photographs and souvenirs
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I'm still here, and I have even bought a few new records, possibly of greatest interest to the AARP demographic, and I will report on them soon. But first, a tribute.
"Wistful singer," she's called in the headline of Stephen Holden's just-posted New York Times obit.
That would be Jo Stafford, who was 90, and Holden's summary is impeccable:
"A favorite of American servicemen, Ms. Stafford earned the nickname G. I. Jo for records in which her pure, nearly vibrato-less voice with perfect intonation conveyed steadfast devotion and reassurance with delicate understatement."
She was a member of the Pied Pipers, the vocal group that sang with Tommy Dorsey's band (backing Frank S.), then had a successful solo career: "You Belong to Me" was the big hit, in 1952, and is there a lovelier, more heartfelt keep-the-home-fires-burning song anywhere? My favorite is "Long Ago and Far Away." I love this song, and I love this record. When I hear it, and its sweet and sweeping arrangement (Stafford was married to the conductor/arranger Paul Weston), I picture a ballroom with one of those mirror balls on the ceiling, and couples dancing, the women wearing long, full skirts that swoosh when the women twirl. The song was on the soundtrack of the film Bugsy, which is where I rediscovered it. I bought the cassette, and gave it to my dad, and we listened to it in his car. I think he was happily rediscovering it, too. (And when my dad passed away, my friend Rebecca gave me a 2-CD Stafford set.)
She also had a TV show, and recorded folk and jazz albums. And in the latter category, she could hold her own in some pretty heady company:
Locating MOG account...
Comments (18)
Everything about this is so sumptuous: the voice, the arrangement, the sentiment....No wonder our parents fell so hard for this stuff.
(sigh) I do, too.
Oh this makes me want to go steady!
~Roxy
great video!
I think your following me now David.
doh!
Jo Stafford makes me melt...
Can a song be more classic than this?
:=)
Long Ago (And Far Awy) Indeed.
....."**Seems like a long time ago, long before the stars were torn down**"
A while back, we visited my father, who had incurable lung cancer, and as we sat in front of the fireplace I played him a CD I'd made of some of my favorite jazz recordings, including my favorite Jo Stafford tune, "Long Ago and Far Away." Even though he was mainly a fan of black jazz musicians and had never owned a Jo Stafford record, he really liked it. It's one of her numerous songs about WWII. It was not until several years after he died, as I was waiting in my car for my daughter to come out of her middle school, and listening to this tune, that my grief finally hit me, full force. I'm actually a little choked up right now listening to it here.
Spike, thank you for that. It's probably not surprising that for those of us raised around pop music, the songs and the attached memories are so intense. There are endless songs like that for me; eventually, though, they can (sometimes) become a little less painful and turn into nice reminders. You think, "Oh, Dad loved that song," and for a moment he's present.
Often the only way repressed males can gain access to any emotions they might actually have is through music or films.
As Benny Goodman is one of my Gods, the video clip has had me entranced, even though it's not remotely close to a classic BG line-up. I concur with all the thoughts that this is music for mirror balls and swishing skirts and sentiment.
The video also makes me aware of Things We Have Lost: a group of top-class musicians getting together and jamming over a number of standards or other popular songs. When was the last time you saw 8 or 10 top-flight guys sitting in and chucking riffs around? For me, it was about 20 years ago in Tokyo at an after-gig party for Sade. What was notable was how little common ground all the musicians had.
The list of Things We Have Lost is dismayingly long. As emscee once pointed out, we're not going to see the likes of a T.A.M.I. show again, either. And I think that's about some similar ideal of gangs of musicians getting together for the fun of it. Apparently the jams at the early Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shows came close to something like that, but that's kind of lost too.
Didn't know that Benny Goodman was in your pantheon. In our house (well, with Mom, anyway) there was (and is) a kind of reverence toward him too.
Your Mom has good taste! - The 1938 Carnegie Hall Concrt is one of my favourite albums. What a band! There's also a double live album pulled from a lot of different radio shows that's never been released on CD (at least not the last time I looked) that is just stupendous. They were the super-group of their day. I also loved, on Ken Burns 'Jazz' series, the episode devoted to him. The hysteria and fandom in the crowd was really something. Did your Mom ever see him? (Or you for that matter.) I was lucky enough to catch him at the Albert Hall around '73. I'm sure we were the youngest people in the audience!
No, we never did, and think you lucky indeed. Details, please? Personnel, set list?
Goodness, this is a tall order! I can't remember anyone in the lineup being famous (as in Harry James, or Hampton level famous) but the band was a 10 piece. They played songs from across the decades, breaking it down to the trio and giving certain players prominence in a way that can only be described as drawing attention to the past. For one song he focused on the vibes and talked a bit about how Hampton made it famous. He talked quite a bit between numbers, introducing them and explaining how the next section would be the trio and so forth. Thinking about it, it seems very "old fashioned" compared to how performers are now. [Liza Minelli does the same thing.] The Albert Hall has a huge skylight in the top of the dome and though it's covered now, back then it wasn't, and this being a balmy early summer evening the inside was very light. What struck me most (and I remember best) is how he played. There were 2 mics at the front corners of the stage, pointing at a 45 degree angle into the centre of the stage area, and Goodman played while walking around in the area where he would be picked up.
Yeah, I guess that was asking a lot-- '73 was long ago and far away. But thanks so much-- one doesn't often get to hear about true legends.
Speaking of Hampton, though: Some years ago, my dad recalled seeing Illinois Jacquet do his famous "Flying Home" solo with Hampton's band at Town Hall.....
The recording of Jacquet's solo is pretty amazing.
What got me interested in Benny Goodman was the Sextet recordings he did with the revolutionary electric guitarist Charlie Christian (1919-1942), and Goodman's solos were great also. Have you heard "Till Tom Special" (1940) featuring Lionel Hampton (vibraphone), Count Basie (piano), Artie Bernstein (bass) and Nick Fatool (drums)? Many of the tunes that the Benny Goodman Sextet came up with were inspired by Christian's uncredited riffs.