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“What a Wonderful World” is a song written by Bob Thiele (as “George Douglas”) and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and released in 1967 as a single, which topped the pop charts in the United Kingdom, though it performed poorly in the United States because Larry Newton, the president of ABC Records, disliked the song and refused to promote it.
The song was written by producer Bob Thiele (as “George Douglas“) and composer and performer George David Weiss.
One source claims the song was first offered to Tony Bennett, who turned it down, although Louis Armstrong biographer Ricky Riccardi disputes this claim. George Weiss recounts in the book Off the Record: Songwriters on Songwriting by Graham Nash that he wrote the song specifically for Louis Armstrong. Weiss was inspired by Armstrong’s ability to bring people of different races together.
Because he was gigging at the Tropicana Hotel, Armstrong recorded the song in Las Vegas at Bill Porter’s United Recording studio. The session was scheduled to follow Armstrong’s midnight show, and by 2 am the musicians were settled and tape was rolling. Arranger Artie Butler was there with songwriters Weiss and Thiele, and Armstrong was in the studio singing with the orchestra. Armstrong had recently signed to ABC Records, and ABC president Larry Newton showed up to photograph Armstrong. Newton wanted a swingy pop song like “Hello, Dolly!“, a big hit for Armstrong when he was with Kapp Records, so when Newton heard the slow pace of “What a Wonderful World”, he tried to stop the session. Newton was locked out of the studio for his disruption, but a second problem arose: nearby freight train whistles interrupted the session twice, forcing the recording to start over. Armstrong shook his head and laughed off the distractions, keeping his composure. The session ended around 6 am, going longer than expected. To make sure the orchestra members were paid extra for their overtime, Armstrong accepted only $250 musicians union scale for his work.
The song was not initially a hit in the United States, where it sold fewer than 1,000 copies because Newton did not like or promote it, but was a major success in the United Kingdom, reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart.In the United States, the song hit No. 16 on the BillboardBubbling Under Chart. It was also the biggest-selling single of 1968 in the UK where it was among the last pop singles issued by HMV before it became an exclusive classical music label. The song made Armstrong the oldest male to top the UK Singles Chart. Armstrong’s record was broken in 2009 when a remake of “Islands in the Stream” recorded for Comic Relief—which included the 68-year-old Tom Jones—reached number one in that chart.
ABC Records’ European distributor EMI forced ABC to issue a What a Wonderful World album in 1968 (catalogue number ABCS-650). It did not chart in the United States, due to ABC not promoting it, but charted in the UK where it was issued by Stateside Records with catalogue number SSL 10247 and peaked on the British chart at No. 37.
The song gradually became something of a standard and reached a new level of popularity. An episode of The Muppet Show produced in 1977 and broadcast early in 1978 featured Rowlf the Dog singing the song to a puppy. In 1978, it was featured in the closing scenes of BBC radio’s, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and was repeated for BBC’s 1981 TV adaptation of the series. In 1988, Armstrong’s recording appeared in the film Good Morning, Vietnam (despite the film being set in 1965 – two years before it was recorded) and was re-released as a single, hitting No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1988. The single charted at number one for the fortnight ending June 27, 1988 on the Australian chart. It is also the closing song for the 1995 movie 12 Monkeys and the 1998 film adaptation of Madeline.
In 2001, rappers Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, and the Alchemist released “The Forest,” a song that begins with three lines of lyric adapted from “What a Wonderful World”, altered to become “an invitation to get high” on marijuana. The rappers and their record company, Sony Music Entertainment, were sued by the owners of “What a Wonderful World,” Abilene Music. The suit was thrown out of court after Judge Gerard E. Lynch determined that the altered lyric was a parody, transforming the uplifting original message to a new one with a darker nature.
By April 2014, Louis Armstrong’s 1967 recording had sold 2,173,000 downloads in the United States after it was released digitally.
Herbie Hancock will always be one of the most revered and controversial figures in jazz, just as his employer/mentor Miles Davis was when he was alive. Unlike Miles, who pressed ahead relentlessly and never looked back until near the very end, Hancock has cut a zigzagging forward path, shuttling between almost every development in electronic and acoustic jazz and R&B over the last third of the 20th century and into the 21st.
Though grounded in Bill Evans and able to absorb blues, funk, gospel, and even modern classical influences, Hancock‘s piano and keyboard voices are entirely his own, with their own urbane harmonic and complex, earthy rhythmic signatures — and young pianists cop his licks constantly.
