eddie lang and the youtube choristers
If you're ever curious about how Eddie Lang's hands worked and go to consult some clips of the masterful 1920s guitar pioneer online, as I was and did the other day, you will find yourself with a good seven minutes' not-too-edifying viewing before you. The technology of film-with-sound was two years older than Lang. Both were about thirty when he was in his musical prime and about to die. So seven minutes comes as a disappointment. Of the myriad ways we moderns eventually disgrace ourselves before the bar of eternity, the failure to document our notables properly won't be one. When the denizens of 2110 want to see what all the fuss was about Bill Frisell, they won't have to make do with a few short sequences of him sitting at an oblique angle behind a fern while Christina Aguilera sings a ballad in a lion costume. What the fuck were those Jazz Age cretins thinking? "This crude jungle-music vogue shall soon pass," probably.
Even turned sideways and coated thick with treacle, Mr. Lang's gift shines bright, and the youtubers' comments on a clip of him accompanying the Mafia moll Ruth Etting constitute an impressive and instructive testament on the human response to beauty. Delight, unaffectedly felt and simply expressed, is one such response. "Really GREAT!! Thanks!" says Parlophonman, kicking off the thread. "Unique" -- Heinbanjo 12; "Wow, amazing" -- Twobarbreak; "Marvelous! Thanks a lot" -- Wininboy; "Treasure, thanks!" -- Guitaress1; and a warm "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you" with terminal ":)" from JeriLynnCarr.
These effusions are the "simple kiss" of John Cleese's Meaning of Life indignant sex education instructor: "How about a simple kiss, before we go stampeding to the clitoris?" The clitoris of amateur criticism begins to twitch into our sight with Merrihew's remark: "I have quite a few of her musical shorts but not this one. VERY special especially because of Eddie Lang." This fairly innocent contribution, not on its face so far from the spirit of "thank you thank you" et al., introduces the themes of valuation and irrelevant personal details, which are instantly deepened. "What a wonderful song! I had never heard it, and although I've heard of Ruth Etting, I had never seen her on film," offers Timboytx unabashedly. "Eddie was the best side man ever born," wheezes Robbourassguitarist; "he played so well, but always complemented the singer." I like that "but."
Now Mr. Christopher Rosato enters the discussion. "If not for Eddie Lang, who virtually invented jazz guitar, nobody would have heard of Django," he proclaims. "As for jazz singers, Ella Fitzgerald herself admitted she emulated the legendary Connee Boswell and Mildred Bailey..." I like the implication that Ella's influences were pried out of her. But I don't care for the invitation Mr. Rosato implicitly extends to every jazz nerd with a laptop to pile on with puffed-up pseudo-erudition, hierarchical pronouncements, what-if musings, spurious family trees, and cocky blather. "Eddy Lang," says Goatface 1000, who I'll presume in private life bothers to spell his own name right, "was a very good guitar player but no way as good a jazz player as Lester Young. Ruth Etting was a good singer but she was ot [sic] a jazz singer in the sense that Ella Fitzgerald Sarah Vaughan and indeed Billie Holiday was [sic]. Granted she had a poor range but her rythmn [sic] and phrasing and emotion made her a great singer." Manila Syndicate states, "Billie was a fine singer but not a great one...I consider Annette Hanshaw the best white female Jazz singer of her time." To Forsythia 77's meek interpolation ("To me, Ruth Etting has a lot of emotion in her voice"), the crotchety Jazzgirl1920s fires back, "Yes, Ruth Etting has a lot of emotion in her voice -- Billie Holiday has none in her voice and sounds like a boring monotone robot," putting the discussion back on the target range where it belongs.
Some of the best at-home critics enliven their unbelievably stupid commentary with terms of art and a hint of sociological perspective. Thus TheCompleteGuitarist professorially states:
"I think you'll find that Ms Etting's lack of syncopation, lack of jazz phrasing and her bel canto delivery are all very contrary to what most people consider make a good jazz musician. Aside from the fact that her delivery lacks any emotion whatsoever and it's pretty obvious that her voice carries little of what life was like for many people in that era."
He concludes with evenhandedness: "At best (and she has a good voice) Ms. Etting is a good entertainer."
