I Can’t Get Started
Sep 27th, 2009 by oldfogey
Wednesday evenings see me down the British Legion Club in Ilford for a jazz workshop with several other old fogies, all pretending we can play. Like most jazz players we are a pretty ill-disciplined bunch. It can take an age to settle on what number to play, whose choice it is and the order of solos. When frustration starts to set in with me (my tolerance level is lower than the others) I shout for this number - ‘I Can’t Get Started’ - in the hope that the others will get the irony and stir into action. Doesn’t always work.
We play in a vacant room at the back of the club, out of harm’s way. But a few Legion regulars come in and bring their drinks with them. Not so much, I think, for the music, but to witness the amusing real life spectacle of us getting on each other’s nerves.
Anyway, here’s the best version, by Bunny Berigan. He was a beautiful trumpet player. His heyday was in the 1930s - but his day didn’t last long. He was dead at 34. He was almost the equal of Armstrong in tone and invention - more tender too. He also could sing, which he does here, in an engaging offhand manner. When he plays the melody again at the end, in the higher register, it is spine tingling. Recorded in April 1936.
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