Quand le jazz est, quand le jazz est là,
la java s'en, la java s'en va ...
...elle écrase sa gauloise et s'en va dans la rue. (Claude Nougaro)
NEGOTIATE
The youth of today is very clever with their media, cell phones, iPods,
computers and games. Most know how to enter names and telephone numbers
in the address books of their cell phones, send SMS messages. No problem.
It is communication by means of data reduction in every sense, because
many do not know how to really write.
Sometime ago, on BBC Breakfast Television,
a lady came to tell about an educational program
in which authors are visiting schools and talk to pupils, lecture
about how to write, how to tell a story, how to use a writing style
in order to bring suspense into a story. These authors also teach
them how to write a thesis. The problem is that if you do not know
how to tell a story, how to put your research into a thesis, you are
unable to discuss an issue, to use arguments. And that inability is
the reason why so many simple conflicts do end so tragically.
FEELING
A few years ago a veteran jazz musician was asked to form a jazz
orchestra, you know, saxes, trombones, reeds, bass, drums, a piano.
He did choose his saxophone players, trumpeters, drummer, trombonists,
bass player and pianist with great care, looking at their professionalism.
The aim was to perform the music of Duke Ellington. Of those who
were selected, some were still studying, and others were already
working as a professional. Yet the veteran was surprised that many
of these young musicians were hardly able to play that style of
music with flair, soul, swing, and with all the nuances necessary.
That was then. I must admit that when you listen to the newest songs
of individual young singers and musicians, a new sensitivity, a
new artistry can be heard in the record shops of today.
WHY
THIS INTRODUCTION?
The reason for these paragraphs can be found at the end of this
page. There you will find "le clou", as the French say.
But first the main course.
PREFECTURE
DE POLICE I have lived for several years in Paris, a beautiful city for
visiting. However, if you live there you develop a different relationship.
You learn to like the city and its inhabitants, you adept to their
way of communicating which may seem cold and rude at times, especially
tourists do complein, but the Parisian way is generally fast and
efficient.
On
the Sunny Side of the Street
An old postcard with a narrow street in the 18th arrondissement,
Montmartre, with the "basilique du Sacré Coeur"
in the background.
Paris... the name evokes vivid visual memories, smells and sounds
for everybody. The smelling metro, hot and cold, thundering through
the city's abdomen, or line No. 1, le métro à
pneu, clicking while riding on rubber wheels, speeding like
a "lettre pneumatique" from Neuilly to Vincennes.
One level down the stations of the RER continuously smelling like
a public toilet. When I lived in Paris they were building the
first line of the Réseau Expresse Régional.
When
going out at night in the Quartier Latin it was imperative
not to miss the last metro to Étoile. From there
it was not too far to rue de la Pompe, and just a short distance
to Rue des Acacias where I later lived in a studio. And it also
happened that at a very late time a bus driver would pick you
up when he had to return his bus to the garage. So you did not
have to walk the last mile. Most busses were of the old fashioned,
rectangular type with an open balcony at the rear. That made traveling
a delight, especially in summer.
Saint
Germain often meant a "hamburger à cheval"
- a hamburger with a fried egg on top - in L'épicerie,
rue des Saints-Pêres, or was it Rue Saint-Benoit? The joint
was always packed to the brim with students and travelers, but
it seemed that there were always a few unoccupied seats; you and
your friends were always invited to join one of the small groups
sitting elbow to elbow at the little round tables.
Zizi
Jeanmaire danced with Roland Petit's Ballet her famous and
amusing "Mon truc en plumes" in the Théatre
du Trocadero, housed in le Palais de Chaillot. In the same complex
was "le cinématèque", Place du
Trocadéro where we viewed the great films of the great
cinematographers like Serge Eisenstein's Le Cuirassé
Potemkine and the episodes of the magnificent Ivan le terrible
with the compelling musical score written by Sergey Prokofiev.
Paris had many large and smaller cinémas, about 256 at
the time, advertised in Pariscope, the weekly program of
what was happening in Paris. Especially the one on Avenue MacMahon,
le cinématèque, and there was Empire Cinérama,
Avenue Wagram,and its Russian pendant Kinopanorama
on Avenue de la Motte Piquet. A contrast was this small Studio
Opéra which featured the cartoons of Tom & Jerry,
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other funny characters.
