Monk 'The Elephant on the Keyboard'

According to the poet and music critic Phillip Larkin, he considered Thelonius Monk nothing more than "the elephant on the keyboard." Yet, while this a very strong statement to make, Thelonius Monk clearly caught the attention of some people...considering he is the second most recorded Jazz composer of all time, right after Duke Ellington. So some might say in this instance, Philip Larkin was dead wrong.

Thelonius Monk was born on October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He started playing the piano around age 6, and ended up dropping out of High School before he graduated. Electing instead, to tour and play the organ for an evangelist group. He eventually found his way to Minton's Playhouse in New York, from which his career blossomed.

Minton's was a club that was well known for it's improvisation and is considered one of the birth places of bebop. Monk had finally found a place where his strange, almost scattered technique could be accepted and had the necessary atmosphere to grow and polish into the fine tuned, yet strangely illusive sound that we know and love today. Mary Lou Williams, a famous Jazz singer, is noted saying that many people would come and listen to Monk play, and would frantically write down what he was doing, in an attempt to steal much of the style that Monk was attempting to make his own.

But Monk had a different side to him when it came to his personal life. He always seemed to be very strange at times, and from the few videos I've seen of him, I can understand why. He did not seem to communicate like other people, being hard to read, but still making sense, much like his music. For years, many doctors tried to diagnose him with various diseases, and it may have ended up being one of these diagnoses that caused him to suffer so much, as the drugs prescribed to him could have caused brain damage.

The later years in his life were not much better. In the last decade of his life, he rarely performed publicly. And while on tour with "The Giants of Jazz," he reportedly only said two words. Later, it was mentioned that it may have been because of issues he had with musician Art Blakey, that caused him to say so little. Eventually, Monk moved in with longtime friend Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, who helped care for him in the last 6 years of his life. He reportedly didn't even play the piano during this time. He died on February 17, 1982, of a stroke.

Yet, the legacy that Monk left behind was one that has shaped music forever. Still, one does have to start to ponder the irony about artists and musicians; their suffering, is our gain.

Sources:
1. Spencer, C. (2010). In the steps of Larkin. The Spectator, Sept. 2010, London.
2. Giddins, Gary & Scott DeVeaux. Jazz (2009). New York: W.W. Norton & Co, ISBN 978-0-393-06861-0.
3. Gabbard, Krin (Autumn, 1999). "Evidence: Monk as Documentary Subject". Black Music Research Journal (Center for Black Music Research — Columbia College 

The Nearness of You -Ella Fitzgerald Ft. Louis Armstrong

While I know this song as sung by Norah Jones, I was intrigued and pleasantly surprised to find it done by Ella and Louis.

The song starts out with a piano playing an interesting little riff at the beginning. But this eventually leads to Ella singing the lyrics, with an addition of a bass walking a smooth rhythm, and brushes on a cymbils. After the first verse, we are given a little teaser of Louis on the Trumpet, which is just enough to wet our appetites. Then at the end of the second verse, Louis again teases us just slightly more. He does this again at the end of the third and fourth verse.

By the time we reach the first chorus, he plays slightly more. Up to this point, we have had AB, and now when we get to the second A we have Ella replaced with Louis singing instead, which is quite a riot considering the amazing contrast between their two very different voices. What is interesting to note, is that when Louis starts singing this part, it seems like the instruments are brought more to light, making us realize that they were muted when Ella was singing.

But after Louis is done singing the second A, we are lead into an amazing trumpet solo, that Louis just eats up, playing a variation on the first verse. And as Louis continues, Ella comes back in with more gusto than before, as if she was missing the vocal spotlight, and hits us with the the Chorus again. At this point, the pattern is now ABACB, with C being the solo by Louis.

It ends with Louis with a solemn note on his trumpet, and Ella holding the final note of 'you.' While this was a lot of fun to listen to, and clearly was a great duet, I must say I was rather unimpressed in terms of the breakdown of the piece. Very simple, not much out of the ordinary. I really would have expected with these two amazing musicians thrown together, that something much more interesting would have come out of it.

Not a bad piece by any means, but not really one that I would consider to be a masterpiece at all. Still, a nice one I enjoyed greatly, simply for the listening pleasure. Which, come to think of it, may have been the entire purpose of it in the first place.

Scott Joplin - 'The King of Ragtime'

This amazing musician is one that, I am sad to say, I do not know that much about. All I really knew of him was that he was a fantastic piano player and wrote 'The Maple Leaf Rag' which was named after the bar that he worked at in Missouri.

But I have decided to take the time to learn a little bit more about him.

Joplin was born in Northeast Texas, right outside of Texerana, in 1867. He was the second child born to Giles Joplin and Florence Givens. They were poor, but his father moved them to Texerana proper to work on the railroad and provide for his family. Unfortunately, however, Giles was not a man of principles and left Florence for another women around 1880, leaving her to provide for the rest of the family. It has been speculated that one of his causes for leaving was because of Scott's mother insisting on his musical education, and his father claiming that it was taking away from his opportunities of getting a real job.

But all was not lost, for Scott had a flourishing talent that was helped by the local music professor, Julius Weiss, a Jewish man who had immigrated from Germany some years before. He trained Scott from ages 11-16, helping him to realize that music was more than just entertainment, it was an art form. Reportedly, Scott never forgot Weiss, even once his reputation took of and his fame was achieved. He would send Weiss money in an attempt to pay him back for all the help he had given Scott over the years.