Having studied engineering and professing to love gadgets and buttons, Hancock was perfectly suited for the electronic age; he was one of the earliest champions of the Rhodes electric piano and Hohner clavinet, and would field an ever-growing collection of synthesizers and computers on his electric dates.
Yet his love for the grand piano never waned, and despite his peripatetic activities all over the musical map, his piano style continued to evolve into tougher, ever more complex forms. He is as much at home trading riffs with a smoking funk band as he is communing with a world-class post-bop rhythm section — and that drives purists on both sides of the fence up the wall.
Having taken up the piano at age seven, Hancock quickly became known as a prodigy, soloing in the first movement of a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony at the age of 11.
After studies at Grinnell College, Hancock was invited by Donald Byrd in 1961 to join his group in New York City, and before long, Blue Note offered him a solo contract. His debut album, Takin’ Off, took off after Mongo Santamaria covered one of the album’s songs, “Watermelon Man.” In May 1963, Miles Davis asked him to join his band in time for the Seven Steps to Heaven sessions, and he remained with him for five years, greatly influencing Davis‘ evolving direction, loosening up his own style, and, upon Davis‘ suggestion, converting to the Rhodes electric piano.
During that time, Hancock‘s solo career blossomed on Blue Note, as he poured forth increasingly sophisticated compositions like “Maiden Voyage,” “Cantaloupe Island,” “Goodbye to Childhood,” and the exquisite “Speak Like a Child.” He also played on many East Coast recording sessions for producer Creed Taylor and provided a groundbreaking score to Michelangelo Antonioni‘s film Blow-Up, which gradually led to further movie assignments.
Having left the Davis band in 1968, Hancock recorded an elegant funk album, Fat Albert Rotunda, and in 1969 formed a sextet that evolved into one of the most exciting, forward-looking jazz-rock groups of the era. By then deeply immersed in electronics, Hancock added Patrick Gleeson‘s synthesizer to his Echoplexed, fuzz-wah-pedaled electric piano and clavinet, and the recordings became spacier and more complex rhythmically and structurally, creating their own corner of the avant-garde. By 1970, all of the musicians used both English and African names (Herbie‘s was Mwandishi).
Alas, Hancock had to break up the band in 1973 when it ran out of money, and having studied Buddhism, he concluded that his ultimate goal should be to make his audiences happy.
The next step, then, was a terrific funk group whose first album, Head Hunters, with its Sly Stone-influenced hit single, “Chameleon,” became the biggest-selling jazz LP up to that time. Handling all of the synthesizers himself, Hancock‘s heavily rhythmic comping often became part of the rhythm section, leavened by interludes of the old urbane harmonies. Hancock recorded several electric albums of mostly superior quality in the ’70s, followed by a turn into disco around the decade’s end.
The near-universal acclaim of the reunions proved that Hancock was still a whale of a pianist; that Miles‘ loose mid-’60s post-bop direction was far from spent; and that the time for a neo-traditional revival was near, finally bearing fruit in the ’80s with Wynton Marsalis and his ilk. V.S.O.P. continued to hold sporadic reunions through 1992, though the death of the indispensable Williams in 1997 cast much doubt as to whether these gatherings would continue.
Hancock continued his chameleonic ways in the ’80s: scoring an MTV hit in 1983 with the scratch-driven, electro-influenced single “Rockit” (accompanied by a striking video); launching an exciting partnership with Gambian kora virtuoso Foday Musa Suso that culminated in the swinging 1986 live album Jazz Africa; doing film scores, and playing festivals and tours with the Marsalis brothers, George Benson, Michael Brecker, and many others. After his 1988 techno-pop album, Perfect Machine, Hancock left Columbia (his label since 1973), signed a contract with Qwest that came to virtually nothing (save for A Tribute to Miles in 1992), and finally made a deal with Polygram in 1994 to record jazz for Verve and release pop albums on Mercury.
Well into a youthful middle age, Hancock‘s curiosity, versatility, and capacity for growth showed no signs of fading, and in 1998 he issued Gershwin’s World. His curiosity with the fusion of electronic music and jazz continued with 2001’s Future 2 Future, but he also continued to explore the future of straight-ahead contemporary jazz with 2005’s Possibilities. An intriguing album of jazz treatments of Joni Mitchell compositions called River: The Joni Letters was released in 2007 and won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 2008.
