Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – The Food and Cookery Column with Carol Taylor – Winter Warmers.

For many of use the it is bitterly cold right now with northerly winds increasing the chill factor. Meanwhile, Carol Taylor is experiencing much warmer temperatures in her home in Thailand, and not just because of the weather, but because she is toiling away in her kitchen to bring us something to warm the cockles of our hearts… I will hand you over to Carol to do just that…

I know many of you are in the throes of some seriously cold weather and what you need is something which keeps you warm…

There is nothing better before you go out to brave the cold than a lovely bowl of hot porridge…This is where the slow cooker comes in handy I used to put my porridge on before I went to bed and it was ready in the morning…Hubby was first up so he had his bowl and as the kids appeared they had theirs. The beauty of making the porridge in the slow cooker is that it doesn’t burn and it means you have no pans to scrub clean and it doesn’t matter what time the family get up it is ready and waiting for them… Hot and delicious…

I used to love mine with some fruit compote…I just used to cook some frozen mixed berries with a little honey until it had reduced nicely and it kept in the fridge for about a week…I would then have a couple of spoonfuls with my porridge.

This kept me going until lunch time.

Lunch…Would either be a jacket potato or a bowl of soup…

To cook a jacket potato:

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminium foil.

Scrub the potato clean under water, dry it with a towel, and then poke a few holes through to the centre of it with a fork.

Bake the potato for one hour or until tender.

Slice into it, fluff it up inside with a fork, and then add butter, salt, and pepper and filling of your choice.

Toppings for Jacket Potatoes:

If you have made a pan of chili and have some left over freeze in portions just enough to top a jacket potato… Or add some grated cheese and Beans or caramalise some onions and mushrooms. These are toppings which can go into a container and are quick and easy for you to heat up at work and add to your potato…

My favourite one when we were kids was a corned beef jacket potato my mum used to remove the flesh from the potato mash it with some butter and corn beef return it to the potato skin and cook it in the oven until the top was lightly browned we used to love them.

Soup can be made in advance and again can be taken to work and reheated or if you are at home it doesn’t take long to heat up…There is nothing better on a cold day than a nice mug or bowl of hot soup.

This soup is quick and easy to make either using lentils or I used to buy a soup pack of mixed lentils and add to soup this soup has a little kick to it to warm you up and can be served with some nice fresh crusty bread for a more substantial lunch. It is also lovely with some cooked bacon hock my kids used to love it and still remind me of how they remember me making it.

Spiced lentil soup.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large red onion, diced
• 4 stalks celery, diced
• 1 large carrot or two medium size carrots, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 26 ounces/737g fresh tomatoes, chopped – you can also use a 28oz can diced tomatoes and drain the liquid
• 1 cup dried brown lentils, picked over, rinsed and dried
• 1 tbsp garam masala or curry powder
• salt & pepper to taste
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 2-3 sprigs thyme, to be removed at the end
• 1 cup kale, roughly chopped
• Juice of two limes, about 2 tablespoons, squeezed over.

Let’s Cook!

1. Heat half the olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat add the onions, celery, carrot and garlic and cook for about 8 minutes until the onions are softened.
2. Add the tomatoes, lentils, garam masala stir together and season with salt and pepper. Pour in the vegetable stock, add the thyme bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer cook for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are cooked.
3. Remove the thyme and remove about two cups of the soup mix and blend then return to the soup mix, add the kale and lime juice and stir to combine.
4. This soup will keep in the fridge for about 4-5 days and is ideal to take to work in a container as it can be heated up quickly.

For the evening this meat free soup makes a tasty meal if you prefer some meat maybe add some chicken thighs for a lighter, healthier casserole just fry them off when you cook the onions. Myself I used to enjoy a tasty vegetable stew on a cold winters evening.

Beer Casserole with mustard dumplings.

Ingredients

• 125 gm pearl barley
• 2 tbsp oil
• 500 gm baby onions
• 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 3 tbsp of flour
• 250 ml of homemade vegetable stock
• 500 ml bottle pale ale
• 1 small Swede ( about 450 gm) cut into cubes
• 3 carrots chopped
• 4 sticks of celery chopped
• 350 gm potatoes halved if small or cut into 4
• 1 bouquet garni…

Mustard Dumplings

• 250 gm self raising flour
• 100 gm shredded vegetable suet
• 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
• 3 tbsp chopped parsley.

