Music Monday ~~ Greatest Sax Voices in Jazz

Jazz was a closed book to me, until I met Himself (my husband). It's still a book open only at Chapter One. The jazz I enjoy most is the kind one might hear in a dark cellar bar, late at night, drink at hand - not too strident, not a cacophony of sound, but creative interpretation - making a familiar tune different, yet the same, exploring it and embellishing it.

Now and again Music Monday will feature a trio of jazz icons, instrument by instrument, with brief astro detail along with an occasional link to archived posts or other sources.

Kicking off with my own favourite instrument: the saxophone. Saxes come in 2 main sax "voices": tenor and alto (there are 3rd and 4th fourth, less common, types too: baritone and soprano).

If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it’s like the human voice. – Stan Getz

Because we're considering jazz, and jazz is arguably the most inventive of all musical genres, astrologically I'd expect to see Neptune (creativity) and/or Uranus (invention, innovation) linked somehow to personal planets - Mercury (communication) and/or Venus (music), or natal Sun or Moon. I guess we should bear in mind that Neptune also connects to addictive tendencies - something that troubled many of the greatest jazz talents.

I have no birth times for these artists, so 12 noon charts are shown below, so the rising sign/degree will not be accurate; position of the Moon will not be exactly as shown.


THE TENOR SAXOPHONE

Ben Webster (nickname: The Brute/Frog)
Born 27 March 1909 in Kansas City Missouri.
Sun Aries, Moon Gemini if born before 10pm, Cancer if later.

Note the very tight harmonious trine between Neptune (creativity - the soul of jazz) and Mercury(communication)- an important base aspect. Venus, the musical planet lies in Pisces, ruled by Neptune, not far from Mercury. Although Venus/Neptune are not in trine, because Pisces ruler, Neptune is involved, perhaps Venus could be considered an honorary inclusion.



Mutual reception= two planets placed in each other's ruling signs: here Mars lies in Capricorn, rulership of Saturn, Saturn lies in Aries, rulership of Mars. The two planets, aggressive Mars and serious Saturn combine forces in Webster's personality, and have relevance to his violent streak, and his nickname "Brute", more especially as Mars lies conjunct rebellious and unruly Uranus, in square (conflicting) aspect to Saturn.

Webster leaves a legacy as being known as one of 'Big Three' tenor players of the swing era along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young and is remembered as arguably the greatest of the Jazz saxophonists when it comes to playing a ballad. Ben Webster's sound has influenced future generations of saxophone players....
See HERE

He was a large and occasionally violent man of unusual affections and bizarre impulses. He slept deeply, and had a curious habit of punching anyone who woke him, even his grandmother. In the 1950s, he lived in Los Angeles with his mother and grandmother, the two people in the world closest to him. Jim Hall, the guitarist, once described the routine of picking him up to go to a job. If Webster were asleep, his mother or grandmother would lean over him and say, "Ben, Mr. Hall is here and it's time to go to work." Then they would jump back about two feet to get out of the way. On the other hand, when the name of a dead musician he had loved came up (Tatum, say, or Fats Waller), Webster could be moved to tears. More at archived post: http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2008/03/ben-webster-ballads-and-brute.html

Coleman Hawkins (nickname: The Hawk / The Bean)
Born 21 November 1904 in St.Joseph, Missouri.
Sun in Scorpio, Moon somewhere in Taurus.
Hawkins had Venus, the musical planet at 3* Capricorn, with Uranus, planet of innovation at 28 Sagittarius, forming what is known as an "out of sign conjunction", they are very close, but lie in different zodiac signs. It seems appropriate, then, that he should have been the musician(Venus) who brought a new(Uranus) element into the jazz scene, added to this, Saturn lies in one of its traditional rulersips- Aquarius, the innovative sign.

