JAZZ IN REVIEW: AUTUMN IN NEW YORK

JAZZ IN REVIEW:

MY FAVORITE INTERPRETATIONS OF “AUTUMN IN NEW YORK”

Autumn In New York is a classic Jazz standard that has been and continues to be performed by Jazz Icons since it was written in 1934.  Ask me and I will tell you they are all my favorites.  But if you press me to choose from the long, gorgeous list of interpretations I would say that top three were recorded by Billie Holiday in 1952, Luis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald in 1957 and Johnny Mathis in 1963 and those are just the vocal renditions…

The instrumentals I selected are by John Coltrane, Stan Getz and Oscar Peterson in 1960, Sun Ra in 1962 and a piano solo interpretation of the song by Mary Lou Williams around 1953-1954.

Let’s start with Billie Holiday.  The Holiday version I most love was recorded on Decca in 1952.  When I purchased the original LP I first played it in the tiny record store and though it was nearly packed with avid vinyl enthusiasts everyone stopped to listen to the haunting rendition that filled the room with a thoughtful, romantic and almost lugubrious magic.  What is more, Lady Day is soulfully accompanied by his majesty, Oscar Peterson… a magnanimous work and one of my favorites…  Funny but as she sings I retrace my steps through Manhattan during the many Autumns I have spent there and I must agree it is indeed a time when New York is most magical.  Spring in New York is beautiful but in spring ones heart begins to wander from the city and to other places returning in the fall when nature cannot compete with the starlit skyscrapers on a cold night or just at twilight.  People are just enjoying the city for the first time after the heat of summer, it is still a bit balmy but crisp… it is Autumn In New York!

TO LISTEN:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-_wbY55PMA

Now, when Luis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald were paired for this song, it was one of the most brilliant moments in musical history, it was 1957.  I do have the original vinyl and it is one of my most treasured recordings.  The pair make it seem as if New York became just one absolutely fabulous party come Autumn… and indeed they have so much fun singing together that you have to walk with them through Midtown Manhattan past Greenwich Village and all the way up to Upper Manhattan in an old convertible automobile just enjoying the sun on your face, the sounds and people of the metropolis…  Satchmo’s smoky horn and Ragtime voice are simply planets in perfect alignment; the universe has never been so complex and simple… Ella’s voice is liquid satin, elegant, gorgeous, warm as the robust colors of a fall harvest…  Together they do absolutely accomplish a pluperfect dialogue between man and woman. They craft a tranquil and fundamental kind of beauty that speaks to the most passionate nature of our humanity…

TO LISTEN:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byayfU1VzvE 

Johnny Mathis absolutely captures the transition from the soft and slow summer countryside, the Hamptons or Martha’s Vineyard and suburbs back to the magnificent grandeur of Manhattan.  Whenever I listen to his version I too come along on that energetic journey.  Eager to get the feel for the city again… the city missed… Manhattan!  Johnny Mathis’ voice pours so like pure silver that if anybody could convince you of the virtues of Manhattan in Autumn amidst the hustle and bustle of that romantic metropolis surely it would be him… For my part I will go.  His voice is so pastoral and wide-open like the fields of summer wheat a distinct contrast to the canyons of steel he invites us to but because he sings so wonderfully well we follow, I at least am thoroughly convinced, going back to New York will be the most delightful of triumphs!

TO LISTEN:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrD0uIDlFRs

Next stop are the instrumentals.  First of all is the version of Autumn In New York performed in 1960 in Dusseldorf Germany with John Coltrane accompanied by Stan Getz and Oscar Peterson. The technical perfection of these geniuses of musical performance is perhaps the most stunning to the senses, but to imagine, just imagine, that this rare ingot of mortal perfection has been captured and that we are able to hear it over 50 years later as if we were sitting down before these Gods of Jazz… well, it is simply unimaginable!  Whenever I listen to this I am reminded of the meaning of modernity itself! I have always thought that of all the arts, modernity was most effectively conveyed through modern music in the form of Jazz. To me, Jazz was the personification of the Bauhaus manifesto, to begin from zero and create a wholly new culture of beauty!  

