If you are not totally convinced by now about the alignment of the stars and planets with the 12 main signs
in the zodiac suite or world, then perhaps the pairing of various artists on recordings and concerts might serve
to further promote this study that I have instigated with many glowing examples to follow. I strongly believe
that all the musicians that I am about to denote were attracted to each other because of their common characteristics
that enabled them to choose the perfect partners to create their music to a higher level than possibly ever imagined.
The finest example of all might be the pairing of three of the four members of The Modern Jazz Quartet. Drummer
Connie Kay was born on April 27, bassist Percy Heath on April 30, and leader/pianist/composer John Lewis on May 3.
No wonder they became one of the handful finest quartets in jazz history, while they remained together for over 20
years. The other great quartet (besides Coltrane and?) had to be Dave Brubeck (Dec.6) with soul mate Paul Desmond
(Nov. 25). Moreover, Brubeck was very taken by the Walt Disney (Dec. 5) scores so much that he recorded an entire
album re-imagining some of these sophisticated pieces such as Alice and Someday My Prince Will Come. Paul
was scheduled to make an album with guitarist Jim Hall (Dec. 4), but when it was decided that it was not possible for
some reason, he elected to run with Canada’s Ed Bickert (Nov. 29); all Sagittarians to be incredibly sure!.
If these examples have not resonated as yet with your musical intellect, then another case just might be the one
and only to do so; namely the most accomplished jazz composer of them all, Duke Ellington (April 29) decided one day
that his favourite playwright, William Shakespeare (April 23) needed a musical voice; and so the Duke masterfully
created ‘Such Sweet Thunder’ with the Stratford Festival in mind in 1957, wherein he wrote songs for several
characters from the Bard’s world. And if that was not enough, Ellington that a standard of the classical music
catalogue needed to be refreshed in his own world to the extent that he decided to insert the element of swing to it.
Hence, the brilliant jazz portrait of The Nutcracker was born in 1960 for all the big bands and jazz orchestras to
embrace for years to come.
Singer Ella Fitzgerald (Nov. 25)may have made her finest duets with pianist Ellis Larkins (May 15) on two
albums : ‘Songs In A Mellow Mood’ (1954) and ‘Ella Sings Gershwin’ (1950). Vocalist Tony Bennett (August 3)
made his finest duets with pianist Bill Evans (Aug. 16) for others like Allan Harris and Joe Coughlin to emulate.
Violinist Stephanne Grappelli (January 26) and guitarist/composer Django Reinhardt (Jan. 23) invented arguably the
most influential quintet of all time in the 1930s; and to this day, perhaps the great jazz artists ever from Europe.
Canadian jazz pianist , Oscar Peterson (August 15) made , not one, but four quartet recordings with fellow
pianist/band leader Count Basie (Aug. 21).
Guitarist Pat Metheny (Aug. 12) may have made his opus deluxe when he collaborated with bassist Charlie Haden
(Aug. 6) in 1997 with the masterpiece ‘Beyond The Missouri Sky’. Some jazz critics or journalists may argue that Ella
Fitzgerald’s (April 25) most significant big band recordings were with either Nelson Riddle or Count Basie or even her first
mentor, Chick Webb, but I feel that her two outings with Duke Ellington (April 29) were the most important for singers
and band leaders to study in terms of a voice with a band:
