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07-22-2020, 03:55 PM #1joelf Guest
Trying to do a chart a day---keeps me outta trouble.
This is a revision of Mr. Strayhorn's A Flower is a Lovesome Thing (in E b/c I was playing solo guitar when I wrote it down--original's in Eb---I believe)...
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07-22-2020 03:55 PM
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07-22-2020, 10:20 PM #2joelf Guest
Here's our composer with a string ensemble he doubtless did the arrangement for. (Why not? Mr. Strayhorn could write for anything or anybody):
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07-22-2020, 10:24 PM #3joelf Guest
Oops---guess I was wrong about the original being in Eb---this is Db.
Self-flagellation to begin forthwith (and can I interest anyone in the purchase of a certain bridge?)...
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Here's the Real Book version. They seem to have done something creative with the title :-)
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This is better. It's from this site. Really nice solo on the music clip.
Approaching jazz composition through the music of Billy Strayhorn by Leonie Freudenberger
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Always liked this version ...
Last edited by AndyV; 07-23-2020 at 09:31 PM.
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Originally Posted by ragman1
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07-24-2020, 07:02 AM #8joelf Guest
Originally Posted by ragman1
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Sorry to be obvious... Have you got the right song there, Joel?
Funny guy, though.
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07-24-2020, 10:43 AM #10joelf Guest
Originally Posted by ragman1
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Personally, I think this tune is nothing without the lyrics. Maybe most of Strayhorn's stuff is like that. Except maybe Chelsea Bridge, that stands up well as an instrumental.
'Flower' comes to life with the lyrics but instrumentally it's pretty weird. Four bars of a 7b5? I've been playing with it and I just can't make it pretty
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07-26-2020, 07:07 AM #12joelf Guest
Try harder, then. It's there.
I can see not soloing on Lush Life b/c it's a complete statement. But these ballads hold up w/o the lyrics wonderfully, and yours is, I'm afraid, a minority opinion, b/c the Strayhorn ballads are in the books of so many instrumentalists. I also feel that it's our job as melodic interpreters to bring out the complete song, like we are singing it. If we hear the lyrics in our heads they will out somehow.
Give them another chance, please. If you don't hear them then, well you don't hear them and that's cool...
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07-26-2020, 07:27 AM #13joelf Guest
I was trying to find Al Haig's My Little Brown Book, featuring my old friend the late Eddie Diehl (Manhattan Memories, a terrific recording w/Al; Eddie; Jamil Nasser and Frank Gant) to give an example of what I was saying can be done w/these tunes, even sans lyrics.
Alas, I couldn't find it on youtube, so let's 'settle'--LOL--for John Coltrane w/ the Maestro on that song:
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Originally Posted by joelf
Joe Henderson gets round it by using lots of twiddles and diddles but I think even he was straining a bit. Charles Lloyd did the same but then turned it into a swing number...
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By the way, I did like that 'My Little Brown Book', very nice. And I'm a great fan of Eddie Diehl. I started a thread on him some time back.
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07-27-2020, 08:18 AM #16joelf Guest
Originally Posted by ragman1
If you can get ahold of that Haig record, do it, it's really nice. The tune title, Manhattan Memories, was tacked on by the company and attributed to Haig. It's really Eddie's minor blues, Be Bu (lead-off on the CD you posted)---dedicated to organist Bu Pleasant---but Eddie didn't copyright it. Glad they straightened it out...
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07-27-2020, 08:38 AM #17joelf Guest
Originally Posted by ragman1
Me, the more daylight between notes and chords, the better I like it. I like room to play in, and with. My least favorite kind of tune to play on is the way jazzers seem to always play Rodgers-Hart's Lover. Chromatic II-Vs, and they play it fast. No room to do anything melodic there. Most people just run the changes.
Never touch the stuff. Like George G.W. Bush, 'I say it tastes like broccoli, and I say the hell with it'...
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Originally Posted by ragman1
I liked your use of delay/anticipation in the melody. It keeps the listener engaged in both melody/harmony. Nice job.
Play live! . . . Marinero
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Thanks, Marinero. Thing is, Strayhorn was a pretty mixed up fellow, all kinds of issues there. I mean, if you're going to write about lovely flowers, why use a 7b5 chord? It immediately puts a tension and conflict into it.
So I thought, okay, if that's what you want, let's do it... so I went altered all the way through. So that was the idea there. Joel Fass didn't like it and wanted it pretty so I did the other one, pretty well diatonic. But I was struggling with that feel, I have to say
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Originally Posted by joelf
I've found one track from the album here:
But that's it so far... still looking. Presumably you don't have it at home?
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Originally Posted by joelf
It would be fine if it wasn't about pretty flowers!!
This one isn't...
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07-27-2020, 08:10 PM #22joelf Guest
Originally Posted by ragman1
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Joel -
Looks like they just used that picture then. Sorry, should have checked that. Anyway, it is apparently available but it's costly. And I won't buy it on vinyl because it means asking a shop/fixer to transfer it to disc. It's a lot of work, time, money, etc.
Do you know anybody who knew Eddie (or who was a devout fan) and who might have a copy they'd be willing to post on You Tube?
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07-28-2020, 01:40 PM #24joelf Guest
Not really, sorry...
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I've just ordered it on vinyl. I want to hear what he does with Nuages anyhow :-)
Al Haig Trio & Quartet* - Manhattan Memories (1983, Vinyl) | Discogs
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