Ladies sing jazz - famous jazz singers.

DS: - Fast Mood, no doubt an attempt at a play on words by Fast Food. What philologists call "a joke on weak sign". Michel Portal - bass clarinet and Martial Solal - piano. Fast Mood - written by them together. The recording was made in Boulogne in March 99.
This is the first answer to the question of Tatyana from St. Petersburg, Pat from Riga and Slava from Novosibirsk: what is French jazz like today. Slava, as far as I remember, you play every conceivable instrument, including exotic ones. You ask about Michel Portal not without irony. You write that it may be “not exactly jazz”. I would say - "not only jazz".
Michel Portal (native of Bayona, born 35, graduate of the Paris Conservatory) in 1969 played Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most "controversial", as critics write, "paradoxical" composers of the 20th century; who also worked in the genre of concrete music, "serial" and "aleatoric".
But Portal also played Mozart, and Brahms, and Schumann, and Berg. At the same time, he has been playing (and never stopped playing!) Basque folklore since childhood. Another component of his work is variety shows. And finally, jazz. Together with François Tuske, Bernard Vitet and Sunny Murray, he was a pioneer of French "free jazz". In addition to Stockhausen, he played Boulez, Berio and Kagel. He created the New Phonic Art group, the principles of which included spontaneous creativity. He is an adherent of free, "free", improvisation, and, perhaps, the most correct thing would not be to classify him in any category, but to leave him completely honorary title"musician".

DS: - Solitudes, Loneliness (during plural), Michel Portal; V this case he played the clarinet; Martial Solal - piano. The same CD in the Jazz category, titled after the first Fast Mood piece.
To what extent Portal has found a way out of the acoustically magnificent impasse opened by Train, Dolphy, Coleman, Cherry and Shepp, judge for yourself. Personally, I miss the temperature, the degree in this extremely brainy, speculative music... It's a little easier with Martial Solal.

Martial Solal was born in 27 in Algeria. He studied piano from the age of six and fell in love with jazz after attending a lecture course by saxophonist Lucky Starway. By 45, Solal was already playing professionally. He performed on Radio-Alger, and during army service, which he passed in Morocco - on Radio-Rabat. In Paris, he settled in 50 and joined the orchestra of Noel Shibu ....
Let me remind you: you are listening to “Jazz Time” on the frequencies of “Freedom” or from the website of the radio station svobodanews.ru. The microphone has your DC.

Darn that dream

DS: - Darn that dream, Jimmy van Huessen and Edgar de Lange standard. Solo concert Martial Solala, recorded in April 2005 at Acoustic Studio in Paris.
Solal was lucky. He appeared on the Parisian stage during the best and most fruitful years of jazz. He has written music for films, accompanied Django Reinhard, Don Bayus, Fats Sadie, Lucky Thompson, Kenny Clarke, Sidney Bishé, Stan Getz, Art Farmer; he played in the Trio with American colleagues (Teddy Kottik and Paul Mosyan); recorded with Lee Konitz. He did not escape the fashion for large formats and composed "Concerto for Jazz Trio and Orchestra", as well as "Fantasy for Two Orchestras".
But, returning to the question of Tatiana, Pat and Slava, I want to say that for the French, sometimes a bridge between the stage and jazz scene- does not exist:

DS: - Lucie, Charles Aznavour and his septet. The disk of our crooner «JazzNavour» was released in 98….
Shahnur Vahinag Aznavourian, whom Time magazine in the same year 98 called “the best pop singer of the twentieth century "- the author of almost a thousand songs and, despite the fact that on May 22 he will be 85 years old, he continues to compose and sing, however, every year, threatening the admirer that they hear him in last time that this time is the most last concert…
Here he is with the surprisingly familiar and often heard song "For Me... Formidable" on the other side of the Atlantic:

