Garioch Jazz Club
www.jazz-club.co.uk
Newsletter January
2016
News for January 2016:Happy New Year to you all and all the best for 2016 and
beyond.
I always find this time of year is exciting, but time seems to
drag from Boxing Day till the middle of January and with this
persistent rain its not even pleasant. How I feel for all the
people affected by the floods and it is even more dramatic
because with iPhones, computers and such, you not only get a
very personal perspective but see it live as it happens, nae twa
days later in the P&J.
Helen and I missed the last concert due to the death and funeral of my
elder brother George. He and his late wife were instrumental in my
interest in Jazz by buying me my first jazz single (Take Five) way back in
the early 60s. He lived in Brittany France his ashes are now scattered in
his garden where he had lived for 12 years and loved every minute.
I am looking forward to the first concert of 2016 on the 29th Jan not
only to see you all again but to see and hear that fabulous band that
is Aberdeen Jazz Orchestra and the very talented Marisha Addison.
The rest of the session also promises to be exceptional with some
new to GJC acts and a finale with Tim Kliphuis Trio.
I have read a biography of Louis Armstrong and was surprised to learn what
an influence he was on the development of Jazz Music. I kinda liked his
stuff but had never understood his huge contribution to the whole Jazz
movement during his life.
I am now reading Ella Fitzgeralds biography and once again am fascinated
by her story, from hard upbringing, the challenges of racism all through her
career (as for all black musicians) see Jazz History on page 4 for more
about Ella the First Lady of Song
This Months Concert Friday 29th January
Doors Open 7pm Music from 8pm till 10.30pm
With
Another Night of
Classic Swinging
Jazz Music
What’s On.
BBC Jazz Radio Programmes By Day and Time
Day
Time Station
Name
Monday
19:00 BBC 2
Paul Jones R&B
Monday
21:30 BBC 2
Big Band Special
Monday
23:00 BBC 3
Jazz on 3
Monday
23:00 BBC 2
Jules Holland
Tuesday
19:00 BBC 2
Jamie Cullum
Wednesday
20:05 Radio Scotland
Jazz House
Saturday
20:30 BBC 3
Jazz Record Requests
Saturday
00:00 BBC 3
Geoffrey Smiths Jazz
Sunday
18:00 SHMU Radio
Neil Gibbons
Sunday
20:05 Radio Scotland
Jazz House
Sunday
22:00 BBC 2
Clare Teal
Sunday
23:10 BBC 3
Jazz Line Up
Jazz Available to Listen to on Internet
jazzradio.com
jazzfm.com
ukjazzradio.com
internet-radio.com
Accujazz.com
Presenter
Paul Jones
Clare Teal
Jez Nelson
Jules Holland
Jamie Cullum
Stephen Duffy
Alyn Shipton
Geoffrey Smith
Jazz Hour
Stephen Duffy
Clare Teal
…………………………………………………….
Garioch Jazz Club Concerts for 2016
January 29th - Aberdeen Jazz Orchestra with
Marisha Addison
February 26th Kate Peters Quartet
March 25th
To be confirmed
April 29th Lucy Lockwood and Penman Jazzmen
May 27th
Tim Kliphuis Trio (tbc)
Jazz History Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer often referred to as the First
Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing
and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
After tumultuous teenage years, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra,
performing across the country, but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Fitzgerald's rendition
of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. Taking over the band
after Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start a solo career that would last essentially the rest of her life.
Signed with manager and Savoy co-founder Moe Gale from early in her career, she eventually gave managerial
control for her performance and recording career to Norman Granz, who built up the label Verve Records based in
part on Fitzgerald's vocal abilities. With Verve she recorded some of her more widely noted works, particularly her
interpretation of the Great American Songbook.
While Fitzgerald appeared in movies and as a guest on popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth
century, her musical collaborations with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots were some of her most
notable acts outside of her solo career. These partnerships produced recognizable songs like "Dream a Little Dream
of Me", "Cheek to Cheek", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That
Swing)". In 1993, Fitzgerald capped off her sixty-year career with her last public performance. Three years later, she
died at the age of 79, following years of decline in her health. After her passing, Fitzgerald's influence lived on
through her fourteen Grammy Awards, National Medal of Arts, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and tributes in the
form of stamps, music festivals, and theater namesakes.
Early life
Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia, the daughter of William Fitzgerald and
Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald.Her parents were unmarried but lived together for at least two and a half years
after she was born. In the early 1920s Fitzgerald's mother and her new partner, a Portuguese immigrant named
Joseph Da Silva,[1] moved to the city of Yonkers, in Westchester County, New York, as part of the first Great
Migration of African Americans.[1] Initially living in a single room, her mother and Da Silva soon found jobs. Her halfsister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923] By 1925, Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street,
then a predominantly poor Italian area. She began her formal education at the age of six and proved to be an
outstanding student, moving through a variety of schools before attending Benjamin Franklin Junior High School
from 1929.