My
friend Irene was a far better pianist than I am. We often went
to play in the studios of Salle Pleyel. Our favorite
shop was Piano Hamm, in rue de Rennes? There we tried these
wonderful concert grands before we were kicked out by a severe
lady manager or some other official. We both loved the Grotrian
Steinweg in The Living Room.
On
the Champs Elysees we saw "West Side Story" in
the original version but had to wait for years to see "Porgy
and Bess" which had been produced much earlier. The movie
theater (which had bought the rights for showing Sam Spiegel's
movie) continued showing West Side Story with great success. There
was no hall for Sidney Poitiers and Dorothy Dandridge
performing in the filming of Gershwin's masterpiece. Could be
that the Gershwin Estate had already started a law suit to forbid
the playing of the movie.
In
every epoch Paris is filled with famous and not so famous stars,
musicians, painters, designers.
Singer/actress Mae Mercer had rented the small studio above
mine in Rue de la Pompe. She was busy to further her career which
had more or less begun with her appearance in "La glaive
et la balance", the movie with Anthony Perkins and Jean-Claude
Brialy. Before going to the night club were she was performing,
she always broke an "empoule buvable" with 1000 mg.
vitamin C to boost her stamina.
Practically
every Wednesday we played in the "Lotterie nationale"
to contribute to the funds of Les geules cassées, Les mutilés
de guerre and many other institution, hoping to become a millionaire.
CARTE
D'IDENTITE
After my arrival I had to report to the Préfecture
de police with my passport, two small ID pictures, and
a certificate (déclaration) stating at what address I lived
and who my employer was. In no time I had my Carte
d'identité. Now I was a Parisian, so it felt,
with all other Parisians.
DISCOVERING
But new as I was to this metropolitan city, I walked and walked
to discover the plan of Paris, the quartiers, the neighborhoods,
and all of that. I walked and travelled from Montparnasse to Montmartre,
from Place d'Italie to Port Clignancourt and beyond, from Neuilly
to Vincennes, and to Porte Dauphine were I worked. I fully understood
Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poem "Prologue" from 1955 and the
verses "I want to ride through Paris in the morning, hanging
on to a bus like a boy." I have to admit, for Yevtushenko it
was a dream flowering, but imprisoned by the Soviet system. For
me it was reality.
THEATRE
DES CHAMPS ELYSEES
Music has always played an important role in my life. Not only classical.
Important was jazz music as well, maybe unintentionally, maybe it
became significant more or less naturally evolving from big band
music I listened to when I was a kid, and the exploration of contemporary
and less contemporary styles. And Paris had always a lot to offer.
When Ella Fitzgerald came to
sing in the Théatre des Champs Elyssées, or Duke
Ellington and His Orchestra came to town, we would visit
their concerts. Ella sang evergreens, balads, and up-tempo while
scat singing and improvising on the Porter, Gershwin and Arlen standards
we all loved. But to our surprise she also sang the Beatles' 'Can't
Buy Me Love' showing that she was up to date. I felt betrayed. Yes,
she also sang: But I'am true to you darling in my fashion.... Yes,
I'm true to you darling in my way...
We enjoyed Ray Nance's violin, Cat Anderson and Cootie Williams
(trumpet), Johnny Hodges, Russell Procope and Paul Gosalves (alto),
Sam Woodyard on drums, and the Duke overviewing the band from the
immense, long concert grand piano and instructing the audience with
his vinger snapping bit. There always would be an after concert
gathering in some bar or jazz club.
THE
LIVING ROOM
My most loved jazz venue was The Living
Room, Rue du Colisée, between the Champs-Elysées
and Faubourg Saint Honoré, in the 8th arrondissement. On
most Saturday nights Paula and I visited the bar were two Afro-American
pianists were playing: Art Simmons
and Aaron Bridgers. They both
had been living in Paris for several years and that is probably
why Leonard Feather did not give them entries in The Encyclopedia
Of Jazz (Bonanza Books, 1960).
ART
SIMMONS
Art Simmons was assisted by a drummer and a bass player - I had
forgotten their names but found them in a publication: Gilbert Rovère
and Stuart Da Silva respectively, and later Luigi Trussardi and
Charles Bellonzi, and also René Nan and Michel Gaudry are
mentioned. But I do not recall them as I always looked at how Art
would play, often sitting next to him watching his hands touching
the keyboard. He let me. I never thought that maybe he would not
have liked it, or my observing his art could have irritated him,
or just made him play more intensely, starting very calmly, displaying
the melody or the phrase, repeat it with a few variations, and then
gradually building up and exploring ever more complex clusters of
harmonies while completely getting carried away, though he always
remained in control. Something like Oscar Peterson. But he had his
own style, reminding me at times of Phineas Newborn on Lester Koenig's
Contemporary S7600.
