Round Midnight - A Story About Jazz

Date written: December 7th, 2012
Topic: Development of Jazz - Round Midnight
This essay includes information about Lester Young, Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon

Music is an art of sound that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, and harmony. In the early 20^th century, Jazz originated in black communities in the United States. By time, jazz has seen many changes and developments by many creative, talented musicians. Throughout the 1930s-1050s, major changes in jazz have been made, as the swing, bebop, and cool jazz eras were taking place. Some of the main influential jazz musicians who played major roles in the development of jazz are Lester Young, Bud Powell, and Dexter Gordon who played the role of Dale Turner in the movie Round Midnight.

To begin with, Lester Young was an American jazz musician who played the saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, violin, and drums. Young grew up in a musical family and he was inspired mainly by his father and brother. His father was a multi-talented musician, his brother was a drummer, and many of his relatives played music professionally. His dad organized them as a family band that played in carnivals and theatres. At the age of 18, his father proposed taking the band on a tour to the South, but he refused to go as he claimed that it was a place of racism and humiliation. Since then, he was an independent jazz musician. At that time, Coleman Hawkins was the king of the instrument, and most tenor saxophonists were imitating his style. As a saxophonist, Young brought a cool modernism and a new rhythmic flexibility to jazz, his playing was almost the complete opposite; his sound was soft and mellow in the lower registers, while his higher notes were clear and delicate, and his melodic lines were slow, and never in a hurry. In the 1930s, he became a member of The Count Basie Orchestra, where he rose to prominence and was the master of the clarinet. Young’s style when playing the clarinet influenced many other jazz musicians because his style was very unique and truly remarkable. He played with a cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies; his style satisfied both dancers and listeners. Also, Young invented and popularized the hipster character which was associated to music, as he was famous for his hip and quiet style.

Throughout the 1940s, Young performed with Count Basie’s Orchestra from time to time. “He claimed that he did not want to be a “repeater pencil”, which describes the act of repeating one’s own past ideas, but his playing showed reliance on a small number of clichéd phrases and reduced creativity and originality.” He produced some of the old, smooth-toned flow of the 1930s. In 1994, Lester was sent to the military, but his playing style was significantly different after he was sent back home. He began alcohol abuse from around 1951, because there was a declining command on the swinging music that he used to play, as the bebop era began. As a result, his level of playing declined rapidly. Although Young had many physical and mental issues, he still continued to play his instrument and recorded many of his “new” songs in the studio. In January 1959, Young travelled to Paris to continue his career as a jazz musician, but in March, his alcohol abuse put him through dangerous medical conditions, which made him fly back home.

Bud Powell was also a very influential jazz musician. As a child, he was influenced by his father, who was a pianist, and he was taught how to play the piano by a teacher whom his father hired. Powell showed his interest in jazz as he grew older, and his playing was heard all around the neighborhood. He had a significant impact on the development of bebop. His style became the leading approach for other pianists, as he reduced left hand functions to playing brief, shifted chords supporting long melody lines by the right hand. In 1945, Powell developed severe head injuries due to the police beating him on the head after a racially motivated attack, which interrupted his career several times for the rest of his life. In 1947, Powell got the chance to demonstrate his mature style when he was chosen to be Charlie Parker’s pianist along with three well-known jazz musicians. He acquired a brief solo spot in one of their performances, where his jocular chord filled while the horn players paused to breathe. In the late 1940s Powell developed alcohol abuse issues; even one drink had an overpowering impact on his character, making him aggressive and pessimistic.

In the late 1950s, he moved to Paris, in the company of a woman called Altevia "Buttercup" Edwards. In Paris, Powell worked in a trio with two other professional jazz musicians. He continued to perform and record despite the fact that Buttercup discouraged him from playing, as she did not have his best interests in mind, and kept control of his finances and overdosed him with medication. His technique formed the basic small ensembles that have dominated jazz since the bebop era. In his later years, some of his recordings and performances sounded quiet sad, while others would be scarily intense. However, he had a major role in the development of jazz and he will remain one of the most outstanding pianists ever. Nonetheless, many later pianists copied his daring attacks, looking to attain that rarefied status, of the fearless improviser.

Moreover, Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, one of the most influential saxophonists in modern jazz, and an Academy Award-nominated actor. Gordon started playing the clarinet since he was 13 and the saxophone at 15. One of his major influences was Lester Young. He was one of the primary innovators of bebop jazz and a lasting favorite of audiences and music critics. Crossing 50 years in recorded jazz history, Gordon’s studio and live performance careers were both extensive and complex. He is widely remembered for his wonderful charisma, his sense of style and sophistication, and his broad legendary sound on the saxophone, in addition to his innovative contributions in the world of Jazz. His styles included his clear, strong, metallic tones, their tendencies to bend up to high notes, and their abilities to single-tongue and still swing. One of Gordon's habits was to rehearse the lyrics of each ballad before playing it. Gordon spent 15 years in Europe, mostly in Paris and Copenhagen, where he played regularly with fellow expatriate jazzmen such as Bud Powell, and others. During the 1960s, Gordon experienced less racism and greater respect for jazz musicians in Europe.

            In 1986, Gordon starred in the movie Round Midnight as 'Dale Turner', an expatriate jazz musician much like him; although Lester Young and Bud Powell were its main inspirations the role might even be a lightly, indirect biography of him. In 'Round Midnight, real-life jazz legend Dexter Gordon brilliantly portrays the fictional tenor sax player Dale Turner, a musician slowly losing the battle with alcoholism, estranged from his family, and hanging on by a thread in the 1950's New York jazz world. Dale gets an offer to play in Paris, where, like many other black American musicians at the time, he enjoys a respect for his humanity that is not based upon the color of his skin. A Parisian man who is obsessed with Turner's music befriends him and attempts to save Turner from himself. Although for Dale the damage is already done, his poignant relationship with the man and his young daughter re-kindles his spirit and his music as the end draws near.

            Furthermore, the fictional character Dale Turner represents Lester Young’s original style and sophisticated tones when playing the saxophone. It also shows how listeners and dancers were pleased and entertained by his performances. To add on, the flashbacks about his military experience, the experience in Paris and the return to New York just before his death also show parallelisms to Young’s life. Additionally, Gordon played with Powell in the early 1960s, which helped him revise and rewrite the script. Dale Turner’s character also portrays Powell’s tortured and mysterious character, his experience with Buttercup, and his alcohol abuse issues. Dexter’s dynamic character allowed him to perfect the role of Dale Turner as a professional saxophonist, his experience with Powell helped him play the role, and his own experiences made him genuine about describing circumstances in Paris.

            To sum up, jazz have gone through a lot of changes and developments. Although Young, Powell, and Gordon have been through a lot of difficulties, they continued influencing other musicians because they were determined to make a difference in the jazz world. The fictional character, Dale Turner, in the movie Round Midnight portrays the circumstances that Lester Young and Bud Powell lived through, as they were Gordon’s influences.