Archives for May 23, 2012

The great (term used advisedly) arranger and bandleader Bill Holman celebrated his 85th birthday this week. Steve Cerra posted on his Jazz Profiles blog a repeat of the Holman profile he put together on another occasion. It includes a brilliant assessment of Holman’s work by André Previn, photographs, and a selection of liner notes I have contributed to Holman albums over the years. To see Steve’s post, go here and scroll down the left column until you come to the classic John Reeves photograph of Willis, chin in hand, smiling.

For more on Holman and his music, see this post from the Rifftides archive.

Miles Davis’s birthplace, Alton, Illinois, has announced that it will honor its famous son by erecting a statue. Here are excerpts from the story by Kathie Bassett in Alton’s newspaper, The Telegraph.

Alton Mayor Tom Hoechst unveiled the plan to put a life-sized statue in the heart of Downtown’s entertainment district on Third Street.

This is awesome,” said Brett Stawar, president of Alton’s CVB. “We believe in Miles Davis’ legacy, and I’m excited to see the plan evolve to include a statue that will add another layer to Alton’s visitor experience.”

The initial concept for the statue is that it most likely will mirror the renowned trumpeter’s sinuous pose featured on the commemorative stamp set to be issued on June 12 in New York City, said Charlene Gill, founder and president emeritus of the Alton museum.

To read the whole story and Telegraph readers’ comments, go here.

Miles would no doubt be pleased, but he might very well say, “So What.”

Steve Provizer (pictured, left) posted on his Brilliant Corners blog a treatise on vibrato. He was inspired to do so by Sidney Bechet (1897-1959), the cantankerous genius who made the soprano saxophone a jazz instrument and was the king of vibrato. Steve includes links to performances by celebrated vibratoists, including Bechet, and one by Wild Bill Davison that borders on parody. He also sends us to antivibratoists like Miles Davis, Bix Beiderbecke and Lester Young. You could easily spend an hour just listening to Steve’s links. To see his post, click here.

As sometimes happens in the blogosphere, Provizer’s post inspired Bruno Leicht (pictured,right), halfway across the world in Cologne, to follow up with thoughts about Harry James. James is perhaps not the first trumpeter you would think of if you were in search of vibrato-free playing. Nonetheless, Bruno provides a lovely example of him playing a ballad with a big, fat, nearly vibratoless tone. To hear it, go to BrewLite’s Jazz Tales here.

As for Bechet, here he is in the late 1950s with musicians in France, where he made his home from 1951 until his death. He uses vibrato throughout and with a vengeance toward the end of his long sustained high G or A-flat (or, in this film, somewhere in between).