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Jeni LeGon, an African-American singer and tap dancer who made it to Hollywood in the 1930s only to wind up playing a long succession of maids in movies—despite her enormous and obvious talents—died on December 7. She was 96.
For more on LeGon's career, see yesterday's obit in The New York Times.
Here is LeGon in a scene from Hooray for Love, from 1935, with Bill Robinson and Fats Waller...
If you're looking to buy blues albums as a holiday gift for yourself or a friend, you've come to the right place. Take a load off and set a spell. Here are seven that recently crossed my desk and knocked me out...
Louisiana Red (Iverson Minter) died earlier this year in February at age 79. The vocalist, harmonica player and guitarist recorded more than 50 albums. On the new
release When My Mama Was Living (Labor), Minter is heard on unreleased masters and alternate takes from the mid-1970s. This is Delta blues minimalism at its finest, since most tracks feature just Minter wailing away with spare accompaniment. On several tracks, he's joined by harmonica player Peg Leg Sam, guitarist Lefty Diaz and pianist Kyril Bromley. Sample Got a Girl With a Dog Won't Bark, Going Down to Georgia and You Got to Move. Music so rich and on time that they didn't need a drummer.
The story of the blues in the '50s and '60s is about a lot of great musicians who bubbled just under the surface but never quite made it to household-name status. Either
they sounded too much like others who were prominent or they preferred to toil on their home turf. Singer-guitarist Otis Rush is one of those artists. Rush was a powerful influence on Chicago's West Side in the '60s, playing a hoarse electric guitar and singing with a strong, moaning sound. On A Cold Day in Hell (Delmark), recorded in 1975, Rush's guitar licks on slow blues are drizzled with informality and searing heat. Sample Society Woman and You're Breaking My Heart. Pickin' and pluckin' with plenty of testifyin'.
Pianist and three-time Grammy winner Willie "Pinetop" Perkins died in March 2011 at age 97 and was one of Mississippi's last old-time blues artists. Recorded in September 2010, How Long? (Rock Beat)
was Perkins's last recording. Perkins's blues here rock and sway and feature guest singers and a tight band with organ and horns. Sample Back to the Chicken Shack, How Long Blues and Rhumba Man. All of the tracks are catchy and fetching. Take-your-time blues from the Pinetop Boogie Woogie man himself. The CD version comes with a terrific DVD of video from the session.
Singer-guitarist Samuel "Magic Sam" Maghett's Raw Blues (Rock Beat) was recorded live at Mandrake's in Berkeley, Calif. This album features Magic Sam in July
1969—five months before his untimely death from a heart attack at age 32. You can hear Magic Sam's guitar influence on Eric Clapton, Duane Allman and Dickey Betts and many other rock-blues standouts of the '60s and early '70s. Sample I Got Papers on You Baby, Strange Things Happen and Just Pickin'. Exciting blues from a master who was taken from us way too early.
Mike Wheeler's Self Made Man (Delmark) is a contemporary blues album recorded in May. Wheeler,
a guitar-vocalist, is a solid picker who integrates many forms, including funk and rock. Best of all, Wheeler's lyrics tell terrific tales or offer lovers stern warnings. Sample Big Mistake, Join Hands and Walkin' Out the Door. In the tradition of B.B. King—party-time meets a story-and-a-half.
Chicago blues singer and Muddy Waters disciple Willie Buck has a determined sound on Cell Phone Man
(Delmark). The band here is particularly powerful and features guitarist Rockin' Johnny on two tracks, former Waters' guitarist Rick Kreher on others, with Barrelhouse Chuck on piano and blues harp vets Bharath Rajakumar and Martin Lang. Sample Strange Woman, Two Trains Running and My Eyes Keep Me in Trouble. Buck's gut-bucket voice backed by twisted harps, stinging guitars and lots of licks.
Though not a traditional blues band, The Fat Babies transport you back to the late '20s on Chicago Hot (Delmark). This young group has all the syncopation of bathtub gin and chalk-striped double-
breasted
suits. Leader and bassist Beau Sample is an established Chicago player,
and he's joined by a gang of enthusiasts, including cornetist Andy
Schumm. So tight, you might mistake this group for a speakeasy house
band. Sample Froggie Moore, Susie and San. Bluesy jazz from the days when people wore hats, work meant labor and radio was rage.
