Colorful Titles
Image AI generated by author
If you had a jazz show, how would you choose your play list? Would you be random—what sounds good for the moment you’re in? Or perhaps you’re thinking about history or type: New Orleans, big band, bebop, and so on. Or maybe a time of day: Jazz for early morning, jazz for late at night, and everything in between.
I sometimes think about new ways of presenting music, and lately I’ve been thinking about color. Not “What color is jazz?” (although there’s a lot out there if you search for it) but colors in titles.
A quick look tells you that the predominant color in jazz titles is blue. Think Blue Monk (Thelonious Monk), All Blues (Miles Davis), and Blue Trane (John Coltrane). But what other colors are out there, and what would a playlist look like?
I started by looking over my own jazz collection and then broadened things out with—I confess—AI. (But hey, anything I used I double-checked. And, as usual, AI made mistakes.)
This was an interesting experience. With a focus on color, I listened to jazz that I hadn’t in a long time and also found a lot of jazz that was new to me. I found colors throughout the jazz spectrum: big band and swing, bebop, cool, and on. And I found some delightful titles, such as “Purple Gazelle” and “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk.”
So here’s a short list with a few random notes. I left out most of the well-known tunes, in hopes you’ll find something new here.
Purple Gazelle: Duke Ellington. This first appeared on Afro-Bossa (Reprise) in 1963. Ellington also recorded this with John Coltrane on “Duke Ellington and John Coltrane,” but on the Coltrane album the song is titled “Angelica.” This album was released on Impulse Records, also in 1963. And, just for the record, AI told me the song was written by Thelonious Monk. Nope.
And I also stumbled across Marije Nie's Purple Gazelle, which is “A new take on tap dance and jazz music. Driven by the expressive sounds of tap, the Purple Gazelles find rhythmic pathways in the sound, with original compositions, a hint of Stravinsky, improvisations and classic Ellington songs as beacons along the way.”
Black Narcissus: Joe Henderson. Joe Henderson recorded this track in 1969 as part of “Power to the People,” playing with Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, Ron Carter, and Mike Lawrence. The tune is also found on Henderson’s 1977 “Black Narcissus” album. On this version, Henderson plays with pianist Joachim Kuhn, bassist Jean-Francois Jenny-Clark, drummers Jack DeJohnette and Daniel Humair, Bill Summers on the congo/percussion, and Dr. Patrick Gleason with the synthesizer.
Where did Henderson’s title come from? I could find no information. There is a black narcissus flower (which is actually a dahlia). And the flower in turn may be named after Narcissus, the character in Greek mythology who fell in love with his image. Finally, there was a 1947 movie named Black Narcissus.
Who knows if Henderson had any of these references in mind when naming the song. Do you hear any of them when you listen?
Red Pepper Blues: Red Garland/Art Pepper. This title is found on Art Pepper’s album “Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section.” It was released in 1957, and Pepper is playing with the great rhythm section from the Miles Davis’s quintet: Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. Some sources credit the song to only Red Garland. The original label does credit them both. So “Red Pepper” blues would make sense for a title!
Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk: Charles Mingus. Mingus recorded this song in 1964 and released it in 1965 on “Mingus in Monterey.” Since then, it’s been released on quite a few albums. It’s a complex song with all sorts of changes: Tempo, texture, emotional expression . . .
Green Dolphin Street: Bronislaw Kaper/Ned Washington. Okay, this is a well-known song, but it’s always been a favorite of mine, so here it is.
But who are those songwriters?
The song comes from the 1947 movie Green Dolphin Street, featuring Lana Turner and Van Heflin. It was written by Kaper with lyrics by Washington.
Jazz musicians began to pick it up in the late 1950s. Ahmad Jamal has a delightful version of the song, but its jazz popularity really took off with Miles Davis’ version of it on “Jazz Track,” which was released in 1958. This version features John Coltrane, tenor sax; Cannonball Adderley, alto sax; Bill Evans, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; and Jimmy Cobb, drums.
“Jazz Track” also contained Davis’s soundtrack from the Louis Malle film Elevator to the Gallows, which I posted just last week (Sept. 9). What a coincidence!