|
“The Blanton-Webster
Band featured what many feel was
Ellington’s best ensemble, including
young bassist Jimmy Blanton and
tenor great Ben Webster...” |
|
 |
|
- JW
|
|
|
|
Considered
by some as her best performance,
“I Got It Bad” was introduced by
Ivie Anderson in Jump for
Joy. The West Coast musical
revue opened on July 10, 1941, at
the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles
and ran for 101 performances. Although
the show’s run was short, in October
a Duke Ellington recording, also
featuring Anderson and with solos
by Ellington and
Johnny Hodges, became a hit,
rising on the pop charts to number
thirteen. A month later,
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
would also score with their recording
which had the further distinction
of being Peggy Lee’s first hit vocal.
Ironically, Goodman’s trumpeter
Cootie Williams played the Ellington
song in the Goodman band after leaving
Ellington the previous year.
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
That Duke Ellington wrote the
score for Jump for Joy was
a reflection of his interest and
activity in the Civil Rights Movement.
According to Ellington’s long-term
publicist Patricia Willard, the
all black musical revue “aimed at
banishing forever the stereotypical
eyerolling, dialect, and shuffling
gait” that was prevalent in that
period’s movies and plays. Sid Kuller
and Paul Francis Webster wrote the
majority of the lyrics.
Subtitled “A Sun-Tanned Revu-sical,”
Jump for Joy boasted a cast
of 60, including the Ellington orchestra,
Ivie Anderson, Marie Bryant,
Joe Turner,
Herb Jeffries, Dorothy Dandridge,
and comedian Wonderful Smith. In
addition to “I Got It Bad,” the
revue included, “Jump
for Joy,” “Chocolate Shake”
and two songs that have become minor
standards, “Rocks
In My Bed” and “The Brown Skin
Gal in the Calico Gown.”
All of the aforementioned songs
are included on
Duke Ellington: The Blanton-Webster
Band, a three-CD set of
66 tracks recorded from 1939 to
1941. The Blanton-Webster Band featured
what many feel was Ellington’s best
ensemble, including young bassist
Jimmy Blanton and tenor great Ben
Webster, with compositions and arrangements
by
Billy Strayhorn. Other greats
included in the spectacular lineup
were
Johnny Hodges,
Cootie Williams (replaced by
Ray Nance on some cuts), Rex
Stewart,
Juan Tizol, and
Barney Bigard.
Also in the show but not on the
three-CD set were “Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Is a Drive-In Now,” “I’ve Got a
Passport from Georgia (and I’m Sailing
for the U.S.A.)” and a composition
by Ellington’s son Mercer, “Stomp
Caprice,” which was used for a dance
number by Al Guster. Mercer would
later note that there was a pronounced
militancy in this anti-Uncle Tom
musical, a militancy that would
result in death threats and the
opening of a file on Ellington by
the FBI.
Despite mostly good reviews and
enthusiastic audiences, the show
faced profit concerns and talent
losses to the escalating military
effort of World War II. Jump
for Joy closed on September
27, 1941. Its short run was a great
disappointment to Ellington who
had hoped the show, and its message,
would make it to Broadway.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
In his Ellington biography
Beyond Category:
The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, John
Edward Hasse commented that Paul Francis Webster’s
vernacular lyric, “for a change begins to approach
the quality of Ellington’s music.” Hasse is not
alone in this observation, with others more bluntly
declaring the lyrics of Ellington songs markedly
improved after he terminated his association with
Irving Mills and his associates. Webster and the
quality of his lyrics invoke a certain irony—that
is, the concept of this skillful craftsman assembling
slangy phrases that would make an English teacher
wince. It is also interesting to note that the grammar
violations are restricted to the refrain; the verse,
which is relatively articulate and astute, almost
seems to belong in another song.
Written in the popular 32-bar A-A-B-A form, “I
Got It Bad” takes the first four bars of each A
section to declare a lament, such as “Never treats
me sweet and gentle …” and then uses the remaining
four bars to state the title phrase, “I Got It Bad
and that Ain’t Good!” The refrain is repeated with
a second set of lyrics, the B sections lending an
air of complacence and hopelessness to the already
bleak picture, including the line published with
the sheet music, “I’m glad I’m mad about him I can’t
live without him.” On the original recording, Ivie
Anderson sang it another way, admitting a bit of
complicity, “My man and me we gin’ some and sin
some and then some.”
“I Got It Bad” is a favorite of jazz instrumentalists
and vocalists, the latter usually being female.
It is also a composition that draws praise from
musicologists, particularly its harmonies and its
melodic contour, which includes the jump of a ninth
from d to e in the first measure, a stretch that
is fun for musicians but can be a hurdle for vocalists.
