© -Steven
Cerra , copyright protected; all rights reserved.
Making Jazz and making Art
require infinite dedication, skill and love. Thank goodness for the dedication
of those few who bring it all to a level of genius for the rest of us to marvel
at.
- the editorial staff at JazzProfiles
Some of our Jazz
and Art features may be inspired, while others are somewhat of a stretch. You
be the judge.
I see the world
this way from time-to-time and obviously have fun developing video montages of
great works of Art set to great Jazz.
Bassist, author
and all-around good guy, Bill Crow is always saying that “Jazz is fun” and I am having fun combining
these mysterious and magical worlds of artistic and musical creation.
I never know when
The Muse is going to strike, but when it does, I run with it – hence the title
of this piece which came about after a recent viewing of a museum exhibit of the
work of the famous jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé, maker of the sumptuous Easter
Eggs for the Russian Imperial Family.
And since I am not
a believer in coincidence, the fact that Bobby Shew’s version of Joy Spring was next up when on turned on
my car’s CD player after visiting the Fabergé museum exhibit pretty much
decided the matter for me.
For Spring is the
season for Easter, a holiday whose importance rivals that of Christmas in the
Russian Orthodox Church, and the joyous celebration of this festive season gave
birth to the fabeled Fabergé jeweled eggs. How’s that for a stretch?
All of this is
explained in detailed below in an annotation excerpted from the current House
of Fabergé website.
In his insert
notes to the 1988 CD he recorded with Holland
"I've been referred to as an
'incurable romantic." I don't know ... MAYBE! I can tell you that there is
a part of me that does, in fact, seek out moments of romance in the music ...
no matter what tunes, where or with whom. When I was a child first being
exposed to Jazz, I loved the 'feel' of it. I loved the energy of it ... the
beauty of it. I wore out copies of Clifford Brown with strings, Stan Getz's COOL
VELVET, the soundtrack album to the movie THE SANDPIPER with Jack Sheldon playing
those gorgeous Johnny Mandel charts. I guess if I am an incurable romantic,
it's because I dreamt, as I think most horn players have, of doing a string
album someday before we leave this earth. This recording with the outstanding
Metropole Orchestra under the direction of Rob Pronk exceeds my wildest dreams.
The real bulk of the credit here go to Lex Jasper whose arranging is absolutely
magical."
Bobby is a great
soloist but he is also an excellent lead trumpet player; a rare combination in
Jazz.
He has appeared on
numerous recording dates and has a number of albums out under his own name,
none better, in our opinion, than his 1988 Mons CD with The Metropole Orchestra
under the direction of Rob Pronk with its finely orchestrated arrangements by
Lex Jasper.
We located the
following overview of Bobby’s career on www.jazztrumpetsolos.com.
“Bobby Shew, (born
March 4th, 1941 , Albuquerque , New
Mexico
After his stint
with Tommy Dorsey, Bobby was asked to play with Woody Herman's band upon Bill
Chase's recommendation. He then spent some time playing for Della Reese and
Buddy Rich, who's big band had just been formed. Many other similar
situations followed and Bobby played lead trumpet for a number of pop stars.
This brought Bobby to live in Las Vegas
By this time Bobby
was widely known for his strong lead playing rather than as a jazz soloist. So
late in 1972 he decided to make a move to the Los Angeles
In the late 70s,
Bobby toured Europe and the UK London
Shew has become
one of the jazz community's most in-demand clinicians and concert soloists.
Bobby is well known for his fiery bebop trumpet and for over three decades has
performed and recorded with the elite of the jazz world.
As an educator,
he's made his mark as Trumpet Chairman of the International Association of Jazz
Educators (IAJE) and as the author of numerous articles and books on trumpet
performance and technique. Bobby is also on the Board of Directors of the
International Trumpet Guild. An important influence through his teaching
activities, Shew is ensuring that, in a period when dazzling technical
proficiency is becoming almost commonplace, the emotional qualities of jazz are
not forgotten.
As for Joy Spring, Ted Gioia ’s wonderful new book The Jazz Standards: A Guide to
the Repertoire [New York/London: Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 213]
offers this background information on the tune.
© -The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire
by Ted Gioia with permission from Oxford University Press USA. Copyright © 2012 by Ted Gioia.”
“Now that more than a half century has passed
since his tragic death in an automobile accident at age 25, Clifford Brown has
fallen into the unfortunate obscurity that seems to afflict many great jazz
artists who never lived long enough to make stereo recordings. Jazz fans today
do not enjoy listening to tracks that lack clean, crisp,
seems-like-you're-in-the-same-room sound quality. The cut-off-point is around
1957. If artists recorded fine music in
1958 or 1959—as did Mingus, Miles, and Monk— they are widely celebrated today,
but if they left the scene in 1956, as did Clifford Brown, they risk becoming a
forgotten footnote in the music's history.
Yet the new
millennium jazz fans who don't know about Brownie really must acquaint
themselves with this artist, who was the most breathtaking trumpeter of the
mid-1950's. There's no better place to begin than with "Joy Spring
The song is aptly
named. Brown's music captures a more jubilant and optimistic worldview than
one encounters with many of the later hard bop players, who aimed for an edgier
and grittier sound. His trumpet technique furthered this sense of positive
energy: he had a full and beautiful tone, and even at the fastest tempos hit
each note cleanly and with what my old philosophy professor would call
"intentionality." But not antiseptically, as with so many virtuosos:
his playing is as notable for its warmth as it is for its flawless execution.
