Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Summer, 1989
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' I **- TanglewQDd 1989 E9¥»Km South Pond Farm. The standard of quality in the Berkshires. The lakefront location is perfect. The architecture elegant. The quality and craftsmanship superb. For information on our selection of condominium homes, call 413-443-3330. 1136 Barker Road (on the Pittsfield-Richmond line) Jazz At Tanglewood Friday and Saturday, September 1 and 2, at 7:00 p.m. Koussevitzky Music Shed, Tanglewood Friday, September 1 , at 7:00 p.m. RAY CHARLES with special guests BETTY CARTER and THE DIZZY GILLESPIE QUINTET Saturday, September 2, at 7:00 p.m. ELLA FITZGERALD with special guests THE MODERN JAZZ QUARTET ARTISTS Ray Charles Born in Albany, tion. At fifteen, when his mother passed Georgia, Ray away, he left school and took a job playing Charles is consid- piano at a radio station. By the time he was ered the virtual seventeen Mr. Charles had saved enough inventor of soul money to move to Seattle, where he per- music, having formed at the Rockin' Chair and gained a brought together substantial following. Soon after, he made elements of his first recording, "( lonlession Blues," 'm gospel, blues, followed a year later by "Baby Lei Me Hold country, and jazz Your Hand." It wasn't until 1954, however, to create his own with the recorditig "I Got a Woman," thai distinctive style. Even as a very young child Ray Charles had fully developed his own in a poor family, he was always interested in musical style. His most su< ( essf ul songs of music. As a result of glaucoma, Mr. Charles the 1950s, including "Hallelujah, I I/nc gradually lost his sight as a child; he at- Her So," "The Right Iiiue," and "What'd I tended a school for the blind in Florida, Say," although strongly influent ed l>\ where ( he first received formal music educa- gospel musi< , a< hicved wide a< cptance from a variety of audiences. By the end of working with Miles Davis at the Howard the decade Mr. Charles was recording as Theatre in Washington, D.C., Ms. Carter many albums as singles and was touring was introduced to his agents, a meeting with a big band and a female backup that led to a tour with Ray Charles. The chorus. During the 1960s, with such hits as subsequent upswing in Ms. Carter's career "Georgia on My Mind," "One Mint Julep," led to a collaborative album with Mr. "Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving Charles, recorded in 1960. In 1969, around You," "You Don't Know Me," and "Busted," the time that record companies became he not only enhanced his popularity but disenchanted with jazz and no longer also became a dominant influence on count- wanted to record it, Betty Carter formed less popular performers, including Aretha her own record company, Bet-Car Produc- Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Steve Winwood, tions. A 1972 performance at Antioch the Righteous Brothers, James Brown, and College in Ohio was so successful that Ms. Eric Burdon of the Animals. His influence Carter sent her records to college radio and popularity are undeniable even to this stations and began performing more fre- day, as he continues to tour eight months quently on college campuses. Since then each year. A strong supporter of Martin she has appeared at more than thirty-five Luther King, Jr., Ray Charles helped raise colleges and universities, and she has spent money for the civil rights movement. Of his four days as artist-in-residence at Harvard many awards, he singles out as particularly University. Betty Carter has appeared at all noteworthy the Beverly Hills Lodge of the major jazz festivals in Europe, the B'nai Brith's tribute as Man of the Year in United States, Canada, Brazil, and Japan, 1976 and having his rendition of "Georgia has been profiled on several television on My Mind" chosen as the official song of programs, and has performed many times the state of Georgia. on radio and television. Her extensive discography includes two Grammy-nomi- nated albums, "The Audience with Betty Betty Carter Carter" ( 1980) and "What Ever Happened to Love?" (1983). Betty Carter started her pro- fessional singing Dizzy Gillespie career in her hometown of John Birks Detroit, where "Dizzy" Gilles- she won an pie—trumpeter, amateur contest arranger, singer, at the Paradise leader—was Theater. Soon born in Cheraw, after, she had the South Carolina, opportunity to "sit in" with the Dizzy Gilles- in 1917. His pie Big Band at a Detroit night club. She father, who died gained further experience without ever when Dizzy was having to leave Detroit by sitting in with ten, was an Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach, amateur musician; through him, Dizzy Duke Jordan, and Tommy Potter. In 1948 acquired a working knowledge of several Ms. Carterjoined the Lionel Hampton instruments. He started