Nice blog featuring essays on some well-known songs

Message

julius · #1 Post by **julius** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:22 pm

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article ... n_type=122

Toon Town Dave · #2 Post by **Toon Town Dave** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 4:32 pm

Neat, I just read through the article on Flying Home. Thanks!

Campus Five · #3 Post by **Campus Five** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:16 pm

I wouldn't take everything this guy writes as gospel. It's also widely believed that Charlie Christian wrote that riff - just ask Mary Lou Williams, who says she saw Charlie play it in Oklahoma City well before joining BG.

Also, in the Cottontail article he says this:

“Cotton Tail” is as much of a blowing tune as he ever wrote, and an up-tempo number clearly not intended for dancing.

Considering the "Hot Chocolates" soundie, I feel like this guy hasn't really investigated anything very deeply beyond reading Gunther Schuler's "The Swing Era" and a couple biographies.

trev · #4 Post by **trev** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:17 am

Yes, in the "In the Mood" article he states that Artie Shaw did not record the song commercially because it was "too long" - which is ridiculious. There is also no mention of Edgar Hayes' first recording of the title.

julius · #5 Post by **julius** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:19 pm

Yeah there were some things I could have quibbled about, but it's still fun to read.

Eyeball · #6 Post by **Eyeball** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 3:56 pm

trev wrote:Yes, in the "In the Mood" article he states that Artie Shaw did not record the song commercially because it was "too long" - which is ridiculious. There is also no mention of Edgar Hayes' first recording of the title.

Yeah, it is ridiculous as anyone who collects 78 rpm records can tell you - IN THE MOOD, as done by Shaw and Miller in the long versions would have fit just fine on 2 sides of a 12 inch platter....just like SSS or any of dozens of Swing era recordings.

And as any editor of anything can tell you, things don't necessarily get cut out b/c the are non-essential. The long version of ITM is great...plenty of room to stretch out, lots of nice contrasts and themes aside from the main theme. Miller himself was playing the long version (and a broadcast exists) almost right up to the day he recorded the shortened version.

He needed to get it down to one side of a Bluebird 78 rpm platter...maybe because there were no 12 inch Bluebird 78 records and that was the label he was on.

It wasn't that he took out 'bad' or unessential parts, it was that some things just had to go. One of the genius parts of his arrangements was overlaying two separate parts of the long arrangement on top of each other. Brilliant!

It's a great chart and recording. It's only flaw was that part of the tenor exchange where Klink and Beneke exchange comical sounding single, almost slap-tone style playing, notes. It's a light hearted moment, but it seems they realized that that little moment of comedy was on record forever and I never heard them play it that way again in all the many times they broadcast the song.

FWIW - there is a story of musicians riding in an elevator and 2 guys were singing the tenor exchange back and forth to each other with the single note exchange included. Someone said, "who played that piece of shit" and a voice from the back of the elevator forlornly said, "I did" and it was Al Klink. Good story which may or may not be true.

Anyway.....IN THE MOOD was recorded 67 years and 10 days ago on 8/1/39.

It's still hanging in there. Musicians complain about it, but they can't play it properly. They rarely get the whip in the riff that makes it work and their idea of dynamics doesn't cut it.

It is also interesting to compare the Miller commercial recording with the way he was playing it a few years later in SUN VALLEY SERENADE, for example. It swings as much and it's 'wiser'. It works the audience towards the end where it gets really quiet and it draws people in and then blasts them away.

Good stuff!

julius · #7 Post by **julius** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:58 am

I've heard one or two really great arrangements but I can't for the life of me remember where. Maybe I was hearing the Fletcher Henderson arrangement from which the song was allegedly stolen.

I also seem to recall hearing it done well live once at Satin Ballroom, but I don't remember exactly. I think mainly when I hear the song these days I hear the opening notes and cringe and my ears turn off and I don't listen critically anymore.

Eyeball · #8 Post by **Eyeball** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 11:06 am

It is an abused tune like SSS. So many hack versions.

ITM is almost the harder to play b/c there are less places to hide in the simpler, less showing arrangement as opposed to SSS with all it's drama.

Like I said, so many musicians rag on it, but when it comes time to play it, they fall apart and play a flatline version minus emotion, swing and enthusiasm.