A Stage and a Spotlight

A STAGE AND A SPOTLIGHT

By

Richard J. Noyes

As many experts have pointed out, musical aptitude is less about the ability to play a beautiful melody and more about the innate capacity to hit the right note at the right time with the proper emphasis, how long to hold that note and how to blend multiple notes into a sublime performance. Phrasing is a good, general term to describe this capability. Feeling and timing are also useful adjectives in describing musical talent. Phrasing, feeling and timing were embodied in the talents of Frank Sinatra, one of history’s celebrated rhythmic instrumentalists.

Sinatra was also a thorough artist who could read music. In one recording session with a full orchestra, one of the horns hit a wrong note. Sinatra called for a pause and asked the offending member in a gentle way if what he played wasn’t supposed to be a B-flat. The horn player acknowledged his mistake. Sinatra smiled, said in a joking way, “So let’s play the music already,” and they moved on.

According to many experts, most musical instruments are designed to mimic the human voice, and the piano makes the closest approximation. For that instrument, the transcendent classical master Vladimir Horowitz and the legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans closely corresponded Sinatra’s gifts.

All that was written above about Frank Sinatra could also have been said about Judy Garland. “Just give her a stage and a spotlight, and get out of the way,” –Harold Arlen

Some years ago, I tuned the car radio to a classical music station and listened to the last few minutes of an opera. I was immediately struck by the quality of the female singer’s voice. I wasn’t a true opera fan, but had heard enough to know that this performer’s potency was  thrilling and distinctive. After the final aria, the announcer reported that we had just heard Maria Callas as Tosca, in what was perhaps her defining role. I did a little research and learned that Callas was the supreme exponent of bel canto singing and opera’s greatest diva. All I knew when I heard Maria Callas for the first time was that her voice gave me pleasant chills and the need to listen to her sing again. I later learned that Callas had been Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onasiss’s mistress and that he dropped her to marry Jackie Kennedy. I don’t know if the recording I heard came after the breakup, but I do know that Maria Callas, along with Edith Piaf, Billie Holliday and very few others, could sing of lost loves with heartrending fervor.

As described above, knack can also be used effectively during periods of extreme stress, and, given the resolve, a bountiful gift will not be denied. Judy Garland did some of her best vocal work when she was not a well person. The accomplished Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Seventh Symphony while under the long and bitter Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War Two.

Playing any instrument well off a score demands a definite capacity, especially when it demands keeping time and tempo with a group. What really requires aptitude is having what it takes to extemporize and riff with an improvisational jazz ensemble. This aptitude is similar to the creation of an abstract painting where the artistry comes from the proper arrangement and relationships of all the elements, including color, shape-size, balance, dimension and more into an intelligent and eye-filling composition.

I watched with admiration a business associate of mine, a talented saxophonist, sit in on several sessions of Jazz at Noon in New York City and blend, impromptu, with master hands like the vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and Freddie Hubbard on the flugelhorn. In one gig, Hubbard, along with his supporting cast, winged thirty minutes of “Teach Me Tonight” without repeating a single improvisation. If that’s not having knack, I don’t know what is.

Richard J. Noyes, former Associate Director, Center for Advanced Engineering Study, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a consultant to public and private sector organizations.

Noyes is the co-author with Pamela J. Robertson of Larceny of Love, a provocative print and eBook novel that traces the interwoven careers of three men in jeopardy and the unforgettable women in their lives.  http://larcenyoflove.com/ 

“Whenever dramatic storytelling about people you like is created around business, sports and film, I'm a happy reader. I'm sure you will be as well.”  –Kevin Marcus, Real Estate Vice President

Another recent print and eBook by Richard Noyes and Pamela Robertson: Guts in the Clutch: 77 Legendary Triumphs, Heartbreaks, and Wild Finishes in 12 Sports, with a Foreword by Drew Olson of ESPN.   http://gutsintheclutch.com/

“The best compilation of fascinating sports stories I have read.” -David Houle, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer of documentaries on Hank Aaron and the Harlem Globetrotters.