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Body and Soul is a popular jazz song, music written in 1930 by Johnny Green.
"Body and Soul" is a popular song written in 1930 by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton and Johnny Green.
It was introduced by Libby Holman in the revue Three's A Crowd and used as a soundtrack theme in the 1947 film named for the song.
"Body and Soul" became a jazz standard, with hundreds of versions performed and recorded by dozens of artists. The most famous of these is the take recorded by Coleman Hawkins and His Orchestra on October 11, 1939 at their only recording session for Bluebird, a subsidiary of RCA Victor.
Hawkins' solo on this take is considered to be "one of the finest examples of pure, spontaneous creative artistry in the history of jazz." It was one of the first straight jazz records (as against swing) to become a commercial hit.
This was unusual, as the song's melody is never directly stated in the recording; saxophonist Hawkins two-choruses' worth of improvisation on the tune's chord progression constitute almost the entire take.
In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
This is very beautiful. Never heard it but I enjoy it completely!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, indeedy!
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't scream or blare,
nor does it mumble.
Just simple and steady music
with a character all its own,
not ordinary music for
a cocktail lounge,
this is music for relaxing,
for dreaming if you like,
but above all, for listening...