OlyBluesGal delivers her own nuanced take on the Holiday controversy -- fine singer? great singer? robot? -- and spices up the brew with a few corking false facts:
"Billie Holliday was great on her earliest recordings. Strange Fruit was amazing, but she wrote that song, and it was extremely personal; her work in the '70s was off key and unmarketable....I started listening to jazz in the early '60s; now I teach it."
I bought a computer in the mid-1990s. Now I blog on it. But I don't call attention to this vapid chatter just to pillory the large community of pixilated, pseudonymous dodos out there. Actually, this pointless and perfervid discussion reminded me of comments I hear made by otherwise smart people all the time. It reminds me of many dumb things I've said myself in response to performances. Because -- what are you supposed to say? Most of us are vulnerable to good music. Many of us have access to high-flying words, and are too schooled in the protocols of civilized society to feel quite comfortable repeating, "Wow, great -- thank you, thank you!" like a groveling, grateful pauper. So we overreach, draping our naked impressions of music in billowing "bel canto" persiflage, sneakily cutting down opposing opinions with lofty digests of what we understand to be posterity's well-considered consensus (or paraphrases of half-remembered Nat Hentoff observations).
Wanting to say something about a good sound, a natural and unobjectionable desire, is tricky to do and come out with dignity intact. Words converge hungrily on meanings, music eludes them. Plato thought that music was the least of the fine arts because it was least imitative of nature. He was wrong, triply: in his premise of art-as-imitation, in his junk-bond rating of music, and in imagining it to be divorced from the natural world -- ask any passing bird, or string theorist.
In its imperviousness to imposed meanings music actually bears the most resemblance to a natural object of all the arts. Because a talent like Eddie Lang's (to get back to him) is like an orchid. You can respond to an orchid by saying that it appears a pleasing yellow because the wavelength of light reflecting off of it and on to your retinal cones is 580 millimeters, or to describe its shape as zygomorphic, all of which is accurate. But is this any way to respond to an orchid? And to say that an orchid is all right but a rose is better is meaningless, or insane. The sight of the flower might inspire you to dilate on all the other pretty flowers you've seen or haven't; the associative power of the word "orchid" could lead to a spirited discussion of Susan Orlean's book The Orchid Thief, whether or not you've read it. Indifferently, the orchid continues to bloom and be observed by happy passersby.
Let us take a tip from the noble tone of Forsythia 77. "To me, Ruth Etting has a lot of emotion in her voice." Isn't that sweet, and modest, and even, as far as it goes, perfectly accurate?
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10 comments
This is really beautiful, Robbie. Reflective and humble and born out of the most genuine kind of love for music. Thanks for the thoughts, and know that one 29 year-old jazz-neophyte is googling Eddy Lang as soon as he's done writing this.
Better trivial disclosure about lofty digests of posterity's well considered naked impressions! Well who says anything is well considered if it is out mining pseudonymous dodos? The guy has a point about spelling, though, and I'm really turned on by your speed of yellow syllable play.
Citizens arrest today in awe’s tin cup. “I'd give it all gladly if our lives could be like that, but to live outside the law, you must be honest.” Is sanity really sound? I'm happy to pull your chestnuts out of the fire. Using words people need help understanding means you grow beyond the final—or first-- word. Thanks for the tic! I thought you might not know how cool what you said really was to me. I wish I could afford your music product again, but If I was named Robert, and I was selling something , I would defiantly go by BURT. Maybe even just Bur. Thank you.
dictionary play was first and foundational.
edifying--to build/instruct to improve and uplift, enlighten morally or spiritually
denizens-- (i can't infer which definition you intended) 1. (a) inhabitant of occupant (b) a frequenter of a particular place
2.an alien granted specific rights of citizenship. 3. an animal, plant, or foreign word that has become naturalized.
oblique-- 1.inclined 2.not straight to the point, indirect. 3.evasive, disengenous, underhanded.
cretins--n. [Fr] chretien; lit., Christian, hence human being (in contrast to brutes, Christian: sense development as in SILLY) 1. a person suffering from cretinisim, 2. a very stupid or foolish person.
