Geschrieben am 4. Oktober 2015 von für Crimemag, Kolumnen und Themen

Kolumne: John Harvey: In a Mellotone (2)

Ein musikalischer Spaziergang

(AM) Wer die Charlie-Resnick-Romane kennt, weiß, dass John Harvey ein überaus kundiger Jazzliebhaber ist. Weiß, dass diese Art von Musik zu seinem Alltag gehört. „Bluer Than This“ lautete der Titel seines zweiten Gedichtbandes (1998, Smith/ Doorstop Books). Seine Romane charakterisierte die New York Review of Books einmal so: „He sings the blues for people too bruised to carry the song for themselves.“

Uns CrimeMag-Lesern stellt er dieses Mal – und das zudem kommentiert – seine ganz alltägliche Playlist zur Verfügung, die er derzeit bei seinen vormittäglichen Spaziergängen im Londoner Stadtteil Hampstead Heath via iPod im Ohr hat. Wir erfahren, was es mit dem Namen seiner Kolumne auf sich hat und kommen in den Genuss einiger wenig bekannten Details der Musikgeschichte, erfahren zum Beispiel von Al Gay, Englands am meisten unterschätzten Jazzmusiker, und warum „Meet Mister Rabbit” etwas mit Johnny Hodges zu tun hat oder dass die Shangri-Las wie Drei-Minuten-Versionen von Douglas-Sirk-Melodramen klingen können.

Befragt, ob und was er denn selbst an Instrumenten spiele, verriet er CrimeMag: „I used to play the drums – before and after college – so a good fifty plus years ago. Although just a few years ago now, when Molly was having a go at learning to play, there was a kit around the house and I played half a dozen gigs with an old friend who plays (or played, sadly, he died) alto sax. No worse and no better than before!“

Besonders freut John Harvey, dass er in dieser CrimeMag-Ausgabe auf seinen alten Freund Bill Moody trifft, der hier nebenan für Marcus Müntefering „Bloody Questions“ beantwortet. Dass Bill Moody in Deutschland wieder verlegt wird – „Der Spion, der Jazz spielte“ (Polar Verlag) – ist ihm eine schöne Nachricht: ´“Good to hear news of my friend, Bill Moody. You know (or maybe not) that my little Slow Dancer Press was the first to publish one of his books – „Solo Hand” – in this country.“

harvey_Serge Chaloff_Blue Serge
My mid-morning Hampstead Heath Playlist
  • Susie’s Blues, Serge Chaloff : Blue Serge
  • Your Song, Elton John : Tumbleweed Connection
  • Cotton Tail, Duke Ellington : Highlights of the Great 1940-1942 Band
  • Give Us a Great Big Kiss, The Shangri-Las : Leaders of the Pack
  • Meet Mister Rabbit, Bob Wallis Storeyville Jazzmen : The Pye Jazz Anthology
  • Goin’ Home, Ken Colyer : New Orleans to London
  • Perfect Day, Lou Reed : Transformer
  • She Believes In Me, John Stewart : California Bloodlines
  • I’ll See You in My Dreams, Anita O’Day : Anita
  • Ad Lib Blues, Lester Young w. the Oscar Peterson Trio : The President Plays

Aside from the fact that there’s no Monk, this is pretty much a typical mix for my iPod to throw back at me, most usually when I walking mid-morning around Hampstead Heath. The first track is by my favourite baritone sax player (Joe Temperley being a close second) and comes from an album I’ve been playing on and off for years, first in vinyl and then on CD.

„Cotton Tail” (or “Cottontail” if you prefer), with Ben Webster sweeping all before him on tenor, is one of those absolutely classic Ellington tunes, along with “Harlem Air Shaft”, “Concerto for Cootie”, “Jack the Bear”, “Ko-ko” and “In a Mellotone”, that are, to my mind, amongst the very greatest big band pieces ever recorded, and have been a staple for me as a fan and as a listener since I first came across them, which would have been somewhere in the mid-50s.

The two British tracks are both oddities in a way, at least as far as my usual listening is concerned. I was never a big fan of the Ken Colyer Band; his approach was too rigid in its fixation with old-fashioned New Orleans sound for my liking (though that didn’t prevent me from enjoying the hospitality of some all-nighters at the old 51 Club by Leicester Square) but there was always something about this tune (adapted from Dvorak, would you believe?) that’s always appealed to me, not least Ken’s vocal. This is the cream of the early cream outfit, by the way, with Chris Barber on trombone, Monty Sunshine on clarinet and Lonnie Donegan on banjo.

I once had breakfast in the same B&B as the Bob Wallis Band, the occasion being the Cleethorpes Jazz Festival of 1961; I was spending the summer working on a hot dog stall in the seaside town of Mablethorpe lower down the east coast and had nipped up there for the weekend. I always considered the Wallis band as second rate compared to other bands who rose to fame on the crest of the just-pre-rock ‘n’ roll Trad Boom, scorning the few minor pop hits they enjoyed courtesy of Wallis’s throaty versions of old music hall songs such as “Knocking ‘Em in the old Kent Road” and “I’m Shy, Mary Ellen, I’m shy”. The anthology of their work from which the track selected here – “Meet Mister Rabbit” – comes, however, suggests both a higher standard of musicianship and a broader repertoire than I would have believed – both due, to a great extent, I’m sure, to the presence of one of the most under-rated of British jazz musicians, Al Gay, who played tenor, clarinet and soprano with a number of bands from the 60s on, most notably several versions of the Alex Welsh Band. As the title suggests, “Meet Mister Rabbit” is a composition by Ellington’s alto player, Johnny Hodges, his nickname being Rabbit, and the Wallis band have a creditable go at recreating an Ellington/Hodges small band sound, with Al Gay outstanding on tenor.

What does that leave? The Anita O’Day track comes from an album simply called “Anita”, the original of which was one of the first few LPs I ever bought – 1956, possibly – I still have it, torn cover and all – with arrangements by Buddy Bregman featuring four trombones, and, as here, the guitar of Barney Kessel.

John Stewart

John Stewart was an American singer-songwriter who was never quite folk (before his solo career, he was a long-serving member of the Kingston Trio), never quite country, and for a brief period, when he was produced by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, almost, but never quite a Rock star. As I’ve stated elsewhere, I was introduced to Stewart’s work by the late Lawrence James, with whom I wrote, amongst other ventures, the Herne the Hunter western series. (See also John Harvey’s last CrimeMag-column here.) I was lucky enough to get to know Stewart a little during his many visits to this country and have always enjoyed him greatly, both as a writer and a performer. (Along with the television producer Colin Rogers – who produced the TV versions of the first two Resnick novels, back in 1992 – I had several discussions with Stwart about a  play I was writing which would feature, if not the man himself, then his music. Sadly, it came to nothing. My bad, as my younger daughter might say.)

Harvey shangrilasBoth the Lou Reed and the Elton John are perfect in their way. As for the Shangri-Las … Shadow Morton’s productions are like Douglas Sirk melodramas in under three minutes.

John Harvey

 

John Harveys erste CrimeMag-Kolumne (hier) überraschte viele seiner deutschen Leser, weil kaum bekannt war, dass er auch ziemlich hartgesottene Westernromane geschrieben hat.
Zur Website von John Harvey hier. Informationen zu seinen Büchern hier. Eine CrimeMag-Besprechung von „darkness, darkness“, Harveys letztem Resnick-Roman, findet sich hier.
Der Verlag seiner als eBooks wiederaufgelegten Western ist Piccadilly Publishing, London.
Seine Bücher dort und seine Western-Pseudonyme finden sich hier.

(Foto John Harvey: (c) Molly Ernestine Boiling)

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