Fitzgerald had been passionate about dancing from third grade, being a fan of Earl "Snakehips" Tucker in particular,
and would perform for her peers on the way to school and at lunchtime.[4] Fitzgerald and her family
were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church, and she regularly attended
worship services, Bible study, and Sunday school. The church provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in
formal music making, and she may also have had a short series of piano lessons during this period. During this
period Fitzgerald listened to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and The Boswell Sisters. Fitzgerald
idolized the Boswell Sisters' lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, "My mother brought home one of her records,
and I fell in love with it....I tried so hard to sound just like her. In 1932, her mother died from a heart attack when
Fitzgerald was 15 years of age.This left her at first in the care of her stepfather but before the end of April 1933, she
had moved in with her aunt in Harlem.This seemingly swift change in her circumstances, reinforced by what
Fitzgerald biographer Stuart Nicholson describes as rumors of her stepfather's "ill treatment" of Fitzgerald, leaves
him to speculate that Da Silva might have abused her.
Regardless, following these traumas, Fitzgerald began skipping school and letting her grades suffer. During this
period she worked at times as a lookout at a bordello and with a Mafia-affiliated numbers runner.When the
authorities caught up with her, she was first placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, Bronx. However,
when the orphanage proved too crowded, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New
York, a state reformatory located about 120 miles north of New York City. Eventually she escaped and for a time
she was homeless.
Early career
While she seems to have survived during 1933 and 1934 in part from singing on the streets of Harlem, Fitzgerald
made her most important amateur singing debut at age 17 on November 21, 1934, in one of the earliest of the
famous Amateur Nights at the Apollo Theater. She had originally intended to go on stage and dance, but,
intimidated by a local dance duo called the Edwards Sisters, she opted to sing instead. Performing in the style of
Connee Boswell, she sang "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection" and won the first prize of US $25.00. In theory,
she also won the chance to perform at the Apollo for a week but, seemingly because of her disheveled appearance,
the theater never gave her that part of her prize.]
In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem
Opera House. Around this same time, she was introduced to the drummer and bandleader Chick Webb, who had
asked his recently signed singer Charlie Linton to help find him a female singer. Though Webb was, as The New
York Times later wrote, "reluctant to sign her....because she was gawky and unkempt, a 'diamond in the
rough,'"[6] he offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.
Met with approval by both audiences and her fellow musicians, Fitzgerald was asked to join Webb's orchestra and
soon gained acclaim as part of the group's renowned performances at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Fitzgerald
recorded several hit songs with them, including "Love and Kisses" and "(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It
(Mr. Paganini)". But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," a song she co-wrote, that
brought her wide public acclaim Webb died on June 16, 1939,[17] and his band was renamed Ella and her Famous
Orchestra, with Fitzgerald taking on the role of nominal bandleader.[18] Fitzgerald recorded nearly 150 songs with
Webb's orchestra between 1935 and its final end in 1942. In her New York Times obituary of 1996, Stephen Holder
echoed the conventional critical view of the time in describing "the majority" of her recordings during this period as
"novelties and disposable pop fluff".
Decca years
In 1942, Fitzgerald left the band to begin a solo career. Continuing under contract to the Decca label that she had
worked with while part of Webb's orchestra, she had several popular hits while recording with such artists as Bill
Kenny & the Ink Spots,[20] Louis Jordan,[21] and the Delta Rhythm Boys.
With Decca's Milt Gabler as her manager, Fitzgerald began working regularly for the jazz impresario Norman
Granz and appeared regularly in his Jazz at the Philharmonic(JATP) concerts. Her relationship with Granz was
further cemented when he became her manager, although it would be nearly a decade before he could record her
on one of his many record labels.
With the demise of the Swing era and the decline of the great touring big bands, a major change in jazz music
occurred. The advent of bebop led to new developments in Fitzgerald's vocal style, influenced by her work
with Dizzy Gillespie's big band. It was in this period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major part of
her performance repertoire. While singing with Gillespie, Fitzgerald recalled, "I just tried to do [with my voice] what I
heard the horns in the band doing."
Her 1945 scat recording of "Flying Home" arranged by Vic Schoen would later be described by The New York
Times as "one of the most influential vocal jazz records of the decade....Where other singers, most notably Louis
Armstrong, had tried similar improvisation, no one before Miss Fitzgerald employed the technique with such dazzling
inventiveness. Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good!" (1947) was similarly popular and increased her
reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists.
To be Continued
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Memberships: £20 for 12 month session starting in September first concert half price and
£1 off subsequent concerts)
Tickets: on the door at £15 (non-members), £12 (members and concessions), £5(students and
juniors).The aim of the Garioch Jazz Club Committee is to ensure that you the Members
and our Visitors enjoy the programmes every month and to that end we would appreciate
any feedback you may have. Please either speak to me or any members of the committee
at the events, or email me personally ianmcrighton@btinternet.com or drop me a line at
Ian Crighton, Oatlands, Leschangie, Kemnay, Inverurie AB51 5PP 01467642241