Eventually, Scott saw that it was time to move on from Texerana. But at the time, there was not much work for black pianists, save for churches and brothels, and Scott jumped from city to city, trying to find work. He finally found himself in Sedalia, Missouri, in 1894. This is where he found work at the 'Maple Leaf Queen,' of which is famous piece is named after. However, this is another instance where not much is known on his activities at that time. It was true, that he did not have a recorded residence in the town until ten years later, in 1904. He also found love in the form of Belle Hayden, whom he married in 1899. The two of them would have a baby together, but it would die after only a few short months, and after that the two of them divorced in early 1900. Scott would again find love in 1904 when he went down to Arkansas and married Freddie Alexander, but she would die ten weeks after the marriage. But her death inspired one of the most beautiful ragtime waltzes, Bethena. Strange, how an artists tragedy becomes our gains, isn't it?

After moving to New York in 1907 and trying to produce his Opera that he had written, Scott descended into poverty, trying to produce 'art' as opposed to 'entertainment' and this did not work out in his favor. Eventually, he contracted tertiary syphilis, which sadly, would lead to him losing his mind and falling into madness. He was admitted to Manhattan State Hospital, and died on April 1, 1917. He was only 49 years old.

But what he left behind, was an amazing legacy of fantastic music, pioneering rhythm, and a tune that would make him the most recognizable faces of Ragtime.

Fly Me to the Moon - Frank Sinatra

In my opinion, there is no finer Sinatra song out there, and I'd like to think I know a lot of them. This song holds a very special place in my heart, pertaining to a dance at a wedding I attended with a very lovely woman I was seeing at the time.

The 8 bar intro of the brushes on the snare drum that lead into the first verse are so iconic, I know after the first two hits what the song is. From this, the snare makes a little jump, answered by the piano with two notes, right into Frankie just sliding into the verse. He's backed up by a walking bass, with a flute playing harmony behind him as the snare continues the beat. Right near the end of this verse, we are graced with the presence of some alto-saxes joining into the party with an answer to the flute's harmony, right before the snare drum gets hit hard, and the horn section comes roaring in to add to the rising cacophony of this piece.

This leads right into the second verse, with the horns providing a backup to Frankie's voice, amping up the energy. This verse is much more accented, building in intensity. After this verse, everything comes to a point and the horn section explodes, with the alto's getting the spotlight for a second, carrying the tune, and the flute getting a tiny quick solo to slow things down for a sec.

But the snare answers with a building of a quick beat, catapulting the band right back into the Chorus with Frankie belting out his notes with more intensity, repeating the second verse. This plays up to a point, with a rising crescendo as Frank holds 'in other words,' for the climax of the song. Then the piano answers with 3 slow notes by itself, and Frankie ending the song with 'you' with an accent from the Bass.

Overall, in a short period of time, Frank takes us from a simple melody, to a rising, exciting climax in less than 3 minutes, but he never leaves you dissatisfied at the end. Simply put, this is one of the best jazz arrangements.

PS: Thought you might get a kick out of this link, as we are starting to near this age in Jazz development. In this, Spongebob is trying to become a grown man. This is the final step.

Charlie Parker

What I consider to be a rather tragic life, Charlie Parker was first brought to my attention when doing the play, "Crumbs From the Table of Joy." One of the characters, Lily, mentioned that, while she never cared for the Pledge of Allegiance, she just "can't get enough of that Charlie Parker, 'salt peanut, salt peanut." That next week, while watching the Ken Burns Jazz series, Charlie Parker was brought up and I just wanted to know a little bit more about him. Sadly, the truth of the man nowhere reflects the grandeur and splendor of his music.

Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, on August 29th, 1920. His father, according to the Ken Burns series, bailed on him before he was 10. But not before he helped influence Charlie, for he also shared a love of music and had some of the talent required to play them. But his father left, and Charlie was not one to stay for school, knowing what he wanted to do with his life, and dropped out in 1935, before joining the Musicians Union.

He started playing in a lot of other bands, mainly Kansas City, New York, and Chicago, and made his first Jazz recording with Jay McShann's territory band in 1938. He was only a higher level of musicianship at this point, saying at one point in an interview that he was practicing 15 hours a day.

However, as amazing a musician as he was, no man is without his faults. After an early childhood automobile accident, he become addicted to morphine, which ultimately caused him to move on to Heroin. Charlie would remain addicted to Heroin for most of his life, causing him to be broke many a time, and sometimes resorting to busking on the streets for cash to buy drugs. When he stayed in California after his band left (cashing in his return ticket to by Heroin), he had to switch over to alcohol to compensate for the loss of Heroin out West. But this proved to be a major issue too, as it would spill over into his recording times in the studio. Reportedly, one time he become so intoxicated that his producer had to come out and hold him up, just so he could continue to play. After he moved back to New York, he picked right back up where he left off with Heroin, and this would ultimately lead to his downfall.

Charlie Parker died on March 12, 1955. The cause of death officially was lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, however, Parker also had an advanced case of cirrhosis and had suffered a heart attack. Yet everyone knew the real cause of death was the drugs and alcohol. The coroner who performed the autopsy reported that his body was that of a 50-60 year old man.

He was only 34.

Yet while the man died, his music lives on. Charlie Parker's influence upon Bebop is equivalent only to Dizzy Gillespie. Many said that Jazz today would be so different if he was never around.

"Don't play the Saxophone. Let it play you."
 -Charlie Parker

Sources:

1) Woideck, Carl (October 1998). Charlie Parker: His Music and Life 

2) Salamone, Frank A. (2009). The Culture of Jazz: Jazz as Critical Culture

3) Gitler, Ira (2001). The Masters of Bebop: A Listener's Guide

4) http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charlie_parker.html