TO LISTEN:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc6CWfBgIt8

Second is the Sextet version performed by Sun Ra around 1962.  Now this version is absolutely celestial… as if Sun Ra with his intergalactic sensibility played not with instruments but with the very fabric of the heavens… Well, you simply have to listen… and if you dare to listen your will not be able to stop and you will find that you have been drawn into the crisp eloquence of instrumental sound…

TO LISTEN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxYFstZM_C4

Let’s not forget Mary Lou William’s piano solo of Autumn In New York.  It is the kind of fine piano recital piece that makes you sway in your chair ever so slightly.  This is a beautiful piece with an after glow reminiscent of Errol Garner but unique in its own right.  What I love about this version is what I love about all things that are simple and sweet, clear and easily digested, brief and yet memorable…

TO LISTEN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95hNRlFOgCk

The song Autumn In New York was also performed by many, many more amazing musicians and vocalists.  It was performed by Charlie Parker in 1946, Frank Sinatra in 1949, Charles Mingus in 1951 Chet Baker in 1954, Andre Previn in 1958, Shirley Bassey in 1971 and many more.  Not bad for a song that debuted in a Broadway musical called “Thumbs Up” in 1934.

Written by David Vollin

Administrator: For The Brothas Intellectual Salon

A GALLERY OF RELATED IMAGERY

THE COST OF OUR EXPERIENCE THAT LOVE CAN AFFORD…

THE COST OF OUR EXPERIENCE THAT LOVE CAN AFFORD…

ONE MAN SAID HE PREFERRED A LOVER WHO HAD ALREADY A GREAT DEAL OF EXPERIENCE WITH LOVE, WHO HAD ALREADY OPENED MOST OF ITS DOORS AND CLOSED THEM SAFELY BEHIND.  ANOTHER MAN SAID THAT HE MUCH PREFERRED A LOVER WHO WAS TOTALLY INNOCENT SO THAT THEY WOULD BE SPARED THE HIGH COST OF WHAT EXPERIENCE COULD AFFORD…

The first man was quite worldly, he had had many lovers and gleaned a mature and well-rounded perspective on human nature… The second man was also a worldly man, but unlike the first he had processed the pain of his experience as a negative… unlike the first man he had not interpreted life’s disappointments as stumbling blocks and used them as stepping stones.  He convinced himself that there was this sublime innocence which really did not exist in any man because no man is a virgin to the world in which he lives… The first man took each stone as it crossed his path preferring those which were smoothed round for wear, hoping that like him, they would easily roll along the path of life.  But the second man preferred the roughhewn splinters of stone for he imagined they would not so easily roll into every direction, directions he had once explored but begrudged of his lover now.  He wanted to be the one with all the know-how keeping his lover in a safe, tightly sealed cocoon of false innocence…

The first man met someone who nearly fit his desires, they were knowledgeable of the world, of loves pains and pleasures, they seemed to be confident in their understanding of the human condition and it appeared they had not become embittered in their search for meaningfulness in this life.  Theirs was a journey of mutual affirmation.  Both were eager to see what truths they shared, to determine who had lived with the most intensity thereby determining the absolute gravity of seniority.  There was a competitive tension between them as if they were two explorers seeking the same destination, vying for the trophy of first discovery.

The second man also became intimately acquainted with someone who closely fit his dreams, they had not the extensive experience in love and had scarcely has anything that could be considered a relationship save for friendships of the most platonic kind.  Like everyone, they had known the yearning and loneliness of life in the absence of any true experience with love.  Because they had not ever been hurt by love no bitterness had been extracted from it.  They had never ventured close enough, never delved deep enough into its essence to have any opinion about love one way or the other and in their innocence or ignorance as it were they were all the more willing to be led down loves one way path as a tourist is led through a treacherous mountain by a trusted guide.

