Lullaby of Birdland
Lullaby of Birdland is a jazz standard composed and published in 1952 by pianist George Shearing . The title pays homage to the Birdland jazz club named after Charlie “Bird” Parker .
History of origin
Birdland was New York's famous jazz club on 1678 Broadway and 53rd Street. It was founded by Morris Levy and Erving Levy and the entrepreneur Monte Kay, who opened it on December 15, 1949. Dizzy Gillespie , Lester Young and Harry Belafonte in particular took part in the grand opening . However, it got its name not from the 20 bird cages with real finches, but from Charlie “Bird” Parker, who was also present at the opening ceremony .
From January 6, 1951, co-founder Morris Levy had performances from the jazz club broadcast by the New York radio station WJZ and in 1952 asked the blind bandleader George Shearing, who came from England, to write a signature tune for the famous jazz club, which should be played every hour in the club. Shearing had just performed at Birdland on July 3, 1952 with Arnett Cobb . Levy was the owner of the music publisher Patricia Music , which should publish the composition.
At home, Shearing came up with a melody a few days later, which he then immediately perfected on the piano and composed in 10 minutes. It was the Lullaby of Birdland (Lullaby = lullaby). These wrote George David Weiss text, but under the pseudonym BY Forster because he a member of the collecting society ASCAP was while Shearing to the competing BMI belonged. Several authors of a composition were not allowed to belong to different collecting societies and had to help each other through pseudonyms. The piece is written in the "shearing sound", in which the piano melody is repeated as a chord by vibraphone and guitar one octave below the actual melody part. The key was originally E minor with the normal structure of 32 bars in the song form AABA. The piece plays with the barely noticeable change in the melody sequence from F minor to the parallel A flat major. The B part is tonally ambiguous; it starts in F major, which is parallel to A, but then evolves into A flat major.
Recording and publication
The recordings were made on July 17, 1952 with the George Shearing Quintet with the line- up of George Shearing (piano), Dick Garcia (guitar), Al McKibbon (bass), Joe Roland (vibraphone) and Marquis Foster (drums). The Ray Charles Singers took over the vocal part. The single When the Lights Are Low / Lullaby of Birdland ( MGM Records 11354) was released in August 1952, but reached neither the charts nor special record sales.
Cover versions
Nevertheless, it was common, especially in jazz, gecovert and developed as a jam session -Favorit. Ella Fitzgerald took up the song first (recorded on August 4, 1952), Duke Ellington played it at his live concert at Carnegie Hall on November 14, 1952. It was followed by the Stan Getz Quintet (December 19, 1952), Erroll Garner (March 30, 1953), jazz pianist Bud Powell (WJZ radio broadcast from Birdland ) for the first time on February 7, 1953, Charlie Parker on May 30, 1953 (also live from Birdland ), Art Blakey Quintet (February 21, 1954 from the Birdland ), Charlie Barnet (November 29, 1954), Sarah Vaughan (December 16 and 18, 1954), Red Prysock and his Orchestra (July 8, 1955), Ralph Materie (October 1955), Mel Tormé with Marty Paich ( January 16 and 17, 1956). The French formation Blue Stars brought out the only hit parade listing of the song with a rank 16 in the US pop charts (February 4, 1956; published October 1956). Bill Haley attempted a Lullaby of Birdland Twist (March 23-25, 1962). Even Amy Winehouse recorded the song in their repertoire (accompanied by the Johnny Dankworth Big Band , Stables Theater in Wavendon, November 14, 2003; LP Amy Live at the BBC , published on 12 November 2004). There are at least 48 registered versions (BMI), some authors assume over 400 versions. Composer Shearing, who had written around 300 tracks, presented it humorous on his 80th birthday in Carnegie Hall on November 30, 1999 with the words: “I have written 300 songs. 299 of them enjoyed a bumpy ride between relative ignorance and oblivion. Here's the other one that became an evergreen .
text
- Oh, lullaby of birdland, that's what I
- Always hear when you sigh,
- Never in my wordland could there be ways to reveal
- In a phrase how I feel
- Have you ever heard two turtle doves
- Bill and coo, when they love?
- That's the kind of magic music we make with our lips
- When we kiss
- And there's a weepy old willow
- He really knows how to cry,
- That's how I'd cry in my pillow
- If you should tell me farewell and goodbye
- Lullaby of birdland whisper low
- Kiss me sweet, and we'll go
- Flying high in birdland, high in the sky up above
- All because we're in love
Web links
- Lullaby of Birdland song documentation at JazzStandards.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ The first transmission took place with the Dizzie Gillespie Sextet ; many of the transmissions have been released on phonograms .
- ^ George Shearing, Lullaby of Birdland , 2004, p. 137.
- ↑ George Shearing, Lullaby of Birdland , 2004, p. 148.
- ^ Lullaby of Birdland ': Jazz pianist George Shearing dies , Spiegel Online Kultur from February 15, 2011.
- ↑ Dietrich Schulz-Köhn : I Got Rhythm. 40 jazz evergreens and their history . Heyne, 1994, p. 216 .
- ↑ George Shearing was' one of the greatest musical minds , The Telegraph, February 15, 2011.