RECORDINGS
In my opinion this way of Simmons' playing has never been fully
captured on tape, as is so often the case with performing artists,
classical and jazz, the records that have been made cannot replace
the actual performance. Nevertheless the records Art Simmmons made
are to be cherished. The old recordings issued on the Don Byas CDs
evoke the atmosphere of the early 50s. Next to Byas he played with
Jean Jacques Tilche, Roger Grasset, Claude Marty, Joe Benjamin,
and Bill Clarke. And he also recorded with
Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Graham, and Joe Benjamin.
The Mercury record "Boogie Woogie - Piano Stylings"
was made in France and gives us virtuoso performances. There is
also this 45 rpm disc with trumpet player Georges Jouvin.
But the virtuosity and the ecstasy displayed in The Living Room
was unique. Other records that exist of Art Simmons, notably Art
Simmons and his Orchestra on Ducretet Thomson, are difficult to
find, and I did not get the chance to hear these.
MERCURY
WING HI-FI STEREO
I was not aware at the time that Art had made quite a few recordings.
The Mercury recording (SRW 12505) was made in Studio A at Barclay
Studios Hoche in Paris, a famous venue for recording classical artists
as well. Next to Art Simmons there was French pianist Maurice Vander,
drummers Kenny Clarke and Baptist Reilles, and Emmanuel Soudieux,
bass. The image above is taken from the back of the cover of the
Mercury disc. Mercury
is the label which pays much attention to the choice of microphones
and the microphone placement. Mercury's David Carroll writes on
the back of the cover that a variety of accent microphones were
used: Neumann KM 53 for the piano, RCA 44 BX for the bass, Neumann
KM 56 for drums, and a pair of Neumann U 47 microphones were set
apart and above the artists to provide the basic stereo image. The
result is a lively and energizing recording. .
Click here
for a sample of Art Simmons and Maurice Vander playing boogie woogie.
Ella
Fitzgerald
Columbia
CS 8707
Art
Simmons (piano) can be heard in
23 selections with various artists: Dizzy Gillespie, Don Byas, Joe
Benjamin, Pierre Michelot, Pierre Lemarchand. These were recorded
in 1950 (July) and in 1952 (February 6, March 16,
March 25, Théatre des Champs-Elysées; on April 6,
Théatre des Champs-Elysées; and on April 10).
Memphis
Slim
Claude
Nougaro: Le cinéma, Les Don Juan, Une petite fille, Le jazz
et la java.
On
Arion ASV 52 Aaron Bridgers gives examples of his calm and
entertaining style under the title Music for Dreaming: Summertime,
Bess, you is my woman now, Caravan, Perdido, Somebody loves me,
Billy Strayhorn's Lush Life, and 8 more songs.
I
attended courses given by the Alliance française,
given in the "dépendance" Boulevard Malesherbe.
One evening the administrator entered the classroom and she talked
in a soft, whispering voice to our teacher who looked all of a sudden
very shocked. When the adminstrator had left, the teacher told us
that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas.
That was on Friday, November 22, 1963.
AARON
BRIDGERS
Aaron' style was quite different. It was inspired by Art Tatum.
Aaron had developed his own luxurious sound coming from his big
hands, grasping the large chords, striding and breaking with a
deep echoing sound. Aaron knew that I liked his playing, his phrasing
and improvising. But he also knew that I was fond of Art's expressionist's
explorations too. As a listener you can like the styles of Art
Tatum and Fats Waller, but at the same time find bebop or whatever
style inspiring.
Aaron Bridgers was born on January 10, 1918. He died on November
3, 2003.
GROTRIAN
STEINWEG
The piano these fine jazz pianists played on was a marvelously
sounding Grotrian Steinweg. A grand piano with a wonderful, warm
and yet controlled sonority in the lower register, a beautiful
mid section and not overbright but well defined, tangeable highs.
Something like a crossing of a Baldwin and a Steinway? In any
case a grand piano to fall in love with. I said to myself that
if I ever would be wealthy, that this would be the piano I was
going to buy.
Art
Simmons at the piano and Georges Jouvin playing the trumpet.
