01 LOUIS ARMSTRONG Memories of New Orleans
Au début des années 20 Armstrong quitta la Cité du Croissant pour trouver gloire et fortune à Chicago. Jamais il n’oublia sa ville natale. Sa discographie est riche de thèmes inspirés par “Ma Nouvelle-Orléans”, titre de l’autobiographie qu’il publia en 1952. Dans cette réjouissante anthologie louisianaise, Louie se souvient de ses rues (Perdido, Canal Street) et de son fleuve, de ses fanfares, enterrements et parades (New Orleans Function). Il se souvient amoureusement de cette maternelle terre sudiste dont il ne cessa de chanter la douce nostalgie : Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?
At the beginning of the Twenties Armstrong left Crescent City to find fame and fortune in Chicago. He never forgot his native town. His discography is rich in themes inspired by “My Life in New Orleans”, as his 1952 autobiography was titled. In this delightful Louisiana anthology, Louie remembers its streets (Perdido, Canal Street), its river, marching bands, burials and parades (New Orleans Function). He lovingly reminisces over this southern motherland he never ceased to sing about with sweet nostalgia: “Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?”
02 LOUIS ARMSTRONG Meets the Girls
Satchmo aimait les femmes. Entre autres preuves de cette passion, il se maria quatre fois. C’est sa deuxième épouse, Lil Hardin, femme de fer et de feu qu’il connut comme pianiste au sein du “Creole Jazz Band” de King Oliver, qui lui fit travailler d’arrache-pied solfège et harmonie et l’encouragea à rejoindre en 1924 Fletcher Henderson à New York. “Pops” accompagna aussi au cornet nombre de “mamies” du blues comme Ma Rainey et la sublime Bessie Smith. Mais c’est dans ses dialogues diablement complices avec Billie Holiday et surtout avec l’amie Ella Fitzgerald que sa voix de rocaille éraillée trouva toute sa démesure solaire.
Satchmo loved women. Marrying four times was just one way of proving it. It was his second spouse, Lil Hardin, a firebrand with an iron hand he’d met when she was a pianist with King Oliver’s “Creole Jazz Band”, and who’d made him work overtime on musical theory and harmony, encouraging him to join Fletcher Henderson in New York in 1924. “Pops” also accompanied many blues “grandmas” on cornet, among them Ma Rainey and the sublime Bessie Smith. But it was during his devilishly conniving exchanges with Billie, or his friend Ella especially, that his hoarse, gravel voice revealed all its sunny dimension.
03 MILES DAVIS Birth of a Leader
Charlie Parker l’avait choisi pour remplacer Dizzy Gillespie, mais Miles Davis n’apprécia pas longtemps cet état de faire-valoir. A la tête d’un Nonette révolutionnaire, il signa sa déclaration d’indépendance et gagna ses galons de leader à part entière ; une position qu’il conforta en compagnie de Sonny Rollins, J. J. Johnson ou Art Blakey.
Charlie Parker chose him to replace Dizzy Gillespie, but Miles Davis didn’t appreciate being a stooge for long. Leading a revolutionary Nonet, he signed his Declaration of Independence and earned his leader’s spurs all on his own, comforting his position in the company of Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson and Art Blakey.
04 SIDNEY BECHET New Orleans – Paris (& vice versa)
Marginal de toutes les marges, Bechet fut tout au long de son existence à éclipses un rebelle flamboyant, un voyou voyageur. Comme Joséphine Baker avec qui il triompha en 1924 dans la Revue Nègre, le saxophoniste au vibrato fiévreux n’eut que deux amours : New Orleans et Paris. Sa ville natale où il connut les pionniers du jazz, il la quitta très jeune, dès 1917, pour parcourir le monde. En 1929, pour une rixe à Pigalle, il fut embastillé, expulsé et interdit de séjour. Il ne revint dans la capitale qu’en 1949 pour vite y devenir, porté par la vague du “New Orleans Revival”, une immense vedette. La boucle était bouclée.
A marginal wherever the margin, Bechet was a flamboyant rebel throughout an existence filled with eclipses an itinerant hoodlum. Like Josephine Baker, with whom he triumphed in 1924 in the Parisian “Revue Nègre”, the saxophonist with a febrile vibrato had only two loves: New Orleans and Paris. He left his native city, where he met the pioneers of jazz, when he was still quite young, in 1917, and travelled the world. In 1929, after a fight in the Pigalle Quarter in Paris, he was thrown into jail, deported, and banned from returning. He only came back to the French capital in 1949, and quickly became an immense star, carried on the wave of the “New Orleans Revival”. He’d come full circle.
