At the Sands with Count Basie and Frank Sinatra
The year was 1966 Frank Sinatra was at the peak of his career. There he stood on the stage in the Copa Room at the Sands Hotel and Casino in front of Count Basie and his Orchestra recording what is considered the best album of his career. The album “Sinatra at the Sands” would be his first album recorded live to be released and the album would achieve gold in sales. Sinatra was in his environment, a cozy salon style venue with an enthusiastic crowd in Las Vegas. The album was recorded by Reprise and the label engineer was Lowell Frank and produced by Sonny Burke. Reprise had formerly recorded two other albums: “Sinatra-Basie” and “It Might As Well Be Swing” with Sinatra and Count Basie, but it was their performance at the Sands Hotel that would promote both performers carriers beyond what either one of them were able to do on the own.
Sinatra was not just a singer he was also an actor, television and radio personality, and on occasion a producer, direct, and conductor. (Pond, n.d) “Sinatra earned three Oscars, three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award, ten personal Grammy's (and a total of 20 for his albums), an Emmy, a Peabody, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 1983. A generous charitable contributor, he was honored with the prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.” (Pond, n.d) Sinatra was named by some as the top entertainer of the twentieth Century. As a person Sinatra was known as a philanthropist he would donate over a billion dollars to charities around the world through his life time. He would also contribute to civil rights for African Americans through his work with Count Basie and appearing in the movie “From Here to Eternity” which denounced rac...
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...usen and Sammy Cahn. The song has a definite swing rhythm and the saxophone and trumpets imitate Sinatra’s phrases.
The performance at the sands is vocal jazz but the music in itself is swing andpop combined. Even though it is not improvisation the artists do take liberties sneaking in embellishments here and there. When you think of Frank Sinatra you think of the songs that are on his performance at the Sands. The Basie Rhythm machine establishes a stable swing beat allows Sinatra to sing freely around the music making a one of a kind performance. A lot of the credit for the success of the performance goes to Count Basie’s arranger and conductor Quincy Jones. Jones created a groove that blended Sinatra’s strong voice, use of phrasing and his free embellishing with Basie’s Orchestra so well it that has the band, Sinatra, and the crowd all feeding off each other.
After high school, from 1927-1934, Louis played throughout New Orleans and recorded more than 70 titles for various labels, and at the age of 24, he took his considerable talents as a trumpet player and bandleader to New York City. It was at around this time that Louis coined the expression "Swing," as well as many others, and once The Louis Prima Band played their version of Big Band inspired, Dixieland Jazz infused "Swing" music at the Famous Door Club, the entire 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway was dubbed "Swing Street." Thus, a whole new era of music began. Even the "King Of Swing," Benny Goodman wouldn't have near the notoriety without the Prima penned "Sing Sing Sing," which is still considered a Swing Era classic.
His “hot bop” style was heard in places like the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theatre. Everyone from all over the country would come to see him. Armstrong recorded such works as I’m in the Mood for Love, and You Rascal You (http://library.thinkquest.org/26656/english/music.html). Another famous person during this era was Coleman Hawkins, a saxophone player. Hawkins is recognized as the first great saxophonist of jazz.
This was a time period in Jazz called Bebop, Bop or sometimes known as Rebop. Bebop got its name from the musical language musicians would speak to one another while trying to explain a rhythm. "Bop, Bop, Doba sho ba, Bop, Bop." This was also a common style of singing which was first introduced by Louis Armstrong, called scatting (Kerfeld, 137). This fast tempo music was pioneered by saxophonist Charlie Parker, drummer Max Roach, pianist Thelonious Monk and trumpeter "Dizzy" Gillespie. Gillespie was one of the chief innovators of this new style of music as well as an important figure to all musicians to follow him and international figure for the United States.
The jazz band I observed played a series of six different songs. Although all the songs were categorized as jazz, each song had its own special style and sound to it. The band consisted of three different players. Paul Meyers, the guitarist and composer, Andy Eulau, the bassist, and Dave Rataczak, on drums. The songs performed were entitled “Love for Sale” by Cole Porter, “Once I Loved” by Antonio Carlos Jobim, “Stars” by Paul Meyers, “Blues for Mel” also by Paul Meyers, “Last Night When We Were Young” by Harold Arlen, and “Samba Novo” by Luis Eca.