Alto saxophonist Art Pepper may well have been the earliest exponent of what would become known as West Coast jazz. At the end of 1951 and top of '52, Gerry Mulligan hadn't yet arrived in Los Angeles, Shorty Rogers was still emulating Dizzy Gillespie and Shelly Manne was still under the influence of Max Roach. But Pepper was at this moment in time his own man—there was no Charlie Parker in his playing, just a searing, high-register, laid-back sound in a big hurry.
Pepper's playing in December and January was cool but frantic, space-respectful but hell-bent to jump in, and lyrical without relying on the blues to make a point. Though Rogers was able to formulate the harmony-rich sound of West Coast jazz in October '51 in his ensemble arrangements for Modern Sounds, he hadn't yet iced his horn as a small-group soloist.
We know this from two key recordings—Popo, from December 27, 1951, and the super-rare Live at the Lighthouse '52, from January 6, 1952. Both dates were recorded at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, Calif., and both featured Rogers, Pepper, pianist Frank Patchen, bassist Howard Rumsey and drummer Shelly Manne—with trombonist Milt Bernhart and tenor saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre added on the latter date.
Popo (Xanadu) offers plenty of action—the spirited exchanges between Pepper and Rogers sound more like the blows of sparring boxers in a ring than musicians working on a stage. The individualism and ambition is palpable and contagious. But the real excitement comes 10 days later, as captured on Live at the Lighthouse '52 (Norma).
Live at the Lighthouse '52 is a hard-to-find album originally recorded live by Bob Andrews in L.A. and released digitally only in Japan. It's the missing link between Popo and Pepper's The Early Show, recorded in February 1952 at the Surf Club. Something happens to Pepper in January—a breakthrough, if you will. On prior recordings, Pepper is still developing and finding his way.
But at the Lighthouse in January '52, on tracks like Jumpin' at the Woodside and Keen and Peachy, Pepper's on fire. But it's a cool burn. Where we hear the big change is on the ballads—Yesterdays, These Foolish Things and Over the Rainbow—where his lines are beautifully chilled and glossy, like the hourglass curves of a '51 Chevy sedan or slow, curling waves rolling in a short walk down the beach.
In fact, on Over the Rainbow, Pepper's solo is so perfectly executed with imagination and soul that he knocks out everyone at the club by the end. Manne is still banging around bop style behind him, but Pepper just rises above the East Coast ghosting and delivers his finest version of this standard—even when double-timing for spells.
Pepper, of course, would find himself in trouble with the police by the end of 1952. A heroin user since 1950, during a stay in Chicago while in Stan Kenton's band—Pepper's addiction led to an arrest in Los Angeles toward the end of '52. He only escaped time at Camarillo State Mental Hospital in California when his father showed up in court ranting, and the judge gave in.
Pepper would be in and out of prison for drug use as the '50s progressed, but for 10 days around this time of year 61 years ago, he was at the Lighthouse inventing a new style of jazz—even if his bandmates didn't fully get it yet.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Popo here and here. As for
Live at the Lighthouse '52, it's very hard to find. Part of it is available on Early Days, Vol. 1, a Norma vinyl release here. I'm not sure why this recording hasn't been released in the U.S. and is largely unknown. Perhaps Laurie Pepper can help.
JazzWax clips: Here are two tracks from Live at the Lighthouse '52:
Over the Rainbow...
Keen and Peachy...
Is Apple in serious trouble? Will we see its phone, computer and music divisions spun off as separate companies in the coming years as Google grabs the phone side, Samsung takes the computers and Universal snaps-up music?
The answer to the first question seems like a resounding yes. Earlier this year, the iPhone maps app was found to have serious directional flaws. Eventually, the Apple maps division head was sent packing.
Now the music side seems clueless. Anyone enjoying the new iTunes 11.0? Anyone? That's what I thought. If I knew what I know now, I never would have clicked to update the software, and wish I had version 10.7 back.
