My new book, Why Jazz Happened, received a fabulous review by All About Jazz last week. To quote David Rickertart's review...
"Many books have been written on how jazz happened, but few have focused on why jazz happened. In Marc Myers' new book, Why Jazz Happened,
he does just
that: explore the economic, technological, and social
forces that allowed jazz to flourish. This is not a book about the
artists that shaped what jazz became, but rather a book dealing with
people on the fringes: inventors, promoters, label reps, and those
involved in cultural movements.... Myers' angle on jazz is welcome, and Why Jazz Happened makes a convincing argument about the forces that shaped jazz behind the scenes."
To read the rest of the review, go here. To buy my book, go here. [Photo at top: Ernst Haas, New Orleans, USA, 1960]
Bethlehem Records. Verse Music Group, the company that now owns the Bethlehem catalog, has created a
page that lets you see what they've made available thus far at iTunes. Then you can click to be taken there to listen to samples and download. Available now from the Bethlehem catalog are albums by Zoot Sims, Charlie Persip, Urbie Green, Johnny Richards, Sal Salvador, Claude Williamson, Roland Kirk and others. Go here.
Airmen of Note downloads. JazzWax reader Kurt Kolstad alerted me to a fabulous site that offers all of the Airmen of Note albums from 1962 to 2010 as downloads.
The Airmen of Note, of course, is the crackerjack jazz ensemble of the United States Air Force created in 1950 to continue the tradition of Glenn Miller's Army Air Corps dance band. You simply make a donation of $20 to the site via PayPal (one click) and you receive a user name and password by email that you enter to download whatever you want. What a treasure! Go here.
Singer Marlene VerPlanck kicks off a tour of Britain and the Netherlands on Thursday, February 22, and will be appearing at 17 venues—including Ronnie Scott's in London on March 17. If you're in London, book early. Last time around her shows were sold out. For more information about Marlene's European tour, go here.
David Stone Martin [pictured], the '50s jazz LP cover illustrator, is featured at length at a blog here.
The greatness of John Graas. Susan McKeever, the niece of the late French hornist and arranger John Graas, sent along three YouTube clips featuring her uncle. Go here, here and here (Graas is in the orchestra on the last one).
Link to Miles Davis book. Last week I featured Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History
(Voyageur Press), but I neglected to include the link to Amazon for those interested in buying. Just click on the title now.
Ella on Facebook. Fran Morris Rosman, executive director of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation—which makes grants to promote the late singer's work and contribution—hipped me to Ella's official Facebook page. Go here. [Photo above by George Konig/Hulton Archive]
Wardell Gray, the bop tenor saxophonist from Los Angeles, now has a fan site. Go here.
Nova Collective is a bossa nova group from Dublin, Ireland...
CD discoveries of the week. The history of the jazz piano can be found in Dick Hyman's fingers. Last year, at 92Y's Jazz in July festival in New York, Dick played duets with pianist Bill Charlap that knocked out the audience.
He authentically covered virtually every decade's piano jazz style. And at age 85, Dick seems to be just warming-up. On Lock My Heart (Red House), he's joined by singer Heather Masse. There are actually three participants here—Masse's voice, Dick's right hand and Dick's left hand. An octopus of a player, Dick sounds like a trio—running a bass line, a tempo-keeping rhythm line and melody line. All of which presents Masse with a challenge—to keep up with it all. And she does a solid job, gracing standards like Lullaby of Birdland; Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered and a compelling original—Morning Drinker.
Man, I love Bex Marshall. The blues-rock singer-guitarist can wail! OnHouse of Mercy (Continental), she turns up the heat on 11 originals. Think Janis Joplin meets Ace of Cups. What makes this album special is Marshall's
authenticity and conviction. Take Gone Fishin' for example: Pure pickup-truck radials on a dirt road. Or the smooth and easy ramblin' roots instrumental Big Man. Best of all, the joke's on us. Marshall is from Devonshire, U.K. A wondrous blues-rock album with died-in-the-wool singin' and playin'—even if it is by an artist from afar. One of my favorites of '13.
