JazzWax

Who Was Joe Holiday?

The beauty of jazz is its vast territory. No matter how many years you listen to this music, you invariably come across artists who will be new to you. The delight of new discoveries is largely the result of foreign labels releasing jazz that has been overlooked, forgotten or newly unearthed. No label does this better than Fresh Sound in Barcelona, Spain. I find gems largely by combing through discographies. There, I come across names of musicians who haven't received much exposure or I wasn't aware of previously. Invariably, Fresh Sound has put out recordings by them.

One of these musicians was Joe Holiday, who was born Joseph Befumo in Sicily in 1925. His family emigrated to the U.S. the year he was born and settled in Newark, N.J. Holiday's father played the clarinet, which Holiday mastered as a child. He switched to the tenor saxophone in his teens and emulated Lester Young, who he'd found by listening to Count Basie on the radio. Holiday's first big break came after taking a day job at a haberdashery shop. After striking up a conversation with a wealthy man who came into the store, the man invited him to play at his house in front of a number of recording industry executives.

The party led Holiday to a recording offer from King Records. In June 1951, he recorded four sides for King's Federated subsidiary. At year's end, he recorded New Sounds From Newark for Prestige.

In 1953 and '54, Holiday recorded Joe Holiday and His Band for Prestige, with a crackerjack New York ensemble: Idrees Sulieman (tp), Eddie Bert (tb), Earl Warren (as), Joe Holiday (ts), Cecil Payne (bar), Johnny Acea (p), Franklin Skeete (b) and Max Roach (d).

These sessions are just half of a terrific CD collection of Holiday's band years issued by Fresh Sound some years back called Holiday for Jazz. Holiday clearly was well-regarded as a player and leader. You didn't pull in these kinds of sidemen unless you were pretty exceptional yourself.

And Holiday was. The second album on this Fresh Sound release is Holiday for Jazz (Decca). Recorded in 1955 and '57. The 1955 session featured Blue Mitchell (tp), Eddie Bert (tb), Joe Holiday (ts), Cecil Payne (bar), Duke Jordan (p), Wendell Marshall (b), Osie Johnson (d) and Ernie Wilkins (arr). The 1957 session included Art Farmer and Thad Jones (tp), Eddie Bert (tb), Joe Holiday (ts), Cecil Payne (bar), Duke Jordan (p), Addison Farmer (b) and Carmen Peppe (d).

The music throughout is bouncy, and the arrangements swing, while solos are smart and rich in tone. Holiday liked Newark and spent much of his career there at a time when many musicians at his level moved to Los Angeles. In New York in the 1950s, he accompanied Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington at Birdland. In 1954, he performed four shows a day for seven days with Billie Holiday at the Apollo Theater.

In the early 1950s, Holiday recorded Latin music and had hits with This Is Happiness and Serenata, both in 1952. His Serenata arrangement was picked up by his Newark friend Vaughan, who had a hit with it. But in my research, I found that Holiday viewed the musician's life as tough. He told the Palm Beach Post in 1997 that to add income, he had hand-painted silk ties and sold them. He also took up painting, mostly abstract expressionist pieces but there were sailboats, clowns and musicians. In the 1960s, he was an arts and culture consultant for Newark.

In a feature in Florida's The Stuart News in 1997, journalist Laura Kelly wrote "Holiday was known as The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit and played all the jazz clubs and even bigger venues—from Symphony Hall in Boston to a night at Carnegie Hall with about 30 jazz greats like Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz and Max Roach, all playing a benefit for Charlie Parker's family after he died." Much of the local work and paydays dried up as the music changed through the decades. [Photo above of Joe Holiday]

n 1988, Holiday relocated to Port St. Lucie, Fla., after years of living there during the winter months. At least in Port St. Lucie, there were aging fans who loved 1950s jazz and the artists Holiday knew well and played with at clubs and on records. [Photo above of Joe Holiday]

Joe Holiday died in 2016.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Joe Holiday's Holiday for Jazz (Fresh Sound) here. 

JazzWax tracks: Here's This Is Happiness in 1952, which Holiday seemed to have borrowed from Let's Call the Whole Thing Off...

Here's Serenata...

And from the Fresh Sound release, here's Cotton Candy in 1953...

Cotton Candy

Here's Love Is a Many Splendored Thing...

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

And here's Tiny Mite (with Osie Johnson on drums)...

