Seven Jazz Dwarfs: a Collection of Short Stories About Tiny European Musicians by Aurel Emilian Mircea MD

Author:Aurel Emilian Mircea MD [Emilian Mircea, M.D. Aurel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2017-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

Back in my modest apartment on the south side of Arno River I promptly opened my new Fake Book. It did not take me long to find the best tune to start my new vocal endeavors. It was called, Come Rain or Come Shine. Written in the 40s by Harold Arlem, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer it became a standard for hundreds of musicians and vocalists. From American jazz Giants to European jazz Dwarf it has been recorded, played in concerts and movies for decades. Searching through my Downbeat Magazine collections, lo and behold, the song was also performed onstage by LaFaro himself. It soon became part of the regular repertoire of Bill Evans Trio.

Was this a spiritual coincidence, which the shopkeeper did not know about? Or was it a well-planned incentive by a cleaver businessman to make me expand my jazz expertise?

Whatever the cause of the quirk was, there and then I made up my mind to start singing during the upcoming gigs. I did have some vocal experience from the many years spent with the monks at the cathedral and singing in the boys’ choir. Over the years, I have also hummed along many of my favorite songs and knew some English lyrics, but not enough to sing for others to hear me. However, Come Rain or Come Shine had lyrics amazingly suitable to my personal feeling about freedom and the world of jazz. This old standard made me fall deeper in love with the Land of the Free. I wanted to one day play on the Carnegie Hall’s stage, the ultimate award for any European jazz Dwarf. And I could never forget my idol, the American jazz Giant, bassist Rocco Scott LaFaro. Being of Italian descent as well, he had given me many reasons to follow into his footsteps and eventually settle in America.

…I started to practice, practice and practice some more, on the way to Carnegie Hall…!

Improving my English, without a teacher and with an old Italian-English dictionary at hand, I’ve soon learned to pronounce most lyrics without my Italian accent. I wasn’t worried about my jazz buddies’ reaction on stage. My concern was with the audiences’ knowledge of the original song. Most of our foreign guests from Austrian and Germany spoke and understood English very well. It had become a mandatory second language on the European continent and a necessary asset to be able to communicate with each other. Forget the French, German or Italian tongues. They were limited to domestic usage and less useful as a tool of international relations.

At my first performance as a singing bassist, when the manager announced the surprise the entire audience fell silent. Without hesitation, I brought the tripod closer to the double bass and raised the microphone to the level of my lips. After four introductory bars by the pianist, I broke into the lyrics:

…I’m gonna love you like nobody’s loved you

Come rain or come shine

High as a mountain, deep as a river

Come rain or come shine…

…I guess

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.