Etting--The act of applying the feminine ending to a word, ett(e)ing where e is dropped to add ing.
indignant--adj feeling or expressing anger or scorn, esp. at unjust, mean, or ungrateful action or treatment.
puff(ed)--(a) short sudden burst, as of wind, or an expulsion, as of breath. (b) a small quantity of vapor, smoke, etc. expelled at one time. 2. a draw at a cigarette, ect, 3. a swell or petuberance caused by a swelling. 4. a shell of soft light pastry, filled with whipped cream. 5. a soft bulging material mass, full in the middle and gathered at the edges. 6. a soft roll of hair on the head 7. a soft pad for dabbing powder on the skin or hair. 8. A quilted bed covering with cotton, wool, or down filling 9.(a) vain show (b) advertisment or review containg undue or exaggerated praise. (that is about halfway down, phew)
up-- (gollygeewhiz it has a whole page!) 9. in or into existence, action, view, evidence, or consideration, 12. as to be even with in space, time, degree. 13. so as to be tightly closed, bound, packed, aside, away
pseudo-- n. 1.ficticious, pretended, counterfeit, spurious, especially someone who afffects being an intellectual (spy).
erudition-- n. learning acquired by reading and study; scholarship, syn: information.
nuanced--to shade a cloud, a delicate vibration in tone
corking false facts
vapid--stale, insipid, akin to vappa--stale wine,
(chatter to) pillory--1.a device consisting of a wooden board with holes for the head and wrist in which a person was locked and exposed to public scorn, ridicule, and abuse.
(community of) pseudonymous-- see above. onymous—named. Counterfeits, falsely assigned names.
(dodos)--1.extinct bird, 2.old fashioned person, fogy.
(pointless and) perfervid--ardent, extremely fervid--to glow, boil, rage 2. great warmth of feeling, intensely earnest or devoted.
pauper-- see also Golden Arches employee, abandoned, horn-bashed, plugged ear, axed steelworker. charity case.
zygomorphic--that which is bilaterally symmetrical on a single plane. See up 12.
meaningless--without an intention to be signified, indicated, referred to or understood
insane--2. law, any form or degree of mental derangement or unsoundness of mind, permanent or temporary, that makes a person incapable of what is regarded legally as normal, rational conduct of judgment: it normally requires hospitalization.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. A good blog post, maybe Robbie's best, and Robbie is the best blogger/songwriter/Hideout denizen of this decade and maybe the last. But is Robbie really a blogger, or more of an essayist? I think most educated people would pick Montaigne as history's greatest essayist. I blog myself but never considered this topic. To me, Robbie has a lot of emotion in his writing. And playing and singing, too.
My favorite thing about this post is that Robbie chose to comment on what may be the best and most erudite comments on that entire website. The vast majority of YouTube comments will siphon the brains right out of your skull as Nature attempts to make up for the vacuum. For an example, read what is said under any political video or about, say, the new Nickelback song. You'll shudder for your country.
http://blog.vagueware.com/assets/2008/3/21/xkcd-youtube.png
I used to write for various local publications here in the UK ~ I found it hard to write good reviews about great records/gigs, bad ones were a doddle.
The bile certainly rose when I was given a Queen album to review!!
Anyway, those reviews on youtube will be written by fans usually, hence the lack of insight.
Another way to be effusive about things that are good is to act like the annoying drunk person in the pub and over-exaggerate for all you're worth.
Unfortunately, I've been lulled into buying many a duff recording because of critics who've done that.
I like two I came across today:
garrettacton85
heart? touchdown!
LuisTR91
the human's power!!!? yeahhhhhhhhhh
"I bought a computer in the mid-1990s, now I blog on it."
That about sums it up, doesn't it? (But much more fun to read Robbie's hysterically understated take on it.)
It's got a good beat, and you can dance to it. I give it a 74.
Posted 2 Months Later!
I only just discovered this Web/Blog this evening 4/11/10, because I just saw -more importantly HEARD you play music (make that, Wonderful music) in "someplace called Felton" California this afternoon. In my book, it was a 3 orchid performance. Thank You, and the other Rob who played with you. Thank You for great beauty and humor.
After reading a few of your blog posts, I'm hooked! ( I laughed harder than I have in a month at some of your Swedish musings.)
As for comments on the Eddie Lang Video, It is very refreshing to see such a keen intellect up-root some less than inspiring 'critics' without an ounce of meanness. Just a better way of looking at it.
Thanks, Robbie.