{"id":1421,"date":"2021-09-04T12:41:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T17:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/gazette\/2021\/09\/04\/20210831-singsingsing\/"},"modified":"2024-09-09T15:39:21","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T20:39:21","slug":"20210831-singsingsing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2021\/09\/04\/20210831-singsingsing\/","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of the Greatest Swing Song Ever -or- Sing Cubed is Not Square"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;m not a musical historian, but I play one on this blog, and I think the Golden Age of Swing in American music ran from the late 1930s through the end of World War II. A host of incredible musicians wrote and recorded songs that still capture ears and imagination almost a century later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;d be hard-pressed to come up with a favorite tune from that era, but I&#8217;m pretty sure <i>Sing, Sing, Sing<\/i> would be in the running. This post is a tribute to that musical gem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a title=\"Wikipedia\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Louis_Prima\">Louis Prima<\/a> wrote and recorded <i><a title=\"Wikipedia\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sing,_Sing,_Sing_(With_a_Swing)\">Sing, Sing, Sing (With A Swing)<\/a><\/i> (hereafter referred to as S<sup>3<\/sup> to save my typing fingers) in 1936. The record was a 78 rpm and ran just a tad longer than four minutes, which was pushing the limit on that medium. Here&#8217;s Prima&#8217;s recording, via YouTube:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WGM2HPM6BDc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t know if the original version was a huge hit for Prima, but the song&#8217;s popularity shifted into high gear when <a title=\"Wikipedia\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Benny_Goodman\">Benny Goodman<\/a> got hold of it the following year. A fellow named <a title=\"Wikipedia\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jimmy_Mundy\">Jimmy Mundy<\/a> &#8212; a saxophonist who was associated with jazz luminaries such as Count Basie and Lionel Hampton &#8212; created an arrangement for Goodman that extended the tune to almost nine minutes, taking up both sides of a 12-inch 78 rpm platter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a video of Benny Goodman&#8217;s orchestra&#8217;s performance of S<sup>3<\/sup>&nbsp;in the 1937 movie <i><a title=\"Wikipedia\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hollywood_Hotel_(film)\">Hollywood Hotel<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j9J5Zt2Obko\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I watch this clip and as an exceedingly average clarinetist whose improvisational skills are about as developed as my self-levitation skills, I can&#8217;t think of a better experience than being one of the sax players sitting behind Goodman during his solo (starting at around the one minute mark). What a gig!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, in 1938 Goodman&#8217;s orchestra <a title=\"Wikipedia\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Famous_1938_Carnegie_Hall_Jazz_Concert\">took the stage in Carnegie Hall<\/a> and the resulting performance of S<sup>3<\/sup> became a part of music lore. This 13-minute version also featured Gene Krupa on drums and Harry James on trumpet. The piano solo was performed by <a title=\"Wikipedia\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jess_Stacy\">Jess Stacy<\/a>, who improvised the riff on the spot, not having been given the spotlight for this tune prior to this concert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0NigiwMtWE0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><b><i>Sidenote:<\/i><\/b> That&#8217;s Gene Krupa on drums. For you kidwinks who never heard of him, Krupa was likely the first drummer to combine flair and skill and get a showcase in a commercially successful band. He and another somewhat skillful (ha!) drummer named Buddy Rich used to do the dueling drummer thing, much to the delight of audiences. Here&#8217;s <a title=\"Metronome Magazine interview via the drummerman.net website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.drummerman.net\/buddy.html\">an excerpt from a 1956 interview<\/a> of both men. It&#8217;s fascinating reading, especially the part where Rich takes on the so-called &#8220;cool music&#8221; of the day, and the way he felt it excluded musicians of his ilk:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"quote\">I have a definite and very set opinions about the so-called modern school of music and drummers. Whereas in the days when it was necessary to swing a band, where a drummer had to be a powerhouse, today more or less the &#8220;cool school&#8221; has taken over, and I don&#8217;t believe there&#8217;s such a thing as a &#8220;cool drummer.&#8221; You either swing a band or don&#8217;t swing a band and that&#8217;s what&#8217;s lacking today. There aren&#8217;t any guys who get back there and play with any kind of guts. And I like a heavyweight. I&#8217;m not a flyweight. I like-in my fighting, I like heavyweights and in my music I like emotionally good, strong heavyweight type of jazz. And it&#8217;s just lacking today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And speaking of their drum battles, here&#8217;s another YouTube clip of one that was broadcast on the <i><a title=\"IMDB.com\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0060022\/\">Sammy Davis, Jr. Show<\/a><\/i> in 1966. The tune will be recognizable, I think:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3VgrfpmD1pU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, where were we? Oh, yeah&#8230;S<sup>3<\/sup>. Now, while these old recordings are wonderful (and it&#8217;s truly a blessing that these performances have not been lost), there&#8217;s really no substitute to hearing this song performed live by a skilled group of musicians. There aren&#8217;t a lot of venues in our area where you can experience this, but one of them is just 90 miles down the road from where I live, in San Antonio to be exact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Pearl District, just north of downtown and adjacent to the northern end of the famous River Walk, there&#8217;s a nightclub\/restaurant called <a title=\"Jazz Texas website\" href=\"https:\/\/jazztx.com\">Jazz Texas<\/a>. It features live music every night; during the week the music may range in genre, but on the weekends it&#8217;s primarily jazz, courtesy of Brent (Doc) Watkins and his orchestra. You can visit <a title=\"Doc's website\" href=\"https:\/\/www.docwatkins.com\">Doc&#8217;s website<\/a> to see his complete bio, but for our purposes it&#8217;s sufficient to say that he&#8217;s one of the most gifted pianists and music arrangers you&#8217;ll ever encounter, and he surrounds himself with equally gifted musicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In March, 2020 &#8212; just before COVID brought the world to its knees &#8212; Debbie and I spent a weekend in San Antonio, and we spent Saturday night dining at Jazz Texas and enjoying the music. It&#8217;s a relatively small venue, and while we were seated toward the back of the room, we were still only a few yards away from the band. Suddenly, the signature sound of the drum solo that kicks off a certain song began, and I fired up the iPhone. Here&#8217;s the result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&quot;Sing, Sing, Sing&quot; -- The Doc Watkins Orchestra\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p31vIShdVNI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I wish I could identify all the individual musicians featured in that video, but I can tell you that the drummer is&nbsp;<a title=\"Brandon's website\" href=\"https:\/\/brandonguerramusic.com\/bio\">Brandon Guerra<\/a>&nbsp;and the incredible clarinetist is <a title=\"St. Mary University - Bill's bio page\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stmarytx.edu\/academics\/faculty\/bill-king\/\">Bill King<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Incidentally, I have strong opinions about people who go to a jazz club and then ignore the music, but I won&#8217;t share them here.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you made it all the way through this screed, thanks for your patience and attention. I suspect that we share an affinity for good music, regardless of genre&#8230;but this big band stuff is the bee&#8217;s knees!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everything you wanted to know about &#8220;Sing Sing Sing&#8221; and then some.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[428,430,196,427],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-benny-goodman","tag-gene-krupa","tag-jazz","tag-jazztx","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14085,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions\/14085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}