I posted this in a slightly abbreviated form to the EARLYM-L where
(strangely enough) there has been an ongoing discussion of Slam
Stewart's "Flat Foot Floogie."  I'm reposting it here in case it
might be of interest to anyone who is not on that list.  If you
are, please use your delete key now--and accept my apologies.
 
There is indeed a bizarre connection between Slam Stewart's
"Flat Foot Floogie" and early music.  In 1974 I heard Stewart and
harpsichordist Frances Cole perform a contrapuntal version of the
piece, which they entitled "Flat-foot-FUGIE."
 
This colaboration developed out of the "Harpsichord Festival Week"
which Frances Cole had arranged at Westminster Choir College in
Princeton, NJ, the previous year.  This first festival included
evening recitals by Ralph Kirkpatrick (18 late Scarlatti Sonatas),
Sylvia Marlowe (Couperin, Purcell, Virgil Thomson, Alexei Haieff,
and Stravinsky), Igor Kipnis (The Goldberg Variations), and Blanche
Winogron (virginal music).  Each of them gave a master class or a
lecture the morning following their recital.  There was an
exhibition of instruments, a panel discussion by builders (John
Challis, William Dowd, Christoper Bannister), and Bill Dowd also
lectured.
 
This Festival Week was repeated in 1974 with evening recitals by
Fernando Valenti (Scarlatti on the Challis--one of the most
remarkable recitals I have ever heard), Igor Kipnis (a mixed bag
of Purcell, Dandrieu, Handel, Bach and others), and Gustav
Leonhardt (Louis Couperin, Scarlatti, Forqueray, & Bach).  Each
gave a master class or lecture the next day.  Daytime events
included a maintenance and repair workshop with Ed Brewer, lectures
by Eric Herz and Edwin Ripin, a lecture/recital of 20th century
music by Irma Rogell, and a wonderful lecture/demonstration by
Paul Maynard on continuo playing.
 
This time around Ms. Cole apparently felt that a less formal,
fun-type evening program was needed to balance some of the heavier
fare, and she persuaded both Slam Stewart and Eubie Blake to
participate.  Stewart's contribution, in addition to the
"Flat-foot-FUGIE" mentioned above (which included his vocal
rendition of the text posted to this list earlier), was to do
jazz improvisations on his double bass on several well-known
short works from the harpsichord repertory which Frances Cole
played "straight" (she was not a jazz musician).  The selections
ranged from "My Lady Careys Dompe" through the C-Minor Prelude
from Book One of Bach's Well-tempered Clavier to the first
movement of Mozart's Sonata in C (K545).  To all of this Stewart
sang and played in the inimitable manner already described by
Trobador (Joel Cohen) in an earlier post to this list.  Slam
Stewart was amazing, and hearing him live was a unique and
unforgettable experience. (I still have a tape, which
unfortunately has been badly damaged by print-through.)
Later in the program Eubie Blake reminisced at length as he
played ragtime on an Eric Herz harpsichord.  I don't think
he had ever touched a harpsichord before.  One could hear him
asking after some preliminary preluding:  "Which one of these
pedals is the loudest?"  At that time Blake was already very
old, but also still very much with it, and hearing him play and
talk was a memorable experience.
 
I didn't realize at the time what a unique gathering of
harpsichord luminaries of the mid twentieth century these
two weeks represented!  The opportunity to have informal
personal contact with them has remained a treasured memory
over the years, and hearing Slam Stewart and Eubie Blake in
this context was an additional unexpected delight.
 
                                        Dan Lindblom.
[log in to unmask]
Montclair State University B138
Upper Montclair, NJ  07043