For Me... Formidable

DS: For Me... Formidable, in short: Bonjour, Frankie! And bravo, Charles!
Azanavour performed two weeks ago at Montreal's Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, and his latest CD features duets with Celine Dion, Johnny Holiday, Carol King and Placido Domingo.
However, it is time to return to the world of harsh prose. Anna from Moscow, who took a liking to Gerry Mulligan with his Night Lights CD, asks how Chopin got influenced by bossa nova? The answer should probably start with this:

Siciliano
.
DS: - Siciliano, Bach's "Siciliana" performed by the Piano Trio Billy Higgins. The most wonderful work of the entire rhythm group, but the double bass player, Don Wilner, is especially impressive. Although drummer James Martin is on top. I'm talking about Higgins.
March '96, Florida. A disc that I recommend to everyone for the umpteenth time: "Eddie Higgins - a portrait in black and white." "Portrait in Black & White".
"Siciliana" in the time of Johann Sebastian was, as they say today, a fashionable size, format: 6 by 8 or 12 by 8; vocal or instrumental, close to pastoral.
The Higgins trio quite clearly introduces Latin American motifs, which, in the case of Siciliana itself, are also justified by the Moorish presence in the culture of the island. In Higgins, Andalusia is clearly audible.
Of course, the intrusion of bossa and samba into jazz was powerful, it was a breath of fresh air in an era of divergence and crossroads. Sten Getz discovered on a neighboring continent new Africa, like Dizzy Gillespie - in Cuba.
Here is another, already purely Brazilian jazz improvisation. Two guitarists: Laurindo Almeida and Charlie Bird. The disc itself is called "Brazilian Soul" ... Bird's composition is "For Jeff":

DS: - For Jeff, Charlie Byrd, guitar. His duet with Brazilian guitarist Laurindo Almeida.
Latin American, Iberian and purely Brazilian trends in jazz appeared in the 70s of the last century, but their form often took on a larger scale. Thanks to Anna Krivosheeva for clarifications and references confirming that Gabriel and Giovanni Mirabassi are brothers. Here's another piece, as the French say, quite "Latino" ...

Blues For Pablo

DS: - Blues For Pablo by Gil Evans. Big Orchestra Evans with Miles Davis on trumpet. Gil and Miles' Program CD - "Miles Ahead", August '57...
Anatoly Mikhalkov from the city of Chusovoy, in the Perm region, a computer scientist by profession and an amateur jazz music, is interested in trumpeter Roy Hargrove, whom he recently heard on the Mezzo channel. A few words about Roy himself after Irwin Weldon's composition Mr. clean:

DS: Mr. Clean, "Clean" - Irwin Weldon. Roy Hargrove Quintet: Roy trumpet; Justin Robinson - alto saxophone Gerald Clayton - piano Danton Boller - double bass and Montez Coleman - drums. Recorded in 2008.
Roy Hargrove belongs, it's ridiculous to say, to the post-Marsal generation of trumpeters. Literally (Roy turns 40 this year), Marsalis is the one who pulled teenage Hargrove out of not-so-dense high school obscurity. I mean, Roy's talent would have thrown him to the forefront of jazz anyway, but Wynton Marsalis helped him start performing and recording in early years. Hargrove released his own first disc at the age of 20… He played with such luminaries of jazz as Joe Henderson, Stanley Tarrentine, Johnny Griffin, Joshua Redman (THIS IS ALREADY generations of Marsalis) and with Winton's brother – an excellent saxophonist – Branford.
Here, by the way, is the answer to the frequently repeated question: do “family jazz clans” exist?
Facts: Father Marsalis is a pianist, Winton is a trumpeter, his brother is a saxophonist. Or, let's cross the Atlantic: Michel Petrucciani - pianist; Tony's father is a guitarist and brother Louis is a double bassist.
And since we already remembered Petruch, as everyone called him, here's a goodbye to this magnificent Trio: Tony, Michel and Louis ... Thellonius Monk's theme is Straight no chaser:

