MEAN TO ME (Holiday)
Jätä kommentti26 tammikuun, 2011 Kirjoittanut mrtapsa
22-vuotias Billie Holiday levytti vuonna 1937 Teddy Wilsonin orkesterin kanssa tämän version Mean to Me-kappaleesta. Kappaleesta on liikkeellä kaksi versiota, tämä on tuolloin julkaistu versio.
Orkesterissa soittivat: Buck Clayton, trumpetti; Buster Bailey, klarinetti; Lester Young, tenorisaksofoni; Teddy Wilson, piano; Allen Reuss, kitara; Artie Bernstein, basso; Cozy Cole, rummut.
Lester Young
Jazzhistorioitsija Gunther Schuller kirjoittaa Billie Holidaystä näin kirjassaan the Swing Era:
As one listens to these sides, all from 1937, one is staggered by the realization that we are in the presence of a genius, a twenty-two-year-old girl in full artistic/musical maturity — a girl who had already been a Harlem prostitute for five years of her young life, drug-addicted, with a chaotic, consistently masochistic love life, a constant witness to the seamier side of the black experience, and more. How such sublime art could flower and flourish in such an abysmal environment is not only a singular tribute to Billie Holiday but to the indestructible power and vitality of jazz itself.
For one not present at Billie’s 1930s recording sessions, it remains mysterious as to how she learned these hundreds of songs – and so impeccably. The question arises not out of mere idle curiosity; it is a valid issue: first, because of the technical perfection of her performances, higher and more consistent than any of her accompanists (including even Teddy Wilson, but possibly excluding some of her rhythm section sidemen – like Kirby and Cole – with, to be sure, much less demanding assignments). Second, it is not possible to so thoroughly recompose and improvise upon that many songs without knowing them completely. You can only intelligently deviate from something – perform variations on it – if you know it deeply.