Let’s Cook!

1. Rinse and drain the pearly barley, put in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 30 minutes, adding more water if required.
2. Meanwhile heat the oven 180 C fan, 160C and Gas 4
3. Heat the oil in a flame proof casserole and add the onions cook for 3-4 mins…stir in the garlic and cook for 1 min.
4. Sprinkle the flour and cook for 1 min. gradually stir in the stock and ale and bring to the boil.
5. Rinse and drain the pearl barley then stir into the casserole also add the Swede, carrots, celery, potatoes and bouquet garni.
6. Season and then bring to the boil reduce the heat and cook for 45 minutes.
7. Meanwhile make the dumplings, sift the flour into a bowl then stir in the suet, mustard and parley, season and add 100 ml of water mix…It should form a soft dough.
8. Remove the casserole from the oven and remove the bouquet garni, place 12 spoonfuls of the dumpling mix in the casserole return to the oven and cook uncovered for about 30 minutes.
9. Serve with wedges of steamed Savoy cabbage.

Or if you prefer fish this lovely fish pie is nice and warming it can be made in one dish or in individual ramekins.

Fish Pie.

Ingredients

For the mashed potato topping.
• 1kg potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks
• 2 tablespoons butter, zest of 1 lemon
• Salt & Pepper to taste.

For the fish pie filling.
• 500ml (2 cups) milk
• 1 bay leaf
• 200g frozen hake fillets.
• 200g frozen smoked haddock fillets.
• 300g fresh uncooked prawns ( peeled)
• 2 onions sm or one large finely chopped.
• 1 carrot, finely chopped.
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped.
• 3 tbsp flour.
• 1 heaped tsp English mustard.
• 40g (1/2 cup) mature cheddar, grated.
• Juice of half lemon.
• Salt & pepper to taste.

Let’s Cook

1. Place potatoes in a large pot of boiling water or in a steamer and cook until soft. Mash the potatoes then mix in the butter and the lemon zest. Season to taste.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
3. To make the fish pie, poach the fish (not the prawns) in the milk with the bay leaf. When the fish is cooked, remove the fish and flake into large chunks. Reserve the milk.
4. In a large, oven-proof frying pan fry the onion and carrot in a splash of olive oil until soft and fragrant. Add the garlic and fry for another 30 seconds.
5. Add the flour and stir then add the milk the fish was poached to create a creamy sauce.
6. Add the English mustard and fish including prawns and stir well then add the cheese and lemon juice and stir.
7. Season to taste.
8. Top the fish filling with the mashed potato and create indents with a spoon which will become nice and crispy in the oven.
9. Place the pie in the oven and allow to bake for 30-40 minutes until the top is golden brown and crispy.
10. Remove from the oven and allow cooling for 10 minutes then serving.

Note: I don’t cook the prawns with the fish but add prawns right at the end when adding cooked fish to sauce this way the prawns will be lovely and succulent.

My thanks to  Carol for these winter warmers and it has certainly given me some ideas for this week.

About Carol Taylor

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetables ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use have to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology:  https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://carolcooks2.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

 You can find all of the previous posts in the directory – Carol Taylor Food Column

We would love to hear from you… perhaps you can share your favourite winter warmer? Thanks Sally

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – The Music Column with William Price King with Pee Wee Russell #Clarinettist #jazz

This week in the series on Jazz instrumentalists, William Price King shares the life and music of Pee Wee Russell, whose unique style as a clarinettist was later recognised as innovative and an early example of ‘free jazz’.

 

Charles Ellsworth “Pee Wee” Russell (March 27, 1906 – February 15, 1969), was a jazz musician. Early in his career he played clarinet and saxophones, but he eventually focused solely on clarinet.

With a highly individualistic and spontaneous clarinet style that “defied classification”,[1] Russell began his career playing Dixieland jazz, but throughout his career incorporated elements of newer developments such as swing, bebop and free jazz

Pee Wee Russell was born in Missouri and was raised in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He was encouraged to play violin as a child, but disliked it, moving onto the piano that he also found onerous, particularly having to learn scales and chord exercises. This was followed by a period of learning to play the drums, before his father took him to see a band playing locally, led by New Orleans Jazz clarinettist, Alcide ‘Yellow’ Nunez. Pee Wee was captivated and he decided that his primary instrument would be the clarinet.

