"Smoke Dreams": A trail of associative links
leads to a surprising destination.
31/03/2015
Jimmie Haskell
I am amazed to find this guy has been doing about one album a month for decades. He has Grammy Awards for three tracks for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)/Best Background Arrangement": - 1976 If You Leave Me Now 1970 Bridge over Troubled Water 1967 Ode to Billie Joe That's quite a variety of sounds; he has worked with many, many top artists of all styles over the years. His first release was under his own name, a 1959 unusual spacey sci-fi sounds semi-orchestral album, "Count Down!" (Note: - An Apology. Unfortunately, since I createed the below links to AllMusic, which I used to use a lot, the site has become plagued with ads and pop-ups, making it annoying to use. It even detects and complains about your ad-blocker. A pity, it used to be a great resource, but I never go there now.) AllMusic.com: - "Applying the same formulas Jimmie Haskell honed across myriad rock hits to space age pop arrangements, Count Down! remains one of the most imaginative and compelling records of its kind, embracing electronics and revolutionary studio effects to create what can only be dubbed flying saucer rock & roll. Employing cosmic sound effects like rocket engines and computerized beeps, bleeps, and blips alongside wordless vocals, celestial flutes, and echo-drenched piano, Haskell completely upends the archetypal sound of post-Elvis rock -- the daze of futures past never sounded so beautiful." Below is the 1959 album on YouTube. |
I woke up in the wee hours with this appropriately-titled sultry song by k d lang (Left) seemingly already in mid-play on the mental jukebox that serves me for a brain.
I guess it was because I have the CD it appears on, her 1997 release "Drag" I have noticed before that the arrangement (by Jimmie Haskell, see below Left) features an unusual rhythm, which (I now find) is not present in the original Jo Stafford version (Left). After musing that there seems to be a lack of rhythmical variety in modern pop music, I fell to thinking how I would describe this particular rhythm. I thought I would describe it as "skipping", and mentally rehearsed the action to see if I could describe it that way, which I believe I can. This got me wondering what the definition of skipping is. Wikipedia calls it "The hippity-hoppity gait that comes naturally to children", links to "Gait (human)", but then loses the plot on the page. Dictionary.com says "to move in a light, springy manner by bounding forward with alternate hops on each foot." Not something I have done for a long time! At this point I resolved to write this entry, and got up to make a coffee to fuel my researches. I wanted to check if the Jo Stafford number was not just "earlier" or "covered", but the original version. It was; in the 1940's she co-hosted a Chesterfield cigarettes sponsored radio program "The Chesterfield Supper Club". Wikipedia: - "Stafford's Hollywood "Club" broadcasts featured the vocal group The Starlighters; in 1947 she recorded her version of the show's theme song, "Smoke Dreams", with them." On the same page, it mentions "During World War II, the broadcasts were transcribed for re-broadcast on Armed Forces Radio Service." and cites this reference. Thus I find myself linked directly to my preceding post about the old 33 1/3 transcription records, although unfortunately there isn't one of the Supper Club recordings. |
Postscript 17/03/16
I was amused to find out recently that the rhythm of kd lang's version is known as a shuffle, not "skipping".
The "shuffle" part is in the cymbals.
I was amused to find out recently that the rhythm of kd lang's version is known as a shuffle, not "skipping".
The "shuffle" part is in the cymbals.
2:1 = triplet quarter note + triplet eighth, triple meter; "medium swing" or "medium shuffle"
Example demonstrator courtesy of Wikipedia page "Swing (jazz performance style)"
Example demonstrator courtesy of Wikipedia page "Swing (jazz performance style)"