NRR Project: 'A Night at Birdland, Vols.1 and 2' (Feb. 21, 1954)

 

NRR Project: “A Night at Birdland, Vols.1 and 2”

Performed by the Art Blakey Quintet

Recorded Feb. 21, 1954

70 min.

Lightning in a bottle. I have heard pieces of this over my years as a jazz fan. However, it wasn’t until recently that I sat down and took in the two live sets the Art Blakey Quintet performed at the Birdland at 52^nd and Broadway in Manhattan on Feb. 21, 1954. It is an amazing experience, well worth listening to over and over.

The beautiful interaction of these five men is extraordinary. Read Alan Goldsher’s expert elucidation of the album here at the National Recording Registry.

The personnel: Art Blakey, drums; Clifford Brown, trumpeter; Lou Donaldson, alto sax; Horace Silver, piano; Curley Russell, bass. All-stars, all. Blakey’s aggressive and inspiring drumming gives the rest of the players a solid and reassuring backing on which to work. Every performer’s musical flights of fancy seem to issue effortlessly forth. And they all work together, listening, contributing, listening again, men of one mind.

It’s one of those magic sessions in which the live audience gives the performers energy, pushing them over the top with their excitement and attention. Pulling off a live album is no mean trick; so many things can go wrong. We have all heard some of Charlie Parker’s live oeuvre in terrible sound quality, for instance. Most importantly, it just happened to be a great night.

This was the peak time of the hard bop era. TUTORIAL: Bebop came along in the 1940s, rising up during the final years of the Big Band Era. Its stars were Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Max Roach. Hard bop, evolving in the 1950s, had a more insistent rhythm, was open to blues and gospel and rhythm and blues influences. On their heels came such artists as Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

The performers on this album were the primary practitioners of the new aesthetic. This is jazz’s Classic period, when it permeated the culture and was treated like the vital art form it is. This recording tells you what jazz is all about.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: (We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock.

NRR Project: 'In Other Words (Fly Me to the Moon)' (1954)

NRR Project: “In Other Words (Fly Me to the Moon)”

Composed by Bart Howard

Performed by Kaye Ballard

Recorded 1954

2:14

You should read the excellent and comprehensive essay on this piece at the National Recording Registry! It covers the career of the great Kaye Ballard, the song itself, and the life of the song’s composer, Bart Gordon.

It’s an amazingly popular song. It’s been recorded more than 300 times. Felicia Sanders was the first to sing it, but Kaye Ballard was the first to record it. She was a great comic talent who was underecognized! Here it’s done in its original ¾ time, slowly and sweetly. Frank Sinatra made the song his own in 1964.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: A Night at Birdland (Volumes 1 and 2).

NRR Project: 'I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man' (Jan. 7, 1954)

 

NRR Project: “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man”

Composed by Willie Dixon

Performed by Muddy Waters

Recorded Jan. 7, 1954

2:47

First, read Robert Gordon’s excellent and quite funny essay on this piece at the National Recording Registry!

This recording joins the titanic energy of bluesman Muddy Waters (aka McKinley Morganfield, 1913-1983) and the genius of songwriter Willie Dixon (1915-1992). Waters moved from Mississippi to Chicago after World War II, and set about making a name for himself on that city’s stages. Used to working acoustically, he soon found that he had to electrify his sound to make himself heard in the clubs. This spawned the second great innovation in blues history, one in which amplified instruments howled and wailed the blues, inspiring generations of bluesmakers and, later, rockers.

Dixon was a preternaturally gifted songwriter, and he created dozens of hit songs. Beginning in 1953, he ruled the roost at Chess Records. For this recording, he assembles an amazing selection of musical talent to back Muddy up – Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elga Edmonds on drums, Otis Spann on piano, Little Walter on harmonica, and Dixon himself on bass. The thunder of the accompaniment makes the song hit hard and not let go.

The song itself is a bragging song, as the singer identifies himself as a master of sexual potency. He invokes various folk beliefs to justify his sonnet of self-worth. This kind of grandstanding was common in blues singing – here Waters pushes it into the stratosphere.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: In Other Words (Fly Me to the Moon).