Although Adolphe Sax actually invented the saxophone, in the jazz world the title "Father of the Tenor Saxophone" became justly associated with Coleman Hawkins (1904 - 1969), not only an inventive jazz giant but also the founder of a whole dynasty of saxophone players. Before Hawkins, the saxophone (itself "born" in 1846) was mainly a favorite in marching bands and something of a novelty instrument in circus acts and vaudeville shows.
See HERE

The liner notes for one of his albums begin:

"Coleman Hawkins? Man, he invented the tenor sax!" It is hard to disagree: Hawkins was the first man to solo on tenor, the first to record in the bop style, and the first to record unaccompanied on the instrument, with "Picasso" in 1948. More at archived post: http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2007/05/arty-farty-friday-5.html

Lester Young (nickname: Pres/Prez)
Born 27 August 1909 in Woodville Mississippi. Sun Virgo, Moon somewhere in Capricorn. He had Mercury conjunct Jupiter in Virgo in trine to Neptune in Cancer, with Uranus in trine to the Mercury/Jupiter conjunction. Here we have Neptune, Mercury and Uranus linked - again.

(He)was a quirky and likable character who held an influential position in the evolution of jazz. With his tenor sax – usually held at an extremely odd angle, up in the air and horizontally splayed out to the side – he literally played the instrument like no one had ever done before and was irritatingly impossible to copy. He also dressed the part of an eccentric and distinguished himself by wearing long overcoats and a pork pie hat …

Part of Lester’s genius was an uncanny ability to achieve a tone that was as weightless as meringue – he almost alluded to the notes in a chord rather than simply playing them. See HERE

Young's sax playing is the horn equivalent to (Billie) Holiday's voice; melancholy, melodic, and understated. Prez could dance solos around Holiday as well as he could support her when she delivered her own musical soliloquy. They seemed to anticipate the others movements just before they happened.More at archived posts: http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2009/07/magical-bonds-billie-holidaylester.html

AND http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2009/05/cool-part-2.html

Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster: It Never Entered My Mind

Lester Young with Teddy Wilson on piano - All of Me

MAGICAL BONDS: Billie Holiday~Lester Young

My husband patiently feeds me tidbits of jazz history from time to time, hoping that I'll abandon my Philistine attitude toward this musical genre. We watched a DVD of an old TV special, "The Sound of Jazz", the other night, and there began my investigation of a couple of characters whose contribution to jazz has turned out to be no less than iconic: Billie Holiday and Lester Young.

There was a legendary bond between these two artists. She a vocalist, he a tenor saxophone player. Whether the bond originated as a failed romance isn't clear, but it endured as a lifelong close platonic friendship, and a magical musical rapport. Young nicknamed Holiday "Lady Day"; her nickname for him was "Prez".

"Young's sax playing is the horn equivalent to Holiday's voice; melancholy, melodic, and understated. Prez could dance solos around Holiday as well as he could support her when she delivered her own musical soliloquy. They seemed to anticipate the others movements just before they happened. Their musical lines flitted and flapped around one another, and occasionally they flew side by side." (HERE, and more from this link at end of post.)

Both were addicts, she a slave to heroin, he to alcohol. Both died far too soon, she at age 44, he at 49.

"If hot jazz was defined by Louis Armstrong in the 1920s, then the lyrical side of jazz found its perfect exponents in Billie Holiday and Lester Young during the 1930s and 1940s. Their collaborations revealed a different side of the jazz art form. Here we can savor emotion without cheap sentimentality, simplicity without simple-mindedness, a force of expression that is achieved through restraint and understatement. In the long lineage of cool jazz, we constantly find the creative bursts coming at us through the work of couples -- Bix & Tram, Miles & Gil, Getz & Gilberto -- almost as if music this sensitive required some sort of magnetic, mutual attraction, an exemplary pairing to make it possible. Call it a musical romance, if you will. But at the top of the hierarchy, our First Lady (Day) and Pres of the democracy of cool jazz are Billie and Lester. "
Reviewer: Ted Gioia

Any dedicated astrology buff will immediately wonder whether the magical bond between these two icons can be identified in their natal charts. Let's see!

Billie Holiday was born on 7 April 1915 in Harlem, New York, at 2.30am


(Astrodatabank)

Lester Young was born on 27 August 1909 in Woodville Mississippi. No time of birth known (12 noon chart used below).


