Bard - Lives!

Shakespeare and all that jazz.

The two are seemingly inseparable despite the, say, 300-years gap between the death of one and the birth of the other. My first connection with these two unlikely bedfellows was via the Bob Crosby Bobcats 1939 recordings of Arthur Young’s settings of Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind; It Was a Lover & His Lass; Oh Mistress Mine and Sigh No More Ladies. Marian Mann took the vocals and the band comprised Billy Butterfield, Irving Fazola, Eddie Miller, Floyd Bean, Nappy Lamare and Ray Bauduc. Truly a line-up worthy of a gig at Stratford on Avon.

Cleo Laine, back in the days when she was a dame rather than a Dame, recorded It Was a Lover & His Lass with the Dankworth Seven in 1955 and then, in 1964, recorded all four, this time with the full Dankworth orchestra. The album, Shakespeare and All That Jazz, which to this very day, remains an all-time favourite of mine included originals by John Dankworth (The Compleat Works in which Cleo manages to include the titles of all of the Bard’s plays is truly magnificent) and vocalised versions of a couple of tracks from another Shakespearean classic – Ellington’s Such Sweet Thunder.

This latter piece is Ellington at his most glorious – Duke was a bit of a culture snob and, who could blame him after this album?

There have been others. I have in my possession a tape by the late Midlands trumpet player, Ken Rattenbury, depicting The Seven Ages of Man from As You Like it.

In the 1930s, Lew Stone featured a trumpet player called Bill Shakespeare and there is also a well-known jazz photographer of the same name!

Geoffrey Smith will be exploring many of the above recordings and more on Radio 3 tomorrow (April 24) at 3pm.

Lance.