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Alan Lomax |
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Jelly Roll Morton |
The man was an unpopular, somewhat arrogant
character, who claimed to be one of the best pool players of the time as well
as a competitive piano player. His claim
to have invented jazz has been essentially debunked, but the mystic surrounding
him, with his start, playing in a Sporting House in New Orleans until 4 in the
morning at the age of fourteen, making more than $100 a night, is less in
dispute.
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Felder as Chopin |
For some reason, even though their differences are
greater than their similarities, Jelly Roll makes me think of Franz Liszt. My knowledge of Liszt’s life comes from a
rather unusual source: an entertainer named Hershey Felder.
Mary and I first saw Mr. Felder when he appeared at
the Laguna Playhouse portraying Chopin.
His one-man show puts him in the character and persona of the pianist
where he tells “his” life story, accompanied by piano pieces written by the
composer. It was a truly unique and
entertaining performance, and we were not alone in that opinion.
Laguna went on to bring him back in portrayals of
Beethoven, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, all of which we saw and
enjoyed. One particular aspect we favor is a Q and A session following the
performance, where Hershey fields questions as if he were the character on the
stage. I asked him regarding Liszt who
transcribed the music, since he played so contemporaneously. He answered that Liszt actually made his own
transcriptions, from memory, following his performances.
Presently Hershey Felder has two projects: he has produced a similar one-woman show for
Mona Golabek titled The Pianist of
Willenden Lane, which is returning to the Laguna Theater June 22-24. He also has prepared and is performing in a
new one-man show about the last days of Lincoln.
In that respect he and Jelly Roll (actual name
Ferdinand) were similar. Morton was the
first person to actually write down the compositions of the contemporaneous
Blues pieces of the time, making several common pieces his own in the process.
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Franz Liszt |
Liszt would play for hours at parties, in addition
to his more formal appearances on tour.
The tours made him fabulously wealthy as well as fabulously
popular. In fact, Felder titled his
Liszt show “Rock Star”, because at
one point in his life, Liszt was just that, enjoying adulation and
international fame, as well as commanding top dollar for his concerts. Women used to tear his gloves and scarves to
bits as memorabilia, fighting for small parts to take home as mementoes.
Both lives ended tragically, Morton’s from a poorly
treated wound gained in an LA knife fight because of segregation at the closest
hospital and medical ineptitude at the one to which he was admitted. His
funeral was a lonely one. Duke Ellington
and Jimmy Lunceford were in town, but failed to attend.
Liszt died from pneumonia, brought on by untreated
congestive heart failure, which slowly limited activity in his final years; he
died at 72, to little more than existence.
He chose a monastic way of life in his later years, mourning the death
of his son, and estrangement from his daughter who had married Richard Wagner,
a young genius recognized and financially supported by Liszt himself.
The love of Liszt’s life was a Russian Countessa who
left her husband and children for years to live with him, but who finally could
not get the absolution from the church she felt necessary to marry him.
Of the two, Liszt certainly had the more glorious
life, giving away most of his wealth to charities, having world attention in
his youth and middle year, composing pieces whose virtuosity gained him the
reputations as the great pianist of his time, and leaving a music heritage that
ranks as some of the finest of history.
Morton, on the other hand, probably would be no
better remembered than several of his contemporaries, had not Lomax chosen him
to represent the birth of jazz.
Life is like that sometimes!
I think in my next Post I will reminisce about what
some of the things on my desk remind me of.
I’ll bet you have some things of a similar nature.
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