for melba liston (13)

for melba liston

1926 -1999

sliding from bebop to motown was

for u like moving from kansas city

to l.a. -- no change in direction. u

were arranger/saavy & yr sound did

not break, yr movements clearly

mapped & every pitch had the same

harmonic number. yr portamento

life, was full of restless intervals, had

its salient recurring figures, but u,

melba, resolved yr augmented 4ths

into sweet minor sixths picking the

‘bone as yr axe not because it was

what finishing school girls did, but

because the thing was so damn

beautiful; falling in & out with music

teachers who meant well because u
knew yr own musical mind, had a

great ear & could write like a crowning

muse. the great bandleaders found u -–

gerald wilson in ’43, johnnie griffin

in ‘45, diz in ’48 & ’56, billie holliday

in ’48-’49, Q in ’57, clark terry, &

mingus thru the sixties & randy weston

in the sixties, seventies,eighties &

nineties. although u slow played yr valve

trombone, a sensitive virtuoso blues &

ballad stylist, blending motivic & linear

improvisations to make yr solos lyrical

& gay or mysterious & warm, u are

remembered best for possessing like a

loa the musical ideas of others, filling

them with the aşẹ of hidden & secret

things,writing vital pieces for combo &

big band alike, moving from ballads &

standards to funky grooves; melodic &

polyrhythmic motifs with extended tonal

vocabularies, so rich in altered harmonic

voicings, layered to the bone with due

dissonance, & the deep variations & subtle

shadings of africa.

©Joseph McNair;2010