Songs from This Season(True Melody) is saxophonist-composer Tim Green's debut album. Green has a
late-night sound, and his horn is constantly finding corners in songs to explore. What I dig about this CD is Green's moodiness, Orrin Evans's piano and Fender Rhodes, and Warren Wolf's vibes—they gel beautifully. Sample Chitown and Peace—both originals. Delightfully engaging and perfect for slipping into your car CD player when driving home in the wee small hours.
Singer Rebecca Paris is musical director and producer of Louise Van Aarsen's album, Destiny (LAvanA). Van Aarssen has written the music and lyrics—or just the lyrics— to all of the CD's songs. Each tells a different personal story. Like vocalists of another era, Van Aarsen's voice is deeply committed, with a hint of Carly Simon. Dig Someone and the lightly Latin Miss You Till I See You. Van Aarsen's originality and songwriting chops make this a tender choice.
Oddball album cover of the week.
Either our cover model fell out after being poisoned by the oddly colored produce—or she grew weary waiting for Artie Shaw's return.
Today, I bring you a reggae star and a leading architect both of whom received prestigious awards recently. Jimmy Cliff [pictured above] won a Grammy last Sunday for Rebirth and Steven Holl won the AIA Gold Medal last year—and his firm is about to begin designing the John F. Kennedy Center expansion. I write about both in today's Wall Street Journal.
As part of my "Anatomy of a Song" series for the WSJ's Arena section, I interviewed Cliff, bassist Jackie Jackson and guitarist Hux Brown on the making of "The Harder They Come"—the title song of the soundtrack that introduced reggae to the U.S. when it was released in February 1973. You'll find this article here.
Meanwhile, Steven Holl [pictured above] is the subject of my "House Call" column for the Mansion section today. Holl talks about his weekend property two hours north of New York City. He started by buying a 1952 fieldstone house, adding an "L" for his dining room and then a warped cube and a T-shaped art gallery—all facing a 29-acre lake. In March, he's heading home to Washington State to celebrate the spring equinox with his dad.
The house he designed there is aligned so that on March 20, the sun will pass directly through a notch in the fireplace. Let's hope for a clear morning. You'll find the article here. [Pictured below, Steven Holl's Museum of Art & Architecture in Nanjing, China]
I love clarinetist Buddy DeFranco's marvelous sense of purpose. Throughout his storied career dating back to the early '40s, Buddy has always treated jazz as a cocktail—vigorously shaking perfectionism and playfulness, and pouring forth a bop-infused sound that enraptures and dazzles. On Sunday, Buddy turns 90, so I thought I'd celebrate a little early.
One of my favorite albums by Buddy (and there are so many) is The Buddy DeFranco Wailers (Norgran). Recorded in May 1956, the album features Harry "Sweets" Edison (tp), Buddy DeFranco (cl), Jimmy Rowles (p), Barney Kessel (g), Bob Stone (b) and Bobby White (d).
What makes this album special is its ferocity and musicianship. Buddy's cool blue tones are contrasted by the lyrical heat of Sweets [pictured above], the locomotive timekeeping of Rowles and the lyrical linesman Kessel. In each case, no matter who steps up, Buddy alters his playing style slightly to catch the spirit of the comer or goer.
Dig how Buddy plays off of Kessel after the guitarist finishes his solo on Cheek to Cheek, using a guitar-picking attack on the clarinet to mime and salute what has just taken place. Or the rip-roaring Moonlight on the Ganges, I Won't Dance and Perfidia, with Sweets and Buddy tearing around in unison.
There are ballads—Angel Eyes and How Long Has This Been Going On—with Buddy as mournful as can be, aided by Rowles playing celeste on the latter track.
