Posted 1 year ago
Q: Can you talk a bit about what Oscar Pettiford’s music has meant to you?
On 04/30/2011 14:31pm YOU answered:
A: It’s hard NOT to talk about Pettiford if you play the cello in an improvised setting. He was a first-class composer and player, and one of the first to center a band around the cello and really make use of its soulful sound..and then he could swing his ass off too.
The story, perhaps exaggerated, was Pettiford broke his arm playing softball with the Woody Herman Band and while recuperating got to playing a cello a friend had loaned him. This may or may not be true, but he certainly did take to the cello. Although he was supposed to be a bit of troubled man with chronic back pain that he ‘medicated’ with drink, his music is sunny and optimistic or sweet and sentimental — And he makes both work on the cello. He even went so far as to name his son Cello Pettiford and one of his greatest LP’s shows him with his young son in his arms on the cover — the LP is called “My Little Cello” (featuring a young Mingus playing bass). Suggested listening: Jack the Fieldstalker, Tamalpais.
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