© -Steven
Cerra , copyright protected; all rights reserved.
Written in 1953, Arthur
Hamilton’s Cry Me a River is usually
associated with vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Barbara Streisand, Joe Cocker
and Michael Bublé. Julie London sang it as a torch song and made it into a
million-selling record in 1955.
Why in the world
pianist David
Hazeltine ’s
version of it evoked the images of Memphis New Orleans U.S.A.
But as you can see
from the following video montage – they did.
Maybe it was the
way in which David arranged the tune with its additional chords formed into a
rolling vamp that gave rise in my mind to the image of the Mississippi
Or maybe it was
his use of a loping bossa nova beat as emphasized by bassist Dwayne Burno and
drummer Joe Farnsworth that conjured up Clax’s down-home and beautifully honest
photographs of life and music in the place where Jazz began.
Perhaps the
relationship had something to do with tenor saxophonist’s Eric Alexander’s
inventions and virtuosity as he spins out some foot-stomping and blues-drenched choruses
over the tune’s insistent beat.
Whatever the
subconscious associations, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles had fun
coupling some poster art from past New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festivals with
Clax’s images and making them into a video using the David’s rendition of Cry Me A River from David Hazeltine ’s Blues Quartet Vol. 1 Criss Cross CD
[1188] as the audio track.
Clax’s great art
is enhanced by viewing the video at full screen which you can do by clicking on
the directional arrows in the lower right hand corner of the control bar.