on trombone at Orchestra, remaining with the band for two fourteen, added trumpet a year later, and and one half years and learning as much as studied harmony and theory at Laurinburg she could. Having learned to write orches- Institute in North Carolina. From 1935 Mr. trations, she wrote her first big band ar- Gillespie lived in Philadelphia, where he rangement while still a member of the held his first major job, sharing the trumpet band. In 1951 she left the band to try her section with Charlie Shavers in Frank Fair- luck alone. Settling in New York, Betty fax's band. During the 1930s Mr. Gillespie Carter worked her way up from smaller emulated the style of Roy Eldridge, whom clubs to engagements at better clubs and he eventually replaced in the Teddy Hill theaters, including the Apollo, Howard, band early in 1937, visiting France and Royal, Regal, and Earl. Over the years she England that summer. After freelancing has worked with virtually every musician in around New York and working with Mercer the business and has introduced many fine Ellington, he joined Cab Calloway's band in young "unknowns" to the public. While the fall of 1939. During the next two years he was one of three instrumental stars Ella Fitzgerald 3U prominently featured with the band (the other two were Chu Berry and Cozy Cole). Ella Fitzgerald this time Dizzy Gillespie had developed By has performed of the characteristics later known as some almost every- "bop," and he had begun arranging. In the thing almost ..&** with big bands led by early 1940s he played everywhere: Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Charlie from the ball- Lucky Millinder, Earl "Fatha" Barnet, rooms of Harlem Hines, and Duke Ellington, among others. to the Hollywood of 1944 joined Billy Eckstine's In June he Bowl; from the Later that year the Gillespie new big band. Feather Theatre name and the word "bop" acquired great to London's prominence among musicians, and by early Royal Festival Hall; from college campuses 1945, after fronting a combo in New York, to the most glittering concert halls in Mr. Gillespie toured for the first time with Europe. There is hardly a country in the his own big band. In the years immediately world where Ella Fitzgerald isn't known, or following, he traveled widely in this country a continent where she hasn't appeared. Ms. and abroad with groups both large and Fitzgerald's beginnings as a performer are a small, becoming the first jazz musician part of the annals of popular music. Her invited to make a State Department tour. professional singing career began in the Gillespie's recent autobiographical Mr. heyday of the big bands, when she joined reminiscences, entitled "To Be or Not to the popular Chick Webb Orchestra. Chick Bop," have aroused great interest. Webb, recognized as one of the great drum- Although it has been the subject of much mers of this century, became Ms. Fitzger- dispute whether Dizzy Gillespie or the late ald's mentor and confidant while she was Charlie Parker was the primary influence in still in her teens, nurturing and coaching shaping the bop revolution in jazz, the her exceptional talent and eventually be- truth seems to be that their ideas and those coming her legal guardian. Ms. Fitzgerald's of several others were interdependent; million-seller, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," was each musician fed upon the other's ingenu- written while she was singing with the ity. The result was a melodic, harmonic, Chick Webb Orchestra (she provided the and rhythmic advancement ofjazz, the lyrics). This success, along with winning all incorporation of many subtleties that called the singing contests in New York City, was for a more developed technique than had the first step in her fabulous career. Much hitherto been at the disposition of most of the credit for Ella Fitzgerald's success jazzmen. Even early detractors of bop have goes to jazz impresario Norman Granz, paid respect to Dizzy Gillespie's superb who became her personal manager and musicianship, imagination, and technical exclusive record producer in 1954; their facility, not to mention his sense of humor. bond remains as strong as ever. Ms. Fitzger- As one of the fathers of bebop and one of ald recorded for Mr. Granz's own Verve the most influential figures in the work of label from 1956 to 1960; since 1972 she has today's younger artists, Dizzy Gillespie is a recorded exclusively for Pablo, his classic jazzman whose experiences, honors, and jazz label, which has already released more impact can never be fully documented. His than twenty-five albums. Among the most contribution jazz is undisputable. to valuable of the Verve recordings are the "songbooks," albums featuring what many consider to be the definitive renditions of songs by George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, Frank Loesser, and Rodgers and Hart.