This album is a soloist's playground, and each artist here is in it for the daredevil risks and runs required on such a high-stakes date. Which is why Buddy remains exciting and important. He upped the ante on every date and never made a single record with junk players. They wouldn't have lasted a Camden minute.
Happy birthday, Buddy! JazzWax readers love you.
JazzWax note: To read my nine separate conversations with Buddy DeFranco, look in the right-hand column under "JazzWax Interviews." You'll find the links alphabetized by first name.
JazzWax tracks:The Buddy DeFranco Wailers seems to be out of
stock on CD at Amazon but fortunately it's available as a download here.
JazzWax clip: Here's Buddy on I Won't Dance. Dig the clarity and roundness of his tone as well as how his lines twist and turn with undulating grace...
Death is a devastating event for loved ones. The finality of loss is crushing and leaves family members feeling helpless, particularly when the deceased is notable and the media seeks information. Over the past week or so,
rumors circulated about the passing of trumpeter Donald Byrd. Some blogs and radio disc jockeys decided that a Facebook mention of Byrd's death by a distant relative was sufficient to announce the trumpeter's passing and pay tribute—even though word surfaced that there may be confusion with someone in Texas with the same name. [Pictured above: Donald Byrd on the New York subway in the '60s]
I never post about the death of anyone until I read about it in a major publication and there's confirmation by an immediate family member. In the Internet age, there's too much room for supposition and speculation. Many of you may recall the rumors last year about the death of a famed West Coast jazz trumpeter, only to learn days later that he was very much alive.
Today, The New York Times carried an obit of Donald Byrd with confirmation of his death from Haley Funeral Directors of Southfield, Mich. Why the news initially had to leak out the way it did and why his immediate family didn't make the news known will likely remain a personal matter.
Nevertheless, I am now able to share thoughts about the late jazz musician and last major surviving trumpeter of Blue Note's golden hard bop era. In a decade thick with star jazz soloists—Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard, to name a few—Byrd carved out a niche for himself as a somewhat gentler and less blistering version of Brown.
Byrd always seemed most at home on ballads—preferring to allow room for space and to let notes linger. Even on up-tempo tracks, Byrd was more inclined to seduce rather than scorch. Among my favorite albums by Byrd were those he recorded with baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams. Both were from Detroit, both went to Cass Tech and both shared the same lyrical approach. Their horns also rubbed each other the right way—Byrd's fleet tenderness up against Adams' bossy gruffness.
By my count, Byrd and Adams appeared together on 17 albums...
Johnny Griffin Sextet (Johnny Griffin)
Blues Five Spot (Thelonious Monk)
Jazz New York (Manny Albam)
10 to 4 at the 5-Spot (Pepper Adams)
Off to the Races (Pepper Adams)
The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall
Byrd in Hand (Donald Byrd)
Motor City Scene (Donald Byrd)
At the Half Note Cafe (Donald Byrd)
Pepper Adams/Donald Byrd Quintet
Chat (Donald Byrd)
The Cat Walk (Donald Byrd)
Hip Entertainment Vol. 1 (Donald Byrd)
Royal Flush (Donald Byrd)
Stanley Turrentine
The Creeper (Donald Byrd)
Electric Byrd (Donald Byrd)
Byrd's death is the passing of an era—a time when the 12-inch LP was new, jazz clubs featured a seemingly endless supply of talent, and hard bop was the East Coast's response to West Coast jazz and R&B. Byrd, of course, went on to record into the 1990s. But it's his Savoy and Blue Note period I love the most.
JazzWax clip: There are so many terrific Donald Byrd tracks. If I have to pick one to illustrate the beauty of his thoughtful playing style, I'd have to go with Bronze Dance from Byrd in Hand—with Charlie Rouse (ts), Pepper Adams (bar), Walter Davis, Jr. (p), Sam Jones (b) and Art Taylor (d)—recorded May 31, 1959...
