Summertime Charlie Parker for Strings

[BrianJoeSandy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b017nf05/Searching_for_Summertime/#

As much info on summertime as you want here. Anybody got a transcription of the Charlie Parker version?

 

[BigMartin]

I saw this. Interesting programme but I couldn't believe they didn't mention Bechet:

 

[saxplorer]

Really, really enjoyed watching that (the BBC programme). Thanks!

Bechet version extraordinary.... Thanks for that too.

 

[ilovebech]

I saw this. Interesting programme but I couldn't believe they didn't mention Bechet:

Yes Martin,this was the first real jazz/pop crossover,and I was angry that the BBC did not play at least a snatch.

 

[Young Col]

I agree with that. It was Bechet's great come back record with Blue Note as well.

The good thing about the Bird version is that you can really hear his tone come out, not always possible when he played flurries of fast notes, and how blues inflected his playing was.

Billie's version is ravishing.

Didn't include the version played by me and other forum members in bossa nova rhythm at Karen Sharp's workshop last year either.... how strange.
YC

 

[saxplorer]

Re: interpretation of the song, I was surprised how many people took a sunny, positive message from it.

For me, the lyrics are somewhat ironic, whistling in the dark to tell ourselves and those around us that everything will be ok. I think the melancholic melody is where the truth is. The real message is ... "living is HARD".

But this is the opinion of an old cynic on a grey December day ...