JazzWax

Documentary: Sonny Greenwich

Canadian guitarist Sonny Greenwich (above) is still with us. He has performed with musicians such as Charles Lloyd, Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, John Handy and Sun Ra. So I was excited last week when I received the following from Matt LeGroulx in Montreal:

Hi Marc. First, thank you and Brigitte Berman for making her "Bix" documentary available to your readers. What a great film. Second, I just came across "It Ain't All Jazz," a documentary about guitarist Sonny Greenwich by his son, though it's equally about pianist Wray Downes and drummer Archie Alleyne, all Canadian jazz legends. Great performances and stories from all three.

They don't sugarcoat their experiences as Black men in North America. It's an essential watch for fans of Montreal jazz and Canadian music in general. Archie passed away in 2015, but Wray only left us last year. Canadian jazz sometimes may seem to begin and end with Oscar Peterson, but scratch the surface and there's so much depth.

Here's the documentary, It Ain't All Jazz...

Count Basie in London in 1977

There were two TV arts programs called Omnibus. One aired in the U.S. from 1952 to 1961 and was sponsored by the Ford Foundation. The point of the 44 episodes was to raise American taste with educational programming. The show aired on Sunday afternoons at 4 p.m. (ET) on CBS and again on ABC that evening. Hosted by Alistair Cooke, the series won more than 65 awards, including eight Emmys and two Peabodys.

In the U.K., Omnibus was a British series that aired from 1967 to 2003 on BBC 1, broadcasting on Sunday evenings. Here's an Omnibus episode in 1977 with the spotlight on Count Basie. Dig the fabulous rendition of Body and Soul by Jimmy Forrest and other band highlights and analysis for those interviewed...

Franco Cerri (1926-2021)

Franco Cerri, one of the world's finest jazz guitarists whose records and reputation escaped most American jazz aficionados due to his desire to spend his career in Italy, died on October 18. He was 95. [Photo above of Franco Cerri]

Ruggedly handsome with a joyous sense of swing and impeccable taste, Cerri (pronounced "Cherry") was one of Italy's best kept jazz secrets, making nearly all of his recordings in Milan starting in 1945. Touring American jazz stars knew him and that he could play bass as proficiently as the guitar. He often accompanied them on Italian TV and in clubs. Over his long career, Cerri gigged with Chet Baker, Buddy Collette, Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Griffin, Stéphane Grappelli, Lars Gullin, Billie Holiday, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, Lou Bennett, Bud Shank, Tony Scott, Django Reinhardt, Phil Woods and the Modern Jazz Quartet. [Photo above of Franco Cerri and Chet Baker]

Prepare yourself, because once you hear my favorite tracks and albums, you're going to want to own everything Cerri ever recorded...

Here's Cerri live in 1967 on Italian television. Move the space bar to 3:29...

Here's Cerri's eighth album from 1964...

Here's Cerri playing Brazil. How impossibly gorgeous...

Here's Omaggio a Bill Evans from 1981...

Here's In Punta di Cerri from 2017...

And here's the full album of Cerrimedioatutto from 2011...

A special thanks to Edo Olivari in Italy.