Two years later, Hancock released his The Imagine Project album, recorded in seven countries with a host of collaborators including Dave Matthews, Juanes, and Wayne Shorter. He was also named Creative Chair for the New Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 2013, he was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honors award, acknowledged for his contribution to American performing arts. An expanded tenth anniversary edition of River: The Joni Letters was released in 2017, and he continues to perform regularly.
Tim Richards, Exploring Jazz Piano Volume 1 PDF. A large and fully comprehensive guide to the inner secrets of the Jazz Piano style. Beginning at first principles, this exhaustive tutorial guides the intermediate Pianist through the nuts and bolts of successful and inspiring improvisation.
Author Tim Richards covers all styles from the 1940s to the present day, and includes 28 of his own compositions alongside such celebrated standards as Autumn Leaves, On Green Dolphin Street and Straight, No Chaser. In fact, fans of Monk and Horace Silver will be especially pleased to discover two full transcriptions of solos by these innovative Jazzmen.
A small selection of the subjects covered includes: Chord/scale relationships; Modes; Broken chord and scale patterns; Pentatonic and Blues scales; Walking Basslines; Latin rhythms and basslines; Horizontal and vertical improvisation; II-V-I sequences; Tritone substitution; Two-handed voicings; Ear-training; Suggested listening. MP3 is included with the book, featuring stereo-separated recordings of all pieces, along with bass and drums, so you can either hear the full performance or remove the Piano part to play along.
Furthermore, the course is packed with assignments and arrangement ideas that will guide you towards the development of your very own Jazz style and sound. Come now and borrow it at our sheet music Library
Play Guitar with The Beatles “Here comes the Sun” – Play Along background with sheet music
Here comes the Sun
Composition
Musical structure
Lyrics
Play Guitar with The Beatles “Here comes the Sun” – Play Along background with sheet music
Here comes the Sun
“Here Comes the Sun” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album Abbey Road. It was written by George Harrison and is one of his best-known compositions for the Beatles. Harrison wrote the song in early 1969 at the country house of his friend Eric Clapton, where Harrison had chosen to play truant for the day to avoid attending a meeting at the Beatles’ Apple Corps organisation.
The lyrics reflect his relief at the arrival of spring and the temporary respite he was experiencing from the band’s business affairs. As of September 2019, it was the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify globally, with over 350 million plays.
The Beatles recorded “Here Comes the Sun” at London’s EMI Studios in the summer of 1969. Led by Harrison’s acoustic guitar, the track features Moog synthesizer, which he had introduced to the band’s sound after acquiring an early model of the instrument in California. Reflecting the continued influence of Indian classical music on Harrison’s writing, the composition includes several time signature changes.
“Here Comes the Sun” has received acclaim from music critics. Combined with his other contribution to Abbey Road, “Something“, it gained for Harrison the level of recognition as a songwriter that had previously been reserved for his bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Harrison played the song during many of his relatively rare live performances as a solo artist, including at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 and, with Paul Simon, during his appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1976. Richie Havens and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel each had hit singles with “Here Comes the Sun” in the 1970s.
The early months of 1969 were a difficult period for Harrison: he had quit the Beatles temporarily, he was arrested for marijuana possession, and he had his tonsils removed. Writing in Oz magazine at the end of the year, Barry Miles commented on the “isolated life” of the individual Beatles, with “George strangely upset by his bust, uncertain about his friends but singing Hare Krishna.”
Harrison wrote “Here Comes the Sun” at the house of his friend Eric Clapton, in response to the dark mood surrounding the Beatles. Harrison states in his autobiography, I, Me, Mine:
“Here Comes the Sun” was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen: ‘Sign this’ and ‘sign that.’ Anyway, it seems as if winter in England goes on forever, by the time spring comes you really deserve it. So one day I decided I was going to sag off Apple and I went over to Eric Clapton’s house. The relief of not having to go see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric’s acoustic guitars and wrote “Here Comes the Sun”.
Clapton’s house at the time was Hurtwood Edge, in Ewhurst, Surrey, and he later said the month was possibly April. Data from two meteorological stations in the London area show that April 1969 set a record for sunlight hours for the 1960s. The Greenwich station recorded 189 hours for April, a high that was not beaten until 1984. The Greenwich data also show that February and March were much colder than the norm for the 1960s, which would account for Harrison’s reference to a “long, cold, lonely winter”.
