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What do Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel have in common—in addition to being among the finest jazz studio guitarists? Both were working members of the Oscar Peterson Trio—Kessel from 1952 to '53, when he was replaced by Ellis, who remained with the pianist until 1958.
Here's Ellis and Kessel together in the late 1980s on Club Date, a TV program produced and directed by Paul Marshall for KPBS in San Diego. Many thanks to Jimi Mentis in Athens...
With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the Northeast, I thought I'd ease the tension a little by visiting with another Sandy—Henry Sandy Jacobs. He's a sound artist and humorist who in the 1950s all but invented the hipster comedy album on the West Coast. His Wide Weird World of Shorty Petterstein featured funny fictional conversational encounters between clueless squares and all-knowing hipsters.
The point was to poke gentle fun at both the middle-brow inquisitor and the eccentric jazz musician. For more on Jacobs, go to Fred Seibert's Frederator blog here and to radio station WFMU here. As you scroll down the second site, be sure to click on the audio links with titles like "A History of Jazz" and "Origins of Jazz Terms."
Here's a Jacobs cartoon from 1961 called The Interview. Many thanks to William Forbes for sending it along...
Is the U.S. losing the music-streaming war? As I mentioned several weeks ago, the CD is pretty much a relic at this point. The download will be shortly. That's because music-streaming services such as the U.K.'s Spotify and now France's Deezer are on the rise. Eventually, we'll all be paying a fee to tap into vast libraries of music for high-end digital streams.
Interestingly, Deezer isn't bothering with the U.S. market. Instead, it's offering consumers in other countries unlimited access to music on demand through computers, smartphones and other devices. Deezer's strategy is to bypass the fierce competition here and make its service standard everywhere else—ultimately enticing a major U.S. company to buy it or forcing the U.S. marketplace to adapt the service.
I'm not rooting for or against Deezer. And I'm not singing the praises of digital music. My point is simply that music—like books, movies and everything else—is moving rapidly into a new world propelled by lure of convenience. The days of holding anything artistic in your hands is fading fast. I just hope that the music we like will be available and will sound terrific.
Stay tuned. For more on the Deezer story, go here.
Bill Evans at Town Hall. Bill Evans fans, make sure you're sitting down. Getty Images just acquired a bunch of photos from the February 1966 concert at Town Hall, a concert documented on the Verve release. To see the black-and-white images, go here.
Clifford Brown radio. WKCR in New York will be celebrating Clifford Brown's birthday by playing the trumpeter's recordings around-the-clock (EDT) on Tuesday, October 30. You can listen for free anywhere in the world by going here.
More Michael Pedicin. Here's more video from Bret Primack's interview with saxophonist Michael Pedicin and his gig at Vitello's in Studio City, Calif....
Dave McKenna interview. Photographer Hank O'Neal sent along an email alerting me to a fabulous interview that jazz journalist and blogger Ted Panken conducted with pianist Dave McKenna in 1999. To read it, go here.
CD discoveries of the week. It's brave for any singer to take on songs written by or associated with Abbey Lincoln. The late vocalist had a distinct laid-back style that many singers have found difficult to enter and explore. Not so Teri Roiger. On Dear Abbey: The Music of Abbey Lincoln, Roiger delivers a joyous, deeply felt vocal tribute that gives Lincoln's material fresh consideration. From the liners written by Teri: "Abbey Lincoln's music has had a
profound influence on my life as a woman, singer, songwriter, lyricist and teacher. I was fortunate to have had the experience of hearing Abbey perform many times and have lived and breathed her music for over 20 years." Teri is joined by pianist Frank Kimbrough, bassist John Menegon and drummer Steve Williams—with guest appearances by alto saxophonist Greg Osby and guitarist Mark Dziuba. Sample Bird Alone and You Gotta Pay The Band. A vocalist who wraps Lincoln's complex songs around her finger.
Pianist Joe Gilman's Relativity (Capri) has enormous lift in the hard bop department. All of the compositions on his new CD are Gilman's own and tie into M.C. Escher's circuitous
illustrations. The real action here is the tenor saxophonist Chad Lefkowiz-Brown, who soars effortlessly through uptempo tracks, and trumpeter Nick Frenay—particularly on Three Spheres and Smaller and Smaller. The album's ballads are less effective, but the fast and furious songs will capture you instantly.