The melody line of "Joy Spring" furthers this life-embracing vibe,
with its phrases that constantly return to declamatory chord tones, and the
modulation up a half step for the second eight bars—a common arranger's device
for making a chart seem brighter and more insistent, but one that is rarely
written into the lead sheet of a modern jazz combo tune. …”
And we located
this synopsis of Fabergé’s career on the current House of Fabergé website.
© -Excerpted from www.faberge.com, copyright
protected; all rights reserved.
“The series of
lavish Easter eggs created by Fabergé for the Russian Imperial family, between
1885 and 1916, against an extraordinary historical backdrop, is regarded as the
artist-goldsmith’s greatest and most enduring achievement.
The Imperial
Easter eggs are certainly the most celebrated and awe-inspiring of all Fabergé
works of art, inextricably bound to the Fabergé name and legend. They are also
considered as some of the last great commissions of objets d’art.
The story began
when Tsar Alexander III decided to give a jewelled Easter egg to his wife the Empress
Marie Fedorovna, in 1885, possibly to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their
betrothal.
It is believed
that the Tsar, who had first become acquainted with Fabergé’s virtuoso work at
the Moscow Pan-Russian Exhibition in 1882, was inspired by an 18th century egg
owned by the Empress’s aunt, Princess Wilhelmine Marie of Denmark.
The object was
said to have captivated the imagination of the young Maria during her childhood
in Denmark
Easter was the
most important occasion of the year in the Russian Orthodox Church, equivalent
to Christmas in the West. A centuries-old tradition of bringing hand-coloured
eggs to Church to be blessed and then presented to friends and family, had
evolved through the years and, amongst the highest echelons of St Petersburg
So it was that
Tsar Alexander III had the idea of commissioning Fabergé to create a precious Easter
egg as a surprise for the Empress, and thus the first Imperial Easter egg was born.
Known as the Hen
Egg, it is crafted from gold, its opaque white enamelled ‘shell’ opening to
reveal its first surprise, a matt yellow gold yolk. This in turn opens to
reveal a multi-coloured, superbly chased gold hen that also opens. Originally, this
contained a minute diamond replica of the Imperial Crown from which a small
ruby pendant egg was suspended. Unfortunately these last two surprises have
been lost.
The Empress’s
delight at this intriguing gift with its hidden jewelled surprises was the
starting point for the yearly Imperial tradition that continued for 32 years
until 1917 and produced the most opulent and captivating Easter gifts the world
has ever seen. The eggs were private and personal gifts, and the whole
spectacular series charted the romantic and tragic story leading up to the end
of the mighty Romanovs.
Each egg, an
artistic tour de force, took a year or more to make, involving a team of highly
skilled craftsmen, who worked in the greatest secrecy. Fabergé was given
complete freedom in the design and execution, with the only prerequisite being
that there had to be surprise within each creation. Dreaming up each complex
concept, Fabergé often drew on family ties, events in Imperial Court life, or
the milestones and achievements of the Romanov dynasty, as in the Fifteenth
Anniversary Egg of 1911, commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of Nicholas
II’s accession to the throne, or the Romanov Tercentenary Egg of 1913 that
celebrated 300 years of the House of Romanov, showing portrait miniatures of
the Russian dynastic rulers.
Although the theme
of the Easter eggs changed annually, the element of surprise remained a
constant link between them. The surprises ranged from a perfect miniature
replica of the Coronation carriage - that took 15 months to make working
16-hour days - through a mechanical swan and an ivory elephant, to a
heart-shaped frame on an easel with 11 miniature portraits of members of the
Imperial family.
Alexander III presented an egg each year to his wife the
Empress Marie Fedorovna and the tradition was continued, from 1895, by his son
Nicholas II who presented an egg annually to both his wife the Empress
Alexandra Fedorovna and to his mother the Dowager Empress Marie Fedorovna.
However, there were no presentations during 1904 and 1905 because of political
unrest and the Russo-Japanese War.
The most expensive
was the 1913 Winter Egg, which was invoiced at 24,600 roubles (then £2,460).
Prior to the Great War, a room at Claridges was 10 shillings (50 pence) a night
compared to approximately £380 today. Using this yardstick, the egg would have
cost £1.87 million in today’s money.
The Winter Egg,
designed by Alma Pihl, famed for her series of diamond snowflakes, is made of
carved rock crystal as thin as glass. This is embellished with engraving, and
ornamented with platinum and diamonds, to resemble frost. The egg rests on a
rock-crystal base designed as a block of melting ice. Its surprise is a
magnificent and platinum basket of exuberant wood anemones. The flowers are
made from white quartz, nephrite, gold and demantoid garnets and they emerge
from moss made of green gold. Its overall height is 14.2cm. It is set with
3,246 diamonds. The egg sold at Christie’s in New York
Of the 50 eggs Fabergé
made for the Imperial family from 1885 through to 1916, 42 have survived.”
Bobby’s brilliant
trumpet playing and the stunning Fabergé jeweled eggs along with other works of
art by his studio are all on display in the following video tribute to both of
them.
Making Jazz and
making Art require infinite dedication, skill and love.
Thank goodness for
the dedication of those few who bring it all to a level of genius for the rest
of us to marvel at.
