Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note

A beautiful, and at times stunning, example of Billy Strayhorn's gifts as a composer and arranger for Duke Ellington and the Orchestra. The great Ray Nance is featured on trumpet in this classic from 1947, Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note!

Billy Strayhorn is not on facebook, or myspace, okay?

New Day Jazz Miss the Show? MP3 Stream (128kbps, broadband) MP3 Stream (32kbps, dial-up)

Show Description for Sunday 11/29/2009 This week on the four o'clock hour my guest will be Hal Niedzviecki, author of The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors (City Lights, 2009). Also this afternoon, we will be celebrating the work of the composer and pianist Billy Strayhorn, longtime member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and one of the most highly original contributors to 20th century music. Strayhorn, composer of such classics as Take the A Train, Lush Life, Passion Flower and Day Dream, was born November 29, 1915. We will listen in on a number of different interpretations of his works, including those by Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald.

Track	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn	Tonk	The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA - France
	Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn	Drawing Room Blues	The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA - France
	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Smada	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Brown Betty	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Snibor	Primpin' for the Prom	CBS-France
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	Ella Fitzgerald	Something to Live For	Ella at Duke's Place	Verve
	Ella Fitzgerald	A Flower is a Lovesome Thing	Ella at Duke's Place	Verve
	Ella Fitzgerald	Passion Flower	Ella at Duke's Place	Verve
	Johnny Hodges Orchestra	Passion Flower	The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA - France
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	Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn	Johnny Come Lately	Great Times!	Original Jazz Classics
	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Johnny Come Lately	Johnny Come Lately	RCA
	Tommy Flanagan	Chelsea Bridge	Overseas	Original Jazz Classics
	Sarah Vaughn	Chelsea Bridge	Duke Ellington Song Book 2	Pablo
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	Barney Bigard Orchestra	Noir Bleu	The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA - France
	Interview with Hal Niedzviecki By Justin Desmangles
	Barney Bigard Orchestra	Theme for a Javanette	The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946)	RCA - France
	Duke Ellington Orchestra	It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)	Johnny Come Lately	RCA

Billie's Detour (Dedicated to a genius)

Here is a recent play-list from a broadcast at KDVS in Davis, Ca. I was very graciously joined at the end of the show by the great pianist Matthew Shipp and poet Steve Dalachinsky. The version of Day Dream at the start of the show was the original recording. I followed it with a very interesting arrangement of the Strayhorn composition by pianist Dick Katz for Helen Merrill from the Milestone album, The Feeling Is Mutual. This very fine record has just recently been reissued by Mosaic as a CD with the other album Ms. Merrill recorded with the Katz group for Milestone. The highlight of the show, for me, was the 1951 recording by Billie Holiday of Detour Ahead. From her only session for Alladdin, accompanied by the Tiny Grimes Sextet, the lyric and delivery thereof, have Lady Day at her existential best! Also on this show was the always astounding Mingus Sextet of 1964. This particular group featured Eric Dolphy on alto sax, Johnny Coles at the trumpet, Clifford Jordan on tenor sax, Jaki Byard on piano and Dannie Richmond, of course, on drums. I played the relatively scarce double album Concertgebouw Amsterdam April 10th 1964. I chose Ow (Dedicated to a genius), which is an homage to Charlie Parker. Though I played some Bird before this cut, and even the original Anthropology from Dizzy Gillespie and Don Byas, I realized a musical ambiance more conducive to Ow (Dedicated to a genius) could have been created. I think in the future I will do a show only on Bird and his music concluding with this Mingus masterpiece. As Mingus said at the time, "We're trying to make him live a little bit, here."


Day Dream - Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra
Day Dream - Helen Merrill & Dick Katz
Deep In A Dream - Helen Merrill (duet with Jim Hall)
Something To Remember You By - Thad Jones (duet with Kenny Burrell)
Billie Holiday - Detour Ahead
Billie Holiday - Be Fair To Me Baby
Billie Holiday - Blue Turning Grey Over You
Johnny Griffin Quartet - I Remember You
Louis Smith - Au Privave
Annie Ross - This Time's The Dreams On Me
Annie Ross - Let There Be Love
Chet Baker & Art Pepper - Resonant Emotions
The Metronome All-Stars - Victory Ball
Dizzy Gillespie Sextet - Anthropology
Charles Mingus Sextet - Ow (Dedicated to a genius)
Matthew Shipp Trio - Light
Matthew Shipp & Steve Dalachinsky Interview Part 1
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra - The Clothed Woman
Matthew Shipp & Steve Dalachinsky Interview Part 2
Matthew Shipp Trio - When The Curtain Falls On The Jazz Theatre

. . and his mother called him Bill

For many years as a jazz D.J. on KPOO in San Francisco I was often asked what I thought the greatest jazz album to be. Of course these are the kind of questions that deserve asking simply because they have no answer. They serve as tools for helping define our thoughts about the subject, communicate what we don't already know and in general be more easily understood. My answer has been the same for quite sometime and it has been a surprise to many. Obviously there are some who are looking for the pat response, which these days seems to be the Miles Davis masterpiece Kind of Blue. Corporate sponsored media seems to have anointed this one some time ago along with the entire Blue Note catalog. There are those asking because they want to learn something, those who would like some verification of their own good taste with the opinion of an expert. My answer to all three is emphatic. The greatest jazz record of all time is the one recorded by Duke Ellington in 1967 for RCA in homage to his dear friend and closest collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. That recording is titled . . . and his mother called him Bill. Strayhorn, for those of you who may not know him, was one of the greatest composer-arrangers in the history of this music and he contributed enormously to the Ellington organization in ways that are still untold. The recording is without question among the most passionate the orchestra ever put down. Johnny Hodges in particular. And of course it could be no other way, for they had lost one of their own. The music is often overwhelming in its beauty. My favorites are Raincheck and Rock Skippin' at the Bluenote. However, important criteria for making this decision concerns itself with history. That is to say, here is an album that offers us not just the "here and now" and the "as yet to be", but the whole scope of jazz history as well. More on this later.