Today's post is dedicated to Loral, a Canadian whom I - by means I have long forgotten - had an online correspondence with back in the late nineties. My first attempts at podcasting (although not called such at the time) was a Real Audio show called "Soul Serenade," and Loral and I would do a supplemental weekly four-song show called "The Sunflower Dance Set" in which I would send her a list of funky tunes (which she hadn't heard, and which I was technologically too unsophisticated to send to her), from which she'd pick four and then I'd record a little show. (She occasionally would record voice over tracks that I would dub into the show, with neat results - she'd use flange and other effects to add a little psychedelia into the presentation). After about six months of these shows I ended up going without a computer for a spell and our correspondence ended. I need to look her up to see what she's up to. At any rate, today's selection was one of her favorites.
Eddie Jefferson was the founder of the "vocalese" movement in jazz singing. Vocalese differs from scat singing in that instead of singing nonsense syllables to imitate instruments, the singer instead sets lyrics to instrumentals (either in total or in imitation of solos). The most famous proponents of vocalese was Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and groups like the Manhattan Transfer would have '70s pop success in that style. Jefferson's 1968 version of Horace Silver's "Psychedelic Sally" is a sho' 'nuff piece of get down, as Eddie spins a tale of longing after the song's subject, from whose bohemian lifestyle he wishes to rescue. There's a great groove on this one, and Jefferson gives the great James Moody a great sax solo. This tune reminds me that I really need to put more soul jazz on here - there are so many great tunes!
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