straight no chaser

DS: - Straight no chaser, the title of Monk's composition has been a translation problem for many of my colleagues more than once or twice.
Chaser is the same decanter with water that drives around the galvanized bar counter, so that there is something to dilute, if anyone wishes, bourbon, whiskey or, as in France, Pernod ...
So "Clean without diluting..." is Monk's idea.
Tony, Michel and Louis Petrucciani from the 95 disc of the same name.
I must hereby confess that I have only been able to answer a small fraction of your questions and fulfill only a fraction of your requests. Which automatically suggests that - to be continued!
You will find Jazz Time in a podcast on the website of the radio station svobodanews.ru. Until next week, all the best to you, ciao, bye bye!

Popularity musical style"swing" in France - in the early 1940s - coincided with the fashion for large jazz orchestras. However, during the war, perhaps the most famous French big band Ray Ventura was forced to leave the country. Until the end of the occupation, Ventura and his musicians toured in Latin America. pop life other remarkable jazzmen continued in France - the leaders of popular orchestras. Among them are Alix Kombel, Fred Addison and Ramon Legrand.

Alix Combelle- one of the most famous French tenor saxophonists. In 1930-40 Kombel played with many famous musicians - the same Ray Ventura or guitarist Django Reinhardt. In 1944, with his own orchestra, Alix Combel recorded the song "Ca se fait pas" - "That's not how it's done" or "That's not how it's done". He composed the music for this comic composition together with the famous jazz composer Louis Gaste, and the words were written by the poet Francis Blanche. (“It’s not done like that,” it’s not accepted. But what is actually not accepted? Well, for example, going to the opera or eating pineapples is normal. But eating pineapples in the opera is somehow not accepted. Also, you can sing everything that anything - or "Ave Maria" or a jazz standard. But to sing a prayer in the rhythm of jazz - you see, this is not done).

Very popular in France in the 30s and 40s was Fred Adison Jazz Big Band. Educated as a pianist and violinist, this musician fell under the influence of jazz, percussion instruments and already at the age of 18 he created his first jazz ensemble. In the early 1930s, the musicians reached Paris, where the orchestra existed for almost 30 years. Its conductor and leader was actually named Albert Lapeyrere. Fred Addison is a pseudonym, a tribute to the American jazz fashion. The fashion that captured young French generation. Not without reason, one of the hits of the Fred Addison Orchestra is called "Swing à l" école "(1945) - or" School Swing ". ( This is a comic conversation between a father and a lazy son and a loser. The boy replies to his father's reproaches: the thing is that the lessons are boring and uninteresting. But at breaks we learn fashion dance swing. And it's better than all the grammar or history of France. Even though I don't know who Richelieu or Pythagoras are, even if I never learned how to play Chopin's works. It's all so old. Even junior schoolchildren know what is trendy and modern. Those are swing beats!

Speaking of French jazz big bands 1940s, not to mention Raymon Legrand Orchestra. This brilliant composer and musician, a student of Gabriel Fauré, was for some time an arranger for Ray Ventura. And then he created his own orchestra, which accompanied famous singers Maurice Chevalier, Tino Rossi, Georges Guetary. Irene de Treber became the main soloist of the jazz band in the 1940s. In her performance, the orchestra recorded the song "Au quatrième top" in 1943. Its name can be translated as "with the fourth strike of the clock", or, more precisely, "with the fourth signal". It can be a signal of the exact time on the radio - in France there are 4 of them, or the fourth beat of a drumstick, which gives the jazz band a sign to enter. ("With the fourth signal" we turn 20 years old, with the fourth signal spring comes - you can sing, dance and fall in love. Because after the fourth signal comes the time of happiness - sings Irene de Treber, accompanied by the orchestra of Ramon Legrand).