When it rains all day after a heavy snow and fog settles in, there's only one thing to do: reach for a bit of what used to be called Easy Listening. But in fairness, to call Tony Mottola "easy listening" is a bit unfair. The superlative guitarist recorded hundreds of albums as a soloist, accompanist and as a member of jazz and pop groups, big and small. [Photo above of Tony Mottola in the '70s, courtesy of Tony Mottola Jr.]
What made Mottola special was his taste, technique and style. As far back as his small-group recordings with pianist Johnny Guarnieri backing Frank Sinatra at Columbia in Oct. 1947 (My Cousin Louella, We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye and S'posin'), Mottola was impeccable. Throughout the late '40s, he slipped back and forth between jazz and pop. He's on guitar on Sarah Vaughan's Musicraft sessions of 1947 and her Columbia dates in '49, and he's with Billie Holiday in '49. Mottola also was with Toots Thielemans in '55. [Photo above: Tony Mottola in the 1940s, courtesy of Tony Mottola Jr.]
In the mid-'50s, with the advent of the 12-inch LP, Mottola appeared on a steady parade of jazz and pop dates recorded in New York with Benny Goodman, Will Bradley and many others. In 1959, in addition to his already heavy recording and advertising session work, Mottola began a long series of leadership dates for the Command and Project 3 labels—with his signature surge when starting a line, hushing it down and then dragging and bending notes. [Photo above of Tony Mottola in the 1960s, courtesy of Tony Mottola Jr.]
Fortunately, many of these recordings are available as downloads. Easy Listening as a category has been maligned for too long. Though the category certainly has a thick share of artless junk, not all Easy Listening albums were vacuous and worthless. Arranger-bandleader Paul Weston, guitarist Johnny Smith and cornetist Bobby Hackett all made superb easy listening albums. So did Mottola. [Photo of Tony Mottola with Frank Sinatra in 1980, courtesy of Tony Mottola Jr.]
If it's raining where you are today, go to Amazon, set the dropdown to "mp3" and type in "Tony Mottola." You'll find quite a few albums available—and you'll feel better in seconds. [Photo above of Tony Mottola, left, with John and Bucky Pizzarelli, courtesy of Tony Mottola Jr.]
JazzWax tracks: If you're unfamiliar with Tony Mottola,
two albums that offer a terrific introduction are The Amazing Sound Of Toots Thielemans (Fresh Sound) here and The Very Best of Tony Mottola (Stardust) here—34 tracks for $8.99.
JazzWax clips: Here's Tony Mottola playing This Guy's in Love With You—his only single under his own name to chart, reaching #22 on Billboard's "Easy Listening Top 40" in the summer of 1968...
Here's a clip of Tony Mottola backing Perry Como singing The Shadow of Your Smile...
Here's Mottola in 1959, on Mr. Big, his first Command release, playing The Song Is You. Mottola is on lead guitar with Al Caiola (2nd guitar), Don Arnone (3rd guitar), Al Cassamenti (4th guitar), Bucky Pizzarelli (rhythm and bass guitar), Bob Haggart on bass, Moe Wechsler on piano, and Terry Snyder on drums. The engineer was Robert Fine...
And here are three fine guitarists in the early '60s "borrowing" Mottola's concept on the same song (though they must have recorded it earlier and are synching here, since their instruments aren't wired)...
Television split a lot of jazz personalities in the 1950s. Dozens of jazz musicians arranged and played in the orchestras of live TV shows in New York and Los Angeles. Some singers who could have been jazz or pop recording artists wound up being actors. One of those was Linda Lawson.
Lawson made only two known album recordings. The first was for Verve in September 1957, on an LP that featured other vocalists called Songs for Your Boyfriend, arranged by Henry Mancini. The second in 1959 was Introducing Linda Lawson for Chancellor Records, a Philadelphia label with a Hollywood presence thanks to Am-Par, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Co. And there's your TV tie-in.
