Affe #198

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Satchmo Apestrong knew he was overdoing it. No one wanted to record the same song 77 times, and worst of all, he still wasn't completely satisfied with the result. He and his band, the Hot Five Monkeys, were trying to get Satchmo's latest creation – the "West End Banana Blues" right. He had to admit that they really had a lot of patience with him. While he was popular and everyone respected him for his talent and skills as a musician, he gave them credit for the fact that none of the monkeys in the room had thrown their instruments in the corner and just walked away. Satchmo's strength was his ability to improvise, which was very helpful on stage, but not when he was trying to get a song the way he wanted it to be. He had no sure way to approach the ideal, and unfortunately no fixed goal either. He knew the perfect version was out there, but how exactly it should sound in the end was a development process. But they were making progress, he was sure! The only question was if they would find his perfect version of the song before the first primate collapsed from exhaustion.

Satchmo was not only a singer and trumpeter, but above all a brilliant musician. His playing technique, honed through constant practice, expanded the range, sound and capabilities of the instrument, and in so doing he was a fundamental influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus away from collective improvisation. He was practically the first primate to create significant variations based on the chord harmonies of the songs, rather than just on the melodies. This opened up a rich field for creation and improvisation, and significantly transformed jazz music into a solo monkey musician art form with tremendous potential for individual expression. He often re-wrote pop tunes he played with variations that made them more compelling for modern audiences. At the same time, however, his oeuvre includes many original melodies, creative leaps, and even relaxed rhythms for enjoying an elegant dinner or sipping the coconut cocktail in the evening. He was a musical icon of the Monkeyverse, and that was certainly why everyone went along with his airs and graces. He felt sorry because he didn't do it on purpose or to bully the others. It was embarrassing for him too.

He could be quite clumsy and more than a little forgetful at times. Everyone praised his ability to sing scat, a vocal improvisation using wordless vocabulary, nonsensical syllables, or no words at all, but it was more out of necessity than passion. The first time he scatted was on a recording of "Hungry Heebie Jeebies". He accidentally dropped the sheet music on the floor and the music started before he could pick up the pages. Satchmo just started singing nonsense thinking the track would be discarded, but in the end the version was pressed onto disc, sold, and became an unexpected hit. On later occasions he switched to scat singing when he forgot the words. In a famous collaboration with the Avocado Seed Soup Symphony, he scatted variations on the word "avocado" for much of the recording.

He called a pause and could see the relief on the surrounding monkeys' faces. As the others gradually left the room for drinks or fresh air, Satchmo wandered to his own vast collection of recordings on the wall shelf. He was an avid audiophile. He used the break to listen to the first recordings of the "West End Banana Blues" again, because he enjoyed listening to his own recordings and comparing his performances. There was his extended trumpet solo to which he brought his own personality and style. Then came the part where he played around with his vocals, shortening and lengthening the phrases, throwing in improvisations and using his voice as creatively as his trumpet. While singing scat, he used the voice as an instrument rather than a speaking medium.

Looking back on his own life, he was amazed at how his musical abilities had matured and expanded. No, this song was already perfect. He was sure that the next try would lead to his perfect version. Satchmo Apestrong just had to sing and play "from the heart".

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