There are remote but obvious connections between jazz and Shakespeare, none of which should need to be recalled to the minds of readers. What is important is that Johnny Dankworth has taken a step further the experiment which Ellington started with his Such Sweet Thunder suite, where he merely wrote pieces, tone-poem fashion, to portray the various characters as he saw them.
John has taken this a stage further, crossing bridges that even Duke perhaps did not wish to tread, by not only setting new lyrics to music, but by adapting other lyrics to existing themes. The Duet Of Sonnets alone, a masterpiece in its own rights, would justify this album’s existence, but one suddenly comes upon gems like Winter and Shall I Compare Thee, where Cleo Laine’s voice dominates the session, as she does in the Arthur Young settings she recorded previously.
Witches and Compleat Works are joke pieces, in the sense that one uses the multi-recording technique, the other takes a leaf out of the Annie Ross – Millicent Martin book. Dunsinane allows Cleo to depart from her more serious vein to exploit a piece written by John, which quotes Macbeth and others. Two tracks feature Strayhorn-Ellington compositions, four are by Young, and the remainder are from the versatile pen of Dankworth.
The accompanying groups are dominated by the brilliant work of Ken Wheeler, whose trumpet provides the main solo voice behind Cleo’s vocals, and in the band passages. The music is exciting and enthralling at all times, and the originality of thought behind this session proves that British jazz is not the moribund creature that some people would have us believe it is.
Discography
(a) If Music Be The Food Of Love; (b) O Mistress Mine; (c) Duet Of Sonnets; (b) Winter; (a) My Love Is As A Fever; (a) It Was A Lover And His Lass; (b) Dunsinane Blues (22 min) – (b) Take All My Loves; (a) Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind; (a) O Shall I Compare Thee; (c) Witches Fair And Foul; (a) Fear No More; (a) Sigh No More Ladies; (a) The Compleat Works (15¾ min)
(a) Ken Wheeler (tpt); Leon Clavert (tpt/flugel horn): Tony Russell (tbn); Ron Snyder (tba); Vic Ash (clt/ten); Al Newman (clt/flt/bari); John Dankworth (clt/alt): Maria Korchinska (harp); Alan Branscombe (vbs/clt/alt); Ken Napper (bs); Johnny Butts (d).
(b) Wheeler (tpt); Dankworth (alt/clt); Branscombe (p/vbs); Ray Dempsey (g); Napper (bs); Allan Ganley (d).
(c) as (b) but Butts (d) replaces Ganley. All recorded 10th-13th & 18th March, 1964.
(Fontana STL5209 12inLP 33s. 1d)