La voix de son maître.
With
my friend and colleague Paula, I spent several Sunday afternoons
at Marpessa Dawn's place in "le banlieu". Marpessa of
course had become very famous by starring in "Orfeu negro"
(Black Orpheus), and she performed on stage, night after night,
in "Chérie noire".
The
liner notes of Fontana 6424 026: Orfeu
Negro was the beginning of a musical style which became as famous
as the film itself: bossa nova. It captured North America first,
by influencing the course of jazz and rapidly spread over to Europe
and the rest of the world. Luis Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim,
nowadays two living legends, together with the Brazilian singer
Joao Gilberto were the composers of the soundtrack and also the
creators of bossa nova.
Paula
helped Indonesian friends by sewing curtains and napkins for their
newly opened small Indonesian restaurant. Sometimes we had a meal
there to contribute to the cash register which was most of the
time nearly empty. It
was no competition to the only big Indonesian restaurant "Bali".
Coming
home from a night out we would play music of Frank Sinatra, Judy
Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbara, Yves Montand, or listen to
Guy Bedos. Most of my records I bought at "Lido musique"
on the Champs Elyssées. Lilly Christova (originally
from Bulgaria) worked their in the evenings until closing time
at midnight. Afterwards we often had a coffee or drink in a "café-tabac"
in a side street of the Champs Elyssées until three or
four in the morning. And then she would recite Tatjana's letter
from Yevgeny Onegin. Lido musique would order any record from
the US. Art Blakey on Blue Note, Duke Ellington on Columbia 6-eye,
David Fathead Newman on Riverside, Shelly Manne on Contemporary.
In
winter we swam in the pool in Rue de Tilsit before going to work.
In summer we went sunbathing at Piscine Déligny
where everybody was sort of showing off. Stars and celebrities.
Especially if you had a well shaped physique as Serge Nubret
did. The juke box played "Hello Dolly" sung by Louis
Armstrong, and Sinatra with "Oh, you crazy moon".
Many
a Sunday evening began with a meal in Pub Renault on Champs
Elysées, the showroom annex restaurant: salade aux crevettes,
a Tuborg beer and a St. James Blues for dessert, the delicious
icecream on cake soaked in rum.
With
Brenda I visited concerts of the Colonne Orchestra with George
Sebastian conducting and in the "Theatre des Champs Elyssees"
we saw and heard "L'orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris".
André Cluytens conducted Ravel's Boléro with
just lifting one finger - only near the end his movements became
wild and energizing. There I heard for the first time Kyril
Kondrashin (Kondrachine).
There
also was Le Batucada, the Brazilian club where we danced
the batucade (of course) and other exotic danses like the bossa
nova. With Patrick, a friend, I often visited "La payotte"
and "Le crocodile", the jazz clubs where they
played lp records. In "Le crocodile" it was the extraordinary
record changer TD-224
made by Thorens which carefully changed from Jackie McLean
to John Coltrane, from Thelonious Monk, via Art Blakey and Dexter
Gordon to Bud Powell. On Sundays the fun of live jazz presented
itself in "La cigale" in Montmartre.
TALENT
Arthur Simmons was born on February
5, 1926, enlisted in the US Army, and played in Army Bands in various
European countries after World War Two had ended. When he came to
France he started studying at the Paris Conservatory (Conservatoire
national de musique) and would play in bars and clubs to support
his stay and studies. Paris has a long jazz history and always had
an attraction for foreign talents; and it still has. Big names are
linked to the city of lights: Django Reinhardt, Sidney Bechet, Don
Byas, Bud Powell, to name a few.
When Art Simmons had settled down he played in the Ringside, renamed
Blue Note, in the Mars Club, and from 1963 till 1969 in The Living
Room, rue du Colisé. He was the pianist in the three movies
listed on the IMDb website: Deux hommes dans Manhattan (1959; Melville),
Trois chambres à Manhattan (1965; Marcel Carné), and
Borsalino (1970; Jacques Deray). There is however no entry in Leonard
Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz like a few more names of musicians
who lived abroad are missing.
A
L'IMPROVISTE
The Living Room was the place to be. It could happen that Memphis
Slim unexpectedly entered, sat behind the Grotrian Steinweg
and started to sing the blues and played a few boogie woogies too.