In his book
The American
Popular Ballad of the Golden Era, Allen
Forte disagrees. Pronouncing “I Got It Bad” a splendid
song, he says the claimed difficulty for singers
is “pure nonsense, not only because any professional
singer can easily navigate this interval but also
because the symmetric placement of the notes in
the melody is perfectly clear …” He goes on to say
that it is the octave relation between the d’s preceding
and following the e that is important. -JW
|
Musical analysis of
“I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)”
|
| Original
Key |
G major |
| Form |
A – A – B
– A |
| Tonality |
Primarily
major |
| Movement |
Primarily
chromatic and step-wise; however, there
is one very large upward leap of a ninth
in the first measure and a few skips throughout
the song. |
|
Comments
(assumed
background)
|
|
At an octave and a tri-tone, this song has
one of the widest ranges of any standard.
That, with several chromatic lead-ins, makes
this one of the more difficult pieces for
vocalists. Harmonic rhythm is fairly slow
except in the penultimate measures of the
“A” section, where there is a chord change
on every beat. Technically, it is a member
of the I – vi – II7 – V7 family. But this
song stretches this particular progression
a bit by adding another vi after the II7,
returning it to II7, after which this shifts
to its parallel minor, functioning as a
ii7 of I. Instead of going to V7, however,
it returns to III7, making its way back
to the tonic through the circle of fifths
(here is the one chord change per beat).
Section “B” uses the IV – iv – I progression
of “Star
Dust” and “After
You’ve Gone” for the first four measures,
then does its own circle of fifths using
minor substitutions from iii7 (in the original
key, iii – VI7 = ii7 – V7). |
K. J. McElrath - Musicologist for JazzStandards.com
Check out K. J. McElrath's book of Jazz Standards Guide Tone Lines at his web site (www.bardicle.com). |
|
|
Are you a published Vocalist or Instrumentalist?
Add a comment and we'll credit you with a link
to your site. (more...)
|
“I Got It Bad (and That
Ain't Good)” was included in these
films:
- Jump for Joy (1941, Herb Jeffries)
- The Mouse Comes to Dinner aka Mouse
to Dinner (1945) Tom and Jerry cartoon
- This Could Be the Night (1957,
Julie Wilson)
- Miami Rhapsody (1995, 1st
time Ella Fitzgerald; 2nd time Louis Armstrong)
- The Big Lebowski (1998, Nina
Simone)
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999, The
Oscar Peterson Trio)
- The Human Stain (2003, The
Oscar Peterson Trio)
- The Catcher in the Rye (2004,
The Oscar Peterson Trio)
And on stage:
- Bubbling Brown Sugar (1976,
Ethel Beatty) Broadway musical
- Sophisticated Ladies (1981,
Phyllis Hyman, Terri Klausner) Broadway musical
- Play On! (1997, Carl Anderson)
Broadway musical
And on television:
- Play On! (2000, Raun Ruffin)
PBS Great Performances
|
|
Click on a CD for more details
at Amazon.com
Johnny Hodges
Passion Flower (1940-46)
1995, RCA 66616
|
| This dreamy, romantic reading could
be considered the definitive version. Saxophonist
Johnny Hodges leads the Ellington band (Duke
at piano) with vocals from the wonderful
Ivie Anderson. |
Keith Jarrett
The Melody at Night With You
1999, ECM
|
| Quiet and romantic, this beautiful
solo piano recording earned Keith Jarrett
a nomination for the 2001 Grammy Award for
Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. |
Benny Goodman Quartet
Together Again
2001, Collectables
Original recording, 1963, Bluebird RCA
|
| Twenty-five years after dissolving,
the Benny Goodman Quartet reunites and delivers
this gem. With Goodman on the clarinet,
Lionel Hampton at the vibes, Teddy Wilson
at the piano, and Gene Krupa behind the
drums, the song lingers with a lazy melancholy. |
Etta Jones
Hollar!
2001, Original Jazz Classics
Original recording, 1963
|
| Belting the song out one minute
and gently coaxing it the next, vocalist
Etta Jones is eloquent and bluesy in her
reading. Vibraphonist Lem Winchester figures
prominently in keeping the mood upbeat. |
|
|
Pianist Joe Sullivan, a graduate of the Chicago
Music Conservatory, was a consummate band player,
yet in later years he worked mostly solo. His career,
which began in the Windy City in the 1920s, included
stints as
Bing Crosby’s accompanist and a short spell
in brother
Bob Crosby’s big band. But because of his musical
company over the years, he was often typecast as
a “Dixieland” player, a term he despised (as do
most players of classic jazz).
Sullivan had a very “barrelhouse” approach to
the piano but also a marvelous, lighter way with
ballads. “I Got it Bad” was a favorite number of
his (he liked to call it “I Got It Good and That
Ain’t Bad”) and his 1944 version is first-rate.
Chris Tyle - Jazz Musician and Historian
|
This section shows the jazz standards
written by the same writing team. Click on a name
to see all of a writer's jazz standards.
|
|
Additional information on “I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)” may be found in:
1 paragraph including the following types of information: history and performers.
1 paragraph including the following types of information: music analysis.
5 pages including the following types of information: history and music analysis.
1 paragraph including the following types of information: history and performers.
1 paragraph including the following types of information: Broadway productions, film productions, history and performers.
Includes the following types of information: song lyrics.
|
|
