it's an elegantly dressed rhapsody
Paul Whiteman's Saxophone Sextette, 1922
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day, in 1846, when Adolphe Sax received a patent on the musical instrument he had invented. (He called it the saxophone, naturally, just as I, if I were to invent an instrument, would call it the Evans-Bushophone.)
Following yesterday's discussions (see also post below) of 'smoked poetry', drinking and jazz, it seems fitting to remember our friend the sax, which is the epitome of elegance, while we're at it, and which informed so thoroughly the jazz that inspired the poetry which is wreathed in smoke.
Paul Whiteman, above - the "Jazz King" of the 1920s - commissioned George Gershwin to write the still-amazing "Rhapsody in Blue" - for which alone the world owes him undying gratitude. His orchestra - not the above-pictured (& wonderfully-named) Saxophone Sextette - played the first performance of the work in 1924, with Gershwin at the piano, & don't you wish you'd been there? ("Rhapsody in Blue" has five saxophones in it, by the way - sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor and baritone.)
Special bonus: As with the poetry, although one could be forgiven for wondering, it's not just about the boys! Here, for your delectation, is an all-women sax quartet from Latvia. I love these girls! They are (alas) called n(ex)t - which as we know isn't even a word, and may account for why they are not big on the web. All I could find was this picture, in a festival listing. I hope they haven't split up.
12 comments:
Crikey, it's turning into and elegantly dressed week at Ms Baroque's
Starting with Verka Serdyuchka, I think! But let's not lower the tone now...
I'm a (soprano) saxophonist, but never mastered the art of playing and smoking at the same time.
How long can we keep this theme going, do you think?
Till I impose a smmoking ban!
I'm impressed that you can play sax. Fantastic. In light of the topic of the day, that probably makes you reader of the day, unless I get a comment from someone saying they're John Coltrane (and even then I'm unlikely to believe them).
I'm John Coltrane.
Gosh you can't argue with any of this. Great post, Ms B. I very much like rhapsody in blue, and jazz in general, and certainly many of my favourite pieces in any genre have sax. playing in them, but at the same time one can have too much sax. From time to time I hear it as something resembling nose-blowing, and as a lifelong sinus sufferer I have heard (and played for that matter, in a sort of alto note ranging to baritone or indeed tenor if I have a cold) far too often.
I like the sound of the name Umpireophone, so will get inventing. That said, Baroquophone is even better, so hop to it yourself, I suggest.
Chippy, I'm very sorry but I don't believe you.
P-Ump, excellent thinking! However, I may never listen to music the same again, and next time you say you have a cold I will hear it in my mind's ear.
Please, don't let that nasal feeling influence your invention.
Um, sorry, I was trying to be nice and have put a link to this article to prove it. Unfortuantely I seem to have killed off a chunk of your musical enjoyment instead. It's the sort of social faux pas I've committed many times in many different contexts, but it doesn't make it any the less embarrassing.
Must confess though the mention of a 'nasal chorus' in Tubular Bells makes me zip through that bit of the record, but I'm not sure if you'd share my teenage boy-mentality liking for prog rock in any event. Dick Parry was a great saxophonist for Pink Floyd but again that's often my least favourite part of the music.
Au contraire, P-Ump! You always make me happier. Musical enjoyment will persist, and amusement is something else again.
Phew. Normally I have to ply people with drink before they forgive me.
Incidentally, I have been working on what I want the Umpirophone to be. The answer is that I want to invent Peter Frampton's Talking Machine. You might reasonably observe at this point that the Talking Machine has already been invented, by Peter Frampton. Not quite true. Though it fooled even the likes of Jimbo Jones on the Simpsons ("Heyyyy Mannn, that dude's guitar talllksss"), it did not. Talk, that is. Either there were notes being played to sound 'wah-wah' (as in a funky electric sound, not a baby's cry), or there was some recorded voice filtered in the same way. This is what my father told me, around the same time as he also told me that professional wrestling wasn't for real. These two debunkings were a bit much for an innocent child to be given at the same time. But it did leave me wondering, and this discussion today as re-ignited that puzzlement, whether it would be possible to invent the Talking Machine as originally understood by 8 year old P-Ump. I'd like to think so.
Not so sure about a Baroquophone, but it has to be even more impressive than a well-crafted tuba, so I think your task is possibly even more difficult than my own.
Rhapsody in Blue has always been one of my favourite pieces of music so thanks Ms Baroque for featuring it. At the risk of promoting myself, I've done Marie Lloyd this week (and me actually - which is where the self promotion element comes in.)
Have you seen the 1945 film? It features Robert Alda as George Gershwin and Whiteman as himself - and the fantastic Oscar Levant who is one of my musical heroes.
Jura Watchmaker (who incidentally looks a lot like Francis Sedgemore) talks about smoking and playing the sax - It's very possible as there are lots of little open and shutty things on a sax to park a burning cigarette in. Ditto the guitar, and you see that quite often.
Yes I love Rhapsody in Blue, although it's the clarinet that really shines in that piece, with that wonderful soaring melody at the beginning.
as far as the saxophone goes, I loved it until I worked in bookselling. I've heard enough modern jazz/bossa nova CDs to last a lifetime. Which is a shame.
Post a Comment