VLVL2 (1): Frenesi

[Burns, Erik]

Foax:

Tim S. wrote:

Re: VLVL2 (1): Frenesi

>What is the proper pronounciation of "Frenesi"?  Is it "Fre-KNEE-SEE"
>(bacchic rhythm, with the "e" in "Fre" the same as that in "special"), or
is
>it "FRE-nuh-see" (dactyllic rhythm)?

in portuguese it's FRE-neh-see (also spelt "frenesim"). Frenzy, madness,
delirium, transport, rapture (and obvious sexual implications.)

cf. Benny Carter (RIP, today) & Oscar Peterson's version of famous jazz
tune, for one, "Frenesi."

how's that for Thanatoid coincidence?!?

etb

US-Obit-Carter
Benny Carter, legendary sax player, composer and arranger, dies at 95<
^By CHELSEA CARTER=
^Associated Press Writer=
¶   LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Jazz great Benny Carter hardly ever looked back. He
enjoyed whatever he was doing at the moment _ composing or arranging,
improvising on the alto sax or trumpet, leading a band or making
opportunities for other black musicians.
¶   "I don't look back at the good old days," Carter once said. "The good
old days are here and now."
¶   Carter died Saturday at age 95 after being hospitalized for about two
weeks with bronchitis and other problems, family friend and publicist
Virginia Wicks said Sunday.
¶   "A big, big person walked out of the room yesterday," said friend and
producer Quincy Jones. "A great human being."
¶   In a career that spanned more than six decades, Carter performed with or
wrote music for nearly all of jazz's swing-era greats, including Duke
Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.
¶   Carter's compositions, which include "When Lights Are Low" (1936) and
"Blues in My Heart" (1931), became jazz and big band standards, and many
saxophone and trumpet players continue to measure their work against his
solos.
¶   Bennett Lester Carter was born Aug. 8, 1907, in New York. He took piano
lessons from his mother when he was 10 and picked up the trumpet four years
later.
¶   After failing to learn it in a week, though, Carter put down the trumpet
and picked up the saxophone. He eventually did master the brass instrument _
only a year later. By age 15, he was a regular at Harlem night clubs.
¶   Despite being mostly self-taught, Carter became known as a virtuoso
instrumentalist. Critics and his fellow musicians credited his originality
and improvisation with helping launch the golden age of big band jazz in the
1930s.
¶   "You got Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and my man, the Earl of Hines,
right? Well, Benny's right up there with all them cats," Louis Armstrong
once said. "Everybody that knows who he is calls him `King.' He is a king."
¶   Carter put together his own orchestra in 1932 but disbanded it a year
later.
¶   In 1942, he reorganized the group, which included bebop pioneers
Gillespie and Kenny Clarke and later Miles Davis. He called it quits again
in 1946 in part because of his growing Hollywood career.
¶   His foray into arranging began in 1928 when he was a member of Charlie
Johnson's Orchestra. In 1943, Carter was the arranger for "Stormy Weather,"
an all black musical. He went on to arrange the scores for "An American in
Paris" (1951) and "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), among many other films.
¶   He later composed and arranged music for 20 television series, including
"M Squad" (1957-60), "Ironside" (1967-75), "The Name of the Game" (1968-71),
and "It Takes a Thief" (1968-70).
¶   It was his composing and arranging that opened doors for many of his
fellow black musicians. He used his influence to push successfully to
desegregate the Musicians' Union's white and black locals.
¶   Carter stopped touring altogether in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1976, he
returned to performing live in New York and later that year recorded "The
King," which featured duets with Gillespie.
¶   Carter was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987 and the
congressional designation as a National Treasure of Jazz in 1988.
¶   He enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s for a series of albums on the
MusicMasters label, winning two more Grammy Awards and receiving a Kennedy
Center lifetime achievement award.
¶   In 2000, he was presented with the National Medal of Arts by President
Bill Clinton.
¶   Jones said he visited Carter in the hospital and had the sense that "the
king" had simply decided it was time to go.
¶   "He said he had lived, for 95 years, the greatest life he could ask for,
and he wanted to leave us like he lived with us, which was in such dignity,"
Jones said.