Discussion
"Summertime" was actually 80% of the backing music of the show I just watched.
So, afterwards, I made Virginia sit and listen to the stunning Ella & Louis take of it. One of my most beloved takes in all of 20th century jazz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HJCN3upMHE
[Edit: that link was not very good. This one is much better.]
@pozorvlak Do I know the greatest pianist of the 20th century's take, even as I speak to the greatest vocalist and the great founder?
Yes. I do.
But I'm glad you shared it with the thread.
This is really hard to watch. Based on Ella's lips vs the sound, I count 8 second delay in the audio and that is just messing with me. I'm gonna have to just listen to it without watching.
Good choice to change the link, much better. Thanks
@dlakelan No, thanks for dinging me. I thought I was posting the good one. The fake video attached to the original link is horrifying. :)
Yep, the audio is sublime, if I just close my eyes. That verse you mention with Ella doing the vocal stops and things is amazing. She is SO good. I'm happy to say my kid is a giant Ella and Louis fan, so I feel like I did my job with him.
@dlakelan Well done. My own heirs have excellent taste, but I was never really able to get them back to the greats.
@GeePawHill
Every year for African American history month in elementary school people were encouraged to pick some black american and talk about them or whatever, and it was always like some astronaut or peanut farmer or whatever. I think because those people aren't threats to white people. Anyway I had him do Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, etc. You know, people who were top in the world at their amazing craft. Anyway, it worked.
@dlakelan Yes, absolutely right, absolutely my bad. I replaced the link in the OP with a better video.
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
@GeePawHill
New link has no out of sync video but also I think the audio quality is better. much better overall thanks.
@GeePawHill Wow that was great, it's been a long time since I heard that version. May I ask, what show were you watching?
All of the takes in these two(?) sessions are a delight.
But this one.
I'll set the scene.
Ella is ever so slightly past the peak of her power. Louis is well past the peak of his.
She is regarded by some, including me, as the greatest vocalist of the 20th century.
He is "that guy", and all of 20th century pop & jazz eventually traces its way back through him
Two *giants*.
Ella had a hard time getting started. Unlike Billie Holiday, Ella was not particularly physically attractive. Heavyset from a young age, and not a great beauty, executives did not want to feature her.
She really only emerged as a superstar because of the musicians and producers: they *insisted*.
She was the queen of precision. Not only was her tone clear as a bell, her precision was astonishing, even as she rapidly improvisationally danced around the tune, never missing a note.
Louis was born in Storyville, the New Orleans red-light district. Nobody knows for sure when, cuz he was poor & Black. He learned trumpet in juvie, for firing a pistol on New Year's Eve.
He captured New Orleans when he was 22(?), New York when he was 25(?), the US when he was 27(?), and by the time he was 30 he was the highest paid performer in the world.
His amazing trumpet licks, his style, and his warm gravelly voice made him seem a wild man.
He did not invent jazz, but he defined it.
The take opens stringfully, and tho they were better strings than the limp whining of the 70s, they're kinda annoyingly overplayed.
Then Louis takes the opening. It's a strong simple solo. The power here isn't the complexity, it's how he works the beat. A hair behind, here, a hair too long, there, and you know what Pat Metheny means when he says "[...] but you can't go to college for feel." The feel is so thick, and yet so delicate here.
@GeePawHill Ella is my girl. she’s who i most desperately want to sound like, when i sing… alás, a fool’s errand.
@blogdiva In the rooms, they want one to have a "higher power". And there's a lot of God talk around it, but the rules are really just "higher power". My higher power was always the music. And to me, Ella is effectively the voice of God.
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@GeePawHill oh, that is wonderful. On *very* different lines, do you know Oscar Peterson's version? https://youtu.be/0Gps79awBLo