What makes the 12 tracks on this recording stand out—in addition to Lawson's fine, saloon voice—are the arrangements by Marty Paich. In fact, let me introduce the amazing West Coast band on the date...
Al Porcino, Stu Williamson and Jack Sheldon (tp); Frank Rosolino (tb); Bud Shank (as); Bill Perkins (ts); Med Flory (bar); Jimmy Rowles (p); Bill Pittman (g); Joe Mondragon (b); Mel Lewis (d); and the Hollywood String Ensemble.
The chosen songs are a perfect fit for Lawson and show off her heart and chops: Are You With Me, Where Flamingos Fly, But Beautiful, Me and My Shadow, You Don't Know What Love Is, Easy to Love, Meaning of the Blues, Mood Indigo, Like Young, Hi Lilli Hi Lo, Make the Man Love Me and Up Pops Love.
Paich [pictured above] alternates between an 11-piece band and strings, depending on the mood. And the results are gorgeous. The band tracks have a smart snap and the strings will remind you of his arrangements for Chet Baker and Strings in 1953.
I don't know if Lawson is still on the scene. According to the Internet Movie Database, she was born on January 14, 1936 and her most recent television appearance was in 2005 as Aunt Eileen on ER. If so, I hope she'll reach out and contact me by email.
JazzWax note: A big thanks to Todd Selbert, author of The Art Pepper Companion: Writings on a Jazz Original
here. Todd tells me that Art Pepper is the uncredited alto saxophonist on Where Flamingos Fly (solo), You Don't Know What Love Is (obbligato and coda) and Meaning of the Blues (obbligato, interlude & coda). Paich favored Pepper on all sessions, but the saxophonist coulnd't make it on one of the dates and Bud Shank was brought in for the other tracks.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Introducing Linda Lawson as
a download at iTunes and Amazon here.
JazzWax clip: Here's Linda Lawson singing Easy to Love, with a muted trumpet solo by Jack Sheldon, baritone sax run by Med Flory and tenor sax quip by Bill Perkins...
JazzWax video: Yesterday I did a little digging. Here's Linda Lawson on TV singing Meaning of the Blues in "Lynn's Blues," a 1958 episode of Peter Gunn...
On Monday I will be appearing as Dennis Owsley's guest on Jazz Unlimited—a radio show Dennis has been producing for KWMU-St. Louis since 1983. We will be talking about my new book, Why Jazz Happened, and Dennis will be spinning related tracks pulled from his enormous vinyl collection. [Cover photo of Dizzy Gillespie above by Herb Snitzer]
The show will be broadcast on a future date, and I will fill you in as details become available.
Dennis is on every Sunday night from 9 p.m. to midnight (CST). After each show, you can listen to it at your leisure over the following week in the archive. For more on Dennis, go here.
Wayne Shorter was interviewed recently by Larry Appelbaum—senior music reference librarian and jazz specialist in the music division at the Library of Congress. You can read Larry's interview with the tenor saxophonist here.
Jazz & Blues TV announced it will soon launch an online platform that will allow subscribers to view streaming jazz and blues gigs live or on-demand. For more details, go here.
Radio documentaries galore. JAZZ.FM91—Canada's most widely heard all-jazz radio station in Toronto—has made its treasure trove of audio interviews with noted jazz musicians available as podcasts. The list of artists interviewed includes Renee Rosnes, Rob McConnell, Phil Nimmons, Moe Koffman, Lenny Breau and many more. For the complete list, go here.
Detroit jazz. Photographer Russ Marshall has documented the Detroit jazz musician and audience scene for years. To visit his site, go here. And here's a YouTube of Russ's images...
John Farnsworth. Scott Robinson of SOLOS, a project launched to promote artists "one video at a time," emailed to say he had just posted a video of saxophonist John Farnsworth's Mozzin.' To view, go here.