The new iTunes interface is a disaster from the user's standpoint. Clearly, Steve Jobs ran Apple like a family business—involved in every aspect and detail, making sure the geeks were kept appropriately in cages and guarded by the company's user-experience crew.
Something has changed. If teams of executives and creatives on the music side can produce a new version of iTunes that is illogical and destroys the ease-of-use of previous versions, we can only imagine that Apple has a destructive internal power struggle on its hands.
A short list of why iTunes 11.0 is a mess: You can't reduce the size of the platform as you could in the past, allowing you work on your desktop (the MiniPlayer is a joke); you no longer can see the album covers, which I used to love; importing music and transferring into folders is more cumbersome and illogical; creating new playlist folders is a pain; and menus that should drop down drop up instead, requiring you to move the horsey platform around to see them. I'm sure there are dozens of other problems I've forgotten or missed that are eating at you, too.
Who in heaven's name at Apple came up with the changes and who beta-tested them? My guess is Job's worst nightmare is coming to pass: Apple's geeks have wriggled free and are now running the show, insisting on changes for changes' sake and not to improve the lives of users—the company's original mission.
If Jobs were still with us, one can assume that the music head would be on the same bus home as the maps guy.
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Friday's Wall Street Journal—I had two articles in Friday's Wall Street Journal. One looked at the "remastering" trend (go here)
and the other was my six favorite new holiday CDs (go here).
I also was on Lunch Break, the WSJ's TV news show at noon, to talk about both articles. Go here and here.
Why Jazz Happened updates. My deepest thanks to the following writers and bloggers for reviewing andMichael Steinman of Jazz Lives writes...
"The book is consistently lively because Marc, like the best investigator, is deeply curious and not easily satisfied with the pat answers previous works have (sometimes) offered. And his curiosity has taken him to contemporary reporting . . . but most often it has taken him to the primary sources." For more, go here.
Lee Mergner, publisher of JazzTimes, writes in Northeastern magazine...
"Deftly written to accommodate those who don’t know much about jazz, Myers’ matter-of-fact style
holds a steady rhythm. The book also contains plenty of nuanced interpretation for the serious jazz aficionado and should encourage another listen to this music genre." For more, go here.
Literary blogger Marshal Zeringue featured what I'm reading now. Go here and here.
Tom Reney of New England Public Radio and blogger mentioned Why Jazz Happened here.David Allyn mystery. Anyone know the answer to this one? Apparently late singer David Allyn recorded Pleasant
Dreams backed by an orchestra and strings (not the Barry Harris version). And Bob Prince arranged Here's the Way It Is and another version of Where You At (not the version on the Lucky Day album). Also, David apparently recorded with pianist Paul Smith. The problem is these recordings don't turn up in his discography. Anyone know anything? Please email me at marc@marcmyers.com.
The American Image. Director Raymond De Felitta has posted on The American Image—an hour-long color documentary that NBC aired in 1966 on New York's Whitney Museum, which had just opened. Raymond's father Frank De Felitta supervised, produced and directed the film. You'll find Raymond's post here. Here's Part 1 of the documentary at YouTube (other parts can be found next to the clip)...
CD discoveries of the week. Singer Sandy Stewart has just released Something to Remember (Ghostlight), accompanied only by Bill Charlap, her pianist son. Sandy has a rich, experienced and passionate voice that grabs
If you have room in the cart for one more holiday album, dig Corky Hale's Have Yourself a Jazzy Little Christmas (Beverly Hills). Corky was Billie Holiday's piano
accompanist for a time in the late '50s, as a first-call West Coast studio musician, she played harp on nearly every major pop session with strings in the late '50s and '60s, including Ella Fitzgerald's Songbook series. Here, she's on harp swinging holiday favorites but always delivering hip lines rather than playing them angelically straight. One of the finest recordings of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas you'll hear as well as a hip take on The Dreidel Song. Holiday music in experienced hands. More on Corky here.