The first couple navigated through the many tests they had each created to sift through the many lovers of past and relationships now worn as suits of trusted armor against the assault of spurious love.  For them it would come down to knowing when to end their joust combining forces to seize the prize of each one for the other… and then go together to share the great feast that is life.  For them the test would be to discover if they had truly satisfied their passions and if not if they could explore the balance of their passions together…

The second couple walked out onto the tightrope of life with a deliberate imbalance… could one man suffice to satisfy what surely must be the inevitable human curiosities of love in one so innocent, so ignorant of pleasure and pain.  Could his ideal lovers innocence remain fortified outside of the presence of his more mature lover, could he resist the flirtations of forbidden pleasure and if he even once failed would his lover forsake him for another whom he deemed to possess a more desirable innocence? Would innocence one day begrudge experience?  Would the second man gradually build his love-ignorant lover up to his level or seek to perpetuate his innocence?  For the second couple the test of faith would require constant calibration of the unbalanced forces holding them in sublime equilibrium…

Truth is, there are an infinite number of possibilities for both couples and no rule or theorem is valid as a means to predict any outcome when it comes to love.  Outside of our comprehension of the universal mysteries of the human condition love is at best a titillating guessing game…  the key is not to let love sour into bitterness… we are not entitled to receive the love we desire but we are blessed whenever we are allowed to experience it for however long it might last… Just because we are loved does not mean we have received love, we must know how to recognize and honor love in order to be able to receive its gifts…  It may be that because we have misunderstood love, failed to recognize and honor love we may not receive it until many, many years after it has gone…  this is why love is often preserved as a fond memory… we only truly see its beauty after we have had time to muse upon it and experience its opposite… Love is brilliantly contrasted in its absence but only if we can perceive its colours…

Written By: David Vollin

Administrator: For The Brothas Intellectual Salon

A GALLERY OF IMAGES

ON THE CYBERSOCIALIZATION OF HUMAN SEXUALITY: AND THE SOCIOCYBERLICIOUSNESS OF LOVE…

FORWARD:

Were it not for  the three revolutionary hallmarks of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century: The Sexual Revolution, The Technological Revolution and The Civil Rights Revolution respectively, I should not be writing this article save perhaps as a science fiction essay.  I am also amazed at how well the fusion of  technology Hip-Hop, cinema and sexuality has worked out in the coining of some freshly minted nomenclature which I have presented in the title of this article as, "Sociocyberliciousness", a concept which in my opinion is central to the subject of internet communication and social media in general including the hyper-reality of popular culture.  I find the first quarter of the Twenty-First Century to be fascinating if not only because for the very first time in all history as we know it human culture is simultaneously upended and uploaded.  The primary feature that critics of society and civilization are tracking is the logic effect of it all; they are all watching to see if anything essential to classical human civilization has been lost in translation as it is photographed, photocopied, scanned,  uploaded, downleaded, activated and assimilated into modernity. Prior to the twentieth century humanity enjoyed a rather anonymous existence outside of birth and death records.  Today every aspect of our lives is being silently tracked and even predicted by some sort of computer program.  The summation of this virtual dossier has come to define us as human beings although it consists of little more than a random collection of statistics and assumptions.  How close they come to quantifying the reality of the human being, the human spirit and soul, how near they come to realness is the geat question of our day.  As a commentary on popular culture and especially internet-infused popular culture I have proposed a humorous but i feel, culturally relevant replacement for the nonexistent nomenclature of society, simply coined as "Sociocyberliciousness".  Sociocyberliciousness is a term waiting for a more intensified definition but in the meantime quantified by likes, and hits, and followings, by credit ratings and lines of credit, by virtual shopping carts, personality profiles, passwords to virtual societies, by frequent flyer points, timeshares, email coupons and a seemingly endless field of data.  Like everything else in twenty-first century society Sociocyberliciousness is a hybrid of concepts derived from a broad range of human culture.  Let us say for the purposes of this article, we can define it as the quantity or condition of desirablity within an internet driven popular culture as assessed against a broad range of economic, social and political variables. Sociocyberliciousness has roots in the all American tradition of Mid-Twentieth Century Disney and the term, "Scrumpdellyicious", as well as Late Twentieth Century Funk culture in the tradition of Funkadelic who coined such whimsical terminology as: 

"Psycho alpha disco beta bio aqua do loop".  

