Sonny Rollins Settles the Score

I've heard some bitchy arguments lately about songs that have been "stolen" from other songs, usually from someone who wants to claim moral superiority over the song thief. One I've head a couple of times recently revolves around how John Lennon wrote "Norwegian Wood" after hearing Bob Dylan's "Fourth Time Around." (One of the rare times Bob doesn't get called the thief.)

Ever the sage elder statesman, Sonny Rollins settles this in an essay from the New York Times.

There’s an axiom that says there is no such thing as “original” music. After what we could consider to be the first sound, from a spiritual perspective — “om” to some, “amen” to others — it’s all the same. Musicians borrow different parts and make them their own, but there’s nothing really new, nothing that hasn’t been done before. Claude Debussy and Johann Sebastian Bach may sound different, but what they did was all there already, in a sense.

Catching up, part one

Some real life (let's call it) stuff over the last couple of weeks have kept me from my already erratic blogging schedule. Here's the first part of stuff I've been meaning to write about.

Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing) – Benny Goodman Orchestra from Live at Carnegie Hall (1938)

Pretty much used to signify “old people music” these days, give it a close listen sometime, it's quite a bit more modern than you'd expect, especially once we move part the point where the original 78 ends (around the 3:45 mark). After a tenor sax solos over punchy brass and Krupa's tribal syncopations, some tight canons in a somewhat Arabic sounding scale weave their way along to a rapid fire trumpet solo by Harry James. After an ensemble passage, Goodman solos again with active interplay with Jess Stacy on piano and Krupa's drums. The playing is freer and more improvisatory than the big bands of that time are usually given credit for (especially the white ones). Stacy's solo in particular is revelatory. And Krupa's drumming, constantly coming up with subtle shifts and variations of the famous pounding introduction, fuels this performance as the climax of a triumphant evening.