Oddball album cover of the week: Shirley Scott's Soul Shoutin' (1963) is a great album, but what a monorail has to do with the music of Scott and Stanley Turrentine is beyond me.
Make yourself a nice cup of tea, grab a few cookies and get comfortable. You're about to be transported back 50 years to a different era, when only talented, optimistic entertainers had access to television and their charm was a welcome guest in your home.
The following clip runs about 40 minutes and features An Evening With Nat King Cole, a BBC-TV show that aired in the U.K. in 1963. Cole was backed by the superb Ted Heath Orchestra and Cole's sidemen, including trumpeter Reunald Jones. This link comes courtesy of the legendary Dick LaPalm, who was Nat King Cole's record promoter and is a dear friend of JazzWax...
For me, great Latin-jazz is almost exclusively about taste. Since one doesn't become a Latin-jazz musician without extraordinary instrumental and improvisational skills (the music is simply too complex), what separates great recordings from so-so or tedious ones is the artist's choice of material and how the music is served up.
For many lay listeners who resist Latin-jazz, their big beef often is excessive, overwhelming percussion and open-ended solos that show off speed and endurance but offer little in the way of heart and poetry. To each his own, of course. But if you find yourself in this group—those who aren't generally swept away by Latin-jazz—there are two CDs by leading percussionists you should know about.
The first is Afro Blue Monk by the Chembo Corniel Quintet and the other is Live in Hollywood by Poncho Sanchez and His Latin Jazz Band. Both offer plenty of percussive pep. But more important, they feature songs that have a beginning, middle and end—and build toward a purpose and statement without taxing the listener.
Afro Blue Monk features Chembo on a range of percussion instruments, including the conga and bata. He's joined by Ivan Renta (saxes), Elio Villafranca (piano), Crolo Derosa (bass) and Vince Cherico (drums)—with special guests Ileana Santamaria (vocal), Frank Fontaine, (clarinet/flute) and Ogduardo Roman Diaz and Diego Lopez (bata). By the way, the bata looks like a conga but has a more tapered, hourglass silhouette.
Emiliano by pianist Villafranca is a Latin-fusion piece that rises and falls splendidly with tasty rhythms and percussion in just the right spots. Mongo Santamaria's Afro Blue features Mongo's daughter on vocal. And Wayne Shorter's Deluge (from JuJu) is given a sizzling Latin-jazz spin.
Sanchez's album is a little more old school. There's the mambo-influenced Poncho Sanchez Medley, a terrific merging of Mambo Inn and On Green Dolphin Street, and Morning, a passionate tribute to the song's composer and Sanchez's friend—the late Clare Fischer.
Interestingly, Sanchez's band also takes on Afro Blue, and the comparison makes for compelling listening. Both versions move at a brisk pace and seize upon the original's intent and groove.
Two Latin-jazz albums with grace and enough curves that any jazz fan will dig.
JazzWax tracks: Chembo Corniel's Afro Blue Monk (ASM) is available here. Live in Hollywood (Concord) by Poncho Sanchez and His Latin Jazz Band is available here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Emiliano from Chembo Corniel's Afro Blue Monk...
So little is known about tenor saxophonist Eddy Williams that his Wikipedia entry seemingly incorrectly lists his birth date as "(ca. 1910)." As WBGO-NY radio host Bob Porter notes, the photo above doesn't appear to be that of a 50-year-old. It also doesn't help that Williams appeared on so few known jazz recording sessions. But the jazz albums on which Williams did appear are uniformly superb, particularly the two he made with trombonist Bennie Green. [Photo above of Eddy Williams by Francis Wolff]
Williams was paired with Green on Green's Minor Revalation (November 1958) and Walkin' & Talkin' (January 1959)—both for Blue Note. The rhythm section on the former album consisted of Sonny Clark (p), Paul Chambers (b) and Jerry Segal (d). On the latter, Williams and Green were joined by Gildo Mahones (p), George Tucker (b) and Al Dreares (d). Even growly bop vocalist Babs Gonzales appears on a track—Encore, a tribute to Green—on Minor Revalation.