He approached the clarinettist at his local theatre called Charlie Merrill for lessons until the family moved to St. Louis in 1920. The now 14 year old Pee Wee was enrolled in the Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois and he stayed there for a year, although he spent much of his time playing clarinet with a number of dance and jazz bands. At 16 he began touring professionally in tent show and on the river boats, with his first recording in 1924 with Herb Berger’s Band in St. Louis. This was followed by a move to Chicago where he began to play with some of the better known musicians of the time such as Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke.

“The Very Thought of You” is from the album “Swinging with Pee Wee” with Buck Clayton on trumpet, Tommy Flanagan on piano, Wendell Marshall on double bass, and Osie Johnson on drums. This song was written in 1934 by Ray Noble and used in the film “Lost Lady” (1934) starring Barbara Stanwyck. As you can hear in this piece, Russell has a soft, caressing, breathy tone which he produced in the chalumeau* range of his clarinet and his solo is beautifully complemented by Buck Clayton, muted and tender. He was a master of mood and quite effective with slow and mid-tempo ballads.

*The chalumeau is a folk instrument that is the predecessor to the modern-day clarinet.

His style was always distinctive and unorthodox and he was sometimes accused of playing out of tune. At 20 he joined Jean Goldkette’s band and after a year left for New York to join Red Nichols. While with Nichol’s band, Pee Wee also freelanced with studio work on the clarinet, soprano, alto and tenor sax and bass clarinet. As well as working with the top bands of the day he also began a series of residences at the famous jazz club, ‘Nick’s’ in Greenwich Village in 1937.

“That Old Feeling” was composed by Sammy Fain and Lew Brown in 1937. The song first appeared in the film “Vogues of 1938” and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song the same year. Russell’s interpretation of this piece with his un-orthodox, un-clarinet-like tone, is warm, expressive, and musically intelligent, with a very natural sense of swing.

He began to play with Eddie Condon and would do so until the end of his life although he did comment on their association at one point which gives an insight into his lack of self-esteem. “Those guys [at Nick’s and Condon’s] made a joke, of me, a clown, and I let myself be treated that way because I was afraid. I didn’t know where else to go, where to take refuge”.

“Englewood”, composed by Pee Wee Russell is a strong blues. Russell gets to show how funky his clarinet can be in this video and the horn solos are brilliant, sustained by a stringy bass and slapping drums. Check out Russell’s high hard notes and airy lines. He uses his tone as a means of expression as he growls, squeals and then drops down into his lower register with an occasional sotto voce.*

*Sotto voce – In music, sotto voce is a dramatic lowering of the vocal or instrumental volume — not necessarily pianissimo, but a definitely hushed tonal quality.

From the 1940s onwards, Russell’s health was often poor, exacerbated by alcoholism – “I lived on brandy milkshakes and scrambled-egg sandwiches. And on whiskey … I had to drink half a pint of whiskey in the morning before I could get out of bed” – which led to a major medical breakdown in 1951. In his last ten years he often played at jazz festivals and on international tours and he formed a quartet which included trombone player Marshall Brown.

“Midnight Blue” from the album “Swinging with Pee Wee” 1960, is a happy blues which climaxes with a fantastic exchange between the horns. But before that happens Russell makes his instrument whisper and rasp in a very intimate and sensuous manner.

Though often labeled a Dixiland musician by virtue of the company he kept, he tended to reject any label. Russell’s unique and sometimes derided approach was praised as ahead of its time, and cited by some as an early example of free jazz. At the time of their 1961 recording Jazz Reunion (Candid), Coleman Hawkins (who had originally recorded with Russell in 1929 and considered him to be color-blind) observed that ‘”For thirty years, I’ve been listening to him play those funny notes. He used to think they were wrong, but they weren’t. He’s always been way out, but they didn’t have a name for it then.“.

“The Blues in my Flat” is from the Earl Hines Album “Once Upon a Time” 1966. Russell accompanies Ray Nance who was one of the finest jazz violinists of the 1940s who played in the Duke Ellington orchestra. He was also an excellent jazz singer as you will hear in this video. As for Russell, he begins his solo in a cool swing with a pattern of staccato notes moving downward and then veers off into the falsetto register of his instrument. He reverses the pattern and breaks into a delicate rush of notes that become intensely multiplied improvisational phrases.