Harrison completed the song’s lyrics in June, while on holiday in Sardinia. Former Catholic Herald editor William Oddie describes the lyric as conveying an “almost Chestertonian gratitude for the beauty of creation”.
One feature is the increasing syncopation in the vocal parts. Another feature is the guitar flat-picking that embellishes the E7 (V7) chord from 2:03 to 2:11, creating tension for resolution on the tonic A chord at “Little darlin’ “. The bridge involves a ♭III-♭VII-IV-I-V7 triple descending 4th (or Tri-Plagal) progression (with an extra V7) as the vocals move from “Sun” (♭III or C chord) to “sun” (♭VII or G chord) to “sun” (IV or D chord) to “comes” (I or A chord) and the additional 4th descent to a V7 (E7) chord. The lyric here (“Sun, sun, sun, here it comes”) has been described as taking “on the quality of a meditator’s mantra”.
The song features 4/4 (in the verse) and a sequence of 11/8 + 4/4 + 7/8 (which can also be transcribed as 11/8 + 15/8) in the bridge, phrasing interludes that Harrison drew from Indian music influences. In the second verse (0:59–1:13) the Moog synthesizer doubles the solo guitar line and in the third verse the Moog adds a counter melody an octave above. The last four bars (2:54–3:04) juxtapose the guitar break with a repeat of the bridge.
Lyrics
Here comes the sun do, do, do Here comes the sun And I say it’s all right
Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun do, do, do Here comes the sun And I say it’s all right
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun do, do, do Here comes the sun And I say it’s all right
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been clear
Here comes the sun do, do, do Here comes the sun And I say it’s all right
Here comes the sun do, do, do Here comes the sun And I say it’s all right
The Aebersold Play Along Series Puts You a Step Ahead When Learning Tunes (full collection to download from our Library).
When you’re coming up as a jazz pianist, it’s often difficult to find guys to play with so you can practice trio music. The Aebersold collection of play along CDs and books are an invaluable resource for not only learning the nuances of comping (the piano is in one track, you can play along and then turn it down) but also learning how to improvise over the chord changes of almost every jazz standard there is.
For the beginning and intermediate player who isn’t quite ready or old enough to hit the pro jam sessions at clubs around town, these books will prepare you to play with the pros.
Practice note: The one downside to these books is that the rhythm section obviously does not respond to your playing. Do not get into the habit of just playing a bunch of notes that fit without listening to the bass and drums. Make sure you try to respond and play with all the nuances and hits they give you because if you don’t, you will play foolishly on stage when you’re with real people.
Make sure you gather your jazz friends together every once in a while to get live musician experience or what will happen is you will be one of those robot players who ignores the people around you and just plays notes. This you do not want.
With that said, these books and CDs are the best tools for learning tunes and learning how to play over them. The whole Aebersold Collection is available in our Sheet Music Library (PDF).
Play Guitar with….ERIC CLAPTON “Tears in Heaven” (unplugged) with sheet music & audio track
Guitar Play Along series will assist players in learning to play their favorite songs quickly and easily. Just follow the tab, listen to the audio to hear how the guitar should sound, and then play along using the separate backing tracks.
The melody and lyrics are also included in the book in case you want to sing, or to simply help you follow along.
Acclaimed guitarist and singer-songwriter Eric Clapton is known for his contributions to The Yardbirds and Cream, as well as such singles as “Tears in Heaven” as a solo artist.
Who Is Eric Clapton?
Eric Clapton was a prominent member of The Yardbirds and Cream before achieving success as a solo artist. Considered one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll guitarists of all time, he is known for such classic songs as “Layla,” “Crossroads” and “Wonderful Tonight.”
Early Life
Eric Patrick Clapton was born March 30, 1945, in Ripley, Surrey, England. Clapton’s mother, Patricia Molly Clapton, was only 16 years old at the time of his birth; his father, Edward Walter Fryer, was a 24-year-old Canadian soldier stationed in the United Kingdom during World War II. Fryer returned to Canada, where he was already married to another woman, before Clapton’s birth.
As a single teenage mother, Patricia Clapton was unprepared to raise a child on her own, so her mother and stepfather, Rose and Jack Clapp, raised Clapton as their own. Although they never legally adopted him, Clapton grew up under the impression that his grandparents were his parents and that his mother was his older sister. Clapton’s last name comes from his grandfather, Patricia’s father, Reginald Cecil Clapton.
