Program Notes: Concert  #4, March 13, 2004  "They're Back"

By Composer In Residence Bruce Brown

The JSO is pleased to welcome back some old friends, the New Reformation Jazz Band, for an evening of music that is sure to delight.  The jazz sampler on March 13^th will feature some great standards, some newer compositions and even some works that are more familiar in other settings.

Jazz took the world by storm in the twentieth century and is widely considered to be America’s greatest contribution to date in the development of music.  The definitions of words like ‘classical’ tend to evolve over time, but brilliant jazz composers like Duke Ellington and famous performers like Louis Armstrong have certainly earned their place in history.  When all is said and done, that hardly matters.  The main thing is that the music is just so much fun!

            Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen was written in 1932 by a man named Sholom Secunda for a short-lived Yiddish musical called I Would if I Could.  Secunda sold the rights to the song for thirty dollars and probably thought he was getting a pretty good deal.  Lyricist Sammy Cahn and pianist Lou Levy loved the tune when they heard it in the Apollo Theater in Harlem.  They obtained the rights, Cahn wrote a new set of English lyrics, and the song became a huge hit when it was recorded by the Andrews sisters in 1937.  Cahn always claimed that he bought his mother a house with the profits from this piece, but legend has it that Secunda’s mother went to temple every day for twenty-five years asking for God’s forgiveness.  She was sure her son was being punished for some sin he had committed.

            One of the most familiar tunes in New Orleans jazz is Just a Closer Walk With Thee.  Everyone knows it begins as a slow, dirgelike funeral procession and becomes a rollicking celebration as the mourners return home.  The song’s origin is unclear, but it became enormously popular around 1940.  One of the best known early versions was a 1941 recording by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a wildly colorful character who greatly influenced the young Elvis Presley, among many others.

            Louis Armstrong first recorded Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans during a live radio broadcast on WNEW on October 19, 1938.  This tune by Lou Alter and Eddy De Lange must have been one of his favorites.  He recorded it at least three more times: in 1946, 1947 and again in 1956.  The sentimental lyrics evoke scenes of moss-covered vines, moonlight on the bayou and magnolias in bloom, but the final lines explain “I miss the one I care for more than I miss New Orleans.”

            The swing era of the thirties and forties is synonymous with great names like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Paul Whiteman. 

Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) was written in 1932 with Irving Mills and is usually credited with coining the term.  As the song says “It makes no diff’rence if it’s sweet or hot.  Just give that rhythm everything you’ve got.”

            The mardi-gras spirit of New Orleans’ French Quarter is evoked by Bourbon Street Parade.  This up-tempo tune was written in 1949 by Paul Barbarin, a well-known New Orleans drummer and band leader.  It has been recorded over the years by many of the most famous names in New Orleans jazz, including Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, The Dukes of Dixieland and many others.

            When the Harlem Globetrotters chose their theme song, Sweet Georgia Brown, they knew its graceful elegance was a perfect representation of their inimitable style.  Ethel Waters recorded the definitive version of this Dixieland standard by Maceo Pinkard, Ben Bernie and Ken Casey on May 13^th, 1925. 

            The 1930 standard Memories of You, recorded in 1956 by Rosemary Clooney with the Benny Goodman Trio, is one of about eighty songs by the ragtime pianist Eubie Blake and lyricist Andy Razaf.  Blake was another remarkable character, a child genius who grew up to have an active, influential and long career.  He died on February 12, 1983, just five days after his hundredth birthday. 

            The next two pieces might be more familiar in a classical setting.  It should be very interesting to hear how the Bouree from Bach’s Second English Suite translates into a jazz tune!  Londonderry Air, perhaps better known as the beloved tune “Danny Boy,” will be an apt celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.

            The evening wouldn’t be complete without When the Saints Go Marching In.  This landmark of early jazz has been recorded hundreds of times, not only by artists like Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton and Harry Belafonte, but also by surprising names like Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and the Beatles. 

            Black Dragon Canyon was commissioned in 1998 for a performance by the Utah Symphony.  This bold work by composer and trombonist Henry Wolking was first heard by Jackson audiences in a memorable jazz concert in March of 2002, and has been brought back by popular demand.

            The sensation of the 2002 Academy Award show was Chicago, the surprising film that won several of the “coveted statuettes,” including the award for best picture.  It is the most recent version of a musical by John Kandor and Fred Ebb that opened on Broadway on June 1^st of 1975 and ran for a memorable 947 performances.  The story is based on a play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, and the original choreography was by the legendary Bob Fosse.  Chicago is known worldwide as a center for outstanding jazz.  The sassy, irreverent sounds of the Chicago style helped to make this fine movie an instant classic.