05 CHARLIE PARKER & DIZZY GILLESPIE Together
Ensemble, ils avaient tout simplement inventé le bebop, au cours de longues nuits passées à chercher, et à trouver, en jouant dans les clubs de Harlem, après leur job quotidien dans les big bands swing. Cette sélection les fait entendre ensemble, d’un bout à l’autre, larrons en foire, cul et chemise, virtuoses inventifs et étourdissants.
Together, they quite simply invented bebop, over the course of long nights spent searching, and then finding, while playing in Harlem clubs after their day jobs in the swing big bands. This selection allows us to hear them together, as thick as thieves from beginning to end, inseparable virtuosos of stunning invention.
06 COLEMAN HAWKINS Henderson Days
Coleman Hawkins n’a que 19 ans lorsqu’il débarque dans l’orchestre de Fletcher Henderson en 1923. Le son du ténor est encore un peu rude, le phrasé brutal mais grand dieu ! quel fauve, quel lyrisme déjà ! Jusqu’en 1933 nous voilà les témoins privilégiés de cet extraordinaire envol. Le génie du grand Hawk est en marche.
Coleman Hawkins was only 19 years old when he landed in Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra in 1923. His tenor saxophone was still slightly raw, and his phrasing brutal, but, Great Gods! What a beast! And that lyricism, already… And until 1933, we are privileged witnesses to his extraordinary take-off. The genius of the great Hawk was on its way.
07 LESTER YOUNG Basie Days
Lester Young, président des saxophonistes qui vivent dans les nuages, et qui se distinguent ainsi de ceux qui ont du poil aux pattes, donne sans doute le meilleur de lui-même chez Count Basie, auprès duquel il grava d’ailleurs ses premières cires, reproduites ici. Il s’y plaisait car il pouvait toujours compter sur la section rythmique la plus élastique du monde et sur quelques potes capables de dialoguer à son altitude.
Lester Young, who presided over all saxophonists living in the clouds, (thereby distinguishing themselves from the hairy-fisted below), no doubt gave of his best when playing with Count Basie. As a matter of fact, he made his first recordings with him, and you can hear them here. Lester loved playing with him because he could always count on the most elastic rhythm section in the world (and on a few cronies able to swap phrases with him at the same altitude).
08 STAN GETZ And the Guitarists
La conjonction Stan Getz/Jimmy Raney figure sur la liste – fort brève – des associations miraculeuses que le jazz fait naître. Subtilité des unissons, entente médiumnique dans les enchaînements, une complicité musicale rare. Quant au Moonlight in Vermont gravé par Stan avec Johnny Smith, il fit un malheur. À juste titre.
The Stan Getz/Jimmy Raney conjunction appears on the (very short) list of miraculous associations that jazz has witnessed from birth. Their unison playing had subtlety, and they were like mediums in their understanding during chord progressions. The musical complicity they shared was rare. As for Moonlight in Vermont, recorded by Stan with Johnny Smith, it was a sensation. Rightly so.
09 GERRY MULLIGAN With Chet Baker & Friends
L’un, Gerry Mulligan, avait largement fait ses preuves sur la scène du jazz new-yorkais en tant qu’arrangeur et saxophoniste baryton, l’autre – Chet Baker – n’avait guère été jusqu’alors que le partenaire épisodique de Charlie Parker. De leur réunion naîtra l’une des petites formations les plus originales et enthousiasmantes de l’histoire du jazz.
One of them – Gerry Mulligan – had more than proved himself on the New York jazz scene as an arranger and baritone saxophonist. The other – Chet Baker – had until then been scarcely more than an episodic partner for Charlie Parker. But their union gave birth to one of the most exciting and original small groups in jazz history.
10 JELLY ROLL MORTON “Originator of Jazz”
Partageant son temps entre les femmes, le poker, le billard, les dés et le jazz dont il prétendait être l’inventeur, Jelly Roll Morton gagna beaucoup d’argent avant de se faire oublier après la crise de 1929. Côté musique, ce fieffé menteur en connaissait un rayon. Arrangeur d’exception et pianiste novateur, sa féconde imagination lui dictait des pièces orchestrales aussi drôles et surprenantes qu’ambitieuses.