Sue Raney and Pinky Winters. If you're in Culver City, Calif. next Thursday (Valentine's Day), swing over to the Kirk Douglas Theater. Bill Reed has written a Songbook program that will feature singers Sue Raney, Pinky Winters, Michael Dees and Kurt Reichenbach celebrating the music of George Gershwin. Backing the singers will be pianist Jim Cox, bassist Jeff D'Angelo and drummer Ralph Penland. For more information, go here.
CD discovery of the week. Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington's new Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue (Concord) is a thoughtful tribute to the 1963 albumMoney Jungle, featuring Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach. Never an intensely popular recording when it was released, Money Jungle was a de facto political statement meant to express the frustration jazz musicians felt over balancing art and commerce. Carrington updates the album's restlessness, making its original intent as meaningful today as it was 50 years ago. Sample Fleurette Africain and the emotionally torn Cut Off.
Book discoveries of the week. If jazz had an Elvis Presley, it was Miles Davis. Throughout jazz's post-war development—with its surging styles—Davis was consistently at the tip of the spear. He played with
Charlie Parker in the late '40s, he was with Gil Evans and Gerry Mulligan on what would later be known as The Birth of the Cool sessions. He was at the dawn of hard bop with Walkin' in 1954. Along with Dave Brubeck, he became jazz's first LP superstar in 1956, forming a quintet and sextet that revolutionized the music in the late '50s. Kind of Blue in 1959 stretched jazz and radicalized rock through the use of modal scales. The second quintet in the '60s pushed the limits of acoustic jazz while In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew in 1969 helped ignite the jazz-rock fusion movement. Now Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History (Voyageur Press) helps capture Davis's energy and propulsion with loads of colorful images. If you miss holding an album cover while listening to music, this book will do the trick, particularly when listening to Davis.
If you're curious about the origins of the jazz orchestra,
Eddy Determeyer (Rhythm Is Our Business: Jimmie Lunceford and the Harlem Express) has written Big Easy Big Bands: Dawn and Rise of the Jazz Orchestra (self-published). You'll find it here.
Oddball album cover of the week.
The music on this one is certainly the polar opposite of the mood-music albums I've featured here recently. I'm not sure of the album's song titles or how they sound, but I'm guessing that this trio's tracks did well with men.
The Count Basie Orchestra was probably the only band that repeatedly re-invented itself across five decades—with greater success each time. There were plenty of bands that soldiered on long after they were in vogue. But Basie managed to remain fresh and hip by sticking to swing and allowing modern arrangers to update the Basie concept and book. [Photo of Count Basie above by Herb Snitzer]
While jazz historians tend to divide the Basie band into two periods—"Old Testament" and "New Testament," with the latter starting in 1952, there was really a "Third Testament." If the first was built on Lester Young's tenor saxophone (Lester Leaps In) and the second on the saxes of Frank Foster and Frank Wess (April in Paris, Atomic Basie, etc.), then the third was a new jet-engine swing sound crafted by arrangers Quincy Jones, Billy Byers and Sammy Nestico.
This band started roughly in 1963, with Basie's recording of This Time By Basie!/Hits of the 50s and 60s. During this period, the band hit its highpoint with a BBC-TV broadcast in London in September 1965. You be the judge. A big thanks to Bret Primack for sending along the link...
The band: Wallace Davenport, Sonny Cohn, Al Aarons and Phil Guilbeau (tp); Grover Mitchell, Henderson Chambers and Al Grey (tb); Bill Hughes (b-tb); Marshal Royal (as,cl); Bobby Plater (as,fl,arr); Eric Dixon (ts,fl,arr); Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (ts); Charlie Fowlkes (bar); Count Basie (p); Freddie Green (g); Norman Keenan (b) and Rufus Jones (d).
Just weeks before his death September 15, 1980, pianist Bill Evans performed at the Molde Jazz Festival in Norway. Accompanying him in early August were Marc Johnson on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums.
