LUCKY DAY
Today is the birthday (11/24/1896) of Charles “Lucky” Luciano, the infamous NYC Mafia gangster….but I’ll leave the celebrating to murder, mayhem and mobster lovers. I’m a jazz lover, and it’s my lucky day because I get to celebrate the birthdays of my favorite jazz pianist, Teddy Wilson (1912) and my favorite ragtime composer/pianist, Scott Joplin (1868).
Teddy and Scott who, you ask? Well, they were (and remain) unsurpassed in their artistry, but I forgive your unfamiliarity, because Wilson’s renown failed to survive the post-WWII pop music climate change and subsequent rock revolution, and Joplin was underappreciated even in his own time.
There have been many great jazz pianists, but Teddy Wilson has long been my favorite. I could try to explain why, but why add more superlatives to this entry in Roger Kinkle’s THE COMPLETE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC AND JAZZ 1900-1950:
Master jazz pianist. Consumate artist with flawless taste, delicate touch and ideas, subdued, relaxed and easily identifiable style. Prominence middle to late 30s with Benny Goodman combos. Same period led combos on dozens of classic jazz record dates. Acme of relaxed, swinging combo jazz. Billie Holiday featured predominately on vocals.
Here is some of that great Teddy Wilson/Billie Holiday “magic”:
Scott Joplin pioneered ragtime music. His most famous compositions were MAPLE LEAF RAG (1899) and THE ENTERTAINER (1902). Those songs may not ring a bell, but you’ve heard them if you saw the great Paul Newman/Robert Redford film THE STING (1973) — every song on the Academy Award-winning soundtrack was a Scott Joplin rag and helped spark a national revival of his ragtime music. He died in 1917, a few years after the failure of his African-American opera Treemonisha, which was revived to well-deserved acclaim in 1972. Here are clips from that wonderful production:
Don Frankel, 
The Observation Post 
arekhill1 6:38 pm on November 24, 2014 Permalink |
“Tremonisha” could stand to be revived again, I expect…hopefully we’ll see it down the road.
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mistermuse 8:50 pm on November 24, 2014 Permalink |
TREEMONISHA was produced on TV in Feb. 1986 by the Houston Grand Opera Company. I taped it at the time and I think I still have the old VHS tape in my collection that I haven’t gone through in years. It is truly a memorable experience.
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scifihammy 12:52 am on November 25, 2014 Permalink |
Yay! Great jazz! Took me right back to my childhood and my dad playing the piano for me at home. Thanks for the treat 🙂
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mistermuse 6:21 am on November 25, 2014 Permalink |
As always, my pleasure.
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ladysighs 7:46 am on November 25, 2014 Permalink |
Listening as I go through my Reader. 🙂 Music is making me read real fast. lol Speeding through the blogs at a jazzy pace. 🙂
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mistermuse 9:01 am on November 25, 2014 Permalink |
“Sounds” like you’re a good multi-tasker. That’s “Nice Work If You Can Get It” (remember that oldie?). I’d rather concentrate solely on listening to the music, but “To Each His Own.”
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linnetmoss 12:31 pm on November 25, 2014 Permalink |
Love them both. Here’s to the Maple Leaf Rag 🙂
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mistermuse 4:44 pm on November 25, 2014 Permalink |
You got it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAtL7n_-rc
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Don Frankel 6:30 am on November 26, 2014 Permalink |
Muse those old gangsters were great proponents of Jazz as they owned a lot of the clubs everyone played in. I remember in one of your articles the very funny story told by Fats Waller’s son about how Al Capone had more or less kidnapped his father so he could listen to him play.
You know I probably couldn’t tell you too much about Teddy Wilson but I recognized his piano playing.
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mistermuse 10:46 am on November 26, 2014 Permalink |
I remember that story, Don. The gangsters had good taste in those days (at least, in music)!
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