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Al Bowlly's guitar
klaatu
Nova ScotiaProdigy Rodrigo Shopis D'Artagnan, 1950s Jacques Castelluccia
I was listening to some YouTube videos of the great 20s & 30s singer Al Bowlly and ran across this photo of him playing a Selmer guitar.
If you're not familiar with Al, you owe it to yourself to check him out. He is often credited with inventing crooning, before Crosby. He was one of the most highly regarded singers of his time. From Wikipedia: "It was Bowlly's technique, sincerity, diction and his personality that distinguish him from many other singers of the 1930s era."
Here's a good place to start:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=cr4ncMR5EVQ&list=RDcr4ncMR5EVQ&t=4
If you're not familiar with Al, you owe it to yourself to check him out. He is often credited with inventing crooning, before Crosby. He was one of the most highly regarded singers of his time. From Wikipedia: "It was Bowlly's technique, sincerity, diction and his personality that distinguish him from many other singers of the 1930s era."
Here's a good place to start:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=cr4ncMR5EVQ&list=RDcr4ncMR5EVQ&t=4
Benny
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles
Comments
I'm a Bowlly fan too. My band plays the great 1931 Bowlly/Noble tune "Love is the Sweetest Thing"... such lovely chords!
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However, I must take issue with the assertion that Al's crooning preceded Bing's!
Yes, Al's Selmer Grande Bouche was pretty cool, but Bing had something even cooler... an L-5 played by a cat named Salvatore Massaro... aka Eddie Lang.
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
I'm really sorry that it has taken me so long to discover Bowlly. He was a classy and tasteful singer. I found him by way of the soundtrack album from the wonderful BBC TV series "Pennies from Heaven." Steve Martin starred in a 1981 movie based on the series, but IMHO the TV series is superior, and it has WAY more music - 70 great songs on the album! Any fan of 20s-30s popular music should check it out.
Re the invention of crooning, I was just citing an assertion in the Wikipedia article on Bowlly, admittedly one without references. I'm surprised that there's not a notation to that effect. He did write a book on the subject.
Here's a marvellous recording of what we think of as a Fred Astaire classic, with hilarious background vocals by The Freshmen: https://youtu.be/iAkzGjvvFhg
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles
And that background singing by the Freshmen was excellent... same general sort of thing as sometimes occurs on Oscar Aleman records (I'm thinking of "In the Mood" aka "De Humor") but even more hokily and delightfully arranged.
While it's not remotely in the same league, I'm attaching our trio's version of "Love is the Sweetest Thing" as recorded live at a gig last month.
It's too bad you live in Nova Scotia, I'll bet we'd have a lot of fun playing this kind of obscure stuff together!
Will
PS Oh, yeah, I'm going to check out that Bob Hoskins series, I love those British TV shows... have you ever seen "Goodnight Sweetheart"?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodnight_Sweetheart_(TV_series)
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
Do you ever come to Django in June? I've been there ten years running. It would be fun to get together and jam.
Oscar! Love him! My favourite track is his wild version of Besame Mucho, kind of a precursor to the zaniness of the great Louis Prima Orchestra.
I'm not familiar with the Goodnight Sweetheart series. Have to check that out.
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles
Well, I have been to DiJ twice now but I'm not sure if I'm going back again or not.
My style is gradually moving away from the kind of stuff that most of the folks there like to play...
...mostly due to the fact that I mostly play in a trio with just a bass to accompany me when I solo, so I have to develop kind of a more solo-istic style that works without a rhythm guitar.
Plus, the kind of music I really love to play are these obscure Tin Pan Alley songs that most people aren't interested in...
But, never say never, what the hell, I may go back some day... Andrew does a great job organizing it, and I've enjoyed hearing a lot of inspirational players there.
Some have been inspirational in the sense of making me want to work hard to play better... others in the sense of making me want to burn my guitar and piss on the ashes!
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles
Also there a couple of photos that are easy to find on Google, one shows a 'grande bouche' Selmer Maccaferri guitar, but he was also photographed with the Selmer Eddie Freeman tenor model too.
What a wonderful song! Somehow I've missed this one.
Great performance in the video. Just finished listening to Al Bowlly's delightful rendition on YouTube, and I'm listening to Billie Holiday's right now. This has to go into the repertoire!
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles