Billie Holiday (plus Lester, Coleman, Mulligan, Webster...)

[phil_edwards]

Wow. Doesn't she look great in this 1957 piece?

And watch her expression when Lester Young plays - no words required... Sheer indulgence.

http://tinyurl.com/2m5ayr


regards, Phil

 

[Bobby G]

I've seen this before, it's absolutely wonderful. A fine example of how different tenor sax can sound in different hands. Love it.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Great to see that again, especially after I've just finished reading Dave Gelly's insightful biog of Prez.

 

[jools]

Lester Young god bless him.

There is something in his playing that is beyond anything we can transcribe or quantify. It's a pure personal outpouring. Absolutely magical in it's playful architecture. @x@ him for making it look so simple! >:

 

[phil_edwards]

Too true. I've got his solo transcribed (for alto) and it is so simple to look at, but what he created out of that simplicity is pure magic. Billie certainly enjoyed it...

regards, Phil

 

[Bobby G]

....and that Prez sound too! I shall have to try and get hold of the book mentioned by Pete.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Bobby G wrote:
....and that Prez sound too! I shall have to try and get hold of the book mentioned by Pete.

If you use the link from my site (on the saxophone info - Lester Young page) a percentage goes into the Amazon store fund.

 

[old_git]

The second tenor solo, forgive my ignorance but I only know the 50s/60s Basie reeds, Desmond, Mulligan, Zoot and Getz, was just like foreplay, just caressing.
Didn't Gerry look cool, resembled him a bit back then and thought Ladyday rather fancied the younger man.
One instrument, so many dialects, just in mainstream. They are playing chapters, will I ever manage a satisfactory sentence or even a phrase?

 

[jools]

"One instrument, so many dialects"

That's it in a nutshell! that's why this instrument fascinates me so much.

If you took a single saxophone and put it in a room with 10 players, it would sound like a different instrument in the hands of each one in turn.

 

[Bobby G]

Jools wrote:
"One instrument, so many dialects"

That's it in a nutshell! that's why this instrument fascinates me so much.

If you took a single saxophone and put it in a room with 10 players, it would sound like a different instrument in the hands of each one in turn.

You could say the same about the trumpet - two marvellous players on this, Roy Eldridge and Doc Cheetham (who also plays some great stuff with Maxine Sullivan, he has that lovely 'rattly' or 'rusty' tone); is this the same instrument played by Miles, Dizzy, Satchmo etc? It is!