Klarinet Archive - Posting 000179.txt from 1999/09

From: Ken Wolman <kwolman@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Jazz dress-up
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 07:38:49 -0400

>>All they probably needed was the big
>> mirror ball going around on the ceiling, lit up by stage spots. "Welcome
>> to the Rainbow Room, ladies and gentlemen...."
>
>Considering they started their set with "A Train" and concluded it with
>"Manteca":
>
>you betcha!

In this autobiography, Miles Davis wrote at length about Duke Ellington's
band and how much he wanted to play in it, and about Ellington himself as
the "cleanest cat" he'd ever seen. I inferred from the way Davis used
language that "clean" had implications of elegance, sharp dressing, and
courtly manners, not to mention a band that was disciplined and played some
pretty great stuff. So imagine his surprise when he walked into
Ellington's office and found a young lady seated on the Duke's lap in a
somewhat compromising position.... Behind it all and in spite of the
strange stuff he did, Miles Davis was a very straight guy who was shockable.

Sharp dress--even if not a tux--seemed to be a major factor among jazz
players back in the late 40s when Davis came to New York. He mentioned
Dexter Gordon as the epitome of the sharp dresser and who, I think, took
the kid trumpeter to tailors to get the "right" kind of clothes. All I've
actually seen of Gordon was his burnt-out drunken Dale Turner character in
"Round Midnight," a masterful characterization built, I gather, on Bud
Powell and Lester Young. He dressed in suits that looked like they cost
fifteen bucks each. But wow, could Gordon blow hell out of that tenor....

Ken

---------------
"When you stop falling you will be in heaven but when you stop getting up
you will be in hell." -- David Torkington

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