What was exceptional about the playing style of Chicago-born Williams was his large, fluid, confident and energetic sound. A member of Jelly Roll Morton's Seven in 1940, Williams' tone on Green's dates and his improvisational approach fits somewhere among Dexter Gordon, Jimmy Forrest and Gene Ammons. On solos, Williams sailed-in and tightly rendered double-time lines with R&B-flavoring, pausing briefly before diving back in.
Puzzlingly, there are huge gaps of time in Williams' discography in the '50s—perhaps a result of a prolific R&B sideman career or some other reason. We'll have to wait until those with more knowledge of Williams check in. [Photo above of Bennie Green by Francis Wolff]
For now, Eddy Williams is yet another phantom '50s swinging sideman who emerged sporadically but made a significant blues statement.
JazzWax tracks: The Bennie Green Mosaic Select set is
out of print, but you'll find both Minor Revalation and Walkin' and Talkin' here on a single set. The closest Williams came to a leadership session was Makin' Out (June 1961), on which he was the sole horn backed by leader John Wright (p), Wendell Marshall (b) and Roy Brooks (d). You'll find Makin' Out on John Wright: Essential Jazz Masters at iTunes or Amazon here.
JazzWax clip: Here's Bennie Green and Eddy Williams on Can't We Be Friends, from Green's Minor Revalation. Dig Williams' big bossy sound. Roll your cursor to the left of "Eddy" in the gray bar below and click on the play arrow...
Eddy Williams: Can't We Be Friends
When Skyfall opens in the U.S. on Nov. 9, it will be the 23rd film in the James Bond series. High-intensity action films are a dime a dozen these days, thanks largely to the successful mold pioneered by the Bond films. But the Bond franchise stands for more than just explosions, bridge leaps and car chases. Threaded neatly into each Bond film is music designed to enhance the action and adventure, and burnish the main character's cool and collected demeanor.
Prior to Bond, films and TV shows like Peter Gunn were largely about tough blue-collar private investigators who didn't scare easily and survived on their wits. In the James Bond age, the good guy was a secret agent—a cerebral white-collar spy who wasn't tracking down bank robbers but protecting the world from an odd collection of insatiably greedy evil-doers whose takeover plans were global. The music reflected both the stakes and the mission.
In Part 2 of my interview with Jon Burlingame—a film music historian at the University of Southern California and author of The Music of James Bond (Oxford)—we talk about Shirley Bassey and Nancy Sinatra, among other topics...
JazzWax: Did Shirley Bassey enjoy recording all three of her themes? Did she want to record others?
Jon Burlingame: She said she loved singing both Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever. In fact, she did sing the planned follow-up to Goldfinger, which was Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, originally intended as the Thunderball theme. Dionne Warwick sang it too.
JW: What happened?
JB: Warwick's version had been planned for the opening titles, and when that was discarded, Bassey re-recorded it as a possible end-title song, since Tom Jones had, in the interim, recorded a new theme for Thunderball. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ultimately was not used and remained in the vaults until 1992.
JW: And Moonraker?
JB: Bassey recorded Moonraker as a favor to John Barry when a version by Johnny Mathis was deemed unsatisfactory. Bassey actually did an entire album of Bond themes in 1987 but chose not to release it. When it was issued without her permission, she sued and that album is now very hard to find.
JW: Who decides who sings themes, and why was that decision always pretty much spot-on? What’s the process?
JB: The success of Dr. No—and the chart success of the record version of the James Bond Theme, which hit No. 13 in the U.K.—led co-producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to conclude that a song that could get on the radio would provide added promotional value.
JW: But the choice of singer was always pretty smart.
JB: True. Once John Barry fully took over music direction starting with Goldfinger, he would figure out who was right for a theme, who was hot at the time and who could potentially hit the charts. Then, in consultation with the producers, he’d make the choice. It didn't always work, of course. Louis Armstrong was a brilliant choice for We Have All the Time in the World for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but the song didn't chart.
