Today Fred Hersch got off to a late start in streaming his “Tune of the Day” video through his Facebook Web site. After about five minutes of efforts to refresh my Facebook connection, I decided to move on to other matters. At twenty minutes before noon, I was able to stream the stored version of his performance; and I was not disappointed by the wait.
Billy Strayhorn (photograph by Carl Van Vechten, made on August 14, 1958, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
Today’s selection was one of the more fascinating compositions by Billy Strayhorn “U.M.M.G.,” which is the abbreviation for Upper Manhattan Medical Group. This was one of the tracks on Passion Flower, Hersch’s tribute album for Strayhorn, which was released as a Nonesuch CD in December of 2006. The title of the tune refers to a clinic that provided medical care to both Strayhorn and his primary colleague, Duke Ellington. Indeed, it was first recorded on Ellington’s Columbia album Jazz Party on a track that featured guest solo work by Dizzy Gillespie.
What I find most interesting about “U.M.M.G.” is its upbeat rhetoric, not the sort of mood one tends to associate with medical consultations. Hersch’s performance consistently maintained that positive mood, often positively romping his way across the keyboard. This may surprise those familiar with Strayhorn’s medical conditions, not to overlook one of Hersch’s most extended creations, My Coma Dreams, a 90-minute theater work that constituted an autobiographical account of a medically induced coma that he sustained in 2008 when he was hospitalized after losing the ability to get out of his own bathtub.
As was announced last week, each day listeners will be asked to support a selected charity. The “beneficiary” of today’s performance is the Jazz Foundation of America. This struck me as appropriate to music that, on a single track, can evoke memories of Ellington, Strayhorn, and Gillespie! This performance is now available for viewing through the Videos Web page on Hersch’s Facebook site.
No comments:
Post a Comment