It is to be learned – This cleaving and this burning, But only by the one who Spends out himself again. Hart Crane
NOTEBOOKS By Tony Tedeschi
Caffé de Perugia: Mid-afternoon snack.
Bel paese cheese; warm, crusty slices of bread; ripest, sweetest black figs and a fine chianti. Sunny day, cloudless sky, light breeze. The highlight of this summer’s Northern Italian Jazz Festival for me was last night’s Armstrong/Holiday Classical Jazz Orchestra, 12 pieces performing dead-on versions of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday songs, fully deserving of the orchestra’s titling itself “Classical.” Chicago-based female vocalist Betty Blanchard’s amazing channeling of Holiday’s version of “All of Me” was matched by her fellow Chicagoan tenor saxophonist Jimmy Redfield’s beautifully rendered cover of the Lester Young solo. Just one of many gems. New Orleans native Jean-Paul Andre’s vocal of Satchmo’s “La Vie en Rose,” along with his doing double-duty on trumpet, ala “Loo-iss,” white handkerchief and all, was nothing short of Armstrongian. The jazz orchestrations – Look at those three. Extras in a Fellini movie? Especially the one on the left. Fashionably dressed on this warmish Italian afternoon. All three sipping an Italian red, holding the wineglass stems with the delicacy of aristocrats. Where was I? 55
