Godbye Pork Pie Hat

Shafi Had and Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Horace Parlan (piano), Charles Mingus (bass) and Dannie Richmond (drums). From the album Mingus Ah Um (1959).

This theme is dedicated to Lester Young, who was an American tenor saxophonist from the swing and mainstream era, and one of the most influential musicians on his instrument. He had a different conception of how to play the saxophone. Instead of the forceful style dominant at that time by Coleman Hawkins, he preferred to give it a relaxed, floating over bar lines with a light tone approach. In 1933 he settled in Kansas City and joined Count Basie’s big band, where he took center stage.

However, he abandoned him to replace Coleman Hawins in Fletcher Henderson’s big band and then toured with Andy Kirk, but eventually returned to Basie in 1936. Billie Holliday and Lester Young met at jam session in Harlem in the early 1930s and worked together in Count Basie’s band. In 1940 Lester left Basie and his musical career became erratic, although he returned to him in 1943 for nine months. Then he had to do his military service, where he had terrible experiences, and many jazz critics said that from then on he never played the same.

The theme begins slowly with a feeling of mourning until Handy begins his solo with beautiful and melancholy melodies. There comes a time when he makes a flutter tonguing with the saxophone that makes hair stand on end and continues with his heartbroken speech. Then the group exposes the theme twice more reiterating the sadness and condolences, finishing with an intense ending.