Sunday Wax Bits

The 2011 Jazz Journalists Awards were held yesterday in New York. JazzWax was nominated in two categories. Hats off to the winners, indicated in red:

The Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Award for Review and Feature Writing:

• Ben Ratliff
• Larry Blumenfeld
• Marc Myers
• Nate Chinen

Blog of the Year:

• A Blog Supreme, by Patrick Jarenwattananon
• Do The Math, by Ethan Iverson
• JazzBeyondJazz, by Howard Mandel
• JazzWax, by Marc Myers
• Rifftides, by Doug Ramsey

JazzWax + education. JazzWax has been named one of the top educational blogs by the Guide to Art Schools. I'm honored. Go here.

Woody Herman in 1985. Jazzwax reader and photographer John Herr sent along a link to a videoclip of Woody Herman (cl), Buddy Tate and Al Cohn (ts), John Bunch (p), Jake Hanna (d) and Steve Wallace (b) in Austria in 1985. The color clip is beautifully shot, as you will see...

 

Emily Remler plays bossa nova. Here's the late Emily Remler playing solo guitar on Antonio Carlos Jobim's The Red Blouse. Dig her voicings...

 

Billie Holiday, 1958. Courtesy of Jazz Video Guy Bret Primack, here's Billie Holiday on July 17, 1958—a year before her death—at Art Ford's Jazz Party. (By the way, Bret won the JJA award yesterday for Best Short-Form Video of the Year—way to go, Bret!)

That's Mal Waldron on piano, Mary Osborne on guitar, Harry Sheppard on vibes, Vinnie Burke on bass and Osie Johnson on drums...

 

Kickstarter projects. Kickstarter is a site that lets people working on projects tell you a little about them and raise money through on-site donations. Here are two projects you may want to know about:

Jessica Davis—this filmmaker is working on Between the Raindrops, a documentary on jazz legends who got their start in Seattle. On-camera interviews include Quincy Jones, Clark Terry and Ernestine Anderson. To see an interview with Jessica, go here.

Alan Hicks and Adam Hart—this Australian duo are making a documentary about Clark Terry and students who have been motivated and influenced by him. To see a trailer, go here.

Los Angeles Jazz Institute. Dig West Coast jazz? Call your travel agent. Ken Poston, director of the Los Angeles Jazz Institute, tells me that on October 20-23, the LAJI will present 28 big bands at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott paying tribute to West Coast jazz. Here are the confirmed concerts:

Shorty Rogers and the roots of West Coast jazz:

• Woody Herman Alumni Band Directed by Terry Gibbs (performing classic Shorty Rogers Second Herd charts)
• AII-Star Big Band featuring Stan Kenton Alumni (performing Shorty Rogers charts for Kenton)

Concerts celebrating the birth of the West Coast sound:

• Shorty Rogers Alumni Giants: The original Modern Sounds charts performed.
• Shelly Manne's Men: The West Coast Sound.
• The Dave Pell Octet

Concerts celebrating Gerry Mulligan on the West Coast:

• AII-Star Big Band featuring Stan Kenton Alumni directed by Bill Holman (performing Gerry Mulligan's Stan Kenton charts)
• The Gerry Mulligan Tentet, directed by Bill Holman
• The Gerry Mulligan Songbook

Concerts showcasing West Coast legends:

• Bill Holman Band
• Russ Garcia Big Band
• The Johnny Richards Orchestra directed by Joel Kaye
• Cool Heat: Sue Raney Sings Jimmy Giuffre
• Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra: Marty Paich's I Get A Boot Out of You
• The Pete Rugolo Orchestra: Out On A Limb
• Orbits in Sound: 12 Tone Compositions and Arrangements of Spud Murphy
• Carl Saunders Nonet Plays Don Fagerquist
• Duane Tatro Ensemble: Jazz For Moderns
• Music of Bud Shank and Bob Cooper
• Bobby Shew Ensemble plays Chet Baker and Jack Montrose
• Jazz Lab: Music of John Graas
• The Music of The Clifford Brown/Jack Montrose Ensemble
• Russ Garcia and the Wigville Band

Concerts celebrating jazz in the movies:

• The Johnny Mandel Big Band plays music from I Want To  Live and more
• Jazz Themes from The Wild One
• Jazz themes from The Subterraneans

Special presentations:

• Wigville Inc.: Shorty Rogers/Shelly Manne Modern Animation on the West  Coast
• William Claxton and the Art of West Coast Jazz
• Sleepy Stein and The Jazz KNOB and the Birth of Jazz Radio
• Pacific Jazz Records Story Contemporary Jazz Records Story

For tickets and information: 562-200-5477. More at the LAJI's site next week here. While you're there, become a member. Fun stuff.

Songbook site. Rohan Trollope in Melbourne, Australia, posts on singer albums. I discovered Blossom Dearie's Sings Rootin' Songs of '63 at his blog—The Way You Wear Your Hat. Go here.

CD discoveries of the week. A two-CD selection of Chick Corea's work between 1979 and 2009 has been released by Concord. Called The Definitive Chick Corea on Stretch and Concord, the album is a mix of the pianist's jazz fusion experiments and acoustic works. What makes this set interesting is the span of time. It's a poignant, reflective slice of what was happening to jazz during these years, from electronica to acoustic jazz revival. So tracks like Quartet No. 1 from 1981 is sequenced on the same disc as Bud Powell from 1998 and Wigwam in 1999. What you realize through this compilation is that Corea is much more dynamic and eclectic than you might have thought. You'll find this one at iTunes or here.

Cow Bop's Too Hick for the Room offers a jazz and country hybrid, resulting in cosmopolitan Western Swing. So on a song like Chinatown, Pinto Pammy sings with a Western twang, followed by a swinging jazz guitar solo by Bruce Forman. Or on the blazing Alabamy Bound, Roger Kellaway is at the piano. You get the picture—grits and wits. You'll find this one at iTunes or here.

Oddball album cover of the week: Annette Warren was a  singer who spent time in the Hollywood studios dubbing the voices of on-screen actresses. For instance, she dubbed Ava Gardner's singing voice in Showboat in 1951. Judging by the pajama top she's wearing on this 1958 album cover, that man in her life may have been Jackie Gleason.

Comments

[T.K. Tortch]

Ah. Buddy Tate and Al Cohn. Neither of them tippy-top innovators with giant-sized and lingering reputations, but between them two rock solid versions of "this is what tenor saxophone is supposed to sound like, folks".

Good thing that "sounds like" comes in so many lovely flavors!!