JW: Who came up with the idea to have tender pop clash with mighty classical in Live and Let Die?
JB: For many years I thought that Paul McCartney came up with the tune and that George Martin invented all those orchestral pyrotechnics in the middle. But Martin has indicated that the entire idea was McCartney's, and I'm now not really surprised. Paul’s late wife Linda came up with the reggae-styled midsection of the tune—What does it matter to ya? etc. But McCartney learned a lot from working closely with Martin in the 1960s and, as you know, McCartney has written a number of orchestral works in recent years.
JW: And Martin's role?
JB: McCartney knew he needed help at the time, and called Martin to write the arrangement and conduct the orchestra for the demo. Martin's arrangement won a Grammy.
JW: Which James Bond theme recording has the oddest back-story?
JB: Probably Moonraker, which had a wonderful Paul Williams lyric and had been slated to be sung by Frank Sinatra. Johnny Mathis later sang it, but the recording was shelved and, at the last minute, Hal David wrote a new lyric. After John Barry ran into Bassey at a Beverly Hills hotel, Bassey wound up recording it days later.
JW: Any others?
JB: Tomorrow Never Dies has an odd back story as well. It was the result of a "cattle call" in which the studio invited lots of artists to submit possible songs. As vocalist Sarah Cracknell of the group Saint Etienne later said, "I remember afterward that there were loads of bands with B-sides of singles called Tomorrow Never Lies or Tomorrow Never Flies."
JW: Who was supposed to sing a Bond theme but didn't and wound up regretting it?
JB: I think, secretly, many artists—although their public reactions tend to be, "Oh, well..." A few turned down the opportunity, notably Bonnie Tyler, who said no to Never Say Never Again, one of the "unofficial" Bond films. Johnny Rivers [pictured above] was supposed to sing the vocal version of Casino Royale in 1967, another "unofficial" Bond film. But he hated the song. England's Julie Rogers sang an early version of You Only Live Twice, thinking she had the gig.
JW: What happened?
JB: When Barry and Leslie Bricusse decided to rewrite it, they called Nancy Sinatra instead. Others tried to write and submit Bond songs—notably Johnny Cash for Thunderball and Alice Cooper for Man With the Golden Gun. But they were foolish to think they had a chance when the Bond films were essentially a family operation, and John Barry was very much part of that family.
JW: The themes have done as much for the film series as the car chases and womanizing. Why exactly?
JB: The Bond songs are a surprising and unique aspect of the 007 films that can be considered within their original cinematic contexts or simply played and enjoyed on their own. No film franchise has been so successful for so long, and the Bond themes are in some ways reflective of the changes in our tastes in music as well.
JW: How so?
JB: You shift from middle-of-the-road tunes like From Russia With Love and romantic ballads like You Only Live Twice in the 1960s to the rock of Paul and Linda McCartney and softer rock of Carly Simon on Nobody Does It Better in the 1970s, the MTV-generation songs of Duran Duran and a-ha in the 1980s and the Bono/Edge contribution of Goldeneye, sung by Tina Turner, in the 1990s. And beyond, to Chris Cornell and Adele in the 2000s. It's unique and wondrous and an indelible part of the Bond mystique.
JW: Which is your favorite James Bond movie theme?
JB: I have lots of favorites. If I had to pick one vocal and one instrumental, both would be from the same film: John Barry's instrumental theme for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service—brilliantly spiced with the Moog synthesizer. I also love the John Barry-Hal David love song We Have All the Time in the World, which proves so meaningful at the end of the film when Bond gets married and tragedy ensues.
JW: Which one wins out?
JB: That’s tough. Both are very powerful, in both musical and emotional ways. Let's put it this way: I walked down the aisle at my wedding to a string quartet arrangement of We Have All the Time in the World.
JazzWax pages: Jon Burlingame's The Music of James
Bond (Oxford) can be found here. It's exactly what you want—the stories behind each theme's development and sidebars that provide even deeper drill-downs.
Jazzwax tracks: Below is John Barry's theme to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Just hover your cursor to the left of the song title in the gray bar and click the "play" triangle.
