Passt vielleicht hier hin: Mark Stryker hat gerade über Joe Williams geschrieben – und fokussiert dabei auf einige Alben, besonders die leider oft übersehenen, die ihn abseits des Blues (für den er bei Basie bekannt wurde) präsentieren. Ein paar Auszüge:
The critical discourse around Williams during his life often circled around this duality. As late as 1986, Whitney Balliett could write in The New Yorker that Williams was in fact two equally accomplished singers: “One is the famous blues singer, and the other is the almost unknown ballad singer.”
One reason Williams remains typecast is that most of his finest recordings — five LPs taped for RCA Victor between 1963 and 1965 and a glorious one-off for Solid State with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra (1966) — are hidden in plain sight. They capture Williams’ effulgent bass-baritone at its peak of expression and best document his versatility, swing, storytelling, and sublime balance of gutsy power, restrained elegance, and taste.
These records have a checkered past in terms of falling in and out of print, though all made it to CD at some point and all are available via streaming services. Anyone looking for a deeper understanding of Williams’ art should start here.
[…]
By 1963, Williams had matured. His voice, always as full-bodied and opulent as a Barolo, now boasts a balanced suppleness in the finish that translates to a larger dramatic range. His vibrato, coloring, and accents are more carefully modulated, more attuned to the nuances of a song’s layered emotions. His pitch is more centered, his swing even more authoritative. Absorbing Basie’s less-is-more aesthetic taught Williams the value of understatement. The singer never forces the issue.
Jump for Joy (1963), his tremendous RCA debut with big band arrangements by Oliver Nelson and Jimmy Jones, opens ecstatically. Williams glides through a swinging “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams” with the relaxed confidence of a man in a hand-tailored suit. Dig his call-and-response exchanges with the band in the second chorus, where he gradually spreads his melodic wings, before flowering into a resplendent rise-and-fall variation in quarter note triplets on the bridge.
Williams had an ear for worthy, neglected songs. There are several on Jump for Joy, including Helen Bliss’ obscure 1941 torch song, “I Went Out of My Way,” which receives a bittersweet, 2 a.m. reading ala Sinatra. “A Good Thing” and “She Doesn’t Know” were written for Williams by Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal — adult love songs that he sings with the knowing air of a man who has not only been around block in life but an artist able to transform his experiences and emotions via craft into art. That’s the ballgame.
On “A Good Thing,” note the patience with which Williams sings I’m glad that loneliness and heartache taught me just how much I needed you. He stretches out the word “needed” with an extra dollop of vibrato that intensifies its meaning.
[…]
Presenting Joe Williams and Thad Jones Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra is a classic. Jones’ inspired arrangements are full of exhilarating details like the slithery sax section soli on “It Don’t Mean a Thing.” The band roars, and Williams roars back on the mostly blues and blues-flavored material. Best of all is a moving reading of Ellington’s de facto spiritual “Come Sunday” that finds Williams reaching deep into his soul to create a masterpiece.
Den ganzen Text gibt es hier:
https://jazztimes.com/features/columns/joe-williams-beyond-the-blues/
Hier der Song von Helen Bliss, der auch für den Komponistinnenfaden qualifiziert ist @vorgarten! Musik und Lyrics stammen von ihr. Gesungen haben ihn u.a. auch die Boswells oder Guy Lombardo:
Eine weitere Version gibt es z.B. von Claude Thornhill – mit dem Sänger Dick Harding:
Dazu finde ich keinen Eintrag im Copyright-Register der Library of Congress – ist das schon erloschen?
In der Songview-Datenbank (ASCAP + BMI, endlich am selben Ort absuchbar) taucht Bliss mit dem Song und einigen weiteren auf, aber ohne viele Angaben – hoffe, der Link geht:
https://www.ascap.com/repertory#/ace/writer/55651574/BLISS%20HELEN
(Trivia: „Twitterpated“ – mit Robert Sour (von „Body and Soul“) und Henry Manners – war kein hellseherischer Akt sondern ist ein Song aus Disneys „Bambi“.)
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #158 – Piano Jazz 2024 - 19.12.2024 – 20:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba