grave, who was unfamiliar with thernevents of 1799 in Naples until she was offeredrnthe part in the opera, told the InternationalrnHerald Tribune that she blamedrnthe British educational system for continuingrnto pass over the “extremely reactionar}-rnrole of Nelson in the whole businessrnof the Bourbons.” The politicallyrncorrect view holds that the man responsiblernfor the merciless repression of thernNeapolitan Jacobins was Cardinal Ruffo,rnwho, after successfully leading a popularrncounterrevolution from the southernmostrntip of Calabria, restored the Bourbonsrnto power in Naples.rnContemporary historians disagree.rnThey contend that Cardinal Ruffornpledged to save the lives of those revolutionariesrnwho had surrendered, but LordrnNelson disavowed the prelate’s pledgernand hanged them all. Apparently, Nelsonrnacted upon the direct order of KingrnFerdinand of Bourbon, a close allv of thernBritish Crown who had fled to Palermornwith part of his fleet before the advance ofrnNapoleon’s troops. The king (or rather,rnthe queen, according to Viglione) orderedrnNelson to treat Naples as he wouldrnany rebellious Irish town. He strictiy adheredrnto the Bourbons’ will, demonstratingrna monarchist zeal probablv greaterrnthan the monarch would have showedrnhimselfrnAlberto Carosa is the ed/’tor of FamigliarnDomani Flash, a pro-family newsletterrnpublished in Rome.rnMUSICrnJazz Standardsrnby Tony OuthwaiternThe new millennium brings with itrnthe formal end of jazz’s 20th century,rnalthough serious historians recognizernthat some elements of the music tracernback to roughly two-thirds of the wayrnthrough the 19th. Yet even with the undeniablernbrilliance of much that was producedrnduring the Dixieland, swing, bebop,rnand subsequent eras, as the curtainrnclosed on the American Century, it wasrnapparent that, aesthetically, America’srnmusic is not in the best of shape.rnMany critics be]ie e that art benefitsrnfrom a certain amount of disorder—creativernchaos, some might call it. Thus,rnone could dismiss the unpleasantnessrnamong New York critics over charges ofrncronyism and even racism in trumpeterrnWvnton Marsalis’s stewardship of thernJazz at Lincoln Center program as philosophicalrndifferences that got noisily out ofrnhand during the mid-1990’s. And critics,rnto say nothing of music industry types, arernnot immune from their own foolishness:rnWitness conuucnts at the most recentrnCrammy Awards denouncing the finernsinger-pianist Diana Krall as a “loungernact” or the continuing misguided attemptrnto define the music of Michael Jackson asrnrhythm-and-blues. Likewise, one couldrnrationalize the loss of several of Gotham’srnimportant jazz clubs in the last fewrnyears —Fat Tuesday’s, the Village Gate,rnCondon’s, Ysiones, and the muchbelovedrnBradley’s—as part of the eternalrnuneertaint)’ of the music business.rnWhat should be of major concern,rnhowever, is the state of the jazz repertory,rnnow growing increasingly stale, and thernabsence of young new composers with arnpersonal voice or st)’le. In the past, jazzrnbenefited considerably from such talentedrnwriter-arrangers as Don Redman,rnNeal Hefti, Ralph Burns, and many othersrnwho worked with big bands, or visionariesrnsuch as Duke Ellington, writingrnfor his own orchestra and ably assisted,rnafter 1938, by Billy Strayhorn, whorncontributed important compositionssuchrnas “Take the ‘A’ Train” and “DayrnDream” —to the band’s repertoire. Thernadent of be-bop in the 1940’s, with itsrnsmaller groups, brought to prominencernmusicians such as Tadd Dameron, a giftedrnpianist-arranger adept at reworkingrnolder popular standards by writingrnnew melody lines over die original chordrnchanges. In this wa. Cole Porter’srn1929 London show tune “What is ThisrnThing Called Love” became, in 1945,rnDameron’s bop number, “Hot House.”rnFamed saxophonist Charlie Parker, althoughrnmore of an ofif-the-top improviserrnthan formal composer, used the samernmethod to produce other bop tunes suchrnas “Marmaduke” (a reworking of “Honernsuekle Rose”), “Ornithology” (writtenrnfrom “How High the Moon”), and “KornKo” (from “Cherokee”). These and similarrncontributions —not just spur-of-themoment,rnriff-based “head” arrangementsrnhut distinct, recognizable melodies—byrnDameron, Parker, and their be-bop contemporariesrnremain important in the jazzrnlexicon.rnAround the same time, iconoclastsrnsuch as Charles Mingus and TheloniousrnMonk were beginning to develop theirrnown idiosyncrafic notions, out of whichrncame the tricky, cerebral Mingus oeuvrernthat includes “Pithecanthropus Erectus,”rn”Fables of Eaubus” and “Orange Was thernColor of Her Dress (then Blue Silk),” andrnMonk’s peculiar, atonal compositionsrnsuch as “Blue Monk,” “‘Round Midnight,”rn”Griss Cross,” and “Straight NornChaser.” I’hese have never been easy tornplay, et they are still performed in clubsrnand concerts and by repertory groupsrnsuch as the Mingus Big Band. Duringrnthe 1950’s, Horace Silver, Benny Golson,rnand Wayne Shorter rose to prominence,rnand jazz was subsequently enriched byrnbluesy, carefully-written Silver numbersrnsuch as “StroUin’,” “Doodlin’,” andrn”Song For My Father,” and Golson’srnmelodic “Along Came Betty,” “WliisperrnNot,” and “Stablemates.” Shorter becamernbetter known to the public for hisrnwork as saxophonist with Miles Davis inrnthe 1960’s and then, in the 1970’s, withrnthe jazz-rock group Weather Report; nevertheless,rnhe has continued to producernintriguing original material, includingrn”The Chess Players,” “E.S.P.,” andrn”Pinocehio.”rnThere have been many other musiciansrnwith a talent for composition, althoughrnperhaps lacking the distinctivernpersonal approach of a Mingus, Ellington,rnor Monk. A number of them (SonnyrnRollins and Gerr’ Mulligan for example)rnhave always been better known, at least tornthe general public, as instrumentalists,rnbut this in no way diminishes their contribuhons.rnMulligan’s “Venus De Milo”rnand “Godchild” are favorites with jazzrnplayers, as are such Rollins numbers asrn”Pent-Lip House,” “Oleo,” “Doxy,” andrn”St. I’homas.” In addition to countlessrnother jazz originals, and of course thernblues, jazzmen have always drawn fromrnthe vast treasure-trove of popular songs,rnman from films and Broadway shov’s,rngenerally known to the public as “standards.”rnMusicians have worked withrnthese for decades, turning them into jazzrnthrough inspiration, and many of thernrecordings, such as tenor saxophonistrnColeman Hawkins’ 1939 version of thernballad “Body and Soul” or trumpeterrnBunnv Berigan’s 1937 recording of “IrnCan’t Get Started,” are regarded, deservedly,rnas classics. Both the tunes andrnthe improvisahons on them are distinctivernand delightful; they remain, however,rnpopular tunes adapted for jazz, ratherrndian written expressly as jazz.rnOCTOBER 2000/49rnrnrn