In the late 1950s, Sam Cooke recorded for the Keen and Specialty labels and had 16 hits, including You Send Me, I'll Come Running Back to You and (I Love You) for Sentimental Reasons. Then, in February 1960, cousins and Brill Building songwriters/producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore signed a deal with RCA to produce Cooke for the label.
Eleven RCA albums followed before Cooke died in December 1964—the victim of a mysterious shooting at the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles. Though Hugo and Luigi produced quite a few hits for Cooke (including Chain Gang, Twistin' the Night Away and Ain't That Good News), they didn't quite know how to craft great albums. The early '60s were still days when young artists recorded singles, which were then herded onto albums given a theme.
Clearly positioned by RCA as a young heir to Nat King Cole, Cooke was often forced to record pop songs for older audiences that weren't quite right for his youthful sound and soulful sensibility. And yet, gems emerged during this glossy period. Among them was Hey There, a 1954 hit from The Pajama Game. It appeared on Cooke's Hits of the '50s, recorded in March 1960.
What's especially hip about Hey There is that Barry Galbraith is on guitar and Eddie Costa is on vibes. The liner notes don't say who did the arrangement but the orchestra was conducted by Glenn Osser. As you'll hear, it's fairly addictive, largely because of Cooke's directness and nuanced delivery...
JazzWax tracks: If you're interested in this period of Cooke's, you'll
find Hits of the '50s as part of the eight-CD set Sam Cooke: The RCA Albums Collection (Legacy) here.
Jazz guitarist Lenny Breau was born in Maine in 1941 to parents who were country music performers. According to Wikipedia, he began playing guitar at age 8 and soon became a member of his parents' band after they moved to Canada. In 1959, his father slapped him in the face for playing jazz improvisation on stage, and Breau left to start his career, living in various Canadian cities.
In 1976, he moved to the U.S., living in Nashville, Maine and California, and eventually settled in Los Angeles in 1983. A year later, he was found dead in the swimming pool on the roof of his L.A. apartment building—the apparent victim of strangulation. The crime has never been solved. [Pictured above, Lenny Breau and his mother in Maine]
In 1999, Breau's daughter Emily Hughes produced a documentary on her father—The Genius of Lenny Breau. A special thanks to Tony Mottola Jr. for turning me onto the documentary. For information on Emily Hughes, go here.
At noon on Monday, I will be at 92Y/Tribeca in New York presenting a multimedia history of jazz between World War II and Watergate. Based on my new book, Why Jazz Happened, the one-hour event will include music and jazz
photos, a Q&A and a book-signing. There are still tickets available. Go here or call: (212) 415-5500.
Why Jazz Happened interview podcast. A few weeks ago, Mark Hayes of the blog Passing Notes interviewed me. The podcast of our conversation is now up. Go here. [Book cover photo by Herb Snitzer]
Why Jazz Happened mentions. Will Layman in "Jazz Today" at Pop Matters had kind words (in the second paragraph).... So did the Paris blog Digitalophone.
Bethlehem records update: New York's Verse Music Group—which owns the Bethlehem Records catalog—will be making the following titles are available at iTunes now:
Got A Date With An Angel - Helen Carr
One for my Baby - Bobby Troup
Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man - Betty Roche
Cheek to Cheek - Mel Torme
Love Is Just Around The Corner - Frances Faye
I Get A Kick Out Of You - Johnny Hartman
Ev’rytime We Say Goodbye - Peggy Connelly
The Charm of You - Joe Derise
All About Ronnie - Chris Connor
I Only Have Eyes For You - Herb Jeffries
Be Careful It’s My Heart - Helen Carr
Wonderful One - Mel Torme
Lullaby of Birdland - Chris Connor
I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Bobby Troup
Too Much in Love to Care - Carmen McRae
S’Wonderful - Joe Derise
I’ve Got You Under My Skin - Frances Faye
Sweet Lovin’ Baby - Eddie Vinson
You Make Me Feel So Young - Sallie Blair
I Concentrate On You - Johnny Hartman
New Robert Johnson photo. Ted Gioia hipped me to this one. Finally, a third photo of the famed bluesman has been acquired by Getty Images from the Johnson estate. Johnson, left, with fellow musician Johnny Shines. For more, go here.
New Jersey Jazz Society. Join the society and you'll receive the Jersey Jazz Journal, a monthly publication with interviews and commentary by noted jazz writers and columnists. A great read.Go here.
Francis Davis's poll. Each year, jazz writer Francis Davis compiles a list of the best albums of 2012 based on a survey of jazz writers (including yours truly). You'll find the results of his Rhapsody's Jazz Critics Poll 2012 here.
Kenny Vance and the Planotones were in New York at the City Winery in support of their new CD Acapella, which comes out February 12. In case you missed by my holiday CD picks for the Wall Street Journal, Vance is a founder of Jay and the Americans and was Steely Dan's first producer. He's also a doo-wop fanatic. Here's Vance and group at the City Winery singing Sunday Kind of Love...
CD discovery of the week. After stumbling across a used copy of The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, guitarist Ken Hatfield assembled a sextet and recorded an
album dedicated to the writer-social activist and soul of the Harlem Renaissance. On For Langston, Hatfield avoided the trap of trying to out-heavy Hughes. Instead, he has produced an uplifting, spiritual jazz tribute that treats its subject seriously but with joyous lyricism. The music is completely unexpected, given the album's title. Each of the 14 tracks corresponds to a Hughes poem, and Hilary Gardner handles the vocals with aplomb. The star here, though, is Hatfield, who composed and arranged the songs and plays with a glorious feel. Easily one of the finest tribute albums so far this year. (Use Safari to access the site link above.)
Oddball album cover of the week.
Tony Bennett has referred to Johnnie Ray as "the true father of rock and roll." I'm not sure I'd go that far, but Ray certainly introduced over-the-top emotion to song delivery with early '50s hits like Cry, Little White Cloud That Cried and Whiskey and Gin. His passionate performance style motivated scribes to dub him "The Cryer," and by 1954, mobs of girls who rushed the stage when he performed were known as his "Cry Team." Above, Johnnie sheds quite a tear.
What do Joe Namath, Tammy Wynette and Townes Van Zandt all have in common? They're subjects of three articles I wrote for today's Wall Street Journal. Yeah, it was a busy, fun week. [Photo: Agenta Images]
For the Mansion section, I interviewed Joe Namath on his '60s bachelor pad in New York—why he chose it, how it came to be furnished and what life was like for the celebrity Jets quarterback before the team won the 1969 Super Bowl.
As a child of the '60s, I can tell you there are few things more electrifying than answering the phone and hearing, "Hi, Marc. Joe Namath." I also can tell you that Joe remains one of the coolest guys around. His voice swings like a hammock and his words sound like an orange being squeezed. He remains as nice and as optimistic as can be. And what a talent! A cultural icon who changed the game on and off the field.
If you haven't yet watched Namath, try to find it on HBO's on-demand station. You'll find my article in the Mansion section or online here.
My second WSJ article today is for the Arena section on Tammy Wynette's 1968 hit Stand By Your Man. For this "Anatomy of a Song" feature, I interviewed co-writer and producer Billy Sherrill, guitarist Jack Kennedy and pianist Hargus "Pig" Robbins—all of whom were at the recording session.
I love interviewing country artists in Nashville. Billy, Jack and Pig are such terrific session artists and fabulous, fun spirits. There's so much great country music out there. I'll share some with you down the road. You'll find this article online here.
And lastly, I wrote about a new double-CD release on Townes Van Zandt—a luckless, enormously talented country singer-songwriter who died in 1998. Van Zandt has become a mythic figure for the alternative-country and roots genres today. Back in the '70s, country hits tended to have a slick, processed sound but Van Zandt was different.
Not only did his songs and singing style harken back to country's folk roots but his life story was as tragic as the subjects of his lyrics. Van Zandt suffered from depression, a heroin habit, guilt over a girlfriend who was murdered while hitchhiking, precious albums that didn't quite take off and all the rest. The new release, Sunshine Boy: The Unheard Studio Sessions & Demos 1971-1972, features Van Zandt stripped down, so you can hear just how exceptional he was. You'll find my article online here.
On second thought, you may be better off just picking up a copy of the paper. The photos for all three stories are terrific.
JazzWax clips:Here's a clip from the Joe Namath HBO documentary...
Here's Tammy Wynette singing Stand By Your Man in 1975...
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."
