Top 50 JAzz Blog

Friday, July 15, 2011

Up from the Basement. Or, Lower Register-Philia by Steve Provizer









I was talking with friends about vocalist Johnny Hartman and his justifiably esteemed 1962-63 recording with John Coltrane. Dan said: "Very few things send chills up my spine like his entrance on My One and Only Love. Up out of the basement..."




That got me thinking about other phrases that move dazzlingly up and down and out of the basement. The first two are on I Can't Get Started:





Bunny Berigan (The shift between the basement starting about 3:30 and the stratosphere at about 3:50 is dramatic):










Dizzy (phrase at :54):


And, possibly the most extreme register change in a (non avant-garde) jazz recording, Roy Eldridge in After You've Gone (at 2:14)





What ya got for me, cognoscenti?

4 comments:

ixnay said...

How about "Psychedelic Shack" by the Temptations?

Steve Provizer said...

Workin' that basso profundo.

rob chalfen said...

Who sez Roy isn't avant??

(the Diz is a Columbia dub of Manor 1042 (W-1223))

Steve Provizer said...

Roy was definitely avant."Avant garde"? I say no.