The Live at Smalls series produced by Smalls, the New York jazz club, is uniformly excellent. Two more additions
are sets by bassist Dezron Douglas and bassist Tyler Mitchell. Hard bop is front and center on the Douglas album—including Barry Harris's Bish, Bash, Bop and Gigi Gryce's Minority as well as originals. Trumpeter Josh Evans and tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard are backed by Douglas, pianist David Bryant and drummer Willie Jones
III. Mitchell's set also is hard bop in flavor, but with a funk-soul undercurrent. Four of the five tracks were written by Mitchell, and trumpeter Evans is joined by tenor saxophonist Abraham Burton, pianist Spike Wilner and drummer Eric McPherson. New-jazz showcases in live settings. These also are available at iTunes.
Pianist Scott Healy has been around. In addition to playing piano on Conan, he has recorded with many rock and soul artists as well as composed, arranged and
scored for various classical orchestras and ensembles. On Hudson City Suite, all of these talents come together for a nine-track that's rich in brass, time signatures and mood. There are upward of 10 players on each track, and the result is reminiscent of Duke Ellington and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. Music that's constantly changing and evolving.
This album has everything going against it—a two-CD set featuring instrumental tracks to albums of a band you may never have heard of. But it's a terrific set just the same. The band was Jellyfish, a San Francisco power-pop band
that recorded two albums in the late 1980s and early '90s. Their two most important albums were Bellybutton (1990) and Spilt Milk (1993). What makes this album so fascinating is that it's comprised of instrumental mixes of each record. Left in the vault for decades, Jellyfish: Stack-a-Tracks (Omnivore) takes these instrumental tracks and ingeniously results in a psychedelic-pop symphony. If you can get your hands on it, the double album is sensational. Sgt. Pepper's meets Jefferson Starship—without the vocals.
In 1972, jazz split in two directions—jazz-fusion and soul-jazz. Fusion was aimed primarily at younger, rock-oriented college students while soul-jazz was promoted to adults in urban settings. Black and white audiences listened to both. That year, Blue Note released
Bobbi Humphrey's Dig This, which featured the flutist with a symphonic funk backdrop on some tracks and percussion-electronica on others. Now Real Gone Music has remastered and reissued Humphrey's second album, and it sounds beautifully lavish. Humphrey's playing is sylph-like, and the arrangements capture the Shaftian period perfectly, from I Love Every Little Thing About You to Smiling Faces and The Theme From Fuzz. A soul-jazz album with a welcoming female touch.
Speaking of the flute, Jeremy Steig recorded a funkadelic album in 1970 called Wayfaring Stranger for Blue Note. Like Humphrey's album, this reissue and remaster from
Real Gone is a period piece. Though it sounds a bit like soundtrack music for Bullitt or a Mod Squad episode, it's still terrific. If you dig jazz with a late '60s California spin, this one's a beaut. With Steig was Sam Brown on rock guitar, Eddie Gomez on bass and Don Alias on drums. This is pure coffee-house plotting music of the highest order with a love-in twist.
Oddball album cover of the week.
Back in the mid-'50s, one of Columbia's earliest series of 12-inch LPs was called Quiet Music. These were mood albums for those special times. For whatever reason, our model looks as though she said "no" moments earlier but was ignored. Strangely, nearly all of the covers in the series features models who look scared to death. More down the road.
In the seventh and final video interview supporting the publication of my book, Why Jazz Happened, I talk about jazz's future. Without a doubt, jazz and jazz musicians have it rough today. But why? What broad trends in our culture are causing jazz to suffer? [Cover photo by Herb Snitzer]
Three reasons: First, like it or not, we're living in a visual era, when performance is as much about entertaining the eyes as the ears. Modern jazz musicians know little about acting or entertaining.
Second, catchy melodies are just about extinct. For decades the appeal of jazz relied on reinventing the familiar—taking what we know to a higher level through swing and improvisation. Today, bass lines and beats drive popular music, not melodies, leaving the well dry for jazz. [Photo above: Paul McCartney at Madison Square Garden's 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief, by Getty Images]
And third, many young people in college aren't being taught jazz's dramatic story, only jazz's series of styles—an approach that's clearly boring them to tears. As a result, jazz is viewed as a chore, not a nail-biter or awakening.
