It's actually sort of hard to find on YouTube--it won't come up in a search for "Betty Roché Take the A Train," although you will get an excellent later recording. You have to search under "Reveille with Beverly."
It's worth the search. Ellington and the boys are pictured jamming on a train that seems more likely to be headed for Acheson, Topeka and Santa Fe than Harlem, but they sound great, and young Betty is at the top of her form. I certainly wouldn't argue too vociferously against those who see this as the definitive version.
So why wasn't it released? Roché had the misfortune to join the Ellington band in 1942, just in time for the Petrillo strike. The labor action, organized by union president James C. Petrillo, only covered phonograph recordings, not motion pictures. So they could record it for the movie soundtrack, but they couldn't release it separately. The same was true of her next triumph: the historic 1953 Ellington concert at Carnegie Hall. It was historic because they were the African American ensemble to play Carnegie Hall (in those days it took more than practice), and it was the world premiere of Ellington's ambitious Black, Brown and Beige, for which Roché was tabbed to sing the "Blues" section. In 1952, after some time off from the band, she did record "Take the A Train," and that version was so good that when she left the band again, Ray Nance would essentially sing her "A Train."
Early in her career, Roché was primarily known as a blues singer, although "A Train" certainly shows her versatility. She had won amateur night at the Apollo as a blues singer, and gone from there to her first professional gig. with the Savoy Sultans. But over the course of her career, she would reposition herself as a jazz singer.
What makes a jazz singer/ My definition is someone who can sing with jazz musicians and not get lost, and by that measurement, Betty Roché is a solid sender. She sang with Lester Young, with Hot Lips Page, with Earl Hines and Clark Terry and Charles Brown. What she did not sing with was any degree of consistency. She was known for having a somewhat desultory commitment to her career, and an even more desultory approach to showing up on time; and as a result, her recorded output is sparser than it should have been, She only made three solo albums, the first for Bethlehem in 1956 (with Conte Candoli and Eddie Costa), then this one and one more for Prestige, before apparently losing interest in the music business once again.
There's not much blues on this album. The singin' and swingin' of the title announces torchy ballads alternating with uptempo swinging and scatting. "September Song," a little surprisingly, is one of the latter.
Jack McDuff is the primary guiding instrumental force on the ballads, smoky and enveloping; Forrest and Jennings provide swinging breaks for the uptempo material.
Singin' and Swingin' was a Prestige release, Esmond Edwards producing. "A Foggy Day" and "Come Rain or Come Shine" comprised the single, one swingin' and the other singin'.
Duke Ellington said this, describing Betty:
She had a soul inflection in a bop state of intrigue and every word was understandable despite the sophisticated hip and jive connotations.Which says it all. Or says something, Or maybe nothing. Anyway, it was the Duke.
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