Sharing his time between women, poker, pool, crap games and jazz (of which he claimed to be the originator), Jelly Roll Morton earned a great deal of money before he was forgotten in the 1929 crisis. On the music side, this inveterate liar was no newcomer. An exceptional arranger and innovative pianist, his fertile imagination dictated orchestral pieces whose drollery and surprise were only equalled by their ambition.
11 FATS WALLER Alligator Crawl
Il a écrit Ain’t Misbehavin, Handful of Keys et Valentine Stomp, de vrais moments de bonheur qu’il nous livre en solo, ses grosses pattes tirant de son piano un swing tout à la fois joyeux et subtil. Car le gros Thomas Waller est un truculent personnage, le héros de festins mémorables, de beuveries gigantesques ! Son ami et maître, James P. Johnson, l’a initié au stride, une manière de jouer mais aussi une science dont Fats symbolise la perfection classique.
He wrote Ain’t Misbehavin’, Handful of Keys and Valentine Stomp, genuine moments of joy that he plays here as a soloist, his fat fingers extracting from the piano a swing that is both gleeful and subtle. For fat Thomas Waller was a colourful character, the hero of memorable feasts and gigantic drinking-sessions! His friend and master, James P. Johnson, initiated him into the art of “stride” piano, which was not only a manner of playing, but also a science whose classical perfection was symbolised by Fats.
12 NAT KING COLE The Pianist
On connaît le velours de sa voix, on en a presque oublié que Nat King Cole était également un pianiste formidable dont l’influence s’est faite longuement sentir, non seulement chez Oscar Peterson, son disciple le plus direct, mais également chez ceux qui à leur tour, allaient infléchir l’histoire de l’instrument, d’Ahmad Jamal à Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Red Garland… Un toucher délicieux, un swing implacable, une sainte horreur des clichés constituent quelques-uns des secrets du “King”.
We all know the velvet of his voice, but it’s almost been forgotten that Nat King Cole was also an awesome pianist whose influence was felt for years, not only by Oscar Peterson, his most direct disciple, but also by those who took their turn in changing the course of the instrument’s history, from Ahmad Jamal to Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Red Garland… A delicious touch, implacable swing and a dread of clichés were just some of the secrets of the “King”.
13 THELONIOUS MONK Monk plays Thelonious
Vingt-quatre compositions de Thelonious Monk sont ici rassemblées, dans la première version qu’en a donnée le pianiste, de 1947, année de ses premiers disques personnels, à 1952. Deux vérités nous sautent aux oreilles : Monk était un inventeur de thèmes absolument génial, Thelonious savait mieux que personne les interpréter. Un dernier détail : presque toutes ces compositions (22 sur 24) restèrent à son répertoire jusqu’au bout.
There are twenty-four of Thelonious Monk’s compositions gathered here, in the first versions of them to be played by the pianist between 1947, the year of his first recordings under his own name, and 1952. Two self-evident truths are immediately apparent to the ears: Monk was an absolute genius when it came to writing a tune, and Thelonious knew how to play it better than anyone else. One last detail: almost all of these compositions (22 of the 24) remained in his book until the end.
14 THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET First Definitions
Apparemment, rien ne pouvait réunir deux musiciens aussi dissemblables que Dave Brubeck, pianiste, ancien élève de Darius Milhaud et Paul Desmond qui, à ses débuts, présentait un numéro au cours duquel il jouait du saxophone et de la clarinette tout en faisant des claquettes. Pendant vingt ans, ils ne se quittèrent pas…
In appearance, nothing could bring together two musicians as dissimilar as these: pianist Dave Brubeck, a former pupil of Darius Milhaud, and Paul Desmond, who at the beginning of his career did a number where he played the saxophone and the clarinet while tap dancing at the same time. They remained together for twenty years…
15 LIONEL HAMPTON Goodman Days
Californie, août 1936. Un jeune batteur-vibraphoniste parvient à bluffer Benny Goodman en personne, qui l’intègre illico à sa “garde rapprochée”. Mis sur orbite, le volcanique Hampton déploie aux côtés du “Roi du Swing” toute l’étendue de son vertigineux talent. Avant de gravir sous son nom les marches du Panthéon du jazz, voici la genèse d’une star toute en puissance bondissante.
California, August 1936. A young drummer and vibraphone-player managed to impress Benny Goodman in person (who promptly took him on as part of his “personal guard”). Launched into orbit, the volcanic Hampton deployed his vertiginous talents to the full alongside the “King of Swing”. Before carving his own name on the steps of jazz’ Hall of Fame, here’s Lionel Hampton at his debuts, a star jumping with power.