Back in 1967, jazz, rock and blues musicians all hung out together—particularly at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. The rock album was just catching on, and rock musicians needed ways to extend songs and solos. Their role models were jazz musicians, who had been recording long since the mid-'50s, when the 12-inch LP was introduced.
Here's vibraphonist Gary Burton on the Summer of Love, from pp. 212-213 of Why Jazz Happened...
The Gary Burton Quartet spent extended periods in San Francisco, at one point playing for a month at the Trident in Sausalito. "This was the height of the psychedelic scene out there, which was a big influence on our music," he said. "Then producer Bill Graham discovered us. I had known Bill from the early sixties, when he had booked the George Shearing Quintet and I was a member of the group. Bill told me he wanted to include more jazz at the Fillmore. He said his biggest challenge was that most jazz groups were too stylistically removed to be compatible with the rock scene. He said my group was perfect."
Burton's quartet ended up spending eight weeks at a shot playing around San Francisco. "We'd go out to Mill Valley in Marin County north of San Francisco with [rock guitarist] Mike Bloomfield," Burton said. "Many rock acts of the time had homes up there. At parties, we'd hear talk about Jefferson Airplane. We were both on the RCA label at the time. I liked the band personally, but I wasn't a huge fan of their music.
"By the time my group recorded our second album, Lofty Fake Anagram, we had become practically a part of the San Francisco and Mill Valley scenes, and our form of jazz-rock fusion reflected it."
A big JazzWax thanks to Fred Seibert, Mike Hamer and Zoë Barton.
To buy: Go here.
Interview requests: marc@marcmyers.com
More book info: Go here.
Today, two more video interview segments in support of my new book Why Jazz Happened (University of California Press). [Cover photo by Herb Snitzer]
In the first clip, I talk about the role that the civil rights movement played in the music of Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and other spiritual-jazz artists in the '50s who fused artistic expression with growing frustration over the slow pace of racial equality. The second clip looks at the external forces behind the rise of jazz-rock fusion in the late '60s.
Here's tenor saxophonist Yusef Lateef on pp. 154-55 of Why Jazz Happened on John Coltrane and the importance of the harp...
"John was very introspective. I remember in the late '50s, when critics began to call his arpeggios 'sheets of sound,' I knew where he was coming from. When I'd visit John uptown, he had a harp in his apartment that his wife Naima had bought for him. [Pictured above: John Coltrane]
"By pressing the pedals, you could create a glissando that was like sheets of sound. John told me he was interpreting that harp sound on the saxophone and was fascinated by how different those runs sounded on the saxophone compared with the harp. He integrated the harp's sound into his music.
"The harp was a spiritual instrument in a religious sense. This music we expressed was part curiosity but also a reaction to what was happening. You couldn't avoid the civil rights movement back then."
A big JazzWax thanks to Fred Seibert, Mike Hamer and Zoë Barton.
To buy: Go here.
Interview requests: marc@marcmyers.com
More book info: Go here.
In today's video segment for my new book Why Jazz Happened, I've posted two segments—LPs & Longer Solos and Hollywood & Hard Bop. [Cover photo by Herb Snitzer].
In these clips, I touch on the events that led to the longer solo on jazz records and the roles that West Coast jazz, R&B and BMI had in igniting hard bop on the East Coast—and the sudden rise of more original jazz compositions by recording artists.
As promised, here's more breaking news in Why Jazz Happened. After the 33 1/3-rpm LP was launched by Columbia in June 1948, jazz initially appeared on 10-inch discs. Not until 1955 did record companies start routinely releasing 12-inch jazz albums. Why?
Excerpted from pp. 88-90 of Why Jazz Happened:
"By the mid-1950s, the 10-inch jazz album began to be replaced by the 12-inch LP, largely because of cost-efficiencies, said former Columbia producer George Avakian. The 12-inch format for jazz had begun as a trial run at Columbia in 1950—with the release of Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall concert of 1938 on two LPs, material that had been languishing in storage. But the copyright royalty on standards was 2-cents per record, and when added to the expense of press runs at plants, a 12-inch jazz LP wasn't profitable.