In the mid 1930s, Benny Goodman sparked the beginning of the Swing Era of jazz music shortly after leading his first band, which was monumental to the development of jazz. This marked a transition from the early Jazz Age, which resulted from combining aspects of ragtime and blues music over the previous two decades. Through Goodman’s live performances at various gigs and NBC’s radio show Let’s Dance, he gained increased recognition as a jazz performer and band leader. Following his pivotal Palomar Ballroom gig in Los Angeles, Goodman’s music inspired teenagers to create dances to accompany his new jazz style. As a result, his music grew to gain national acclaim and popularity among many different types of people. Goodman greatly influenced
Due to a leg injury, baseball was no longer possible. He then turned to his real passion music, and decided to pursue a musical career (Brenchley, 2003, DVD). Throughout his musical career, he earned many titles “Mr. Dynamite” and “The Godfather of Soul” are known as the hardest working men in show business. His demeanor at times was often that of a tyrant, generous nature, tolerant, or at times demanding. He was the greatest entertainer during his time.
Sparke, Michael. Liner notes. Live From the Las Vegas Tropicana. Music by Stan Kenton. Capitol Jazz, 1996.
Ellington personally created most of the music played by his orchestra. He often wrote pieces for specific players with distinctive musical styles in his band, such as "Concerto for Cootie" (1940) for fellow musician and trumpeter, Cootie Williams. With the help from American trumpeter James "Bubber" Miley, Ellington often incorporated in his music the jungle effect. This effect was made by placing a plunger at the opening of a brass instrument, therefore, muffling or muting the notes played out. The result sounded like a person wailing, giving the piece a voice-like quality. In "Concerto for Cootie," Cootie Williams does a solo using the jungle effect, making it sound like a voice is singing along. His opening solo is repetitive, going over the same set of notes over and over again. The overall feeling is as if the music is wooing the listener.
...nt from lower pitch sound to high pitch, showing various pitches they can make. They differed in style when they went solo. Ron Eschete mixed high and low pitch sound very irregularly and each tone seemed very distant like Monk?s style. Todd Johnson rhythm and tone was more smooth and close to each other, giving impression of cool jazz style. The other element is a swing feeling. This can be described as a feeling that makes you want to dance, clap your hands, of tap your feet. During the concert, as I looked around in the audience, I could see people bobbing their heads, and tapping their feet. Due to the fast tempo, the Ron Eschete Trio?s music just made people want to dance even though it sounded smooth and mellow.
The play features brilliant talent, with more than 25 songs from the peak of the jazz era; which varies from “Zaz Zuh Zaz” to “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.” Through the play we’re going back to the heyday of the ...
“I’m singing in the rain”, you might have heard this quirky tune from the musical Singing in the Rain, starring Gene Kelly. Gene had a unique dance style, coming from his background in ballet and tap. From performing with his five siblings to starring in classic Hollywood musicals, Gene Kelly’s start on vaudeville propelled him to stardom.
This was composed in 1941-1942. This piece has “become a jazz standard”. This piece was also called “interlude”. This piece was supposed to be the signature of the Bebop Big Band that Gillespie was in. something unique about this piece is that in “A Section” “complex bass line is notable for avoiding the standard walking bass pattern of straight quarter notes”. “B Section” in this piece is the V chord is stretched back to pull into the the V chord in “A Section”. Many people also took this piece for inspiration and used the beats in their own
This album was performed by the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet released in 1954. This group also included tenor-saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell and bassist George Morrow. It shows Brown's fast pace and full rounded tones, Roach's classic bop drumming, soulful solos by Harold Land, and the work done by Ritchie Powell and George Morrow. Roach helps the album really stand out. Land and Brown complement each other massively.
No one could truly write a paper on a jazz artist without starting on where everything started. Jazz has been called America’s classical music. Along with the blues, its forefather, one of the truly native music to develop in America. We all know how jazz is known as improvisation and its rhythmic form. Also originated from the African American communities of New Orleans in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet its impulsive, risky ventures into improvisation gave it critical cache that the blues lacked. Jazz was also and is still being a way of bringing people together and enjoying the moment. Like every other styles of music, some of them makes you want to dance, some makes you think or are filled with surprises. Rapidly the dance element faded into the background and improvisation became the key element of the piece. As it evolved, it split into numbers of different styles from the speedy, hard-hitting rhythms of the be-bop and the laid-back, mellow harmonies of jazz. Throughout the years, and in all the different styles, those still remain the qualities that defined Jazz.
The most styles of the jazz performed are cheerful and lively. Also, “the blues” is the deepest impression I have from all kinds of jazz. Particularly, I have “swing feeling”. There are several kinds of soloists including saxophonists, trumpeters, and the drummer and so on. I was most interested in the solo of saxophone and drum. From my observation, saxophones played the main role of the whole live jazz because of its featured sounds, and I guess that’s the reason why saxophones are soloed many times. Every time when the saxophonist solo, all of us would be attracted deeply by the wonderful and special sounds. I think saxophone is the symbol of jazz. Except the saxophone, the drum solo was really fantastic. In our usual impressions, most of the drum set is for popular or rock music; but surprisingly, the drum solo matches the styles of jazz so much. When the drummer