Or Claude Nougaro visited and
sang and played 'Le jazz et la java'. Pianist Martial
Solal played in his modernistic style. Also composer-pianist-orchestra
leader Michel Legrand sometimes
dropped by, played and sang. All just for fun. They wanted to meet
their colleagues, came after a concert, or just came to relax. Or
I just found myself talking at the bar with sympathetic actor
Sidney Poitiers who, like me, was just a listener too.
And there was Margie, the singer. She sang "Just squeeze me,
but please don't tease me", and she sang of course her
song "Margie", while handsome bartender Gilles was shaking
cocktails and serving drinks.
GOOD
OLD PARIS
A French friend recently remarked that I had lived in a far more
interesting Paris than the Paris of today. I of course do disagree
but I know what he means, even though I did not witness - at least
not consciously - so many other jazz greats who were performing
in those days: René Urtreger, Pierre Michelot, Daniel Humair,
Stéphane Grapelli, Jean-Luc Ponty, Eddy Louiss, Phil Woods,
André Persiani, Guy Lafitte, Claude Bolling, etc.
The atmosphere made me a fond collector of the fabulous Black
and Blue lp records of so many greats:Don
Byas, Slam Stewart, Cozy Cole, J.C. Heard, Major Holley,
Cat Anderson, Guy Lafitte, Jacques Dufivier, Cliff Smalls, Buddy
Tate, Ellen Humes, Gérard Badini, Oliver Jackson, Hank Jones, etc.
DUKE
ELLINGTON
My first encounter with the music of Duke
Ellington was when, as a fourteen year old, I had bought
HiFi Ellington Uptown, the Columbia
recording released in Europe by Philips: A Tone-parallel to Harlem,
The Mooche, Take the A-Train (with singer Betty
Roché) and Perdido. High caliber big band jazz,
symphonic and jungle style.
One day when Duke Ellington and his Orchestra were in town again
and would give concerts in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées,
one of my black friends, Gene, called me on the phone and invited
me to go to the Ritz Hotel to see Duke Ellington. When we arrived,
Ellington was in a conference and did not have time for us. Well,
said Gene, we go see Billy Strayhorn, who he knew well.
BILLY
STRAYHORN
Billy (William Thomas) Strayhorn
was also a resident of The Ritz. When we entered his room, he sat
in his blue-gray, silken morning coat behind an antique, sculptured
French desk, eating a fruit cocktail, a good meal to start the day
with after a demanding concert of the night before; good to replenish
your energy reserves. It was about two in the afternoon.
I was introduced and practically immediately tested to see if I
was of the right caliber, to see if I had that specific feeling
for jazz music. This happened when in the conversation the expression
"hell no..." was used. Billy Strayhorn, the composer of
Take the 'A' train, the tune of Ellington's band, said to me: "Say
hhhellll-nooooohh". He said it while giving the two words equal
emphasis. I did my best saying "hhelll-nooohh". I found
that I succeeded quite well. But Mr. Strayhorn, who is also the
composer of Lush Life and Sweet and Pungeant, was not at all content
with the musicality of my effort and wanted me to say it with more
feeling, with more music. He told me to listen carefully and said:
"hhhhhhellll-nooooohhhhhh", as if he was playing Johnny
Hodges's saxophone, or Ray Nance's violin. Again I repeated the
words and gave the sound a sort of turn at the end, something like
a muted trumpet or a trombone with a cup or bucket. Well, after
the third or fourth time, he decided that I had passed the test.
I had succeeded, but... only just!
That was the game he played. In 1965 that was. I did not know that
he had already been diagnosed with cancer a year earlier and that
he would die two years after this encounter when I had returned
to the Netherlands after three and a halve years of living in Paris.
Picture
at left: Listening to a playback after a recording session. Third
from left Art Simmons.
All pictures edited and enhanced
by R.A.B.
Playing
in the Mars Club.
A
regular visitor of the Mars Club was Al Jones. After his Parisian
career, he returned to the US and started acting and painting.
See his expressive paintings on The Heart
of Jazz.
Art
Simmons now lives in Beckley, West Virginia, and is still going
strong. Below a picture from a family reunion in 2006.
At
left: Art going for a ride in a stylish Ford Mustang with his
lovely daughter Maya.
Solal
with Hawes 1968
Text
written by Rudolf A. Bruill. Page first published, March 24, 2008
Thanks to Art Simmons for the pictures of himself and his family today,
thanks to Art and also Steven Jambot from France for the pictures of listening
to the playback
of a recording and the picture of the Mars Club.