[Dean's World] Dean: Billie

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Posted by Dean:
Billie
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1143279483.shtml


   I lost interest in modern jazz around the time modern jazz lost the
   idea that at least one part of the music should be rooted in something
   firm and traditional and recognizable. Whether it's the drumming, or
   at least one guitarist or pianist or whatever, at least one part of
   the music to me should be like the anchor, something the audience can
   grab onto and relate to while all the wildest stuff may be going on
   around it. I actually think this is the trick most Hip-Hop artists
   figured out; they get some wild stuff going, crazy wild sometimes, but
   the beat is always something that can hook the audience, even if it's
   a little tricky. I think the modern hippy jazz/"jam band" groups do
   that too, either with their lead guitarist or at least with their song
   structure (start somewhere familiar, go off on a wild escapade, return
   to the familiar).

   The last era of jazz music I consistently liked was the 1950s. I was
   able to find things from the '60s and '70s and '80s I liked, but it
   got harder and harder as the music got more and more frenetic and
   wild. To my ear anyway.

   About half my music collection is older than I am, but nostalgia isn't
   my gig. There's a lot of very modern music I love a lot. It's a
   certain sound I look for. I can never quite describe what it is, but
   it usually gets down to having at least something firmly recognizable:
   you can experiment and do all kinds of stuff and I'll probably dig it,
   but if at least one part of it doesn't seem down to earth and to have
   a certain visceral human emotional pull, I probably won't like it.

   As I say, the last era of jazz music where I consistently found jazz
   music I really liked was the 1950s. And to me the quintessence of it
   all was Billie Holliday. She could work with some amazing
   improvisational jazz musicians, but her singing, it was like it was
   the anchor. Indeed, it was like whenever she sang, all that music was
   just for her, like birds and squirrels and other creatures flittering
   around this beautiful angel.

   Well that's how I hear her anway.

   So imagine my delight when I discovered [1]this 1957 video. 8 minutes
   of bliss. For me anyway.

   You may have to wait a while for it to load. The server's slow.

   (Via [2]Flea, who's always got the best music videos.)

References

   1. http://www.dailymotion.com/alternativa/video/59865
   2. http://www.ghostofaflea.com/archives/007683.html