Good old Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald-Musical Perfection

In an interview with Bobbie Wygant (posted below) we find that Ella didn't truly plan to be a singer. Ella says "I always wanted to be a dancer." Ella never really found out she could sing until she made a bet with her girlfriends to audition at Apolo Theatre in Harlem. So at the age of 15 Ella entered the Apollo Theatre's amateur night naturally thinking she would be dancing. 

"There I was, nervous as can be, only 15 years old with the skinniest legs you've ever seen and I froze; got cold feet. The man in charge said that I had better do something up there, so I said I wanted to sing instead. The audience was laughing," she shares. Ella decided to sing a song from an album of her mothers by Connee Boswell, called "The Object of My Affection." 

Amazingly enough, the notoriously harsh audience at the Apollo stopped laughing, and soon began clapping for more. "Three encores later, the $25 prize was mine," says Fitzgerald. From then on Ella hasn't stopped singing. She was soon dubbed the "First Lady of Song," Fitzgerald has clearly earned her title, recording about 70 long playing albums and more than 2,000 different songs on the gramophone format. She worked with fellow legendary artists such as Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman and even performed in a few movies, including "Ride 'Em Cowboy" starring Abbott and Costello. 

When Bobbie Wygant asks Ella if she would do it again, Ella shares some interesting advise. "I was told that you never want to be a part of something that goes up real fast because you meet the same people coming down. This type of career dosent happen overnight. If it happens too fast your not really prepared for it. Yo've got to work hard for it, its not easy.Its something you have to love and have patience, a good manager and people that love you and protect you. The love of the people is what makes you wana do what you wana do."  

Bobbie Wygant Interview with Ella Fitzgerald 

http://vimeo.com/27625402

Ella has a voice that is rare in its endurance and quality.  How High the Moon is a prime example. In the interview Ella shares her faith in God and says this is the way life was suppossed to be. She even tossed out the idea of going to Iran to sing "How High the Moon" just for the love of people. Well, she definitely ended up singing "How High the Moon for many adoring fans.

"How High the Moon" 

ABAB form. The song uses a descending chord progression in which the tonic turns to minor. It really follows voice leading which intensely helps a singer rely on their ear.

A-Starts with a simple melody and lyric line with light piano and drum accompaniment. 
B- Ella then jumps into improvisation on scat symbols with the initial vocal line. A quickened piano and drum accompaniment follows. 
A- Ella breaks into a scat and specific words from the initial melody integrated in her improvisations. She is never afraid to try something new in her performances. Even if that means making up words for fun.
B- The tempo then quickens and Ella takes the stage scatting with the descending chords being played underneath her. She uses scatting as a way to sound like an instrument. Ella also takes words from the original lyric line while the drums keep a steady beat underneath her and plays around with the chordal structure to her hearts content. 
The chords go from Maj7 to min7 frequently which allows improvisation and settles for an entertaining performance.

Frank Sinatra was right when he famously said, “If Ella were a musical instrument, she’d be the whole orchestra.”

Chet Baker

1929 in Yale Oklahoma Chet Baker was born. When the family decided to move Cher’s father decided to buy him a trombone. The 12 year old thought it was a little hard to handle and eventually switched over to trumpet. Chet Baker grew up to be one of the most interesting and mysterious performers of Jazz. A life full of talent, women, drugs, travel and all drenched in Jazz music.

Chet Baker was unschooled. He was a man who played by ear, quickly learning tunes and improvising understanding what worked and what didn’t yet Chet could never tell you what key he was in or what he had technically just played. When I had heard this it blew my mind! I am studying music at KSU and knowing the hours spent in Theory and Aural Skills to be a better musician is so helpful. That type of understanding is assumed wherever you go and to see Chet as someone who was such an in tune musician and couldn’t read music astounds me! In 1987 Herbie Hancock spoke about his recording of "Fair Weather": "I had forgotten that Chet didn't read music. I remember how fresh his first take was, he followed the chords as if he had known them all his life". No one in their right mind would have really been able to guess by listening that Chet was unschooled musically. 

Baker said in a 1987 interview with biographer J. de Valk; "Well, I can't read chord sequences. I can play a melody line that is written down for trumpet. But chord symbols tell me nothing. For a time I went to instrument training class in junior high school. That was the only instruction that I ever had."

This is a huge part of Bakers charm. Within the mysteriousness of Chet’s personal life on stage he always kept people guessing. Surprising audiences with each performance.

Chet Baker-"My Funny Valentine"
This is one of the most common standards of all time, and it seems to transcend jazz. What I’ve noticed is that there are quite a few interpretations of the chord changes on this particular tune, and it’s difficult to know what the “real” changes are. The tune is typically done in C minor, but the bridge goes the relative major, in Eb. The form is AABA. However, beyond this the various recordings are very different harmonically. Leaving excessive amounts of room for improvisation that jazz musicians love.

After a run as Charlie Parker’s trumpeter in the Quintet during the bebop giant’s stay in L.A., Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. In 1952, the quartet cut four sides for the Fantasy label recorded live at San Francisco’s Blackhawk club. Along with two Mulligan originals, bassist Carson Smith suggested a ballad called “My Funny Valentine,” which no one in the group had ever heard before. “The song fascinated Baker. It captured all he aspired to as a musician … ‘Valentine’ became his favorite song; rarely would he do a show without it, or fail to find something new in its thirty-five bars.” Stated by James Gavin’s from Abiography, Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker. The instrumental version of the song clearly resonated with Baker. This first of many vocal versions of “My Funny Valentine” is a premonition of the pain to come in his heroin-addicted future—singing almost as if he was already on his deathbed. Though the singer addresses another person, it’s almost as if he’s singing to himself, about himself: lines like “my favorite work of art” and “your looks are … unphotographable” hint at the narcissism and selfishness that would come to dominate his life.

“Chettie was so gifted and so magical that what he gave out he could never, ever get back.”

My Funny Valentine

“My Funny Valentine”

My funny Valentine, sweet comic Valentine
You make me smile with my heart
Your looks are laughable, unphotographable
Yet, you’re my favorite work of art

Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?

But don’t change your hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay little Valentine, stay!
Each day is Valentines day

Written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart

Cited:

http://chetbakertribute.com/about.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOEIQKczRPY

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/01/chet-baker-my-funny-valentine/