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Week 3 |
| The Course |
This week we'll listen to some music that is not rock music, in order to give you an idea of what came before - and continued long into the 50s and 60s, loosing steam in the 60s and 70s, but still an alternative to rock music.
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| The crooners Tony Martin on The Ed Sullivan Show -1953 Mario Lanza Bing Crosby Frank Sinatra Doris Day Ella Fitzgerald Art Tatum Fats Waller* Sarah Vaughn *Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 -- December 15, 1943) was an influential jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer, whose innovations to the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano, and whose best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame posthumously, in 1984 and 1999. |
Without
the microphone, crooners probably wouldn't exist. Their soft
voices, in many cases were unable to project in a big room or
auditorium. Some were very good singers. Most of them had (if
they sutdied at all) teachers who had been operatic singers.
Here's a prime example of this - remember: this is
pop music - not classical! Even though these singers are not singing opera, their techniques were definitely operatic. Mario Lanza continued to sell as many records as Elvis, even after his death. Andrea Bocelli today continues this "crossover" tradition, singing both pop and operatic music. The true "crooners, " I would say, really began with Bing Crosby. These crooners often became more famous though their movie performances, becoming the megastars of their time. Here's another selection of Crosby that really shows what crooning is. In the late 50s, Pat Boone, continued this tradition. The next major crooner is probably Frank Sinatra. Most of you are familiar with him, but perhaps not his early performances. Here is one of those. I'm not leaving the ladies out! Here is Doris Day: it would also be OK to call her a crooner (it seems that term is used more for men than women) Perhaps the most interesting singer (who is now considered a "jazz" singer) was Ella Fitzgerald. Here's an early recording with a typical "Big Band" sound (Chick Webb's Orchestra) - there are a lot of these in a row - listen to the first two and notice the very "square" 1, 2 beat in the second piece - it is called "stride" from the "stride piano style" of Art Tatum (plus this - you gotta here this)and Fats Waller. Ella's genius was her ability to improvise (singing "scat") This is why she is a real jazz artist, as well as being a great pop singer. In this example she actually does some Tuvan throat singing! Then there's Sarah Vaughn - compare the two - should be fun This can still be considered "crooning." The reason you are listening to these singers is to give you a background, so that when some of these earlier style appear in rock, you might be able to say "Oh wow! that sounds like a retro version of .......... 'cause the style is recognizable - kinda sounds like that "stride" rhythm we heard from Fats Waller." Here's one more version of How High The Moon with Mel Tormé, June Christy and Nat "King" Cole. Nat "King" Cole began as a fabulous jazz pianist, but when people heard him sing, they kept asking for more. As a consequence, he became a "pop" singer, selling as many records as Frank Sinatra. ( I have added this beautiful rendition of Nature Boy by The Real Group - these singers have been inspiration for groups like Pentatonix) Nat "King" Cole ended up being the first African with his own nation-wide, prime- time TV show, introducing many new singers and musicians the the public. His daughter Natalie Cole became a wonderful R and B singer in her own right, and now, more mature, she is considered a "jazz" artist. (Whatever that's supposed to mean). All of this music came after the Second World War and during the Korean debacle, when America began seriously hunting down communists. To keep the world free from the tyranny of the communist meanace. (I'm being sarcastic!) Our adult men were being drafted to do this, and many were killed. This was not a nice time politically, we were entering the "cold" war. Children (myself included) were taught to duck under chairs in their classrooms as the air raid sirens went off (as though that would stop the incineration an atom bomb would cause) and Senator Joseph McCarthy and his lawyer, Roy Cohen almost singlehandedly created an atmosphere of extreme fear and distrust. It had been legal in America to belong to the communist party before this (free speech and freedom of opinion?) but all that ended with blacklisting and people being fired from their jobs for even being suspected of communist leanings. In the early 1950, a new Ford cast about $2, 500.00. Families could buy a new home for $9,000.00 to $10, 000.00. Teen agers (baby boomers) were asking Dad for the keys to the car, and car radios began to realize an entire new market was at hand. This change in demographics let to the music which could be clearly heard in a car with open windows, doing between 25 and 45 mph. Big band music was "your father's music." Something new was needed. This was the beginning of the real "age of electricity" (or vulgarity, if you prefer). Now a word from Marshall McLuhan. |