Irene de Treber was not only the soloist of Ramon Legrand's orchestra, but also his wife. In 1943 their son was born. However, world fame did not go to him at all, but to another offspring of the musician - famous composer Michel Legrand. Father and son were very similar in some ways. Michel was glorified by his music, composed for the cinema: who does not remember the famous film "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", consisting entirely of song dialogues? Music for the cinema was also composed by his father, Remon Legrand. Both were virtuoso jazz players and classical pianists, performed with many prominent jazz musicians. And both - sometimes themselves sang on stage. We complete our program with a song performed by Ramon Legrand. "Oui, si tu me dit oui!" - "Yes, if you told me yes!". This song - a confession of a conductor in love - was composed by famous musicians Alix Combel and Louis Gaste. Ramon Legrand and his orchestra. 1943

Jazz vocals are traditionally associated with female performance. Known jazz singers, using only their voice, are able to create an aura of mystery or an atmosphere of playfulness on stage.

famous jazz singers

Ella Fitzgerald

Having won the love of the public and the respect of colleagues, the first lady of jazz forever remained very modest and shy. In 1942, she became the first woman to lead a large musical group - the Chick Webb Orchestra, which performed for soldiers during the war.

Ella Fitzgerald

Especially for Ella, it was founded by producer Norman Grantz, on which albums were recorded with the participation of Ellington and Berdin, Rogers and Hart.

Once, having forgotten the words of the song, Fitzgerald came up with her own combination, which, according to her, copied the sound of the saxophone. Subsequently, this approach became calling card singers.

Find out what challenges women face in music and if there are

Billie Holiday

(Eleanor Fagen) got her jazz nickname "Lady Day" from a saxophonist. With Yang, she was associated with a short-term romance and a very successful collaboration. Together they recorded 49 songs that had literally hypnotic influence.

The peak of Holiday's fame came in the 1940s, when she began performing in jazz clubs for mixed white and colored audiences. Once, in order not to anger the organizers, the performer, who was too pale for a black woman, had to darken her skin with a special make-up.

Etta James

(Jamisette Hawkins) has diligently maintained her "bad girl" image throughout her career. At the same time, her album Tell Mama, released back in 1967, is still considered the best soul collection of all time.

The singer graced the opening with her performance Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984.

Nina Simon

Gifted and torn apart by internal demons, all her life she fought for her rights to perform works of interest to her. The singer has always been more concerned about social topics than the rules of show business and mercantile goals.

The touching lyrics and one of the most feminine works of our time, the song I put a spell on you, brought her worldwide fame.

Sarah Vaughan

Without difficulty it was possible to masterfully slide between three octaves. She received particular pleasure from the subtle interpretation of songs and the meaning put into their words.

Vaughan took part in the most diverse projects: she performed compositions and worked in the orchestras of John Kirby and Teddy Wilson.

Dina Washington

While still a schoolgirl, Dinah Washington (Ruth Lee Jones) conducted the church's gospel choir. Her talent did not tolerate restrictions, he needed to constantly overcome new horizons.

Possessing crystal clear articulation, Dina masterfully reproduced any music - from jazz standards to pop hits. Critics characterized her repertoire as subtle and thoughtful.

Astrud Gilberto

Astrud Gilberto's first solo record became an instant best-seller thanks to his charming and original technique. The singer acted in films, hosted her own TV show and was even the voice of one airline.

IN Lately Astrud prefers to express himself not in solo performances on stage, but in drawing and writing new compositions.

Natalie Cole

It was the famous father who noticed talent in his daughter and brought her to the stage when she was only 6 years old. Songs, colored with shades of gospel and rhythm and blues, have repeatedly been awarded the most prestigious music awards.

The audience still with tears in their eyes remembers the Grammy ceremony, when Natalie sang a piercing duet with her father - a recording of his performance was broadcast on the big screen.

Diana Krall

Born in 1964 in a Canadian province in a family of musicians, she fell ill with jazz from early childhood. Now her repertoire consists of soulful melancholic ballads, distinguished by a slightly nostalgic charm.