Clapton grew up in a very musical household. His grandmother was a skilled pianist, and his mother and uncle both enjoyed listening to big-band music. As it turns out, Clapton’s absent father was also a talented pianist who had played in several dance bands while stationed in Surrey. Around the age of eight, Clapton discovered the earth-shattering truth that the people he believed were his parents were actually his grandparents and that the woman he considered his older sister was in fact his mother. Clapton later recalled, “The truth dawned on me, that when Uncle Adrian jokingly called me a little bastard, he was telling the truth.”
The young Clapton, until then a good student and well-liked boy, grew sullen and reserved and lost all motivation to do his schoolwork. He describes a moment shortly after learning the news of his parentage: “I was playing around with my grandma’s compact, with a little mirror you know, and I saw myself in two mirrors for the first time and I don’t know about you but it was like hearing your voice on a tape machine for the first… and I didn’t, I, I was so upset.
I saw a receding chin and a broken nose and I thought my life is over.” Clapton failed the important 11-plus exams that determine admission to secondary school. However, he showed a high aptitude for art, so at the age of 13 he enrolled in the art branch of the Holyfield Road School.
Musical Start
By that time, 1958, rock ‘n’ roll had exploded onto the British music scene; for his 13th birthday, Clapton asked for a guitar. He received a cheap German-made Hoyer, and finding the steel-stringed guitar difficult and painful to play, he soon set it aside. At the age of 16, he gained acceptance into the Kingston College of Art on a one-year probation; it was there, surrounded by teenagers with musical tastes similar to his own, that Clapton really took to the instrument.
Clapton was especially taken with the blues guitar played by musicians such as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Alexis Korner, the last of whom inspired Clapton to buy his first electric guitar — a relative rarity in England.
It was also at Kingston that Clapton discovered something that would have nearly as great an impact on his life as the guitar: booze. He recalls that the first time he got drunk, at the age of 16, he woke up alone in the woods, covered in vomit and without any money. “I couldn’t wait to do it all again,” Clapton remembers. Clapton was expelled from school after his first year.
He later explained, “Even when you got to art school, it wasn’t just a rock ‘n’ roll holiday camp. I got thrown out after a year for not doing any work. That was a real shock. I was always in the pub or playing the guitar.” Finished with school, in 1963 Clapton started hanging around the West End of London and trying to break into the music industry as a guitarist. That year, he joined his first band, The Roosters, but they broke up after only a few months.
Next he joined the pop-oriented Casey Jones and The Engineers but left the band after just a few weeks. At this point, not yet making a living off his music, Clapton worked as a laborer at construction sites to make ends meet.
Already one of the most respected guitarists on the West End pub circuit, in October 1963 Clapton received an invitation to join a band called The Yardbirds. With The Yardbirds, Clapton recorded his first commercial hits, “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and “For Your Love,” but he soon grew frustrated with the band’s commercial pop sound and left the group in 1965. The two young guitarists who replaced Clapton in The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, would also go on to rank among the greatest rock guitarists in history.
Tears in Heaven
“Would you know my name, if I saw you in heaven? Would it be the same, if I saw you in heaven?” asks the lyrics to “Tears in Heaven,” the emotionally wrought hit song by guitar idol Eric Clapton. Released in 1991 it charted in the top 10 in more than 20 countries and won Grammys for Song of the Year, Album of the Year (Unplugged) and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
Though it achieved incredible international success, the creation of the song, like many adored ballads and laments, was heavily influenced by the emotional state of its creator. For Clapton, it arose out of the pain following the accidental death of his 4-year-old son Conor, and it is infused it with all the loss, heartache and longing of a grieving parent.
Making History
Later in 1965, Clapton joined the blues band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, the next year recording an album called The Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, which established his reputation as one of the great guitarists of the age. The album, which included songs such as “What’d I Say” and “Ramblin’ on My Mind,” is widely considered among the greatest blues albums of all time. Clapton’s miraculous guitar-playing on the album also inspired his most flattering nickname, “God,” popularized by a bit of graffiti on the wall of a London Tube station reading “Clapton is God.”
Despite the record’s success, Clapton soon left the Bluesbreakers as well; a few months later, he teamed up with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker to form the rock trio Cream. Performing highly original takes on blues classics such as “Crossroads” and “Spoonful,” as well as modern blues tracks like “Sunshine of Your Love” and “White Room,” Clapton pushed the boundaries of blues guitar. On the strength of three well-received albums, Fresh Cream (1966), Disraeli Gears (1967) and Wheels of Fire (1968), as well as extensive touring in the United States, Cream achieved international superstar status. Yet they, too, broke up after two final concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall, citing clashing egos as the cause.