Pee Wee’s  last gig was at the inaugural ball for President Richard Nixon on January 21, 1969. Russell died in a hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, less than three weeks later.

You can buy Pee Wee Russell Music HERE

Additional sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pee_Wee_Russell

About William Price King

William Price King is an American jazz singer, crooner, and composer.

His interest in music began at an early age when he studied piano and clarinet in high school. At Morehouse College in Atlanta where he grew up, he sang in the Glee Club and studied classical music. After graduation he went off to the Yale School of Music where he earned a Masters degree. From there he journeyed to New York where he created a jazz trio ‘Au Naturel’ which performed in some of the hottest venues in Manhattan including gigs on Broadway and the famous ‘Rainbow Room.’ These gigs opened doors for performances in Montreal and a European tour.

While touring Europe he met a lovely French lady, Jeanne Maïstre, who, a year later became his wife. King left the group ‘Au Naturel’ and settled in the south of France where he started a new life on the French Riviera, opening his own music school – the “Price King Ecole Internationale de Chant.” He has had the pleasure over the years of seeing many of his students excel as singers on a professional level, and some going on to become national celebrities. He continues to coach young singers today, in his spare time.

His debut jazz album was entitled “Home,” and was a collection of contemporary compositions he composed, with lyrics written by his wife Jeanne King. His second album was a Duo (Voice and Guitar) with Eric Sempé on the guitar. This album included original songs as well as well known standards from contemporary jazz and pop artists. The “King-Sempé” duo toured France and thrilled audiences for more than three years before going their separate ways. King has formed a new duo with French/Greek guitarist Manolis, and is now exploring new ideas, in a smooth jazz/soul/folk direction.

In addition to singing and composing, King has been collaborating with author Sally Cronin over the past few years on her blog “Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life,” with the series “A Man And His Music – Jazz, Contemporary, Classical, and Legends” and now, the “William Price King Music Column.” Working with author Sally Cronin has been an exhilarating experience in many ways and has brought a new dimension to King’s creative life. King has also created a micro blog, “Improvisation,” which features and introduces mostly jazz artists from across the jazz spectrum who have made considerable contributions in the world of jazz; and also artwork from painters who have made their mark in the world of art. This micro blog can be found on Tumblr.

His vocal mentors are two of the greatest giants in jazz, Nat King Cole and Mel Tormé. King has a distinctive wide-ranging voice which displays a remarkable technical facility and emotional depth.

William Price King on Tumblr – IMPROVISATION – https://williampriceking.tumblr.com

Connect with William

Website – http://www.williampriceking.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/WilliamPriceKing
Twitter – https://twitter.com/wpkofficial
Regular Venue – http://cave-wilson.com/ 
ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/william-price-king/id788678484

You can find all of the Music Column series in this directory: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/william-price-king-music-column/

Thank you for tuning in today and we hope you have enjoyed the music. We look forward to your feedback.. thanks Sally and William.

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – The Music Column with William Price King – #Jazz – Duke Ellington

Welcome to the first of William Price King’s music columns for 2019. And today he is sharing the work of the iconic Duke Ellington, composer, pianist and Jazz orchestra leader for over 50 years.

Edward ‘Duke’ Ellington was born in 1899 in Washington D.C. to James and Daisy who were both pianists. At the age of seven, Edward began taking piano lessons and with his mother’s guidance began to adopt an elegant and well-mannered approach to life. Daisy dressed him with style, which resulted in his childhood friends calling him ‘Duke’, a nickname that stuck with him throughout his career. Despite Daisy’s efforts, Duke preferred baseball over the piano… and whilst at high school is first job was selling peanuts at the Washington Senators baseball games.

At age 15 and working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Café, Duke wrote his first composition “Soda Fountain Rag”… also known as “Poodle Dog Rag”.

“I would play the ‘Soda Fountain Rag’ as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango and fox-trot”, Ellington recalled. “Listeners never knew it was the same piece. I was established as having my own repertoire.” In his autobiography, Music is my Mistress (1973), Ellington wrote that he missed more lessons than he attended, feeling at the time that playing the piano was not his talent.

