{"id":2856,"date":"2011-08-13T22:44:53","date_gmt":"2011-08-14T05:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=2856"},"modified":"2011-08-13T22:46:26","modified_gmt":"2011-08-14T05:46:26","slug":"weekend-extra-a-new-blue-prelude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2011\/08\/weekend-extra-a-new-blue-prelude\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Extra: A New &#8220;Blue Prelude&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gordon Jenkins (pictured) wrote the music and Joe Bishop the words to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Gordon-Jenkins.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Gordon-Jenkins.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Gordon Jenkins\" width=\"125\" height=\"167\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2857\" \/><\/a>Prelude\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 1933. Shortly after, the Isham Jones band introduced the song on record. In the reed section was a young saxophonist and clarinetist named Woody Herman, who ultimately became leader of a cooperative band that some of Jones\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 members formed after Jones retired in 1936. That group, in turn, became the first of Herman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own bands, known as The Band That Plays the Blues. Herman was so attached to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue Prelude\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that he made it his theme song. The recording with his vocal was a minor hit in 1939 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc40. <\/p>\n<p>Over the years, performers in a variety of genres have recorded the piece. Among them are Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Helen Humes with Bill Doggett, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Criss, Charlie Ventura, The Moody Blues, Linda Ronstadt and Nina Simone. Simone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s version is in a three-way tie with Garland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Humes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 as the most wrenching. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gretamatassa.com\/\"target=\"_blank\">Gretta Matassa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/a> approach to the song is right in there with Peggy Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as the hardest swinging. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Matassa singing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue Prelude\u00e2\u20ac\u009d last year in a Beverly Hills, California, appearance. The trio is Mike Garson, piano; Bob Leatherbarrow, drums; and Matassa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bassist of longstanding, Clipper Anderson. This is one of those rare web videos that you can watch full screen without losing significant picture quality.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"355\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M4CuEgKU3ro?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gordon Jenkins (pictured) wrote the music and Joe Bishop the words to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue Prelude\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 1933. Shortly after, the Isham Jones band introduced the song on record. In the reed section was a young saxophonist and clarinetist named Woody Herman, who ultimately became leader of a cooperative band that some of Jones\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 members formed after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}