Roman Rolland’s The Life of Beethoven……vis a vi bandleader Artie Shaw, a child of immigrants, “the life of Beethoven”, his post fame “:Begin the Beguine” stirring the 400 pot where Buddy Rich, synchronized his two bangers o the drums, his gums and mouth chewing fiercely, Buddy Rich smothering the drums
and their sidekicks, thirteen journalists of the City that never sleeps, raptures as in a hypnotic trance watching the drummer into his b eat, like in a dream as he demonstrates his cadence, catapulting the drumstick ricochets.
II
On a baby sitter on a weekend Midwood High School job at an elevator apartment house around the corner from the girl’s gymon Glenwood Road, could appreciate the jazz idiom post World War2 Gene Krupa, a coming upstart to our baby sitting patronBuddy Rich.
But of course we can hear you ask “What about Paul Whiteman and his relationship with Tin Pan Alley’s George Gershwin’s“Rhapsody in Blue”..Come a Revolution as Bernie Sanders of Brooklyn nee Brattleboro, Vermont argues, nee is Presidential tide runs its course thru Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina..
III
Herein “Begin the Beguine” runs its “Hoagy” CarmichaeI and his hubris Indiana twang… Elmer Bernstein and his Valley College baton and sound track… Andre Previn with his MG pinanisimo…. North Hollywood High’s, John Williams “E.T”’s. extraterrestrial sound… Arthur Fiedler’s Boston Pops, chasing fire engines…
Guy Lombardo ad his velvet sound from the Hotel Pennsylvania and his motor boating wharf above our aunt’s stucco flowered lighthouse on Freeport’s(L.I.) Lomg Island Sound.
Harry James( spouse Betty Grable) tooting his horn The trumpet breathless horn…out into space. From the New Jersey heights ,overlooking the West Side Highway, the George Washington Bridge, above Riverside Drive …(Daniel Adler furs) Vaughan Monroe at the Brighton Beach Baths, his drift, resonant of the “White Cliffs of Dover”…his “Green Sleeves” in and around the basketball courts., the Ocean waves lapping the Coney Island sands ,outside the Brighton Brach Baths gate.
Perry Como’s lungs soaring “Prisoner of love” over Bay 7, the Atlantic Ocean, the islands in th forlorn China distance….Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly”, Archie Leach off his boardwalk on stilts, placard “hot dogs, knishes” nee Cary Granton the silver screen.. Gene Autry strumming “the ole prairie coyotes”
Meanwhile Phil Spitalny and his all femme orchestra, spread their sound over radio. Charlie Spivak echoing his sound on 5nd Ben Blue and his Santa Monica crew, his cerebral rhythms over Brentwood, West Los Angeles environs. Herb Alpert below Sunset on Fairfax.
V
Street jazz …. the bebop of Kansas City’s Charley Parker resonating in and around Jack Dempsey’s bar and grill, the “cookamanya cookamanya” playing out.
Charlie Parker (The Bird) and Dizzy Gillespie hitched their bepop on Route 66 to Hollywood…., Sunset and Vermont . Where “the Bird” relished his drug induced sound ,playing to the Archie Bunkers of the post World War 2 aficiandos.
Freddy Martin and his orchestra, across Wilshire, the Swedish idiom)town at the Coconut Grove, his hands on the keyboard “Tonight we love”…….. Horace Height in the Valley,… Woody Herman ‘s “thundering herd” in the Hills, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine, Quincy Jones into the S. Central scene.
Bob Crosby and his Bob Cats, Sir George Martin LennonMcCarthy (“Yellow Submarine beat”))Across town at the beach, the Venice Pier (The Aragon Ballroom… While at Ocean Park’s Casino Gardens, Jimmy Dorsey toured, waiting ,off theboardwalk, his brother Tommy and his high flying entourage, (Sinotra) waiting for a gig at Hollywood’s Palladium…. Herb Alpert’s “Tijuana Brass” across town.
Benny Goodman and his clarinet concerto, waiting in the wings.….
• Earl Carrol’s Vanities on Sunset, its stucco walls celebrate d with names and stars of celebrities.; Hollywood Bowl (ZubinMehta) Culver City and Glen Gray and his Casa Loma orchestra. Alvino Rey as his consortium and as his backup. Stan Kenton and his progressive sound in the Hollywood Hills. Phil Harris Dick Powell before he metamorphosed into a director, Dennis Day…. Dick Powell, Bing Crosby, Tony Bennet Frank Sinotra…Xavier Cugat, Liberace ad his brother George stone deaf too Rossini’s William Tell Overture, the Lone Ranger and Tonto “kimosabi”, the masked man pursuing outlaws.
• Josephine Baker’s karma from Harlem, thwarting the “Red”stigma, taking her persona to Paris, reestablishing her cabaret liberation…Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington to their regret..Apollo theater, Hazel Scott ditto
VI
The City was rocking, knowing the Beatles of Liverpool were waiting to break the big bands.However our narrative of Artie Shad abandoning his “Begin the Beguine” sound for Beethoven and literary success, met and wooed Lana Turner of Hollywood High School. He subsequently met and married Ava Gardner (“the Barefoot Contessa”) + alignment falling askew like chopsticks..
VII
Moving to the West Valley for his Beethoven tonality, the maestro avoided offers from Yale Music School, USC;s music school, UCLA’s Opera Work shop, reaching back to Bonn, Germany and Vienna where Ludwig Vona being mentored byJoseph Haydn….the rest is History…the 9th Symphony…”the Ode to Joy”, the voices and the Beethoven soul, resonating into Eternity; Yehudi Menuhin’s ad in the Manchester Guardian, reading it at Heatcliff airport…Isaac Stern from Carnegie Hall,rescuing the vaunted Hall on East 57th Street , opposite the Carnegie Deli….those lush Corn Beef, Hot Pastrami on Rye.
To the au contraire Lawrence Welk ad his Swedish “friendly beyond friendly” voice, 3000 miles away, Santa Monica television ,nee Shangri-la, his gig a block away, on Wilshire...where decades and decades ago, we sidestepped pre World War 2 traffic, sidestepping cars, hawking Chandler and Hearst newspapers ( Los Angeles Times. Examiner) at night, after spending 6th grade at McKinley Elementary.
VIII
Meanwhile Artie Shaw, his “Begin the Beguine” resonating through those orange orchids into chicken coops was into assimilating the Ludwig Von Beethoven revolutionary tone, his immortal Ninth Symphony and Ode to Joy chorus, heralding his passionate of a once stone deaf manifesto to those Napoleonicego trips…the conquistador beholden to Beethoven, his immortal presence deleting the Emperor’s persona from aSymphonic dedication..
March 13, 2016 The City that never sleeps.
