[78-L] Strange Fruit (was: Billie) also microphones and technology too

[aprestitine at yahoo.com]

Steven (and the rest of us)
   first, I am so happy to see Steven's excellent posts re music gracing these pages on 78L. A cognac to you if I ever make it to Toronto.
   The point re: "Strange Fruit" before I get into my point about SF, I wanted to outline a major point WHY music does not "sound' like it used to.
    Whatever Tori Amos' virtues as a performer are (really, I am not in the business to judge contemporary pop music, it's all about "words' and rarely about performance, that's not my bag), she is being recorded close mic, and being digitally reconstructed to the point of no return (tuning, timing etc), this is standard practice today (and from what I can tell there is at least a modicum of talent there, unlike say Brittany Spears). I have seen how this is done, a friend recorded a couple titles with me in this "professional" modern recording setting. The result, the music had no life, it has a sheen and incredible sonic presence, but it also has a "flatness" to it, 1 to 3 mics give a much better presence of the music IMHO, the sweat equity left the building . 
    Take that into consideration, and the fact that Tori is from a completely different social structure than Billie (does she even understand how it got recorded, and Billie actually had to have a release from her Columbia contract to record that song), much less understand why Billie recorded "Strange Fruit" (or even her initial apprehension). I also doubt that Tori would understand where Holiday came from as a performer, from the AABA or ABAC song (is it me, or does Billie seem to prefer the ABAC structured songs?) structures as a vocalist singing the words to a band's tune that made her?
   I find "Strange Fruit" (Lewis Allen's poem) not just the property of Billie, but as a canvas from a 1939 recording session. Even Billie rarely got it "right" in the numerous live versions IMHO, prefer Josh White over any other version besides the original 78 by the Holiday @ Newton Cafe Society Orch, I personally think that Frankie Newton's poignant solo to the piano interlude (Sonny White I believe, it sure isn't Newton's piano player Kenny Kersey) into the poem that "makes" the recording, it is more than a song being performed by a band, it is an aural canvas, and has little to do with the improvisation on a theme jazz has (and man am I going to get into trouble for saying this!), great record, too bad it changed the perception to Billie and the audiences alike on who she was, personally I preferred the carefree happy go lucky full of life, full figured teenager she was in 1935, more than the "serious artiste" she became ... I guess I just prefer
 art it is not self conscious  ...
Yves Francois

-- On Sat, 7/18/09, Steven C. Barr <stevenc at interlinks.net> wrote:

> From: Steven C. Barr <stevenc at interlinks.net>
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Strange Fruit (was:  Billie)
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Date: Saturday, July 18, 2009, 9:44 PM
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> 
> Further, I have over past decades heard any number of
> female vocalists
> attempt to "cover" Billie Holiday...in EVERY case I recall
> they basically
> (musically) fell flat upon their fundament!! Even given
> to-day's ability to
> digitally re-construct a musical performance
> second-by-second...
> correcting errors in pitch and such...I doubt that there
> has EVER
> existed...or WILL exist...a female vocalist OR a "sound
> re-engineer"
> who is/was/will be able to master Holiday's art of singing
> very slightly
> "out of time" (she said she learned this from listening to
> Louis
> Armstrong!) without sounding like this was the result of
> musical
> incompetence...?!

> 
> ...stevenc 
> 
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