Shakespeare (in and out of jazz)

[A Lark Ascending]

We're about to be buried under an avalanche of Shakespeare with the 400th anniversary of his death - not much so far but I imagine his birth and death dates next month will kick things off. 

Thought he deserved his own thread as there is a fair bit of jazz that alludes to him and his works. The obvious one being:

I'm going to an Andy Sheppard concert next week based around Shakespeare. 

But don't stick to jazz - plays, poems, opera etc. Share your enthusiasms.

I'm no Shakespeare buff - did him at school and have bumped into him on or off over the years. But since retiring I've been awake enough to start enjoying him properly via DVD, cinema theatre broadcasts and a trip to Stratford. 

We tend to over-obsess on him in Britain (and things can get all luvvy terribly quickly!) - but there's no doubting that he's one of those people you can keep coming back to and finding new things. 

Edited March 19, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[sidewinder]

The first that comes to mind is this..

[A Lark Ascending]

30 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

The first that comes to mind is this..

I quite forgot that. Have it on my shelves - must give it a play. Didn't really take it in when I bought it but I've a context now. 

[sidewinder]

From my recollection (I think the story is in RogerFs Ian Carr discography) that session in Southwark Cathedral was done to raise funds for the embryonic (at the time) Globe project. Sam Wanamaker was a friend of Ian Carr I think. 

The Argo LP set was a real obscurity that was low profile at time of release - Vocalion did a really good job with the CD reissue.

Edited March 19, 2016 by sidewinder

[duaneiac]

I'm a fan of both Maxine Sullivan and Dick Hyman, yet I have always shied away from getting ths album.  I haven't heard it, but it is certainly Shakespearean in its concept.

[HutchFan]

This one comes to mind...

 

[Teasing the Korean]

43 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

This one comes to mind...

Why post the hideous budget reissue cover when you can post the original?

 

[HutchFan]

36 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Why post the hideous budget reissue cover when you can post the original?

I'm more familiar with the reissue cover. Either one is fine by me.  

 

 

Shakespeare in the title if not the music. 

Edited March 19, 2016 by HutchFan

[duaneiac]

There was also the Broadway musical Swingin' The Dream, which starred Louis Armstrong, Maxine Sullivan, the Deep River Boys, the Dandridge Sisters and the Benny Goodman Sextet.  It only ran for 13 performances in 1939, but it did give us the standard "Darn That Dream".

 

[jazztrain]

I'm not familiar with the following by Christiana Drapkin:

 

[page]

I have an album of the Ilja Reijngoud Quartet where he made a modern jazz interpretations of some sonnets. Music composed by himself.

[Cyril]

You better call it a Fay Claassen album ....  

 

Here's the cover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2016 by Cyril

[A Lark Ascending]

Thanks for those - I must try the Cleo Laine even if her voice generally has a nails on blackboard effect on me (reminiscences of those rather bland TV affairs where Dankworth, Galway, John Williams, Laine etc made a big fuss of the lack of boundaries between music and then produced something rather mushy). 

Racking my brain over the weekend I found it hard to come up with anything on the jazz front. At a real stretch Coltrane did 'Greensleeves' which RVW used in 'Sir John in Love' which is based on 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'. 

On the outermost fringes of jazz there's 'West Side Story' (Romeo and Juliet) and 'Kiss Me Kate' (The Taming of the Shrew). 

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In the 'out of jazz area' some of my favourites include:

A Midsummer Night's Dream - the Britten opera and Purcell's 'The Fairy Queen'

Romeo and Juliet - the Prokofiev ballet and the uber-gushy Tchaikovsky tone poem

The Tempest - the Sibelius incidental music and Thomas Ades recent opera (only watched it once so hardly a 'favourite' but it was an engaging listen).

Henry V and Richard III - some nice Walton incidental music.

As well as 'Sir John in Love' RVW used Shakespeare as inspiration elsewhere - I particularly like the "Three Shakespeare Songs" for choir (all over in 7 mins but wonderful minutes) and his gorgeous 'Serenade to Music' is a setting of part of 'The Merchant of Venice'. 

I also have Sallinen's opera based on King Lear on my 'to watch' pile. 

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As for the plays themselves, I think I've watched/read/heard about 20 over the last 45 years. The ones I especially like are:

King Lear

The Tempest

A Midsummers Night's Dream

Othello

As You Like It

Richard II

Richard III

Julius Caesar

I've just got round to the BBC's 'Hollow Crown' series which collects Richard II, Henry IV (both parts) and Henry V (only watched the first so far which was superb). The Beeb are doing the next batch of the history plays in the same format (i.e. out on location rather than in the theatre) this year as part of the general Shakespeare onslaught. 

