SKF NOTE: The Frank Sinatra/Duke Ellington album,Francis A. & Edward K., is one of my all-time favorites. And, of course, it’s fun and instructive listening to Mel Lewis‘s thoughts on the song, Follow Me.
Mel Lewis: That, of course, was Sinatra, and I’m positive it was with Duke Ellington, although I don’t think the writing was by Duke, but the sound of the fellows comes through, that’s for sure. Anybody can write for Duke’s band, and you’ll still know it’s Duke’s band.
It seemed to me, from the vocal standpoint, that the tempo should have been a little faster. But for the chart itself, the arrangement, it was beautiful. It was just that as a singer, Sinatra would have come off better at a brighter tempo — but the arrangement wouldn’t have. So being the kind of singer he is, he probably thought, “I’ll sing it wherever it’s going to lay best for the band.” So he gets five stars for those thoughts. And Duke’s band, as everyone else who’s ever taken a Blindfold Test has always said, it’s five stars no matter what.
Source: Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Blindfold Test, by Leonard Feather. Down Beat, September 5, 1968
Steve Khan: This is Emergency!, right? An important record. It captured a feeling about that particular time, when our music was about to take a great change. It’s a five-star record; the only thing unfortunate about it, considering how recording techniques have advanced, is that the beauty of Larry Young‘s sound is not captured properly. But it still sounds great!
One of the things I like most about jazz related music is that excitement when musicians go into the studio, look at each other, and say, “Let’s play!” This album has that, rather than glossy production values, or anyone saying, “Oh, we’ve got to do something four minutes long.” There’s so much spontaneity and intensity — which is not to say you can’t record a beautiful ballad. But on cuts like this, where no one’s holding anything back, this group set a tone some of us got away from, of sheer purity of intent.
Source: Steve Khan Blindfold Test, by Howard Mandel. Down Beat, February, 1985
The Police Co-Founder and Drummer, Stewart Copeland, Explains His Journey from Rock to Opera
by Steve Schonberg
Posted: 01/15/2016
“It’s kind of a circle,” Copeland said about the journey that led him to compose for orchestras. “The first musical impressions you get from your parents is what they’re listening to, and then when you get to be a teenager you find your own sound and your own stance and your own hairdo, and you go for it,” he said.
“In my case, the music that my parents were listening to was Stravinsky, Debussy, and also my father raised me to be a big band white jazz drummer. He raised me to be Buddy Rich; he had me in lessons from the start, which cured me of jazz, but in fact, the Stravinsky and the Debussy stuck.”
“That music of the big orchestra doing dramatic things, very powerful, very rhythmic [things], really stuck,” he said.
WSJ.com
ARTS ANATOMY OF A SONG The Story Behind ‘Runaround Sue’ Dion DiMucci recalls how a basement party in the Bronx in 1960 inspired ‘Runaround Sue’
Dion DiMucci: We used to have these parties in the Bronx in the late 1950s and early ’60s. They were held in the basement of an apartment building at 2308 Crotona Ave., where a friend was the superintendent.
We had a portable phonograph, but we soon turned it off and began making up our own songs. I was 21 and had recorded a few hits with the Belmonts, like “I Wonder Why” and “A Teenager in Love.”
That night, I got everyone to lay down a beat on boxes and bottles and to clap hands rhythmically in time.
I then came up with background vocal harmony parts and had everyone sing them over and over. It went like this [Dion sings]: “Hape-hape, bum-da hey-di hey-di hape-hape.” With this going on, I made up a melody and lyrics….
When I left the party that night, I couldn’t let go of that riff and melody.
The next morning I called my friend Ernie Maresca, who was writing songs…and asked him to meet me at…Laurie Records…in Manhattan
The bones of the song were already in place when Ernie got there.
Ernie heard where I was going with the song, we went to work on the melody and lyrics. I had my guitar and Ernie was banging on the desk with his palms.
When we finished, I needed a solid vocal group behind me….
One night, around this time, I was up in the Yorkville section of Manhattan and ran into these five guys singing on the street. They sounded great. I introduced myself and said I wanted to use them on a record. They called themselves the Del-Satins.
Panama Francis
I called in [Laurie’s co-owner] Gene Schwartz, and we ran it down for him.
After the guys looked over the music, they made suggestions.
There were timpani drums in the corner of the studio covered in canvas. Panama played on top of those, giving the drum a thud factor and primitive vibe. He also put his wallet on the tom-tom so it had a deeper sound.
…I wanted “Runaround Sue” to start slow and sort of pained.
Then Panama took a few sharp shots on the snare and the arrangement became pure street rock ‘n’ roll, …with handclapping by the Del-Satins.
Mel Lewis: That, of course, was Sinatra, and I’m positive it was with Duke Ellington, although I don’t think the writing was by Duke, but the sound of the fellows comes through, that’s for sure. Anybody can write for Duke’s band, and you’ll still know it’s Duke’s band.
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