[Smt-talk] Frantonality

[Brian Kane]

Hi Everyone,

I did a little investigation and found something interesting.  
"Frantonality" is indeed named after a friend named Fran, but not just  
any old Fran. The song is named after Frances Kelley, who briefly ran  
a label in Los Angeles called Fran-tone records. Garner's recording of  
"Frantonality" (recorded in Hollywood, April 9, 1946) was for that  
label records, and thus the title is also an advertisement for the  
label. According to James Doran's book on Erroll Garner, some of the  
originals were mistaken issued as "Frantenality."

I haven't done any other research on Frances Kelley, but did come  
across this mention of her in Duke Ellingtons' Music is My Mistress,  
the chapter on San Francisco. "And there is one more person--Fran  
Kelley, musician, poet, songwriter, singer, orchestrator, manager,  
executive. This great woman with all these talents gave up running a  
radio station and record company in Los Angeles to pursue her  
spiritual quests in San Francisco." I'm not sure if this is the same  
Frances Kelley who was a member of the 1950's R&B groups The  
Enchanters and the Dell-tones.

One other thing, I don't know if its quite accurate to say that  
"Frantonality" is a homage to old-fashioned Harlem stride piano. I  
mean, what Erroll Garner performance isn't? The tune strikes me as  
more closely related to the be-bop practice of taking old standards  
and writing new melodies--like "Ornithology" c/w "How High The Moon".  
This would make sense for 1946. Although the melody isn't bebop, the  
tune is a simplified version of "Love Me or Leave Me."

Best,
Brian

_________________
Brian Kane
Assistant Professor
Department of Music
Yale University
206 Stoeckel Hall






On Oct 3, 2009, at 10:44 AM, Thomas Noll wrote:

> Dear Michael,
> many thanks, this is a plausible explanation. I somewhat suspect  
> that there might be some extra clue to the special status of this  
> piece in Garner's repertoire. It is a homage to old-fashioned   
> Harlem stride piano (based on a simple repeating   i #viø  V/V V   
> "turn around" in minor). But perhaps I'm misinterpreting the  
> presence of the suffix "tonality" here.
> best wishes
> Thomas
>
> Am 03.10.2009 um 00:46 schrieb MICHAEL MORSE:
>
>> Dear Thomas,
>>
>>   Sounds like the very common jazz world custom of weaving  
>> someone's name into a noun to make a title. Betcha bre'r Garner had  
>> a friend named 'Fran,' is what..
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Michael Morse
>> Pbgh ON
>> Trent University
>>
>> From: noll at cs.tu-berlin.de
>> To: smt-talk at societymusictheory.org
>> Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 22:30:50 +0200
>> Subject: [Smt-talk] Frantonality
>>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>> Errol Garner wrote and played a tune called "Frantonality". Does  
>> anybody know or guess the motivation for this title?
>> Sincerely,
>> Thomas Noll
>>
>>
>> *********************************************************
>> Thomas Noll
>> http://flp.cs.tu-berlin.de/~noll
>> noll at cs.tu-berlin.de
>> Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya, Barcelona
>> Departament de Teoria i Composició
>>
>> *********************************************************
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> PS: My other mail tnoll at iua.upf.edu doesn't exist any longer.
>
> *********************************************************
> Thomas Noll
> http://flp.cs.tu-berlin.de/~noll
> noll at cs.tu-berlin.de
> Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya, Barcelona
> Departament de Teoria i Composició
>
> *********************************************************
>
>
>
>
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