Ellington started sneaking into Frank Holiday’s Poolroom at the age of fourteen. Hearing the poolroom pianists play ignited Ellington’s love for the instrument, and he began to take his piano studies seriously. Duke began listening to, watching, and imitating ragtime pianists, not only in Washington, D.C., but in Philadelphia and Atlantic City,where he vacationed with his mother during the summer months.

To improve his technique he took private lessons and he was also inspired by his first encounters with James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. Eventually he began playing in cafes and clubs around Washington and it became his focus and he turned down a scholarship in 1916 to the prestigious Pratt Institute in New York. To pay the bills Duke worked as a freelance sign-painter and began assembling groups to play for dances. In 1919 he met drummer Sonny Greer from New Jersey, who encouraged Duke to become a professional musician. His career was helped by his growing sign-writing business as he would offer his services to anyone who asked him to make a sign for a party or an event.

He formed his first group “The Duke’s Serenaders” in 1917 and from the mid- 1920s he was based in New York City where he gained a national profile through his orchestra’s appearances at the world famous “Cotton Club”.

Although widely considered to have been a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Ellington embraced the phrase “beyond category” as a liberating principle and referred to his music as part of the more general category of American Music rather than to a musical genre such as jazz.

Some of the jazz musicians who were members of Ellington’s orchestra, such as saxophonist Johnny Hodges, are considered to be among the best players in the idiom. Ellington melded them into the best-known orchestral unit in the history of jazz. Some members stayed with the orchestra for several decades. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, with many of his pieces having become standards. Ellington also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, for example Juan Tizol’s “Caravan”, and “Perdido”, which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. In the early 1940s,

Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed many extended compositions, or suites, as well as additional short pieces.

Following an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, in July 1956, Ellington and his orchestra enjoyed a major revival and embarked on world tours. Ellington recorded for most American record companies of his era, performed in several films, scored several, and composed a handful of stage musicals.

Ellington was noted for his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and for his eloquence and charisma. His reputation continued to rise after he died, and he was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize Special Award for music in 1999.

Here are some of only a few of the exceptional pieces written by Duke Ellington.

“It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” written in 1931 by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Irving Mills was characterized as a legendary, prophetic piece with a prophetic title, by historian Gunther Schiller. Critic Spike Hughes called Ellington a prophet. Nonetheless, Ellington was not a fan of reading too much into a song.

However, this song took Ellington out of the category of being simply a ‘bandleader’ and elevated him to the league of ‘composers’. According to trumpetist Bubber Miley, this song was the expression of a sentiment which prevailed among jazz musicians at that time and has since been covered by practically all of the jazz greats, including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Nina Simone, and Lionel Hampton.

“Sophisticated Lady”, composed as an instrumental mood piece by Duke Ellington in 1932, featured solos by Toby Hardwick on alto sax, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Lawrence Brown on trombone, and Ellington on piano. This recording entered the charts in May 1933 and peaked at number three. The tune was actually a composite musical sketch of three women, three of young Ellington’s grade school teachers in the U Street neighborhood of Washington D.C. Ellington said: “They taught all winter and toured Europe in the summer. To me that spelled sophistication.”

Tin Pan Alley lyricist Mitchell Parish (Stardust, Ruby, Moonlight Serenade ) added words to Ellington’s melody, telling a story of a wealthy, love-lost socialite. Ellington accepted Parish’s lyrics, though they did not entirely fit his original conception. “Sophisticated Lady “ was featured in the musical revue “Sophisticated Ladies” on Broadway in 1981 which celebrated the work of Duke Ellington. This song also appeared on the soundtrack of the 1989/90 documentary “Sophisticated Lady”, celebrating the life of singer Adelaide Hall, who recorded with Ellington in 1927, 1932, and 1933.

“ Prelude to a Kiss” Ellington’s success allowed him the privilege of becoming more ambitious and experimental in his compositions, thus abandoning the « Tin Pan Alley »* style hooks and dance tempos for melodic lines and harmonies mostly found in classical music. The result was « Prelude To a Kiss. » Its blending of classical and jazz sensibilities contributed to the song’s originality and splendor. This song was originally recorded as an instrumental in 1938. Weeks later, Ellington recorded it again, adding lyrics by Irving Gordon and Irving Mills.

• Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century – a reference to the sound of pianos, comparing them to the banging of tin pans, coming from songwriters modifying their pianos to produce a more percussive sound.

