Mr./Ms.: Ms. B.C.

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Ms. B.C.
[purchase] 

When you’ve been a theme-oriented blog for as long as Star Maker Machine, it is not surprising that we occasionally repeat themes, or in this case, have a theme that nudges up against an earlier one. Almost exactly two years ago, for our “Titles and Honorifics” theme, I wrote about Fela’s “Mr. Follow Follow,” which would work for this theme (although my colleagues seemed to write mostly about doctors or royals, which itself was another theme….) 

But it isn’t so much the theme that matters, but the music, and the writing, right? 

I like jazz, but I don’t know an enormous amount about it because there’s only so much time in the day, and most of my music listening is more in the rock genre. To some extent, I’ve found learning about jazz to be intimidating, but listening to the music can be amazing. I’ve written about non-fusion jazz a bunch of times, but considering my lack of deep knowledge, I’ve mostly focused on big names, unlike my rock or folk posts that often focus on lesser known artists. And I’m OK with that. 

We’ll continue in that vein today, with a song, “Ms. B.C.” by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Blakey was one of the great jazz drummers, with a career that started in the big band era. In the 1950s, Blakey and pianist Horace Silver formed the Jazz Messengers, and over the next 35 years it became a primary incubator of talent, with nearly every famous jazz musician spending time learning from Blakey. In the late 1980s, there was a small jazz club, Mikell’s, on 97th and Columbus in Manhattan, just down the street from my apartment, and my wife and I and some friends went there a few times—but not nearly enough. One night, we saw one of the last, if not the last, version of the Jazz Messengers. While I don’t remember who was in the band that night, it was pretty amazing. 

“Ms. B.C.” appeared on a 1981 album, modestly titled, Album of the Year, featuring Blakey, alto sax player Bobby Watson, Billy Pierce on tenor, James Williams on piano, bassist Charles Fambrough, and a barely 20 year old Wynton Marsalis. Written by Pamela Watson, wife of Bobby, and a composer, arranger, pianist, singer and music educator, it was dedicated to Betty Carter, a singer who, like Blakey, had a reputation for discovering and nurturing young jazz talent.   It's pretty great.

And just because, here’s an intense version recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1982, with most of the same band, but with Branford Marsalis on alto and Donald Brown on piano:

Hello: Tell Him I Said Hello

Betty Carter and the Ray Bryant Trio: Tell Him I Said Hello

[purchase]

My introduction to jazz singing was Joni Mitchell’s version of Twisted. It was an exciting bit of vocal gymnastics with a wonderful sense of playfulness. For a long time, that’s what I thought jazz singing was all about. But there is also a more serious side. A great jazz singer like Betty Carter can instill a ballad with emotional richness and complexity. Listen to Tell Him I Said Hello, and you will hear a woman torn between desire and despair. She wants to be hopeful that her lover will return to her, but she fears that letting him see this will scare him away. She tries to keep all of this bottled up inside, but the feelings are simply too powerful. You might say that that is too much information for a song that is less than three minutes long to carry. But not only does Carter’s performance make it possible, she even manages to sum all of this up at the end with just one word: hello. With a singer this fine, there is no need to force the issue by piling on strings and other instruments. Ray Bryant and his group only need a piano, bass, and some wonderful brush work on drums. Carter does the rest, brilliantly.

Shorties: How To Find a Shorty

In the course of finding songs for this week’s theme, and reading other people’s posts, I have developed a set of rules for finding shorties. If we ever decide to do a second week of shorties, I hope this will help.

1. Find a song by an artist or band who are known for short songs.

When They Might Be Giants first got together, they had a common problem; no one would sign them. They came up with an unusual solution. They recorded songs that were under a minute long each, and put a different song each day as an answering machine message. Then they plastered signs all over New York City to let people know about their Dial-a-Song service. It caught on, and was even reported in the New York Times where I first heard of it, and soon enough They Might Be Giants were signed to the Bar-None label. Many of the Dial-a-Song tunes found their way onto their early albums.

They Might Be Giants: Token Back to Brooklyn

[purchase]

2. Go with a TV theme or a cover of one.

Spiderman has been made into an animated TV series many times, but this Spiderman theme comes from the first series, made in the 1960s. The original Spiderman cartoon was animated by Ralph Bakshi, who went on to make the movies Fritz the Cat and Wizards.

Moxy Fruvous: Spiderman

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3. Use a kid’s song.

From My Head comes from an episode of Sesame Street. It is a rare example of a jazz singer doing anything in less than two minutes. Kid’s songs often come in at under two minutes; there seems to be a widespread belief that no kid will pay attention for longer than that.

Betty Carter: From Your Head

[unreleased, no purchase info]

and, 4. Go with an older song.

Generally speaking, the older a pop song is, the shorter it is. That is because recording and transfer technology limited the length of a recording that would fit on a vinyl single and still sound decent. At the time that the Clovers cut their classic, the upward limit for a single was 2:30. But Love Potion #9 is even shorter.

The Clovers: Love Potion #9

[purchase]