VOA标准英语2014--Blue Note Records Celebrates 75th Anniversary

 

Blue Note Records Celebrates 75th Anniversary

This year marks an important anniversary for American jazz, one that - on a number of occasions - looked like it would never arrive.  The legendary¹ Blue Note record label is celebratating its 75th birthday.

Nothing that becomes legendary starts out that way.  In 1939 Blue Notes Records was the grain of an idea by Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff - two Germans who fell in love with music like that by the boogie-woogie piano player, Albert Ammons.

They first heard jazz improvisation² as young men in Germany during the early years of the Nazi³ regime.  Richard Havers is writing a book about Blue Note, called "Uncompromising Expressions."  He says that, to the Nazis⁴ …“jazz was everything that they hated. It was freedom of expression. It was not regimented. It didn't go to a militaristic beat.”

Lion and Wolff pursued their love of jazz and freedom by leaving Germany for the United States.  Shortly after arriving and hearing Ammons and another boogie-woogie piano-player, Meade “Lux” Lewis, they scratched together some money, put Ammons in a studio, and Blue Note Records was born.  The label was swimming against the tide by promoting boogie-woogie. 

“Back then it was all about dancing,” said Dan Ouellette, who has written a book about Blue Note called "Playing By Ear." .

And people were not dancing to boogie-woogie piano.  Ouellette says Alfred Lion’s approach was more like a museum curator than a record producer.

“He wanted to document this music," he said. "His whole philosophy is that jazz is an art form.”

Treating artists as artists and swimming against the tide became hallmarks of Blue Note jazz, an approach that finally paid off in the 1940s, when jazz shifted, away from the dance music of the Big Band Era and toward a new form that came to be called “Bebop.”

According to Havers, “Lion quickly realized that jazz was moving in a different direction, and the first of the new wave of artists that he recorded was Thelonious Monk⁵, who he absolutely adored.”

“Thelonious Monk was famous for playing the wrong notes," said Ouellette.  "Many people thought it was just rubbish.”

But while much of the music business didn’t understand artists like Monk, Richard Havers says this was another example of Blue Note treating artists like artists.  

“Alfred Lion gave his artists the freedom to do what they wanted to do," he said. "They felt they were artists. They were not money machines.”

Blue Note was well respected and had some financial success, but by the 1960s, Ouellette says, things were not looking good for Blue Note or jazz.

“Rock music, and the beginnings of funk were coming around," he said. "People are running away in droves because of rock music."

In 1967, Alfred Lion sold Blue Note to another record company.  They drove it into the ground.  In a rush to make money quickly, they stopped paying for rehearsal⁶ time and otherwise alienated⁷ the label's biggest stars, most of whom left to go to other record companies. The label got a reprieve⁸ in 1981 and had another long run of artistic⁹ success, but by the early 2000s, according to the current head of Blue Note, producer Don Was.

“There was a lot of talk about closing the label down, making it a website that sold catalogue and blue t-shirts,” he said.

Instead the label decided¹⁰ to revive itself again.

Mainly by turning back to a way of working that would make Alfred Lion proud.  According to current Blue Note artist, Jason Moran, today, as they did in the past,

“People just went in and they make their music," he said. "You follow the intuition of the artist and the artists that they work with, and you come together to make a recording¹¹.”

This return to the old ways is paying off, according to Dan Ouellette.  

“The music that you are hearing today with some young artists like Robert Glasper and Jason Moran, the music is evolving, it's not staying put, it's not dying,” he said.

1 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

2 improvisation   

n.即席演奏(或演唱)；即兴创作

参考例句：

• a free-form jazz improvisation 自由创作的爵士乐即兴演出
• Most of their music was spontaneous improvisation. 他们的大部分音乐作品都是即兴创作的。

3 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

4 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。

6 rehearsal   

n.排练，排演；练习

参考例句：

• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
• You can sharpen your skills with rehearsal.排练可以让技巧更加纯熟。

7 alienated   

adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等）

参考例句：

• His comments have alienated a lot of young voters. 他的言论使许多年轻选民离他而去。
• The Prime Minister's policy alienated many of her followers. 首相的政策使很多拥护她的人疏远了她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 reprieve   

n.暂缓执行（死刑）；v.缓期执行；给…带来缓解

参考例句：

• He was saved from the gallows by a lastminute reprieve.最后一刻的缓刑令把他从绞架上解救了下来。
• The railway line, due for closure, has been granted a six-month reprieve.本应停运的铁路线获准多运行6 个月。

9 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。