Midnight, Before, After And ’Round

BoogieWoogie.com: Boogie woogie is the backbone of American music. Rhythm and improvisation on a piano, played over a blues form, it is the foundation of jazz and most of American popular music. It is also America’s forgotten music. Once a national craze – it was transformed in the post WWII years into modern jazz and rock and roll.

StreetSwing.com : In 1938 The Cotton Club Revue featured Cab Calloway and the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. Cab sang and the Hoppers danced to the song “A Lesson In Jive” and it is said the Boogie-Woogie dance formed from this.

Jazz Standards : the composition carries the grand distinction of being the most-recorded jazz standard written by any jazz musician. (Today, we give you 18 versions. When fed up, simply ask for more). According to Thomas Fitterling in Thelonious Monk: His Life and Music, Monk wrote “‘Round Midnight” (then titled “’Round About Midnight”) when he was just 18. Jackie Paris introduced it as a vocal in 1949, after Bernie Hanighen added the lyrics.

Cafe Jazz : ‘Round Midnight is my personal favorite of Monk’s among his other works,….. I’ve always enjoyed Monk’s way of playing the piano, with his body (and that foot) moving together with his fingers. Really, really mad wicked.

Amazon : On the “Midnight Blue” 1967 session, Kenny Burrell is joined by regular associates–tenorist Stanley Turrentine, conga drummer Ray Barretto, bassist Major Holley, and drummer Bill English–and together they concentrate on the subtlest and deepest hues of the blues. The title song has a care-free and easy feel.

IMDB : Big Noise From Winnetka Midnight Swim has been composed for Natalie Wood’s movie “Sex and the Single Girl” (not related to “Sex in the City”): “Wood is the ‘single girl,’ a 20 year old doctor who just released a book on sex as a single girl, the catch is… she’s still a virgin. Curtis is a sleazy reporter covering a story on Wood and her book”.

BlackCat Rockabilly : In 1960, Al Caiola began an 11-year affiliation with United Artists, during which period he had 32 singles and 34 albums released. At the suggestion of his producer / arranger, Don Costa, he began to play the melodies on the lower strings, creating a guttural sound similar to Duane Eddy.

Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen : Probably the greatest test of an artist’s success is his durability. Kenny is now a genuine institution, and the most successful jazz trumpet player this side of the Atlantic. His landmark recordings of the 1960s such as ‘Midnight in Moscow’ catapulted him to worldwide fame, and since then he has become a living legend.

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