Duke Ellington recalled "... that's one of those things Tizol came up with. See, it wasn't in tempo, he stood [and played it] sort of ad lib. He played it, [the] first ten bars, we took it and worked out the rest of it." That thing was
Caravan, and the instigator was
Juan Tizol, who was a trombonist in Duke Ellington's orchestra. The track, originally recorded in 1936, became a
jazz standard. The lyrics were penned in 1936 by publisher and manager
Irving Mills, adding to the exotic feeling and romance of what is considered by many to be
the first Latin jazz piece, before the late swing era and first decade of bebop when Latin Jazz (also called Afro-Cuban Jazz) came into prominence. The track didn't cross into other genres until Les Paul created his version of the track in 1948, which lead to other covers, and eventually a successful cover by The Ventures (
source).
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 2, 2009 -
28 comments
"Don’t stop. Keep right on going.... Go someplace you’ve heard about, where you can fish or hunt or collect rocks or just look up at the sky. Find out what’s at the end of some country road. Go see what’s over the next hill, and the one after that, and the one after that." In 1959 Airstream founder
Wally Byam - taking his own advice to heart - led a convoy of 36 of his company's trailers - together with over 100 American adults, children and pets - on a journey from Cape town to Cairo. They stayed in
remote villages, negotiated
rough roads, saw
upteen tribal dancers, met up with
Haile Selassie and finally ended up at the
pyramids of Cairo.
Here is the original film account of the expedition (complete with its own theme song). Next year, on the 50th anniversary, there is a plan to do the trip again - this time there and back again.
Wanna go?
posted by rongorongo
on Jul 16, 2008 -
12 comments