'Then we figured out a way to hold down manufacturing costs at Columbia," Avakian said. 'Thanks to increased record sales and longer press runs, the label could more than afford the 2-cent copyright. In fact, we would have made a profit even it had been higher. The industry never knew about this because we never publicized it. We didn't want our competitors to know.'
"As a result, Columbia began to profitably produce 12-inch pop and jazz albums in 1955, and so did many smaller labels that used Columbia to fabricate their records. Jazz began to change in response."
A big JazzWax thanks to Fred Seibert, Mike Hamer and Zoë Barton.
To buy: Go here.
Interview requests: marc@marcmyers.com
More book info: Go here.
With the publication this week of my new book, Why Jazz Happened, I am featuring a series of mini video interviews I taped in support of the book. Each interview is short but should give you a sense of the approach I took when researching and writing this social history of jazz. [Cover photo by Herb Snitzer]
Today, in Part 2, I talk about why the first bebop recordings were made in February 1944—not years earlier or years later...
And as promised, here's an excerpt from pp. 152-154 of Why Jazz Happened—from my chapter on the the events that helped pave the way for spiritual jazz in the 1950s. After the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision in May 1954, many states and local communities ignored the ruling that declared segregation in schools unconstitutional. Black jazz artists, in particular, felt the injustice, and many turned to the black church, ancestral homelands in Africa, the Caribbean, and spirituality for insppiration when creating original pieces.
In this passage, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins talks about how he came to write Airegin:
"Back in the early 1950s, I was going through an issue of Life magazine at a barbershop or someplace like that and came across a photo of Nigerians dancing in their traditional costumes. To me, those people were struggling for their dignity. When Miles [Davis] called me in June 1954 to play on a Prestige record date, which eventually was released as Bags' Groove, he asked me to bring along some original songs. One was a tune I hadn't finished yet...
"As I struggled to complete this new song in the studio, Miles took it and contributed the last four bars. He probably should have been the song's co-composer. Even though the song was finished in the studio, I already had the title in mind. When the producer asked for the name, I told him Airegin. No one asked me what the word meant. They probably figured it was the name of someone I knew. Miles probably assumed that, too. But if Miles had known it was Nigeria spelled backward, I'm sure he would have been sympathetic and said, 'Oh cool.'
"Why did I spell Nigeria backward? I guess it might have been too controversial to call a song Nigeria at the time. Perhaps that would have been too blunt and too blatant. Perhaps I wanted to make my message incomprehensible to white-owned record companies. I don't recall. But spelling Nigeria backward was an act of incredible subtlety. Airegin? Who, what?—what's that? Eventually those in the know figured it out."
A big JazzWax thanks to Fred Seibert, Mike Hamer and Zoë Barton.
To buy Why Jazz Happened: Go here.
Interview requests: marc@marcmyers.com
More book info: Go here.
Today is the official publication date of my book Why Jazz Happened (University of California Press). To celebrate, I'm starting a five-part video and text series to give JazzWax readers a taste of the book's content.
If you've already purchased a copy of the book, thank you from the bottom of my heart. If not, here's Part 1 of my video interview series to give you a feel for the book...
Why Jazz Happens breaks quite a bit of news—and I'll be touching on some of the highlights this week:
Tuesday—tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins talks about the origins of his jazz standard Airegin.
Wednesday—former Columbia Records producer George Avakian talks about the single reason why jazz was able to graduate to the 12-inch LP from the 10-inch version in the mid-'50s.
Thursday—The role that the harp played in John Coltrane's music in the '50s.
A big JazzWax thanks to Fred Seibert, Mike Hamer and Zoë Barton.
Interview requests: marc@marcmyers.com
More info: Go here.
To buy: Go here.