The track is from the new Best of Bond: James Bond 50 Years—50 Tracks (Capitol) two-CD set.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
As I wrote recently in my Wall Street Journal article on the James Bond Theme, men of a certain age love the song with the machine-gun guitar solo. It makes them feel extra guy-ly. But so do some women, according to Louann Brizendine, professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of The Male Brain and The Female Brain. Something about nostalgia for guys who sweep women off their feet and the short supply of such chaps today. [Photo above of Jon Burlingame by Valerie Macon/Getty Images North America]
For me, I suspect my own fondness for Bond music stems from an incident that occurred when I was 9 years old. In 1965, my father took me to see Thunderball. I think he wanted to see what all the fuss was about and took me along as a rite of passage. But when things on the screen got a little steamy, out we went. So I suppose, doctor, that through the music I'm constantly trying to get back into that theater.
During my interviews for the article, I spoke at length with Jon Burlingame, a film-music historian at the University of Southern California and author of The Music of James Bond (Oxford) a spectacular new book that looks at each Bond theme, film by film. It's must reading for anyone who wants to know the back-story to each movie theme. In some cases, that story has as many twists and turns and close calls as the films.
In Part 1 of my two-part interview with Jon, he talks about his own parental Bond-film denial, Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice and the Stan Kenton-James Bond connection...
JazzWax: Did you see James Bond films as a kid?
Jon Burlingame: Not really, as I came from a fairly religious family that was opposed to the kind of sex-and-violence image that the Bond films had in the popular media. The first 007 film I saw in a movie theater was On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) when I was 16. Then I started to catch up, seeing double bills of the earlier films—mostly at drive-ins.
JW: Did you like detective and spy shows on television?
JB: Yes, I was a huge fan, especially The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and British imports like Secret Agent. But I was particularly struck by the music, particularly the James Bond scores. They’ve stayed with me my whole life.
JW: Did James Bond pave the way for the Beatles or did they invade our culture simultaneously?
JB: There's no way to link them, really, except to say that they were both part of the massive cultural upheaval that took place during that decade. Ian Fleming's books were already famous. President Kennedy revealed that From Russia With Love was one of his favorite books. The movies, of course, then catapulted Bond into the American popular consciousness.
JW: And the Beatles?
JB: It is interesting to note that the Beatles' explosion in America in 1964 coincided with the release of the films From Russia With Love and Goldfinger, which really began the 007 craze and the entire spy genre of films and television.
JW: Why is the James Bond Theme from Dr. No still so catchy?
JB: It's a unique combination of elements: an unusual melodic line created by composer Monty Norman, a dynamic arrangement by John Barry, and a strong performance by guitarist Vic Flick, who had been a key part of Barry's rock group The John Barry Seven in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. Monty Norman has always given massive credit to Barry's “definitive orchestration," which combined rock and jazz with a compelling stealth-meets-explosive quality throughout.
JW: The Bond films from Dr. No on set a new standard for action films. Did the music establish a new genre as well?
JB: Yes. The success of the James Bond Theme—both in Dr. No and as a commercial hit on records, led the producers to hire Barry, the theme's arranger, to score From Russia With Love. He had an assist from popular British songwriter Lionel Bart, who wrote the title tune. Barry added his already patented orchestral sound to that second 007 film.
JW: What about Goldfinger?
JB: When Barry was given the opportunity to write both the song and score for the third film you mentioned, the Bond musical style was set. What we now think of as "spy music" originated there. Just as Peter Gunn was the prototype for all cop and detective show themes on TV from 1959 onward, so did The Bond Theme and those early Barry-Bond scores become the mold for subsequent spy adventures on TV and in film.
JW: Did early Bond music make orchestral pop more appealing—particularly the music of Burt Bacharach?
JB: That's hard to say. You have to transport yourself back 45 years or so and try and remember what you were listening to and why. The commercial success of Bond music was pretty much limited to the title themes, although the soundtrack album for Goldfinger did go to No. 1 on the Billboard charts in March 1965.
JW: But the orchestral value is paramount.