Her Aries Sun and his Virgo Sun wouldn't immediately lead one to see a basic compatibility - Aries a fiery leader, impulsive and impetuous, Virgo a nitpicking perfectionist. Young's Virgo Sun has Mars in Aries in a scratchy quincunx aspect - he aimed at perfection in all things but was often de-railed by an urge to take risks (mainly with his health). His natal Mercury and Jupiter in Virgo are also in awkward quincunx with Saturn in Aries. While these Aries planets brought about his risk-taking and ability to play with spontaneity as well as perfection, they also provided an unhelpful edge to his inner personality.


The main link between these two artists is their Capricorn Moons. Exact degree in Young's case can't be established without his birth time, but Moon would lie between 9 and 23 degrees of Capricorn in his chart. It's more than likely to have been close enough to Holiday's Moon to be termed conjoined (within around 6 degrees). This provides a clear emotional bond and understanding of one another.

Holiday's 4 planets in Pisces (Mercury/Mars/Jupiter/Venus) soften her Aries-ness quite a lot, and draw in the emotional, almost psychic, appeal she had. Young's Virgo planets oppose her Pisces placements - and though the two signs are very different, this powerful multi-stranded opposition must have brought about a fine balance of perfection and emotional intensity, rather than discord, at least in their professional lives.

In general terms then, their bond came from shared Capricorn Moon, and dynamic tension between Virgo, Pisces, and Aries (perfection, emotion and spontaneity).

There's a clip from "The Sound of Jazz" at YouTube which shows the number described below - Billie Holiday sang "Fine and Mellow" acompanied by several sax players in turn. Lester Young's contribution comes at around 2.35 mins. into the clip.

"Prez, who had wrecked his body with alcohol, was in such ill health he couldn't stand for the duration of the six-minute song. Holiday launched into the song and each sax man took a turn. Gerry Mulligan was first and played a solo in double-time. Webster was next, blowing a beautiful, breathy chorus. And then it was time for Prez.

When it was Young's turn he wearily stood up, and locked eyes with Holiday as she sang a song with lines like "Love is like a faucet / It turns off and on". As Lady Day sang, Prez hit every note exactly in time with her and they took off like two eagles riding an air current as they rose higher and higher, way out of that studio and those television sets, circling around each other, Prez blowing the notes that sustained her as if he was the body to her soul, and then they came together in mid-air, as mating eagles will, and plummeted hundreds of feet earthward together, before breaking off and flying their separate ways.

People in the control booth had tears in their eyes. It was the swan song of a bittersweet affection. After the show, the two had some brief backstage conversation and then they bid goodbye. They each had less than two years to live. Prez would die alone in a New York hotel, his body finally calling it quits. Not long after that, Holiday would be arrested on her deathbed for heroin possession.

Young's sax playing is the horn equivalent to Holiday's voice; melancholy, melodic, and understated. Prez could dance solos around Holiday as well as he could support her when she delivered her own musical soliloquy. They seemed to anticipate the others movements just before they happened. Their musical lines flitted and flapped around one another, and occasionally they flew side by side. "

That is some purple prose!! I prefer my husband's simpler take on "Fine & Mellow". This comes from a 4-page article he wrote about "The Sound of Jazz" around 12 years ago (for any passing reader who is also a jazz fan, the full version is in the archives of Thinks Happen, here)

"The studio lighting is reduced dramatically to illuminate just Billie and a small group of musicians. She sings "Fine and Mellow" accompanied by a few members of the band and, for this number only, the addition of Lester Young, tenor sax. Holiday and Young, both alumni of Basie's earliest bands, were said to have been quite close in those days.

She is completely at ease in this setting. In the opening shot of her singing, her face is like a cameo etched from the darkness of the studio. Billie sings her phrases and then listens to the accompanying horn solos as if the musicians were speaking love to her, and indeed they might have been. She smiles during Young's solo, her half-lidded eyes convey her approval and maybe betray some secrets.....
Billie ends her number with a wry phrase, "Sometimes when you think it's on baby, it has turned off and gone", and a wry smile to match. She makes you sure she is speaking to someone in particular."