Happy Feature Friday! This week we’re highlighting bassist Richie Goods as we gear up for his show at The Carlyle room in DC with vibraphonist Chien Chien Lu. They are playing music from their album Connected which speaks about our divided society and how we all need to come together.
Continue readingSounds of Spring
Featured Image by Benjamin Lehman
The calendar says that spring is here, no matter what the temperature outside reads. Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal. It is often a joyful season, with the return of outdoor parties and picnics, high school and college graduations, and family and class reunions. It may be a time for remembering people and places that once were familiar to us. Many jazz classics are inspired by spring. They reflect the season’s changing moods, ranging from the merry to the mellow to the melancholic.
1. April in Paris—This classic song was written by E.Y. Harburg and Vernon Duke for the Broadway musical, Walk a Little Faster. It has been recorded many times since then. Perhaps the most famous instrumental version was recorded by Count Basie and his orchestra in 1955.
2. It Might as Well Be Spring—This perennial favorite was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein for the 1945 musical film, “State Fair.” It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song the following year. The wistful lyrics compare the restlessness, anticipation, and longing to the feeling of having spring fever.
3. Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most—Lyricist Fran Landesman drew inspiration for this 1955 bittersweet ballad from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land.” Versions have been recorded by many artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter.
4. I Remember April—This beautiful ballad has lyrics by Patricia Johnston and Don Raye, and music by Gene de Paul. It likens the way a romance grows and subsides to the seasons of the year and the flames of a fire. Bill Evans and Miles Davis have both recorded notable instrumental versions.
5. Suddenly It’s Spring—This sweet ballad about the blossoming of new love was written by composer Jimmy van Heusen and lyricist Johnny Locke for the 1944 movie, Lady in the Dark. It appears on the album, “Call Me Irresponsible,” featuring vocalist Lucy Wijnands and John Di Martino and the Night Is Alive Band.
6. Spring Is Here—This mournful tune about unrequited love was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart for the musical I Married an Angel. Hart is believed to have written the lyrics after several of his marriage proposals were rejected by Vivienne Segal, the musical’s leading lady. Jazz vocalists who recorded “Spring Is Here” include Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, and Chris Connor. Pianist Bill Evans, bassists Charlie Haden and George Mraz, and vibraphonists Bobby Hutcherson and Joe Locke have recorded the song.
7. Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year—This tune was written by Frank Loesser for the 1944 movie Christmas Holiday, starring Deanna Durbin. The singer reflects on her lost love, but remains confident that ultimately she will get over him. The song remained relatively obscure until the mid-1950s, when it was rediscovered and became a jazz standard.
Author: Patricia Martin for Night is Alive
What’s The Most Popular Instrument In Jazz?
Feature Friday Q&A with Gerald Cannon
Ron Carter: Mr. 2,221…and Counting
If you love jazz, but you don’t know who Ron Carter is, you really don’t love jazz.
Why do we say that?
Because Ron Carter is one of the most prolific, innovative and influential bassists in jazz history.
He’s also played with a number of the greats. From Lena Horne to B.B. King, Miles Davis to even A Tribe Called Quest, Mr. Carter’s talent has transcended a variety of genres.
Carter was born in Ferndale, Michigan on May 4, 1937. He started playing cello at age ten, and later switched to the double bass. He went on to play during his time at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York and the Manhattan School of Music in the Big Apple.
His professional career in music started with gigs playing bass for Jaki Byard and Chico Hamilton. Carter hit the big time in 1963 when he became a member of the classic and acclaimed Miles Davis Quintet. In it, he played alongside Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. He played with the group until 1968. During his time, he recorded two albums with them—Seven Steps to Heaven in 1963 and E.S.P. in 1965.
After his quartet time, Carter went on to forge a number of musical partnerships and was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet. He also was a sideman on many Blue Note recordings playing with Freddie Hubbard, Duke Pearson, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver and many others.
In a career which spans more than 50 years, Carter has more than 2,221 albums to his credit. He’s the most recorded jazz bassist history and was recognized for it by The Guinness Book of World Records in 2016. At 81, Carter is still teaching and performing.
So far as his style, it’s been described as such.
“What makes Carter so unique is the fact that describing his style is more comparable to describing the entire jazz genre—it includes a grandiose and diverse spectrum of sophisticated music that has evolved over the past several decades. Carter has been at the forefront of various jazz movements, from bebop to bossa nova, straight-ahead to experimental. If that weren’t enough, he has thrived in virtually every form of ensemble playing from conservation-driven duos to quartets to big bands. He has played the bass lines that all students of jazz have to learn and does so with impeccable tone, technique, and temperament.”
Ryan Madora
Bass Players to Know: Ron Carter, notreble.com
Sept. 15, 2017
Night is Alive’s own Donald Vega performs on piano with Carter’s Golden Striker Trio.
This just goes to show the caliber of the great talent that we work with. In a nutshell, we represent legends who have been inspired, mentored and celebrated by jazz greats, and we’d love to share their unique sounds with you—and the world.
Learn more about what we do and who we represent.