Saturday night, I attended a Jazz performance at the Smyrna Opera House. "Sue Sings Ella" at the Smyrna Opera House, Smyrna, Delaware - with: Robert Redd (pianist), Steve Abshire (Guitarist) James King, Steve Larrance (drums) and John Jenson (trombone). I was in heaven! Afterwards, the performers did a meet and great with the remaining audience. All of the performers are local AND have recorded or performed with other artists that worked with Ella. They told wonderful stories, shook hands, and chatted with me as if I had played right along side them. They agreed with me how honest jazz is to its admirers.
One of my favorite all time female singers is Ella Fitzgerald. The first lady of song! Have you ever heard any of her songbooks Series: Cole Porter Songbook, Duke Ellington Songbook, Irving Berlin Songbook, Johnny Mercer Songbook, Rodgers and Hart Songbook, Jerome Kern Songbook?
Of all the different styles of music, Jazz speaks to my soul. I'm talking about the Great American Songbook that contains Broadway musical theater, the Hollywood musical, and Tin Pan Alley, in a period that begins roughly in the 1920s and tapers off around 1960. In some cases, the version of a song that becomes a jazz standard is a re-harmonized or altered version of the original song. Jazz musicians also include a wide range of 1950s and 1960s Bebop (Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie) and Hard Bop (Clifford Brown/Miles Davis) tunes in their standards. Jazz artist love to incorporate the songs of this period as "Jazz Standards". They improvise the music over in familiar chord changes during jam sessions with other musicians that they have just met.
My first "real-live" experience when my mother gave me my first NYC whirlwind weekend. We went by cab into the in Greenwich Village, NY. I went to two clubs that performed their jazz standard repertoire. In one club (drumsticks), we were in a backstreet in the cellar of a seedy bar as small as my trailer! I sat one table away from the piano. I was speechless, it was perfect and music was all improvised on the fly. The second club I sat further away but in view of all the instruments - a more rehearsed sound, but great nonetheless. Gone are the days where most towns could go to their local bar or lounge to enjoy the Jazz experience. Supper clubs, if any, play 50s to present music. Every once in a while, you'll hear a Frank Sinatra or Elvis tribute.
As I sit at the piano, alone for hours, playing the notes and reading the lyrics of these wonderful standards my spirit changes. I am no longer alone, and the music comforts me and lifts me. It puts my mind, my worries and my fears to bed. The music searches out my most intimate thoughts and feelings. I find myself transported in time as the air that surrounds the singers and instrumentalists that perform their way into the hearts and souls of the melancholy: returned war soldier, jilted lover, innocent youth, or aspiring performer.
