Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-09-24 06:21
I agree that Dodds was more of a niche clarinetist who felt at home in the New Orleans style but probably not in many other kinds of jazz (or other music).
Ed Hall is a different case altogether. In some recordings he made with Teddy Wilson in the 40s, he sounds a bit antiquated, but if you catch him later, his style has adapted to the changes in jazz. He can swing as hard as Benny or Artie with maybe an even hotter drive. Listen to his performances from Buenos Aires and Copenhagen in the 1950s and 60s.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Edmund+Hall+in+Buenos+Aires+'s+Wonderful.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Edmund+Hall+in+Copenhagen+1961+.
Ed Hall was not one to get into a musical rut. When he wanted to he could easily put aside his old accustomed ways of playing and try something very different (a feat some confirmed swing or bop players have been unable to do). For instance, what can we make of his Celeste Quartet, in which he abandons New Orleans, swing, and every other identifiable jazz genre and just goes his own way? But in a new way! Ed, I believe, had an acute musical sense that allowed him to reveal other sides of his playing that maybe he didn't even know he had until he discovered them.
Ed Hall does not lend himself to easy characterization. When he sits down with Charlie Christian and plays, exactly what kind of jazz (or music for that matter) are they playing? The only sensible answer is probably "good music" or maybe "sui generis." Certainly not music for the nonce or for "hipsters." Nor commercial music that you can get an agent to promote. Listen to Profoundly Blue and Celestial Express. He didn't pick those up on the streets of New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Paris, or anywhere else. Maybe that's why they are "celestial"? To ask where Hall got that music from is to ask where DaVinci got the backdrop to the Mona Lisa.
https://www.youtube.com./results?search_query=Edmund+Hall+Celeste+Quartet.
Post Edited (2017-09-24 18:01)
|
|