Re: Jazz music artifacts. Which would you like to own?

Date: 28 Apr 2003 16:11:27 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz
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Rick Del Savio <email-address-deleted> wrote in message news:<email-address-deleted>...
> Hi. A recent thread, (not here) about movie props got me to thinking;
> What Jazz music artifacts/memorabilia would be cool to have. The pen
> Gershwin used to notate
> "Rhapsody", or the reed Hawkins used on 'Body and Soul', Wes' L5, Wes'
> thumb, right hand only, (just kidding) Any instrument, any composer.
> Cheers, Rick :D --
> Jazz Guitarist/Educator
> Check out lessons and original music @
> http://www.rickdelsavio.com
I like the idea of Charlie Christian's ES-150!
The best jazz artifacts I actually DO own are photocopies of some of
Duke Ellington's sheet music. One day in 1999 or so I was surfing the
web and discovered the Ellington Archive at the Smithsonian in DC:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d5301.htm
You can set up an appointment and go look at the sheet music. So I
went and visited for an afternoon on the way down to North Carolina on
a train trip. On the train I met a guy who claimed he was going to set
up a combination prostitution/laundry service for truckers. But that's
another story....
At the NMAH Archives Center, there are over 300 boxes of Ellington
music, each about 11 x 17 x 6". You ask for a box, they bring it out,
and you sign for it. While you are there, you are being watched by
four video cameras which are also videotaping so they can catch people
who damage or steal anything. They let you copy anything you want, as
long as you are careful with the pages and carry them to the copier on
top of another sheet so they don't get bent. They say they're not
responsible if you publish something that's still copyrighted and get
sued.
I photocopied the original sax parts they were reading when they
recorded "Ko-ko" (which some people consider to be the best big band
composition ever) circa 1940. I couldn't believe it! I was curious to
see these because I had been studying the book "Duke Ellington - Jazz
Composer" by Ken Rattenbury. Ken's transciption of the beginning did
not sound right to me. It wasn't...he copied the wrong score, a later
arrangement of "Ko-ko" that was substantially different. The
Smithsonian didn't have a score for the old "Ko-ko", just some sax
parts and a few brass parts. I guess Ken had a deadline and didn't
want to transcribe it. (Since then I've seen a transcription in Norton
Scores that looks more correct)
Another big find was the original hand-written score for "What Am I
Here For?", with the sax soli at the beginning, recorded in the early
forties. The woman at the archive was very helpful and explained that
you can tell which sheets were actually written by the Duke, because
he never put stems on his flats, they look like capital "D"'s. They
had spent FOUR YEARS going through all the music trying to figure out
who wrote what and which song it was part of.
This "What Am I Here For" score is in Duke's handwriting. The sax soli
at the beginning is in an unusually low register, but it still sounds
good. The reason? It's voiced like this:
Alto -lead
Bari
Alto
Tenor
Tenor
There is a note at the top: "Rab top, Ben 8va lower". Rab is Johnny
Hodges and Ben is Ben Webster. Harry Carney (bari) played in the high
register for that soli. Since his bari has a darker sound than an alto
would, and it doesn't clash as much with the other saxophones. Listen
to the recording...you can hear the bari up there right below Johnny
Hodges.
Incidentally, on one of the first pages of Ken Burns' "Jazz" book
(based on the PBS series), there is a sheet of music which Burns
claims is in the Duke's hand. He's wrong...the flats have stems.
Those were the main things. I got some other stuff, like the score for
the "Cotton Tail" sax soli, and lyrics to Chelsea Bridge, which was
re-named "The Bridge of Sighs".
To me, handling that music was like holding the Holy Grail in your
hand.
Mark Smart