Word: jazzed
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...stage were some of the greatest of jazz improvisers: gaunt, lean-fingered "Pee Wee" Russell, famed for his hoarse clarinet tones; bobbing, supple-wristed...
...wrote an avid amateur jazz musician. Paul Smith, in a Manhattan jazz concert program note a month ago. Last week Manhattanites had their fourth chance of the season to hear jazz-authentic, impromptu jazz-in the plush seats of Town Hall...
What the concert aimed to do was to revivify a form of popular music which had lately become much less popular. In the 1920s, when jazz flourished in Chicago, there used to be great jam sessions in hotspots after closing time. By 1936 hot jazz had weaned a commercially successful but adulterated form of itself: swing. Today, it is commercial swing und the smooth, symphonic arrangements of name bands that make big money and attract jitterbugs...
Much as I dote on people who read this column, I must urge them to do a little listening on their own, or my efforts here will continue to meet pairs of uncomprehending eyes. No one ever learned to like jazz simply by reading about it, and today I want to call attention to the various excellent opportunities there are now of hearing jazz on the radio. Of course, first-hand experience is the ideal, but it is not always possible to see a good jazz performance in person, so that the radio becomes the obvious substitute...
...less simple, being based on a halfdozen or so leading melodies. The music at times smacks strongly of Handel, especially in the spirited little military prelude with its trumpet flourishes, and in the long sensuous string melodies that recur so frequently. At other times it recalls the jazz idiom of composers like Kern and Gershwin. On occasion it is extremely lovely, but it is always ingratiating and vocal, and expertly matched to the text. The vocal line alternates roughly between recitative and air, but the alternation is unobtrusive, and poses no problems for the accomplished cast which the Society...