Music Notes 5-10-26
This week we celebrate the groove of the big band. Swingin’ harmonies, just like the old days.
Duke Ellington, Vince Guaraldi, Tommy Dorsey…you can’t go wrong. Bring your dancing
shoes to church this week – it’s going to be a blast.
Duke Ellington was a very spiritual man, who carried a Bible and crucifix everywhere he went.
He studied scripture every day, and so when he was approached in 1962 to create and execute a
concert of music for the opening of the new Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, it was dream
come true. Finally, he was allowed to write the music HE wanted to write – it didn’t have to be
commercial to make the publishers happy, and it didn’t have to be 2 ½ minutes long to play on
the radio. Most of all, it could be music that came from his soul, a soul that was deeply rooted in
the church. He undertook what he called “the most important work I’ve ever done” and created
what ultimately became three concerts that became known as “The Sacred Concerts”.
He stated publicly many times that he was trying to avoid writing “a mass”, and observers at the
time commented that he brought the Cotton Club revue to the church. The music was familiar
Ellington, and yet had modern esoteric elements that even today make music aficionados sit up
and take notice. The most lasting thing to come out of all that is the song we know from the
hymn book, known variously as “Come Sunday” or “Savior God Above”. Like all good
composers, he took that tune and reused it in a variety of places in the concert, including the tap
dance number “David Danced” – yes, there were tap dancers in church. The original 1965
concert was filmed and can be seen on YouTube. And to make sure you didn’t get too
complacent, he threw in Ain’t But The One to keep your toe tapping.
Take My Hand, Precious Lord is a classic gospel hymn written by Thomas A. Dorsey, who is
generally considered to be the father of the gospel hymn. He wrote the words in his inconsolable
grief after finding out that his wife, Nettie Harper, and infant son, August, had both died during
childbirth in 1932. He later adapted the melody, drawing largely on the 1844 hymn tune
Maitland. It was the favorite song of Martin Luther King, who frequently asked Mahalia
Jackson to sing it at gatherings to help inspire the crowd. In fact, King’s last words, before being
assassinated, were a request for it to be played at a Mass he was scheduled to attend that night.
Leontyne Price sang it at the funeral of Lyndon B. Johnson, and Aretha Franklin sang it at the
funeral of Mahalia Jackson. Years ago, I was flipping through the hymnal looking for something
we could use for special music with the band and stopped at Precious Lord (one of my favorites).
I looked at the name of the composer and wondered “I wonder what it would’ve sounded like if
the other Tommy Dorsey got his hands on it…” So, this is what I think it would’ve sounded like
if Tommy Dorsey had written it for his orchestra with the Pied Pipers and Frank Sinatra.
Vince Guaraldi, who was born Vincent Anthony Dellaglio, was a jazz pianist known for his
innovative compositions and arrangements. He was born in San Francisco’s North Beach area,
and his name changed to Guaraldi when he was adopted by his mother’s second husband. After
a 6 year stint with Cal Tjader’s trio in the 50’s, he left and pursued a solo career, releasing an
album entitled Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus. The record company released Samba De
Orpheus from the album as a single, hoping to catch the growing bossa nova wave. But it was
the B side of Samba De Orpheus, a gentle, likeable tune called Cast Your Fate To The Wind, that
caught the attention of DJs across the country. The producer of the Peanuts documentary that
was in the works heard Cast Your Fate To The Wind on the radio while traveling in a taxicab, and
asked Guaraldi to write the music for the upcoming Peanuts Christmas special, which he took on
eagerly. 3 weeks later, he called the producer, who was in a meeting with Peanuts creator
Charles Schultz, to play Linus and Lucy for them over the phone. When he finished and picked
up the phone again, he heard loud cheers and whoops coming from the other end. The
producers’ idea was to enable the parents watching the show with their children to listen to “cool
jazz” while the kids watched the cartoon. Guaraldi went on to score 17 Peanuts shows as well as
the feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown. He had just finished recording the score for It’s
Arbor Day, Charlie Brown when he died of a heart attack on February 6 th , 1976 at age 46.
Skating, Christmas Is Coming and Linus and Lucy are all from that first Christmas special, which
aired in December of 1965.