Overall, my favorite Beatle is Paul. Perhaps not the hippest choice as George has moved into that spot with his biting wit, love of rockabilly and Ravi Shankar as well as holding court with the Monty Python gang. In Paul's defense for staying alive (we might love you more if you weren't), Sir Paul is a great example for how we can be as we get older. He always seems to be playing live shows and playing well, with enthusiasm and craft intact. Also, the decent English gentleman, reformed vegetarian (thanks Linda!) , always writing songs and music and doesn't mind paying (higher) taxes in his homeland in the UK- didn't move to the states to pay less. But this aint about that Paul neither.
(A quick George story from a recent documentary: As he was being taken away by the paramedics after suffering near fatal stab wounds from a crazy intruder at his home, George saw a member of his staff who had just started that day and said, "how was your first day at work?")
My favorite Paul (other than Mathis) is Brother Paul Gonsalves. Alright, he wasn't my brother and no one referred to or wrote to him as "Brother Paul". Paul would have been as old as my father, born in 1920. He was born in Boston (maybe Brockton, MA) of Portuguese descent by way of the Cape Verde Islands. He died in 1974 just days before the death of his boss, Duke Ellington (b1899) having stayed with the Ellington band since he signed up in 1950. How many people work for someone for 24 years and decide that they can't live without their boss?!
When Paul was twenty two he was drafted in the Army until he was released two years later in 1944. Shortly after he joined Count Basie's band (the greatest big band for rhythm, riffs, and creating solos from the structure of the music), and one year in 1949 in Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band, incorporating more complexities to the swing. It was with Ellington that Gonsalves wanted to get to, and in '50, he had his chance and seized it.
Big bands were dying out as small groups were in vogue and more economical. At one point in the early '50's all the big bands had broken up-(Basie had reduced to a seven piece) except Ellington's; never the most popular big band but his orchestra was always the most creative. In short for his compositional skills and his creation of unusual sounds, voicing, and feeling- and in particular, the distinctive qualities of his musicians.
Gonsalves is not the first musician people associate with Ellington (Johnny Hodges, Billy Strayhorn, Ben Webster, Cootie Williams, Tricky Sam Nanton, Bubber Miley, Harry Carney- Carney played with Ellington nearly 50 years!) but he's my favorite Paul! For his carefree love of life and music, passion when he played, and for some of the goofy stories I occasionally can find. While the music is what is lasting and important, I find these stories endearing. Paul didn't seem to be particularly ambitious but enjoyed experiencing the world, curious and carefree, passing time until the night when playing with the band, he could search, explore, create. Hoping to connect and find magic everyday.
However when you're on the road eleven months of the year, every year it can take a mental and physical toll. The pay was alright but each night's bed was probably in a two star hotel downtown. Paul developed bad habits that really impacted his being noticeably the last years of his life, where he really starts to look older than he was. He only hurt himself but along with recognizing the tragic consequences of his eventual alcohol and narcotics abuse, it does have a lighter side.
I've read where the band couldn't find him until they looked into his hotel closet and found Paul passed out while attempting to hang up his jacket, one arm hooked on a hanger. On stage and not in the best of sobriety, stumbled to his feet for his first solo but hearing the audience's appreciation for the previous soloist, he forgot that he hadn't yet played a note, bowed his head in thanks and sat back down.
Once after the band had departed to their next stop on a tour in the Far East, some US officials saw someone in the street that looked like Gonsalves. It was Gonsalves -who had fallen asleep outside and had missed his transport.
With similar interests- both having gone to school studying design, Paul and Ellington got on well. Also because of Paul's kind nature, Duke was very fond of him tolerating his occasional escapades, looking upon Paul in a fatherly way. One major screw up during an important gig, Gonsalves had gotten the band into some trouble with local officials. Ellington was infuriated pushing Gonsalves hard around the room and telling him that this was it - he was getting kicked out of the band, "on a slow boat to China". Gonsalves shook off the last shove from Ellington, looked up and said, " Duke, you sure play rough". Ellington couldn't help himself, cracking up at the response and Paul was in.
It's Paul's sound that appeals to me; distinctly warm on ballads but because he made his mark playing a fast long piece at Newport in 1956, he always was called to do similar pieces with audiences until he died. Ellington is quoted as saying "I was reborn at Newport" where Gonsalves played a driving blistering solo that builds to a near crazed excitement from the audience- without resorting to honks or gimmicks. Just the rhythm and the notes, thank you. It is a marvel of building a piece of music- if you were to listen to how calmly Paul starts in to the finish of his solo, the development is not unlike a conversation that starts in one place and goes somewhere completely different and wonderful making perfect sense- although you couldn't have seen it going where it did.
Gonsalves had a warm husky tone not as big as others (Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster) or as sweet as his band mate's (Johnny Hodges), or as fast and creative as Charlie Parker or Coltrane, as vulnerable as Lester Young but the point is very much a part of all of them. His tenor playing was a slithering, fluid style, sometimes atonal cascading notes. When he played Gonsalves scrunched his facial features with the veins in his temple pulled back like taunt rubber bands, his body curled to the side. After a solo, he would open his eyes, have a shy smile and a wave, and move back to playing with the ensemble.
Paul was a rock solid for Duke especially from '50-'66, and still played well after that time but as later photos suggest to me that his consistency of performance was probably inconsistent at best. In May of 1974 knowing that Ellington was dying, (i believe) Paul took a fatal overdose and died too young at only 53 years. I can't imagine going from shabby hotel to hotel, night after night- ten, eleven, twelve months of the year for 25 years. It would be easy to pick up some bad habits but sometimes Gonsalves is dismissed because of this and I think this is wrong. Much like him, I look for the magic that I can find in a day, in a discussion, in an interaction. I can't play the notes so it's the search for the odd moment, genuine laughter.
Serpentine, Paul. Here's to you.
"...we call him the strolling violins because he will take his horn and walk over to a group, or do his whole solo to one child in the audience. He wants to be liked by everyone and doesn't want anything from anyone but a kind word and a water chaser. He will stand around and talk and socialize with people all night, whether or not he knows them, and always he says, "they're some beautiful cats, man.
He has respect for respect, but never makes demands for himself. There is never an evil thought in his mind. In fact, his purity of mind suggests to me that he would have made a good priest. His punch line, of course is "Jack Daniels", but that is just kind of a facade."
-Duke Ellington, Music Is My Mistress 1973
references from various Ellington biographies, articles and a newly discovered paulgonsalves.org-yes!
Ellington at Newport 1956
Far East Suite 1967
Dizzy Gillespie's Sittin' In 1957 with Paul, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Dizzy