“Take the ‘A’ Train” is a 1939 composition by Billy Strayhorn which referred to the ‘A’ subway service that ran through NYC, going at that time from eastern Brooklyn, on the Fulton Street Line (opened in 1936) up into Harlem and northern Manhattan, using the Eighth Avenue Line which was opened in 1932. Strayhorn wrote this piece after Ellington offered him a job in his organization. Ellington sent him directions to get to his house by subway, directions that began with “Take the ‘A’ Train… “. Strayhorn initially wrote the lyrics to this song which was recorded by the Delta Rhythm Boys. Later, Joya Sherrill, 20 years old at the time, wrote new lyrics for the instrumental version of this piece. Thanks to her poise, vocal ability and her unique take on the song, Ellington hired her as a vocalist and adopted her lyrics which became the main stay.

“Satin Doll” was written by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn in 1953, with lyrics added after the song was a hit in its instrumental version, by Johnny Mercer. According to Mercer Ellington, the Duke’s son, his father wrote “ Satin Doll “ for his longtime mistress Bea ‘Evie’ Ellis. Capitol Records released this song in 1953, peaking at #27 on Billboard’s Pop chart. This piece is well known in musical circles for its unusual use of chords, and its opening with a turnaround.* Ellington used “Satin Doll” as the closing number in most of his concerts.

• In jazz, a turnaround is usually the two measures at the end of a section of music whose function is to help you segue into the next section of music creating a strong sense of forward motion, harmonically.

Buy Duke Ellington Music: https://www.amazon.com/Duke-Ellington/e/B000APLKAY

Additional Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington
Discover more about ‘Duke’ Ellington: http://www.dukeellington.com/home.html

About William Price King

William Price King is an American jazz singer, crooner, and composer.

His interest in music began at an early age when he studied piano and clarinet in high school. At Morehouse College in Atlanta where he grew up, he sang in the Glee Club and studied classical music. After graduation he went off to the Yale School of Music where he earned a Masters degree. From there he journeyed to New York where he created a jazz trio ‘Au Naturel’ which performed in some of the hottest venues in Manhattan including gigs on Broadway and the famous ‘Rainbow Room.’ These gigs opened doors for performances in Montreal and a European tour.

While touring Europe he met a lovely French lady, Jeanne Maïstre, who, a year later became his wife. King left the group ‘Au Naturel’ and settled in the south of France where he started a new life on the French Riviera, opening his own music school – the “Price King Ecole Internationale de Chant.” He has had the pleasure over the years of seeing many of his students excel as singers on a professional level, and some going on to become national celebrities. He continues to coach young singers today, in his spare time.

His debut jazz album was entitled “Home,” and was a collection of contemporary compositions he composed, with lyrics written by his wife Jeanne King. His second album was a Duo (Voice and Guitar) with Eric Sempé on the guitar. This album included original songs as well as well known standards from contemporary jazz and pop artists. The “King-Sempé” duo toured France and thrilled audiences for more than three years before going their separate ways. King has formed a new duo with French/Greek guitarist Manolis, and is now exploring new ideas, in a smooth jazz/soul/folk direction.

In addition to singing and composing, King has been collaborating with author Sally Cronin over the past few years on her blog “Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life,” with the series “A Man And His Music – Jazz, Contemporary, Classical, and Legends” and now, the “William Price King Music Column.” Working with author Sally Cronin has been an exhilarating experience in many ways and has brought a new dimension to King’s creative life. King has also created a micro blog, “Improvisation,” which features and introduces mostly jazz artists from across the jazz spectrum who have made considerable contributions in the world of jazz; and also artwork from painters who have made their mark in the world of art. This micro blog can be found on Tumblr.

His vocal mentors are two of the greatest giants in jazz, Nat King Cole and Mel Tormé. King has a distinctive wide-ranging voice which displays a remarkable technical facility and emotional depth.

William Price King on Tumblr – IMPROVISATION – https://williampriceking.tumblr.com

Connect with William

Website – http://www.williampriceking.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/WilliamPriceKing
Twitter – https://twitter.com/wpkofficial
Regular Venue – http://cave-wilson.com/ 
ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/william-price-king/id788678484

You can find all of the Music Column series in this directory: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/william-price-king-music-column/

Thank you for tuning in today and we hope you have enjoyed the music. We look forward to your feedback.. thanks Sally and William.