Skip to main content

Frank Sinatra - All Of Me

Just as we might feel inclined to see music resisting the implicit morality of high and low (high being the good and low being the bad or base, basso, by that telling ambiguity of language), music is much more than melody. Melody may be the pre-eminent quality of western metrical music; but in most performed genres since the middle ages, music was arranged in different voices. Initially, this may have involved little more than a drum or drone that accompanied one voice, more or less providing padding or a beat for the single voice that rose above it. But the bulk of early music already reveals a bass part. With the development of the keyboard, the bass notes could even be played in the left hand by a single performer while the right hand typically provided the melody on the higher side of the scale.

The continuity of the drone is perhaps recalled in the delightful Italian baroque term basso continuo, a bass line that keeps going, or as English musicians would say in the same period, a ‘thorough bass’, meaning a bass that runs through the piece (‘through’ and ‘thorough’ possessing the same etymology). Romantic music makes us think that high and low instruments are put together to make a duet; but that conception does not belong to earlier music, right through the baroque. Even in the romantic period, a piece for violin and piano is not referred to as a duet but a violin sonata (with accompaniment). In the baroque a solo which is unaccompanied is rare and will often be published with the stipulation of being unaccompanied, so that there is no confusion and musicians do not go hunting for the missing part or invent one for good measure.
Source: Basso: A Low Point in the Study of Musical Meaning and Metaphor by Robert Nelson


Frank Sinatra - All Of Me
  • First recorded on October 19, 1947
  • Released on "All of Me" single April 5, 1948
  • Written by Gerald Marks, Seymour Simons


"Count Basie and his orchestra performed this song in an instrumental on Sinatra's 1966 live album, Sinatra at the Sands. Many unconfirmed sources claim this work was introduced over the radio by Belle Baker in 1931. Broadcasting day and station remain unknown."

See previous Song of the Day

Labels:
Location: United States

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jackson Browne - Kisses Sweeter than Wine

Europe has a rich history of embracing blues and jazz music. In the early 20th century, American jazz musicians began touring Europe, introducing the continent to a new sound that was unlike anything they had ever heard before. Jazz became an instant hit among European audiences, and many European musicians began incorporating jazz elements into their music. Today, jazz festivals are held all over Europe, attracting thousands of fans from all over the world. In addition, many European cities have thriving blues scenes, with local bands and musicians performing regularly. Blues and jazz have also made their way to Asia, where they have found a devoted fan base. Japan, in particular, has a thriving jazz scene, with many Japanese musicians achieving international recognition. In addition, China has also seen a rise in the popularity of jazz music in recent years. Jazz festivals are now held in major Asian cities such as Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, attracting jazz lovers from all over ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Veronica Swift - A Little Taste

There has always been an uncomfortable tension between rhythm and blues and rock and roll, a cyclical influence that vacillates between inspiration, appropriation and separation. Popular music has broken off into categories of rock, pop, country, and R&B, each with their own origin stories. But R&B and rock, usually codified as vastly different, Black and white styles, have long been intertwined in ways our historical memory may have us forget.  Despite the innovation that comes from separation, rock and R&B always find their way back to each other. In recent years, rock veterans have turned to the genre’s classics for inspiration. Queens of the Stone Age veered from their typical hard rock with 2017’s Villains, a dance y album inspired by frontman Josh Homme’s love of 1920s jazz and swing, other Black genres that laid the groundwork for the popular music of today. The whitewashing of rock’s history has oversimplified music’s malleability and silenced the voices of Amer...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cannonball Adderley - Willow Weep for Me

The positivity and uplifting effect of the musical product is more likely to mean the musician is cheering themselves and everybody up rather than that the musician is telling us they are happy. This can largely be applied to attitudes to the performance of jazz and other Black cultures in the Western world. Whilst some of the aforementioned jazz pioneers, like Ella Fitzgerald, stayed clean, several had a history of drug abuse... which often resulted in premature deaths. Louis Armstrong, who used the infinitely safer drug marijuana throughout his 69 years... Whilst drug use was not uncommon among musicians in general, this pattern that many of the greats of jazz died young due to addictions speaks of a consistent level of turmoil, and alludes to their common experience of racism as a depressive factor in 20th Century America. Source: A Soft Reminder of Where Jazz Came From by Tom Platts Cannonball Adderley - Willow Weep for Me Released in: September 1955 Genre: Jazz Label: Savoy "...
Post a Comment
Read more