To thedalliance of this term lets add the 1980's confection, "Bubblelicious" chewing gum and of course Snoop

Dog's original 1992 creation, "Bootylicious" made famous by Beyonce in  2001.  Internet culture posses the

unique ability to create a hyper-reality across time and culture, it approaches what Einstein envisaged in his

theory of relativity as a point of sublime timelessness or as quantum physicists suggest, a pseudo-tachyonic

existentialism.  The computer, and therefore the entire effect that this tool has had on both man and his

environment whether viewed from a microscopic or  macroscopic perspective is all about the human

experience lending itself warmly to the existentialist purview of the state of humankind in a cosmic reality that

he increasingly finds he cannot either comprehend or subdue.  Therefore, use this article as a crash course in

futurism written in the dialectic stylization of a new and yet undefined virtual culture expanding into the void

of perpetual cyberspace...

ON THE CYBERSOCIALIZATION OF HUMAN SEXUALITY: AND 

THE SOCIOCYBERLICIOUSNESS OF LOVE…

Because there are exceptions to every rule, internet dating, sex and romance included, the savvy of modern men must manage the option to virtually simulate or physically initiate social and/or sexual interactions as an alternative to an hermetic existence.  Should you venture to publish an opinion that it is impossible to find internet love, warning against the potential hazards, that premise will be challenged by dozens of brothas testifying that they successfully found love in cyberspace…

Internet socialization as a whole is more suited to younger men who have grown up immersed in a culture dominated by the computer.  Many mature men struggle more with cybersocialization in part because of a personal cultural lag including the probability that many of the men they desire to meet are only available through some sort of cyber-media.  We are smack in the middle of a huge sociocultural shift where centuries of traditional human customs are being uploaded and reformatted to suit the computer dominated twenty-first century.  The novelty of this not so new phenomenon detracts from the tried and true methods which some men might agree never really worked for them anyway.  Without a doubt the internet opens a broader domain of possibilities including the down side of this expanded range of options.  Life, it seems, is always a balancing act!

Perhaps one of the first rules of the game of cybersocialization is that there are none, not yet at least because they are literally being invented!  The volatility expressed by the transient morphology of modern technology necessitates that it will take some decades for any stable form of “Protocol” to be established, if ever. 

At the end of the day after spreading one’s self out over a multiplicity of cyber-sites  and profiles whether the pictures, stats and other fine details are accurate or not, there must come a time of reckoning where the virtual image has to stand up to the real McCoy!  Many of our frustrations with online dating, for example, stem from the fact that there is no alignment among cybersocial offerings indicating the individual we have encountered is heavily invested in the cyberization of themselves.  This is where our human instincts must take over and I can tell you that long before anyone ever imagined there might be a computer the discrepancy between human instinct and human nature presented one of the most formidable challenges to successful socialization.  So while the computer has afforded mankind more social options it still cannot solve the fundamental problems in human nature which obstruct the synergy of practical, human interaction on every level.  It might be argued that cybersocialization actually fertilizes and propagates dysfunctional caveats in human nature and socialization which might be more easily filtered out and identified under traditional face to face conditions.  Therefore, persons who hide behind a virtual façade may be thought of as having cyberized themselves beneath a cloak of unverifiable properties.  Now, I have already warned against speculation on the phenomenon of cybersocialization so my challenge is to stay my own vanity and leave it to history to be properly vetted out.  Let me say only, since I daren’t resist, the very obvious… that every man must fend for himself, evaluate for himself! In spite of the many testimonies proclaiming sociocyberlisciousness let me caution every gentleman that all which glitters in cyberspace or elsewhere on the common street where we live, is not gold!

Written By David Vollin

Administrator: For The Brothas Intellectual Salon

Look for more articles of this nature at: www.forthebrothas.blogspot.com 

GLOSSARY:

1.       CYBERSOCIALIZATION:  Of or relating to the process, state or quality in which the traditional methods of tactile human socialization have been replaced by virtual means of communication on all levels in internet culture.

2.       CYBERIZATION:  The process within internet culture by which a person invents a virtual personality to the degree that it no longer bears any resemblance to who they really are.  When a person has successfully crafted an alter-ego in the form of a spurious online persona they have been cyberized.

3.       SOCIOCYBERLISCIOUSNESS:  The the quantity or condition of desirability within an internet driven popular culture as assessed across a broad range of social, economic and political variables.