JB: Absolutely. For the most successful Bond themes of the era—Goldfinger, Thunderball and You Only Live Twice—you're also hearing the powerful, thrilling arrangements of John Barry, the man most responsible for the Bond sound. So that stealthy and explosive combo I was talking about earlier is present in all of them—plus the romantic, exotic sound of You Only Live Twice.
JW: And Burt Bacharach?
JB: Personally, I found Burt Bacharach's orchestral pop sound attractive from the first time I heard it and did not associate it with the Bond films at all—unless you count his wonderful score for the 1967 Casino Royale, which included his classic The Look of Love.
JW: How did John Barry make his Bond themes so singular? What was the secret recipe?
JB: John Barry [pictured above] wrote like no other composer. He was already in his 30s when he co-composed Goldfinger. He was very confident in his musical abilities, which helps. His melodic and harmonic sense were singular, the result of having studied classical music as a child, playing in military bands during the early 1950s, studying with Stan Kenton arranger Bill Russo, forming his own rock band in the late 1950s and becoming a record-label executive in the early 1960s.
JW: His father’s occupation didn’t hurt either.
JB: Yes, Barry loved film music because he grew up with a father who had a chain of movie theaters in northern England. That unique combination of circumstances produced the John Barry sound. He was a smart composer and the Bond producers were immensely lucky to connect with him early on.
JW: Was Goldfinger difficult to record?
JB: I would say "demanding" rather than "difficult." Several musicians who were on the date recalled vocalist Shirley Bassey [pictured above] feeling "constricted" by her brassiere as conductor Barry pleaded for her to belt and hold that last note for several seconds. She apparently removed her bra in the privacy of her recording booth in order to comply. Bassey herself confirmed the story.
JW: How did Nancy Sinatra come to record You Only Live Twice?
JB: Bond producer Cubby Broccoli had been friends with Frank Sinatra for many years, and the family connection—plus Nancy's chart hits like These Boots Are Made for Walkin'—led to the suggestion that she sing the song that Barry and lyricist Leslie Bricusse had written for the new Bond adventure. This was in 1967.
JW: What is it about Nancy Sinatra’s voice that seems to make it impossible for other artists to cover the song well?
JB: Nancy herself had trouble singing it. It's not an easy tune to negotiate. Many Barry songs are deceptively difficult. Barry (and others present for the recording) said that the final version was actually assembled from more than two dozen takes, a piece here and a piece there. Nancy was very nervous at the time, and this was a major undertaking both musically and in terms of the pressure of the film. I think it's a sensational song, and I sometimes wonder if it's so closely associated with a single artist that other artists would prefer to keep their distance. [Pictured above, Nancy Sinatra with John Barry]
More Bond talk tomorrow in Part 2.
JazzWax pages: Jon Burlingame's The Music of James
Bond (Oxford) can be found here. It's exactly what you want—the stories behind each theme's development and sidebars that provide even deeper drill-downs.
Jazzwax tracks: Here's Tom Jones singing the Thunderball theme. Just hover your cursor to the left of the song title in the gray bar and click the "play" triangle.
Dig how the James Bond Theme is folded into the orchestration by John Barry. It's from the new Best of Bond: James Bond 50 Years—50 Tracks (Capitol) two-CD set.
Last week, Publisher's Weekly—the book industry's leading trade publication—kindly raved about my upcoming book, Why Jazz Happened...
"On February 26, 1917, a group of musicians calling themselves the Original Dixieland Jass Band assembled in the studio of the Victor Talking Machine Company,
played two songs into a long metal horn that served as a microphone, and a few weeks later made history by releasing the first 78-rpm recording of jazz. In this energetic and captivating tale, Wall Street Journal music contributor Myers enthusiastically chronicles the many social, political, legal, and monetary forces outside of music that shaped the evolution of jazz. With impeccable timing, Myers provides a steady backbeat of stories of the development of music from
bebop, jazz-classical, and West Coast jazz, to spiritual jazz, jazz-pop, and jazz-rock fusion. While jazz could
never have developed without the brilliant musicians whose stories he narrates—from Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie [pictured] to Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock—the rise of electronic instruments, the civil rights movement, the advent of musicians’ unions, and new recording technologies catapulted the musical form and its players squarely into the evolving history of American music. In the 1950s, as they discovered that more music was needed to fill the
longer format of albums, hard bop musicians began licensing their compositions through BMI, making available a greater percentage of original work on these albums. Myers’s first-rate social history, like a great jazz recording, pulls us into its complex rhythms and harmonies, casting its mesmerizing spell. (Dec.)"
