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 Don
Shirley's piano artistry is not easily described.
Suffice it to say that it has been tried, tested and
refined to the point of exquisiteness. It has been
subjected to all the trials and tribulations
experienced by every jazz musician who has managed
to survive the rigors of the profession. It has been
nurtured by love and devotion, fashioned by
extraordinarily fine musicianship and mellowed by
the kind of sophistication that has enabled Shirley
to develop one of the few really original piano
styles in contemporary keyboard jazz. But the chief
secret of Shirley's success is that underneath a
fertile imagination are a discipline one would
expect to find only in a keyboard classical artist
and a highly intellectual approach to the piano.
Individual talents have accounted for most of the
major developments in the art of jazz. The jazz hall
of fame numbers many drummers, trumpeters,
trombonists, clarinetists, saxophonists and bass
players who have achieved recognition and fortune
both as top soloists and bandsmen. And the same can
be said for all the pianists, who outnumber greatly
the orchestral wind, percussion and string players.
Thought is a necessary ingredient in any kind of
music where the creative element is involved. This
is especially true in the case of jazz, where a
creative approach can make a tremendous difference
in the way a theme or chorus is developed. Any
technically competent musician can take a tune,
embellish it with a few technical frills and
splashes of rhythmic ornamentation and sound
impressive. But the truly unusual musician is he who
renews a tune in its very essence by remolding both
the sound and the rhythm. This comes under the
heading of improvisation. And when the jazzman
improvises freely, the creative aspect of his talent
supersedes everything else, including technical and
artistic resources, and even the original
inspiration of the composer. Behind the performer's
act of creating is thought; and the more thought
there is, the better the artist.
One hears much speculation these days about jazz
being in the throes of evolutionary change and about
composers and performers struggling to achieve new
forms and new ideas. Unfortunately, the overwhelming
majority of composers and performers of popular
music are content to work with conventional forms
and ideas, leaving to a tiny minority of brave souls
the task of experimenting. Today most performers
take tunes like "Blue Skies" and "Somebody Loves Me"
and play them in conventional tempo, with routine
harmonic and melodic treatment. The outstanding
performer will think about his subject matter and
make a conscious effort to bring continuity of
thought to his interpretation. Perhaps one reason
why jazz is allegedly still in its infancy (compared
with classical music) is because so many jazz
authorities subscribe to the theory that jazz
requires less continuity of thought than classical
music. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Certainly a popular piece whose melodic line,
harmony and choruses are given some thought can
sound as impressive as an imposing classical work.
By the same token, a popular composition stands a
much better chance of being musically satisfying.
Jazz involves one factor that is almost totally
absent from classical music, and that is collective
creation. No performer of classical music would
dream of attempting to improve or elaborate on a
work by Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart, Beethoven or
Schubert. However, the jazz musician, if he hopes to
succeed in his own right, must exploit the process
of collective creation. This process involves
borrowing or imitating the ideas of others directly,
adding to these ideas one's own talents with respect
to technical skill, interpretation and
improvisation.
In the last analysis the really creative jazzman is
he who has an original style. And such a style stems
not necessarily from projecting something new, but
rather from taking something old, approaching it in
a different manner and producing an end product of
substance and interest. At least for a while, every
performer is bound to be an imitator. The truly
gifted performer is the one who succeeds in
disengaging his personal conceptions from the models
he has imitated and the influences he has undergone
and develops an individual style that can stand on
its own merits. Before the jazzman can succeed in
this regard, he must master his instrument, and this
only begins with technical mastery. The performer
who is good enough to rise above others must have a
knowledge of as many models as he can
absorb-classical as well as popular.