Tiny Mite

Astrud Gilberto (1940-2023)

Astrud Gilberto, who as the wife of Brazilian singer João Gilberto was urged to record The Girl From Ipanema and Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars in English in March 1963 because he didn't speak the language and whose hits sent the bossa nova into the pop stratosphere and made her an unlikely star, died on June 5. She was 83. [Photo above of Astrud Gilberto by Hank O'Neal]

 

Gilberto would go on to record numerous bossa nova and pop albums. Rather than return to Brazil with her husband in the mid-1960s, she reportedly had an affair with Getz, which led to her divorce and U.S. residency. As a single woman and an unintended sex symbol, she found herself thrust into the public light. Not a natural or trained singer or performer, Gilberto feared the exposure. I recall multiple attempts to gain an interview with her without success. Her most recent interview was conducted decades ago and her hermetic personal life was topped only by Bobby Gentry for her unwillingness to engage the media on her past artistic accomplishments. [Photo above of Astrud Gilberto]

Accounts vary as to whether her English vocal on the Verve album Getz/Gilberto was a spur of the moment decision by producer Creed Taylor in the recording studio or if she already expected to record the English vocal and had rehearsed days earlier at Stan Getz's house when she and her husband stayed with the tenor saxophonist and his wife. Either way, the vocal she delivered was groundbreaking. It was innocent, sexy and nonchalant—all of which was in sync with the times.

By 1963, the American female ideal had shifted from the bombshell of the 1950s to the doe-like waif embodied by Jean Seberg, Lee Remick, Shirley Knight, Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn among others. Gilberto was the first in the 1960s to project this innocent, sensual image and persona in pop music. Blossom Dearie, of course, had already pioneered the high-voiced, relaxed style in jazz-pop recordings and performances in the 1950s.

In many respects, Gilberto's life story was both a joyous and a sad one. Joyous for how her unassuming clarinet-like voice inspired generations of female singers such as Sade, Basia and Stacy Kent. Sad in that she hadn't planned to be a stage or recording artist, and that being forced to sing to earn a living, she endured ridicule for her untrained voice and harassment and abuse by men who held power over her.

Here's the only video you really need to watch of Astrud Gilberto, who was most at ease in the Netherlands with Pim Jacobs on piano, Rudd Brink on tenor saxophone, Wim Overgaauw on guitar and Don Un-Romeo on drums in October 1965 on NCRV-TV...

Here's one of my favorite Gilberto albums, with organist Walter Wanderley, from 1966...

Here's Look to the Rainbow in 1966, arranged by Gil Evans...

Here's her Windy album, from 1968, with arrangements by Don Sebesky, Eumir Deodato and Pat Williams...

And finally, here's Gilberto on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1970 singing a bossa nova medley...

Dr. John: 'The Montreux Years'

Hip shtick has its merits, but sometimes it overshadows genius. In the jazz world, Slim Gaillard had several club gimmicks that over time eclipsed the fact that he was a virtuoso pianist and guitarist. In the swamp jazz category, Dr. John stood out with his colorful and flamboyant New Orleans costumes and patois, but they tended to drown out the fact that he was a sterling jazz pianist.

Like Leon Russell, who was one year younger, Dr. John was a long-time session pianist and Wrecking Crew member who was called into studios for impromptu roadhouse and honky-tonk piano flavor. Born Malcolm "Mac" Rebennack, Dr. John gravitated to earthy music from the start in New Orleans. At 13, in the 1950s, he began playing with Professor Longhair and soon sat in with every leading piano roller in the city's clubs and joints. He was a quick study, and his keyboard sound was natural and spectacular.

I know this firsthand. Back in 2014, I flew down to New Orleans for The Wall Street Journal to interview Mac at his home across Lake Pontchartrain. After sitting outside for a spell, with an eye on the nearby foliage and the threat that alligators might emerge from the thick bush, we talked about his career and West Coast jazz for about a half hour.

Shocked that I knew what he was talking about and that I could finish his sentences when he drew a blank on the names of 1950s jazz musicians, Mac took me inside, sat me down next to his piano and proceeded to illustrate every conceivable New Orleans piano style. As you can imagine, it was an unforgettable pinch-me private performance.

To hear just how special Dr. John was, you have to listen to Dr. John: The Montreux Years, a new two-CD set released last week by BMG. The 15-song live collection recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival between 1986 and 2012 is a rambunctious Cook's Tour through Dr. John's career, from jazz and soul to the blues, funk and rock. The tracks are...

• Professor Longhair Boogie
• You Ain’t Such a Much
• Sick and Tired
• Stack-a-Lee
• Accentuate the Positive
• Right Place, Wrong Time
• Rain
• Going Back to New Orleans
• Makin’ Whoopee
• Big Chief
• In a Sentimental Mood / Mississippi Mud / Happy Hard Times (Medley)
• Love for Sale
• Let the Good Times Roll
• Good Night Irene

It's unfortunate that a great jazz producer didn't have the good sense to bring together Dr. John and Leon Russell for an album or performance. That I would love to hear.

Dr. John died in 2019.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Dr. John: The Montreux Years (BMG) here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Dr. John at Montreux in 2004 performing his hit, Right Place, Wrong Time...

Here's Dr. John and Johnny Winter in 1984...

And here's an hour of Dr. John playing New Orleans jazz piano...