It appears someone generously posted a crystal clear clip of the set a month ago at YouTube—with the trio playing Re: Person I Knew, Days of Wine and Roses and Your Story and Nardis. There's also an after-concert interview.
While Evans's voice is clear and he is highly articulate (and awfully polite, given the banal questions), he looks terribly haggard. You'll find the video here, including one of the most beautiful introductions to The Days of Wine and Roses...
You'll find a transcript of the interview at Jan Stevens's BillEvansWebPageshere.
In August 1988, trombonist and educator Ashley Alexander went for a walk in the woods at a jazz camp in Saskatchewan, Canada and never returned. When camp officials searched for Alexander, they found his body nearby. The 52-year-old music professor at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. reportedly had a history of heart trouble.
While in Los Angeles seven years earlier, Alexander and his big band recorded Secret Love for AM-PM Records, a venture of producer Albert Marx. The album remains a document of how top clinic bands of the period sounded, and it captures a lost light at the top of his game. Alexander was probably most famous for playing the double trombone—with valves and a slide—which the Holton Company made in the '70s and Maynard Ferguson and Alexander mastered.
Born in Oklahoma, Alexander's father played organ in the local church and jazz piano on Saturday nights. Alexander picked up the trombone in school and played in Western swing bands in his teens, even working for a year in a band of the Barnum & Bailey Circus.
After graduating from college, Alexander worked in the big bands of Teddy Phillips, Ralph Marterie, Tex Beneke and Glenn Miller. He soon began teaching high school in Oklahoma, and then enrolled at North Texas State for an advanced degree in trombone performance.
After graduation, Alexander took a job as a jazz instructor at the University of Northern Iowa and soon joined the National Stage Band Camps, where he eventually became director.
The first seven tracks on Secret Love featured Jim Linahon, John Harbaugh, Tom Gause, David Alexander and John Thomas (tp); Bill Yeager, Charles Stolfus, Jeff Tower and Lee Gause (tb); Ashley Alexander (tb,ldr); Matt Catingub, Keith Squires, Gordon Goodwin, Matt Datillo and Dan Barilone (saxes); Frank Mantooth (p); Les Johnson (g); Bob Bowman (b); Nick Ceroli (d;) and Tony Villa and Mark Villa (perc).
The last two tracks were recorded in March 1981 and featured Mark Capalbo, Rick Cox, Jeff Owen, Yvonne Christine and Gabe Tafoya (tp); Gary Smith, Rob Loomis, Louise Stoneman and John Sandhagen (tb); Scott Eilers (tb-1); Ashley Alexander (double-tb,bar); Ralph Correa, Daniel Garcia, Kevin Downing, Sue Bryan and Dan Barilone (saxes); Mark Ellis Stephens (p); Donn Cary Boyd (g); Gary Unitt (b); Scott Moreno (d); John Berry (perc,b-2) and Paul Justi and Joe Schiff (perc).
In all, Alexander recorded on 17 albums—incuding Back to Birdland with Freddie Hubbard. In nearly all cases, the albums were big band dates. On Secret Love, the arrangements showcased the band's youthful energy and Alexander's forceful and honey-toned trombone. He also was versatile. On It Mostly Bees That Way, Sigmund Floyd, a song by Phil Wilson, Alexander plays double trombone (also known as the Superbone) and overdubs baritone sax.
Though Alexander had barely begun his career as a mature player, he left his mark on this album. The first seven tracks out of nine were inventively arranged by Frank Mantooth, the band's pianist. Hopefully someone will re-issue this one on CD. [Pictured above: Frank Mantooth]
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Ashley Alexander's Secret
Love on vinyl here and CD here.
A JazzWax thanks to David Langner.
JazzWax clip: Here's Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most...
Marc Myers writes frequently on music and the arts for the Wall Street Journal. He is author of "Why Jazz Happened" (University of California Press). In 2012, JazzWax was named the Jazz Journalists Association's "Blog of the Year."