Every kind of artist, including the musician, the
painter and the graphic artist, has so-called
periods. But the general style of most artists is
generally discernible at almost any stage of their
development. The same applies to most jazz
musicians, who invariably sing or play the same way
no matter how long they've been appearing before the
public. The piano wizardry of Don Shirley represents
something of a phenomenon. Shirley approaches every
piece with a great deal of thought. Each work is a
separate entity, something which calls for
independent analysis and totally individual
treatment. Shirley takes everything into account-the
words, the basic mood of the piece, the emotional
intensity of verse and musical thought, and the kind
of tempo and pacing the listener might want to hear
on the basis of the foregoing elements. Shirley can
probably best be described as a keyboard
impressionist. He creates not only images of tone,
but images of mood which none of his contemporaries
have yet succeeded in matching.
The selections in this recording, all perennial
favorites, take on new and fascinating interest
through the inspiration of Shirley's playing. "Blue
Skies," "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Somebody
Loves Me" are invested with a tone poem quality that
immeasurably enhances their appeal. The charming
"Happy Talk," "Dites Moi" and "This Nearly Was
Mine," from the Broadway musical hit revue "South
Pacific," are heard in delightfully different
interpretations, each more ingenious and charming
than the other. "Black is the Color" and "Satin
Doll" have a Chopinesque quality that reflects
Shirley's extraordinary gift for effective tone
painting and orchestrating at the keyboard. The tone
quality of the piano played by Shirley has most
unusual purity of tone as a result of guaranteed
total frequency range recording techniques.
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DON SHIRLEY will certainly go down in jazz history
as one of the great keyboard talents of this age. A
"graduate" of the supper club-hote1-theater-dance
hall circuit, Shirley drew wide critical acclaim
when he appeared on the Arthur Godfrey Show and
received rave reviews in all the musical journals.
This led to his being praised in editorials in a
number of publications, which, in turn, brought
further recognition. Shirley attracted still further
attention when he played a piano concerto written
for him by Duke Ellington accompanied by the
Symphony of the Air at Carnegie Hall, in New York
City. Today he is very much in demand "as soloist
for personal appearances in clubs all over the
country, on radio and television. Most listeners,
when they hear Shirley play, hold the opinion that
he plays jazz the way they've never heard it played
before. Those who know his playing best talk of his
unique "quiet sound," which is as individual and
personal as the man himself.
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TECHNICAL CAL DATA (RIAA)
Total Frequency Range Stereophonic Recording
This High Fidelity Stereophonic Recording was
produced featuring the Frey Stereophonic Curtain of
Sound* technique.
When heard on a balanced playback system, the
elements or musicians on the recording will be
reproduced in the exact locations, directionally, as
at the original performance. This original, positive
technique to produce a pure, true stereophonic
effect so that the instruments or elements of the
recording are perfectly relocated as to direction of
sound is an Audio Fidelity development and is true
stereophonic reproduction.
This recording was made on an Ampex 350-2 with
special electronic circuitry, using Altec,
Elec,rovoice, RCA, and Telefunken microphones. The
masters were cut with an automatic Scully Record
Lathe mounting a Westrex 45-45 cutter with special
feedback electronic circuitry driven by custom 200
watt amplifiers.
Precision mastering was done so as to achieve
maximum stylus velocity consistent with minimum
distortion, resulting in the ultimate in channel
separation and realizing the greatest possible
signal-to-noise ratio.
While the total frequency range of 16 cps to 25,000
cps on this record may not be within the range of
ordinary human hearing, nevertheless inspection of
the grooves with a microscope will show the etchings
of the upper dynamic frequencies. It is the opinion
of the manufacturer that if these frequencies were
omitted from this record a certain warmth of tone
that is felt and sensed rather than heard would be
lost. For this reason and to achieve the ultimate in
our "Studies in HIGH FIDELITY STEREOPHONIC sound" we
have gone to these extreme electronic lengths.
Although any 33 1/3 RPM stereophonic record playback
equipment may be used in playing this recording, it
is recommended that playback equipment of extreme
wide range and fidelity be used so that the
recording may be enjoyed to its utmost.
Low Frequency Limit . . . . . . .16 CPS
High Frequency Limit . . .25,000 CPS
Crossover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 CPS
Rolloff . . . . . . . . .13.75 DB at 10 KC
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