Take Two
Chelsea Bridge
According to Duke Ellington's biographer, James Lincoln Collier, Billy Strayhorn was inspired by a J.M.W. Turner (or James McNeill Whistler) painting of Battersea Bridge during a trip to Europe and perhaps mistakenly named the song after Chelsea Bridge. The bridge does link Battersea to Chelsea, but so does Battersea Bridge, "Battersea Bridge is a five-span arch bridge with cast-iron girders and granite piers. A description that doesn't fit the mood of Billy Strayhorn's composition as well as Turner's painting does.
Battersea Bridge (J.M.W. Turner)
For the first of our two 'takes', it seems appropriate to turn to Duke Ellington's Orchestra. This video from 1966 features saxophonist Paul Gonsalves:
It becomes more difficult to choose our second 'take' There is a lovely video of Ben Webster playing the tune here or interesting archive (crackley) footage of Ben from 1959 here. There are no lyrics to Chelsea Bridge so a number of vocalists have sung wordlessly to the tune as Ella did here. More recently Joe Lovano played a version at the Copenhagen Jazz House here. All are worth hearing, and I am sure there are other versions too, but the idea of Take Two is to feature different jazz approaches to a tune. For our second take then we turn to the Joan Chamorro Quartet with Scott Hamilton. The difference here is young Carla Motis' guitar playing:
Those of us who admire the work of Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band in Barcelona will know that Carla is the younger sister of trumpeter Andrea Motis. You can read more about Carla's story here where in interview she says: "Joan has a talent for making you love this music. He makes it fun for the children. He’s a funny person. You absorb his energy, and then, as you grow up, you start listening by yourself, and start to investigate it on your own.”
2024.12