Duke’s man with a plan
QUESTION What happens to a big band leader’s musical arrangements when he dies?
BEHIND every great band leader is a great arranger, whose role is to provide the orchestration for the music, making sure every aspect of the piece is harmonised from the instruments down to the tempo.
These are the forgotten men of music. Think of the terrific brassy orchestration behind Frank Sinatra’s hit recording Night And day from A Swingin’ Affair, released in 1957, which was down to Nelson Riddle.
Perhaps the greatest music arranger of them all was duke ellington’s diminutive, bespectacled sidekick, Billy Strayhorn, responsible for such classics as Take The ‘A’ Train, Chelsea Bridge, A Flower is A Lovesome Thing and Lush Life.
Another famous arranger was Skip Martin, who worked with Count Basie, Charlie Barnet, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.
The better band leaders gave credit to their arrangers, but this was the exception rather than the rule.
Though they contributed substantially to the finished work, arrangers rarely held legal claim to copyright and royalty payments, which ended up in the pockets of the band leader or songwriter.
All the classic big band arrangements have been preserved and can be bought from specialist shops and websites such as ejazzlines.com. They don’t come cheap, costing between £150 and £400.
Musicians don’t need a licence to cover an arrangement live, but if they are going to record and distribute copies of the music, they require permission from the writer or publisher.
An original piece of music is subject to UK law, whereby copyright lasts for 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author dies.
Richard Brewster, Bradford, W. Yorks. i Play with the easy Beat Big Band, which features many Ted heath arrangements. And, of course, most bands play the famous Glenn Miller tunes.
Ron McLeod, Bexhill-on-Sea, E. Sussex.
QUESTION When was petrol first used?
PETROLEUM, the natural yellowish black liquid found in geological formations, has been used by humans for millennia. it was mined in China using bamboo poles and used for lighting and heating. The refined petrol (gasoline in the U.S.) that we use to power motor vehicles came much later.
edwin drake drilled the first dedicated oil well in Pennsylvania in 1859. he distilled the oil to produce kerosene for lighting. in 1891, the Shukhov cracking process became the world’s first commercial method for breaking down the heavier hydrocarbons in petroleum, to increase the percentage of lighter products compared to simple distillation.
it was good timing; the following year saw the invention of the automobile, when petrol was finally recognised as a valuable fuel.
Jim Briggs, Luton, Beds.
QUESTION My mum told me Dixon Of Dock Green star Jack Warner taught French actor Maurice Chevalier to speak English while they were PoWs during World War I. Was this true?
MAURICE CHEVALIER, the French singer and actor, was wounded and taken prisoner during World War i. he did learn english from British prisoners of war while in captivity, but not from the actor Jack Warner.
The camp in which Chevalier was held housed British prisoners from yorkshire regiments, and Chevalier’s english accent was reported as being from Leeds.
Jack Warner, a Londoner, served as a driver in the Royal Flying Corps during World War i and there is no record of him being taken prisoner.
Maurice Chevalier was born in 1888 and, at the outbreak of World War i, was in the Army doing national service.
he was wounded by shrapnel during the first weeks of the war and taken prisoner.
in 1916, he was released due to the intervention of King Alfonso Xiii of Spain. Alfonso was an admirer of the French singer and actor Mistinguett (born Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois), who had been in a relationship with Chevalier.
Thanks to his successful career in music hall and cabaret, Chevalier caught the eye of hollywood moguls and appeared in the musicals The Big Pond and one hour With you, as well as the screen operetta The Merry Widow.
during World War ii, he stayed in France during the occupation and performed at the Casino de Paris, leading to accusations that he was a collaborator. it was wrongly reported in the U.S. military newspaper Stars And Stripes in 1944 that he had died at the hands of the Maquis, the French Resistance.
After the war, Chevalier was acquitted by a French court, but the allegations continued to cause him problems and he was refused a British visa for several years. he made his most famous movie musical Gigi in 1958. Chevalier died on New year’s day 1972 at the age of 83.
Jack Warner was born horace Waters in Poplar, east London, in 1895. After World War i, during which he won the Meritorious Service Medal, he worked in the motor trade until he decided to take up performing in his late 30s.
he worked in theatre and radio, mainly doing comedy monologues, before making his first film, The dummy Talks, in 1943. despite it being his debut, he was given the leading role.
Warner’s famous role as dixon of dock Green had been created for the 1950 film The Blue Lamp, in which PC dixon was killed. With the BBC TV series running from 1955 to 1976, it was a remarkable resurrection.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.