My new book, Why Jazz Happened,
will be in stores on
Monday. Those of you who have ordered it online from Amazon or Barnes and Noble have already received it. If you've held off but are curious, I will be
featuring a five-part video about the book starting on Monday. Hopefully
this will spark your interest. [Cover photo by Herb Snitzer]
Here's where I'll be in the coming weeks—and where I've been:
Where I'll be...
Jan. 3—Barnes & Noble/82nd and Broadway in New York, 7 p.m. I will be interviewed by jazz author andJanuary 9—My podcast conversation with Mark Hayes of WDNA-Miami will be available at 11:15 a.m. here and at noon at Mark's Passing Notes blog here.
January 11—The silk-voiced David Brent Johnson will be interviewing me for his Night Lights show on WFIU at 10 p.m. (EST). Go here to listen live. Go here to listen to the podcast after January 11.
Feb. 4— 92Y Tribeca/200 Hudson St., New York; noon to 1 p.m. For this multimedia event, I will be talking about why jazz styles
changed so often
between 1942 and 1972—using music tracks and
large-screen images to illustrate the dramatic changes. Tickets: $21. Go here. Need directions? Go here.
Where I've been (in order of most recent event)...
Interview—Scott Timberg at The Misread City blog interviewed me yesterday. Go here to read the Q&A.
Interview—Ron Wynn of the Nashville Scene interviewed me on Thursday. Go here.
Literary blog mentions—Based in the New Orleans area, Marshal Zeringue runs a fabulous series of literary blogs. He asked me to share with readers what I was reading. My response will be posted shortly. For now, go here, here and here.
Appearance—Last Monday I spoke to David Adler's jazz history class at Queens College in New York and played tracks to illustrate points. Students were excited, engaged and asked terrific questions. To read David's blog, go here.
Podcast—A week ago, I did an on-air interview with WRTC (Hartford, Conn.) host and soul-music maestro Chris Cowles. Go here (interview comes on automatically).
Want me on your show or in your classroom to talk about Why Jazz Happened? Email me here: marc@marcmyers.com.
Dave Brubeck. Writer Larry Blumenfeld emailed during the week to chat about the passing of Dave Brubeck. Larry has a touching, up-close post here.
Slim Gaillard. JazzWax reader Joe Lang sent along a fabulous clip of Slim Gaillard...
CD discoveries of the week. Carrie Newcomer's Kindred Spirits: A Collection (Rounder) isn't an official holiday album, but it could be. The forceful folk singer's
career is captured here in 19 luxurious tracks. Unfamiliar with Newcomer? She's a singer-songwriter, guitarist and banjo player with 13 solo albums and a bushel of awards. Her voice is deep and maternal—in the tradition of female artists of the late '60s and early '70s. Best of all, there's a blend of strings and acoustic instruments that give this roundup a woodsy, snowshoe feel. Sample almost any track, including Where You Been? and Two Toasts. Impossible not to be moved by a woman who sounds like your wise sister—if she could sing.
If you like your coffee strong, you'll dig the Hammer Klavier Trio's Rocket in the Pocket (Jan Matthies). This trio features pianist Boris Netsvetaev, bassist Phillipp
Steen and drummer Kai Bussenius. Tracks are strong and confident, with impeccable technique, earthy melodies and roiling ideas. It's astonishing how many superb artists today fly under the radar, and I'm glad this one came to my attention. Each track stands out, carrying an enormous jazz torch in the dark, brooding European tradition. Liner notes by Howard Mandel. Dig Kaleidoscope, Take Fifteen and Harold Mabern. Three musicians with a big sound who know how to work with their hands.
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist Ben Harper also has a retrospective album out called By My Side (EMI). I guess the best way to describe Harper
for those not in the know is acoustic folk-rock, with an empahsis on the vocal and blues. In fact, it's pretty tough not to fall in line with what Harper's doing as soon as you hear his originals on this look-back album. Sample Diamonds on the Inside, Beloved One and Waiting on an Angel. Shades of Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan and Bob Seger with a highly original twist.
Oddball album cover of the week.
I'm not sure if Colonel Harland Sanders is upset or fast asleep on this cover. Either way, it seems here that the late patriarch of the fried-chicken chain discovered a lump of coal in his stocking.