 

[Tim McG]

Not that it matters, but I taught Merchant of Venice to my English students through out my teaching career.

It was my yearly assault on anti-Semitism.

[crisp]

Hamlet quoted (and credited) here:

And Romeo and Juliet alluded to here:

 

[A Lark Ascending]

Yes, might get quiet a bit in references (especially how many common figures of speech come from Shakespeare) to plays in songs. This site lasts a few in wider popular music:

http://music.cbc.ca/#!/blogs/2014/4/Popular-songs-inspired-by-Shakespeare

'Desolation Row' (Dylan) and 'Ophelia' (The Band) are ones I know. There's a song on the new album from young folky Maz O'Connor about Ophelia too - 'Greenwood Side'. 

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This is a favourite. Carthy didn't write it but his performance is brilliant - the whole play in 4 minutes. Worth it just for the final line. 

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This is the album currently being toured specifically based on Shakespeare:

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Mass of events in London listed here:

https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-live-from-the-rsc/

And a big RSC jamboree on 23rd April that is getting BBC2 and cinema coverage (presumably worldwide):

 https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-live-from-the-rsc/

 

Edited March 24, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[A Lark Ascending]

Happy Shakespeare day. Can't move for the fellow here today - even Obama is going to The Globe (though I doubt if he'll trump (poor choice of adjective) yesterday's drama).

Little piece here on Shakespeare and music:

 http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/20/shakespeare-400-vladimir-jurowski-gala-lpo

[BillF]

It's all about English nationalism, of course. St George, Nigel and all that. 

[A Lark Ascending]

1 hour ago, BillF said:

It's all about English nationalism, of course. St George, Nigel and all that. 

Well, there's certainly a heavy dose of that - the right have long appropriated 'Englishness' for themselves.

But it's possible to feel very close and rooted in your locality whilst being fully aware of the mythologies on which its identities are built and still feel connected with a wider world (and aware of the breadth of influence that has enriched that locality over the centuries). Shakespeare seems to have been taken on world wide (see the musical examples alone) whilst remaining very clearly English.

But I know what you mean - this will be played very heavily as propaganda for an idea of a specific 'English' genius in much the same way as the Germanic world has often played the 18th-early 20thC classical tradition or America music like jazz. 

Edited April 23, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[BillF]

Have just seen a car flying two St George's flags and I don't even live in Essex!

[optatio]

Don´t forget: "Brush up your Shakespeare"!

 

Edited April 23, 2016 by optatio

[A Lark Ascending]

They say (never have worked out who 'they' are) that Shakespeare anticipated everything:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/apr/22/martin-rowson-on-barack-obama-and-boris-johnson-cartoon

Nice article on how Shakespeare would have vote in the EU Referendum here:

 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/21/how-love-eu-count-william-shakespeare-remain-brexit

Probably scaremongering. 

 

[page]

Very enjoyable program on the BBC tonight with lovely music. I don't know the artists unfortunately.

[A Lark Ascending]

9 hours ago, page said:

Very enjoyable program on the BBC tonight with lovely music. I don't know the artists unfortunately.

The big jamboree at Stratford? I watched that too. Thought it a bit mawkish at first - reminded me of a cross between The Royal Command Performance and Britain's Got Talent (though according to this Guardian review the production started as a BBC schools' broadcast so that might explain that). But as it went on I warmed to it.

I liked the way they really did pay attention to the cultural diversity of both Britain and the way Shakespeare has been absorbed to other cultures in the world. Did like the 'To Be Or Not To Be?' skit, taking the mickey out of luvvydom (could have done without HRH Big Ears walk on part!). Nice to hear Ellington there (via a youth jazz orchestra) - both a piece from 'Such Sweet Thunder' and a clever little ballet based round the murder scene in Othello to 'Black and Tan Fantasy' - they really got the events in the dance to fit with the music. Also liked the Roger Quilter song sung by Ian Bostridge. 

High point for me was the speech from an unfinished play about Sir Thomas Moore (also mentioned in the Guardian clip above), berating a London crowd after a riot against 'strangers' and pointing out that in changing circumstances they too could be strangers abroad. Never heard that before...highly apposite to Britain and beyond in 2016.

Can't imagine the show will have gone down well with The Daily Mail (or the Daily Express with its 'crusade').   

Edited April 24, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[page]

I think it was on BBC2 a program about Shakespeare. A few times there was music, a couple of duets I really liked. I didn't see the whole program.