NRR Project: 'A Festival of Lessons and Carols as Sung on Christmas Eve in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge' (1954)

 

NRR Project: “A Festival of Lessons and Carols as Sung on Christmas Eve in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge”

Performed by Choir of King's College, Cambridge

Recorded 1954

52:01

Another entry I know little about. Read Timothy Day’s excellent essay on the piece here at the National Recording Registry!

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man.

NRR Project: 'Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)' (1954)

 

NRR Project: “Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)”

Written by Jesse Belvin, Curtis Williams, and Gaynel Hodge

Performed by the Penguins

Recorded 1954

2:57

It was the first “crossover” song from R & B to pop, migrating easily from one genre to another. It was this group’s only hit.

This new kind of ensemble singing, denoted as “doo-wop” after the kind of syllables chanted behind the lead tenor line, had as ancestors the close-harmony jazz singing of such groups as the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers, the Boswell Sisters, and the Andrews Sisters. More recently, R & B quartets such as the Orioles, the Flamingoes, and the Crows were performing extensively, putting a soulful dimension into vocalizing.

The Penguins were Cleveland Duncan, Dexter Tisby, Curtis Williams, and Bruce Tate – two tenors, one bass, one baritone – who met up in high school in 1953. This blend of voices became the classic setup for performers in the doo-wop genre. It was recorded as a demo in a garage in South Central Los Angeles. This primitive (and inexpensive) kind of production helped the genre explode, until everyone knew someone who sang on the streetcorner, hoping to hit the big time.

But this was early days. Everybody loved this song. It hit Number One on the R & B charts, and Number Eight on the pop charts. A white group, the Crew-Cuts, recorded a version for white listeners. That version hit Number Three on the pop charts.

It spawned several lawsuits as to who really wrote the song. It is estimated to have sold 20 million copies over its lifespan. 

Read Lawrence Pitilli’s meditation on it here at the National Recording Registry!

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: A Festival of Lessons and Carols as Sung on Christmas Eve in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.

NRR Project: 'The Damnation of Faust' (1954)

 

NRR Project: “The Damnation of Faust”

Composed by Hector Berlioz

Performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Munch

With the Harvard Glee Club and the Radcliffe Choral Society

Recorded Feb. 21/22, 1954

121 min.

Another entry about which I have little to add. Read Cary O’Dell’sexcellent essay on the piece at the National Recording Registry, here.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Penguins sing ‘Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)’.

NRR Project: Fritz Reiner conducts 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' (1953)

 

NRR Project: “Also Sprach Zarathustra”

Composed by Richard Strauss

Performed by the Chicago Symphony, conducted by Fritz Reiner

Released 1953

33 min.

Another piece that I have little to add about. Jonathan Horrocks’ essay on it, which you can read here, is pretty comprehensive about Reiner and the Chicago Symphony.

It’s an orchestral showpiece, written by composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949) in 1896. It is based on one of the philosophical works of Friederich Nietzsche, who published it in 1885. Nietzsche famously declared that “God is dead.” He decided that normal human spiritual values and organized religion were no longer valid and that they must be supplanted by “masters,” motivated by the “will to power,” who would craft their own morality in response to their personal needs and visions, thereby creating an Ubermensch, a superman who represents the next step in the volution of humanity. With me so far? It was this kind of intellectual exceptionalism that later spawned philosophies such as Hitler’s.

Strauss’s composition takes certain chapters from the book and sets them to music – ecstatic, blowsy music that sweeps the listener off their feet. They are as follows: 

1. "Sonnenaufgang" (Sunrise)
2. "Von den Hinterweltlern" (Of the Backworldsmen)^[4]
3. "Von der großen Sehnsucht" (Of the Great Longing)
4. "Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften" (Of Joys and Passions)
5. "Das Grablied" (The Song of the Grave)
6. "Von der Wissenschaft" (Of Science and Learning)
7. "Der Genesende" (The Convalescent)
8. "Das Tanzlied" (The Dance Song)
9. "Nachtwandlerlied" (Song of the Night Wanderer)

Strauss was a phenomenal composer, and this is one of a slew of tone poems that he wrote at the end of the 19^th century. A noted conductor, he moved on to crafting operas that became famous worldwide. He later endured an uncomfortable relationship with the Nazis, playing along with them in order to safeguard his Jewish daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Cleared of collaboration after the war, he did not long survive it.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Damnation of Faust.