Wednesday, November 09, 2005

11/9/2005 - Petite Fleur

Song: Petite Fleur
Artist: Sidney Bechet
Why this song is the current jam: So I mentioned Sidney Bechet, so I figured I should let you hear how he plays, in case you have never heard him. (in which case, what is wrong with you?) This is one of the most amazing recordings I have ever heard by him. He has tons of really amazing swingin stuff that is great for dancing, but this one is very different. Here is creates from the very first notes a mood so thick and sultry and exotic and sad - shit it just comes across as this completely cohesive mix of so many moods wrapped into one delicious feeling. This song makes me picture tendrils of smoke curling up on a hot sweaty parisian night. Sidney Bechet is one horn player that I can recognize instantly and you can hear in his crazy vibrato and and piercing style why even a novice like myself can always tell when it is Bechet playing. I watched the Ken Burns jazz thing and apparently Sidney was a mean mothergrabber, a dude who was always jealous of Louis Armstrong's success. Sounds like Miles before Miles came along. A mean dude who could play a mean horn. Anyways, this song is so beautiful sometimes I can barely listen to it. If I ever have enough feelings of love and pain to dance with someone to this song, I will know I have lived a full life. I am a long ways off as of now.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, this is cool. I'm a fan of Sidney's, but I don't think I've heard this particular song. It draws your attention toward it. The melody is very sweet; the sound is like a woman singing. I'm more familiar with Sidney's dance tunes. "Copenhagen" is my favorite. "Muskrat Ramble" is cool too. It is really cool when the musician brings the instrument he/she is playing to life; which is what captured my attention with this song. It drew a picture in my head of a woman singing.

Another song that does that for me is "So What", by Miles Davis (Kind of Blue). He is awesome. You know, I remember, my dad listening to Miles when I was little. But it he would listen to the fusion stuff, mostly. You know the big goggle, yellow/purple shirt, orange pants, days. Funny. We would often talk about what jazz was, and I would defend the early jazz music, and try to get him to listen to Louie or Benny, or Duke etc. But I was really little, so I didn't know the history of jazz very well. I just knew that I liked the early stuff. The bluesy/swing jazz, I called it. Anyway, when I got older, not only did I learn about the history and how it evolved, but I learned that my dad liked the jazz from those days too. I think he would get into these friendly arguments with me just to see how much I knew. Anyway, he was part of some sort of Jazz foundation. I think he was the chairman at one time. I have this picture he took of Duke Ellington at the piano (he was a prof. photographer) in 1973; The year before Duke died.

Okay..... back to the program.... I just went on a crazy tangent. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue CD, 1959. The whole CD pulls you away, and draws pictures in your head....just like this cool Sidney Bechet song. = )

4:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh myyy.. this songs is wonderful!! It totally grabs you within the first notes. Nuts. I love it thanks!

2:57 PM  

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