John Coltrane, 1965
The tune is from a movie, Mary Poppins, which I didn't see, though I certainly heard the tune often enough. Julie Andrews was in the title role and she sang the tune. But it's John Coltrane's version that's burned into my brain. It's on the album, The John Coltrane Quartet Plays, and boy does it ever. This is the "classic" quartet, with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrett on bass, Elvin Jones on drums, and Trane on saxes. He plays soprano sax on this tune.
Sydney Bechet played soprano sax earlier in the century, but it then disappeared from view until Coltrane brought it back in the early 1960s. By this time Trane had for the most part dropped changes-based tunes in favor of modal jazz. A year or two later he dropped even that in favor of wide-open unstructured wailing.
Thrilling times.
Louis Armstrong, 1968
This is the first time I heard Louis Armstrong perform the tune. He both sings and plays the trumpet, which he'd been doing for the last three decades or so. Stylistically it's worlds apart from Trane's version. Stylistically, it could have been recorded in the 1930s. And yet without Pops, there'd have been no Trane. They're separated by two, maybe three, musical revolutions – depending on how you parse the history.
Time flies when you're having fun.
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