To purchase Why Jazz Happened, go here.
[Photo at top of page: Zoot Sims by W. Eugene Smith]
Ayako Shirasaki. If you're in Los Angeles on Monday, pianist Ayako Shirasaki [pictured above] will be performing at Brookfield Office Properties as part of the Downtown Los Angeles Piano Festival. For more information, go here.
Jazz blogs of interest. Willard Jenkins [pictured above] (co-author of African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston here) writes The Independent Ear, a terrific blog on jazz and the arts. Catch his series of interviews with female artists and the specific challenges they face. And if you're in Minneapolis, dig Pamela Espeland's Bebopified.
The jazz flute is hard to come by today. Too few flutists bother to learn the jazz craft, leaving the market a bit dry. Which is why Lady of the Island (Zoho) by flutist
Andrea Brachfeld is a delightful surprise. You listen to her play, and you can't believe what you're hearing. Brachfeld is an incredibly skilled jazz player, her tone resonates and her lines pour out and hang in mid-air, evaporating ever slowly. Brachfeld is joined by Bob Quaranta on piano, Andy Eulau on bass and Kim Plainfield on drums. Sample the title track and see how long it takes before you download this gem.
The Duke Ellington Legacy's Single Petal of a Rose (Renma) opens with pianist Norman Simmons playing the title track with beautifully long, stroking lines. Then the
nine-piece band, which includes guitarist Edward Kennedy Ellington II, jumps in and runs through track after track of tributes that give the Ellington-Strayhorn songbook a soulful makeover. The album features special guest Houston Person, who anchors the nonet with smokey authority.
Tango may have its roots in Argentina, but Uruguay also is a hot center for the smoldering, dark romantic music. Gustavo Casenave, originally from Uruguay, is now
director of the jazz department at New York's Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts. The pianist's new album, Tango Casenave (Watchcraft), is perfect for autumn—with its introspective thunderclaps and surging twists and turns. All compositions are by Casenave, and Eddie Gomez is the album's special guest. Music for changing skies and moods.
I love smart roots albums. Darrell Scott and Tim O'Brien joined forces for We're Usually a Lot Better Than This (Full Lights), a bluegrass honey that was recorded live
during two concerts at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, N.C., in 2005 and 2006. There are originals and covers of songs by Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams, Gordon Lightfoot and others. The vocal performances by these two artists are truly extraordinary. So fine and earthy that you can smell the hay and dust.
On Time Passes On (Jazzed Media), the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble with drummer-composer Jeff Hamilton reminds us what can be done when
arrangements matter and big bands rehearse with care before recording. Under the direction of Bob Lark, the college band is captured live here at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago. As good as this band is, the real stars are the arrangers. Songs soar with tender aggression, and zig-zag among the sections in the most exhilarating way. Standards such as The Days of Wine and Roses and Miles Davis' The Serpent's Tooth as well as originals are given this touch. Superior student musicians-arrangers backed by a seasoned drummer, all motivated by a knowing band director. Lucky students, lucky us.
Seasoned pianist Harold Mabern is reflective on Mr. Lucky: A Tribute to Sammy Davis Jr. (High Note). It's an interesting challenge taking on Davis. Too glossy, and
it's cocktail hour. Too involved, and you miss the point. Mabern along with saxophonist Eric Alexander (on two tracks), bassist John Webber and drummer Joe Farnsworth work through Mr. Lucky, What Kind of Fool Am I?, As Long As She Needs Me among others. My favorite? Hey There, a solo piece that features one of the most unusual and sensuous renditions of this signature song by Davis during his Decca years.
Oddball album cover of the week.
You can just hear the spousal argument that took place hours before this cover was photographed: "You take the kids." "No, you take them, it's your turn." "I have a record date!" "So? I have to be downtown." "Fine, I'll take them to the session. But they better not make a sound."
