Posted by Angela (208.187.55.109) on July 11, 2003 at 12:32:02:
In Reply to: Re: Master thesis posted by Jon Hendricks on February 03, 2003 at 14:43:33:
Wow! What a small world this is! I'm in a master's program for teaching, and since it seems like numerous high schools in the Northwest are performing arrangements of LH&R tunes, I couldn't help but wonder about the history of the group. I'm planning to follow LH&R from its birth to the break up. Lisa, some sources I've thought about using are interviews (printed and perhaps through e-mail... if you'll allow me the honor, Jon :), secondary sources (there are a lot of brief mentions of the group in various books), and newspaper articles.
Jazz deserves a place in the schools just as much as classical music, and I'm hoping that projects such as these (Lisa's and mine) will instill the legitimacy of jazz as a truly American artform that is still very much alive today. Jon, keep the torch burning. Instructors need your great example of all-around musicianship, especially in the face of the new standards movement in education. Thank you.
-Angela
: : Hi,
: : I'm Jon's daughter and I also don't know of any significant liturature or analyzations of LH&R, but if you like, you can email me at hendricksmusic1@yahoo.com and I'll try to get the answers to as many of your questions as I can (I'm very close to my father and speak to him several times a week). As for how he writes those lyrics, I can't speak for his early years, but I can tell you that the countless times I've witnessed the process, it has always gone the same way. He listens to the solo repeatedly for several days and then sits down with his yellow legal pad (always), his headphones, and completes the solo in about 20 minutes with few to no alterations. Read it and weep, we'll never be able to do that!
:
: : : Since I was 12 years old, and heard my first LHR album I have had a love of harmony and jazz, and that is simply why I became a jazz singer. Now that I am in my fifties and after a long career (still going) and undertaking my masters who else but the 'greatest vocal group ever' would I choose to write on. I was amazed to find an incredible lack of literature devoted to Jon Hendricks and the group. Can anyone advise on any defining books, aside from Will Friedwald: Jazz singing. Thanks,
: : : To Jon, you are simply my hero and my musical inspiration, you made me realize scat was a communicating tool and vocalese was the perfect way to pay tribute to the great solos and express your own musical thoughts, but how do you get those unbelievable lyrics? Does the writing process happen easily or did you work long hours with solos such as Cloudburst and Charleston Alley?
: Dear Lisa,
: As to how I write those lyrics; there is no set method, except finding out what the title of the song is about, what the title means, if it is about a place where that place is and how it was established. If it is about a person, who that person is: What did he do? etc... Once these bits of information have been absorped it remains for the inspiration to take over. What that means is I know less than you or any body else, where those words come from and how they flow so easily, since I am watching the pencil as they come out from under it with as much surprise as you or any body else, and, if there is any truth in those stories we hear about inspiration coming from without through the artist and onto the paper then that must be what happens. Other than that, I don't know what else to say.
: Sincerely,
: Jon Hendricks