[78-L] Grappelly.

[yves francois]

Dan, Howard
    Jazz is also about phrasing on the melody, to give it a swing, Venuti certainly did that very well, one does not have to play variations to be jazz, one can swing the melody, "pops style" (to quote Franz Jackson, when he was tutoring me on how to play the melody, he mentioned to give it a "lift"), Grappelli in the earlier recordings, did some embellishments that were not of the jazz tradition, that grate on some ears, I think that this is what Dan is referring to. For an example of how to "lift" a melody while still playing it, try a listen to Louis Armstrong on "Lyin' To Myself", close to the melody on the first 8 bars (variations happen at bar 9 of the solo before the vocal, a very intelligent one too, I may add), it's still jazz in my book, it is that stretching the melody that makes it swing, to give it a different shape, Venuti was excellent on this, particularly in the recordings made towards the end of his life. Both are fine jazz musicians,
 just from different temperaments on what to do with a melody.
Yves Francois


from Dan K:
> >> I much prefer Venuti's habit of staying
> somewhere near the written melody, 
> while GrapeJelly wanders all over the place in
> self-indulgent trills and 
> tricks.
> Even in old age, Venuti tended NOT to pretend he knew
> better than the 
> composer - he embellished & stretched &
> 'swung' the piece, without trying to 
> make up his own tune.<<
> 
--- On Wed, 10/22/08, Howard Friedman <hsf318 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Hmmmmm!  I thought that was what jazz was all about!  
> Louis, PeeWee, Jelly Roll, ad infinitum?
> 
> Howard
> 
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