Slim Gaillard created some of the funniest jazz music ever recorded. He was able to invent words and sounds that made the most mundane activity sound exciting, ridiculous and exotic, all at the same time. The Grandsons, Jr. pay tribute to Slim with this collection of what they think are his mac-vouti orooni-est !
Slim Gaillard*was more than a jazz comedian. He may be the ultimate
hipster. He flourished from the late 1930s to the late 1940s, the heyday of
swing and bebop, but entertained until his death in 1991, appearing on variety
shows, giving live musical performances and acting in TV and movies. He was an
accomplished guitar player and pianist, songwriter and vocalist. He could convincingly
imitate the sound of a dozen languages, although whether or not he
was saying anything is a matter of debate. Most believe Slim was born in Alabama
and grew up in Detroit. However, as a funny man and a certified character,
Gaillard rarely gave a biographer a straight answer. He convinced some
more credulous interviewers that he was born in Cuba and was abandoned on
the island of Crete as a child. Through his stream of consciousness scat
singing style, he created his own language called “Vout,” a send-up of hipster
jargon spoken by some of his more serious-minded jazz contemporaries. He
went as far as to codify the idiom with the publication of “The Slim Gaillard
Vout-o-Reenee Dictionary” released as promotional material for his releases
on Atomic Records.
This project is a tribute to his music. As far back as university days, members
of the grandsons, Jr. could occasionally be found in the grip of a
side-clutching fit of laughter triggered soley by a Slim Gaillard song. His
music has a cumulative effect. Put the needle down on a ‘side’ of Gaillard
tunes and after one song you’ll smile. By the second you might smirk and
chortle. After the third song, brace for a guffaw. By the fourth, you’re
likely rolling on the floor laughing, as the kids say.
Slim’s musical influence has remained firmly embedded in the subtext of
The Grandsons’ music over the years, occasionally popping up overtly in concert
or on recordings (e.g. “Make it Do” on 1999’s Pan-American Shindig
album). Fast-forward to the late twenty-aughts. The Grandsons are living the
glamorous rock and roll lifestyle on tour in the Virgin Islands. Driving on
West End Road in St. Croix on the way to a performance. Slim Gaillard is on
the CD player. a discussion starts about how Slim’s songs, built on simple
themes and nonsense words stretched to surrealistic lengths, would make a
great kids’ album. After many more drives down many more roads, and many
hours in the studio, you’re holding the end result of that brainstorm.
A Slim Gaillard performance was a transcendent mix of tasty jazz riffs
and flawless comic timing. In the book, On the Road, Jack Kerouac describes
a show that he attended with friends in a San Fransisco music club. Noting
how Slim often seemed there, but not entirely present, as if on a parallel
plane, Kerouac says, “To Slim Gaillard, the whole world was just one big
orooni.”
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