Jan
1
2009
A Hundred Years From Today – Jim Galloway
Author: Rick• From “Walking on Air”
A Hundred Years From Today is a Victor Young/Ned Washington tune from 1932. Very typical of its era, it works equally well crooned by Sinatra or played on clarinet with banjo and tailgate trombone backing. Simple melody, 8-bar AABA form, depression-era ‘we’re broke today and will be tomorrow so what the heck, lets fall in love’ lyrics, basically forgettable. When you’re playing or singing this type of song it’s so easy to slip in to a one of the thousands of similar tunes.
So why did this performance connect with me? In part because of its simplicity. Galloway, on soprano sax, and Dick Wellstood on piano could have rendered a cheesy version that would have been cute, or milked the period out of it with trad-jazz clichés, but they didn’t. They respect the melody, play it honestly and make the arrangement rise above the mediocrity of the song itself.
Galloway and drummer Don Vickery (brother of Victoria pianist Tom Vickery) aren’t well know outside of their Toronto base. Vickery’s drumming on the track is simple time keeping, and appropriately so. The focus is on the melody, shared between soprano and piano. Galloway’s breathy soprano is a good choice. Clarinet would have been to trad, tenor to big. Don Thompson is on bass.
Wellstood, best known as a stride pianist, acknowledges the song’s vintage twice in his solo with a bit of Good Bait opening the second A section, and Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans introducing the final A.
We all encounter situations where we need to perform mediocre, forgettable tunes. It can be tempting to make it in to something new—speed it up, do it as a bossa, make it schmaltzy, do it in 5, whatever. But sometimes the best way is to respect the melody and play it really well. This cut is a case in point.
The album Walking On Air may be hard to find. It was released in 1979 on the Bitter Sweet label (catalog BC831) and nominated for a Juno for Best Jazz Album in 1980. I’m not sure if it’s still available. Recorded in Don Thompson’s studio, it sounds and feels like a home recording project. No less pleasant for that, it’s worth a listen.
Learn more about Jim Galloway at the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. A brief bio of Dick Wellstood can be read at All About Jazz.