Hard Times
After the breakup of Cream, Clapton formed yet another band, Blind Faith, but the group broke up after only one album and a disastrous American tour. Then, in 1970, he formed Derek and the Dominos, and went on to compose and record one of the seminal albums of rock history, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. A concept album about unrequited love, Clapton wrote Layla to express his desperate affection for Pattie Boyd, the wife of the Beatles’ George Harrison. The album was critically acclaimed but a commercial failure, and in its aftermath a depressed and lonely Clapton deteriorated into three years of heroin.
Clapton finally kicked his drug habit and reemerged onto the music scene in 1974 with two concerts at London’s Rainbow Theater organized by his friend Pete Townshend of The Who. Later that year he released 461 Ocean Boulevard, featuring one his most popular singles, a cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff.” The album marked the beginning of a remarkably prolific solo career during which Clapton produced notable album after notable album. Highlights include No Reason to Cry (1976), featuring “Hello Old Friend”; Slowhand (1977), featuring “Cocaine” and “Wonderful Tonight”; and Behind the Sun (1985), featuring “She’s Waiting” and “Forever Man.”
Despite his great musical productivity during these years, Clapton’s personal life remained in woeful disarray. In 1979, five years after her divorce from George Harrison, Pattie Boyd finally did marry Eric Clapton. However, by this time Clapton had simply replaced his heroin addiction with alcoholism, and his drinking placed a constant strain on their relationship. He was an unfaithful husband and conceived two children with other women during their marriage.
A yearlong affair with Yvonne Kelly produced a daughter, Ruth, in 1985, and an affair with Italian model Lory Del Santo led to a son, Conor, in 1986. Clapton and Boyd divorced in 1989. In 1991, Clapton’s son Conor died when he fell out of the window of his mother’s apartment. The tragedy took a heavy toll on Clapton and also inspired one of his most beautiful and heartfelt songs, “Tears in Heaven.”
New Beginnings
In 1987, with the help of the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Clapton finally quit drinking and has remained sober ever since. Being sober for the first time in his adult life allowed Clapton to achieve the kind of personal happiness he had never known before. In 1998, he founded the Crossroads Centre, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, and in 2002, he married Melia McEnery. Together they have three daughters, Julie Rose, Ella Mae and Sophie.
Clapton, who published his autobiography in 2007, was ranked the second greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2015. An 18-time Grammy Award winner and the only triple inductee of the Rock and Roll of Fame (as a member of The Yardbirds, as a member of Cream and as a solo artist), he continued to record music and tour through his 60s, while also performing charity work.
In 2016, Clapton revealed that he had been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy three years earlier, a condition that left him with back and leg pain. In early 2018, he admitted in an interview that he was also dealing with tinnitus, a ringing in the ears caused by noise-induced hearing loss. Despite the ailments, the guitar legend said he intended to continue performing that year.
Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea (born June 12, 1941) is an American jazz pianist/electric keyboardist and composer. His compositions “Spain“, “500 Miles High“, “La Fiesta”, “Armando’s Rhumba” and “Windows“, are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis‘s band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed the fusion band Return to Forever. With Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era. Many of his jazz transcriptions can be found in our Library.
Thelonious Monk (p) Charlie Rouse (ts) Larry Gales (b) Ben Riley (d), Maison de la Culture, Amiens, France, March 23, 1966
Thelonious Sphere Monk (10 octobre 1917 – 17 février 1982) était un pianiste de jazz américain célèbre pour son style d’improvisation unique, ainsi que pour avoir écrit de nombreux standards du répertoire du jazz.
Alors que Monk est souvent considéré comme l’un des fondateurs du bebop, l’évolution de son style personnel l’en a fait s’éloigner. Il est d’ailleurs difficile d’établir une filiation même si son jeu pianistique (assez traditionnel dans les ballades) se rapporte au jeu stride des années 1920/1930 et si son influence peut être décelée chez de nombreux musiciens plus récents.
Ses compositions ont suscité les plus vives réactions tant elles bousculaiente la mélodie, l’harmonie et le rythme. Il était aussi considéré comme un artiste d’avant-garde grâce à la présence de notes dissonantes dans ses ballades.
Biographie
Né à Rocky en Caroline du nord, sa famille s’établit à Manhattan en 1922. Il commence à jouer du piano à 6 ans et bien qu’il ait pris quelques cours, il est considéré comme un autodidacte. À 12 ans, il accompagne à l’harmonium sa mère qui chante dans l’église baptiste de son quartier. À 17 ans, il participe à la tournée d’un évangéliste.
Il suit des cours à Stuyvesant High School mais ne sera jamais diplomé.
Ses débuts
Il commence ensuite à trouver du travail comme musicien de jazz ; il apparaît sur des enregistrements de Jerry Newman réalisés autour de 1941 au Minton’s Playhouse, un club de Harlem, où Monk a été engagé comme pianiste. Son style très personnel fait sensation, et attire les grands de l’époque, comme Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell ou Charlie Parker.
En 1944, Monk enregistre en studio pour la première fois avec le quartet de Coleman Hawkins. Hawkins aidera Monk à son début de carrière, et Monk lui retournera la pareille en l’invitant à se joindre à lui lors de session avec John Coltrane en 1957.
En 1947, il enregistre pour la première fois sous son nom pour le label Blue note. Ces enregistrements mettent déjà en valeur ses talents de compositeur. La même année, il se marie avec Nellie Smith. De leur union naîtra un fils, T.S Monk (en 1949), qui deviendra plus tard batteur de Jazz puis une fille, Barbara (en 1953).
Monk passe donc la plupart des années 50 à composer, enregistrer, il joue également dans quelques théatres.
Après ses enregistrements pour Blue Note de 1947 à 1952, Monk signe avec le label Prestige pour deux ans. Il y enregistre quelques albums et collabore avec Sonny Rollins et Art Blakey. En 1954 il participe également aux albums de Miles Davis : Bags’ Groove et Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants.
En 1954, Monk arrive pour la première fois en Europe (il joue et enregistre à Paris). Il rencontre la baronne Pannonica de Koenigswarter, « Nica », membre de la branche anglaise de la famille Rothschild et mécène de plusieurs musicien de Jazz New-Yorkais. Elle restera une amie intime durant toute sa vie.
Epoque Riverside / Columbia
Au moment de signer pour le label Riverside, Monk était reconnu par le milieu du jazz mais ne vendait pas beaucoup d’albums : sa musique était vue comme peu accessible par le grand public. Riverside parvient à convaincre Monk d’enregistrer deux albums ne contenant que ses interprétations des standards du Jazz.
Le jeu de Monk se caractérise par de nombreuses notes dissonantes très bien placées.
Monk effectue de nombreuses tournées et enregistrements dans les années 1950 et 1960, mais disparaît de la scène au début des années 1970. Son dernier enregistrement date de novembre 1971 et il est rarement monté en scène pendant la dernière décennie de sa vie.
Il est mort en 1982 chez Pannonica de Koenigswarter et a été enterré au cimetière Ferncliff à Hartsdale, New York. Après sa mort, sa musique a été redécouverte par un public plus large et il est maintenant considéré aux côtés de Miles Davis, John Coltrane et d’autres comme une figure majeure de l’histoire du jazz.
Anecdotes
Les titres des morceaux de Thelonious Monk étaient souvent décidés après l’enregistrement de ces derniers, donnant lieu a des séances de casse-tête collectifs.
Ainsi le titre de Let’s call this provient de la perplexité de Monk, qui après avoir enregistré le titre répéta machinalement : « Let’s call this… let’s call this… » (Appelons-la… appelons-la…)
Think of One a été appelée ainsi par l’expression de la lassitude de Thelonious Monk. Après l’enregistrement ce dernier, fatigué de réfléchir à un titre, dit à son collaborateur « Think of one », ce qui signifie « Cherches-en un ». Ce sont ces trois mots qui seront choisis.
Thelonious Monk reçut le surnom de Melodious Thonk… sans doute a cause de sa manière de jouer, à la fois mélodique et dissonante.
One day we walked along the sand One day in early spring You held a piper in your hand To mend its broken wing Now I’ll remember many a day And many a lonely mile The echo of a piper’s song The shadow of a smile
The shadow of your smile When you are gone Will color all my dreams And light the dawn Look into my eyes My love and see All the lovely things You are to me
Our wistful little star Was far too high A teardrop kissed your lips And so did I Now when I remember spring All the joy that love can bring I will be remembering The shadow of your smile
