Something New

Count-Basie

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. I’m not preparing for a wedding, so call this a reverie, a chain of reflections. It will lead to an exciting announcement.

1. I have three–much–older brothers. They listened to music which actually came from even before their own time, and that music is what I heard when I was very small. I still have some of the energy I picked up from this group.

2. I am currently working on a song called “Zoot Walks in.” It used to the “The Red Door,” but somebody added words to honor the great tenor sax Zoot Sims.

3. Thinking about Zoot made me in turn remember the last blog I wrote on Doc Tenney, an Iowa sax great, and the way musicians live in our memories and in our playing. We who love and play this music today owe a lo to those who were here before.

The Eddie Piccard Quartet is going to start honoring some of them in our appearances.

Each Friday night “The Second Set,” the actual second set of our night, will be devoted to the music associated with two or three of these people–musicians who made their mark and left us something of real worth. That doesn’t mean we’re going to imitate them, of course. We will do our thing with some of their songs.

This week “The Second Set” will be devoted to the music of two great performers who actually once appeared together: Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. Sinatra once said that he learned about breathing in music by listening to the horns in the band. He had the great gift, which Eddie certainly shares, of understanding that every song is also a story. Singing means getting into the story. When It’s Quarter til Three, it really feels like quarter til three.

Count Basie–well, for me it’s not possible to think about the rich history of this music without thinking of Count Basie. That band had it all–the great soloists, the driving, compelling rhythm section, and the Count himself as the presiding officer and guiding spirit.

This Friday–June 27–The Second Set belongs to Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. I hope a lot of people will join us as we play music from their songbooks.

Incidentally, the blond woman dressed in white watching the Goodman group in the link above is one of Eddie’s favorites, the great singer Peggy Lee. I hope one of these nights she will be one of the people we honor in “The Second Set.”


Image Attribution Follows:

Photo by The Library of Congress


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