If you asked me to name one artist whose albums for Creed Taylor's CTI label hold up best today, I'd have to say Hubert Laws. Laws is jazz's finest flutist and is still with us, yet you barely hear or read much about him, sadly. In fact, if I had to sell off all of my CTI records, I'd keep Laws's nine leadership LPs and his many sideman records. [Photo above of Hubert Laws courtesy of the National Endowment for the Arts]
Born in Houston, Texas, in 1939, Laws began playing flute in high school. and quickly became a virtuoso, playing jazz and classical. After winning a Juilliard scholarship, he studied classical and studied privately with Julius Baker. He then played with both the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as a member and with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from 1969 to 1972. Rolling forward, he was equally comfortable and marvelous playing both forms of music, at times weaving them together seamlessly.
Let's listen to tracks from Laws's nine leadership albums for CTI:
Yesterday I had a deep yearning to listen to Laura Nyro. One of the first popular singer-songwriters of the rock era, she began recording albums in 1966, before Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon or Carole King. Few singers touch me as deeply or remind me of that period than Nyro, and, like you, I can tell it's her within three chords. Her keyboard phrasing was at once soulful and melancholy, a blend that perfectly mirrored the emotionalism of the times. [Photo above of Laura Nyro from a trade ad for Eli & the Thirteenth Confession]
Nyro's best-known pop songs were And When I Die,Stoney End, Flim Flam Man, Wedding Bell Blues, Blowin’ Away, Sweet Blindness, Poverty Train, Eli’s Comin’, Stoned Soul Picnic and Save the Country. And yet, other artists were the ones who turned those songs into megahits.
In some regards, Nyro's versions were demos, but that's a bit unfair. While she didn't have that extra something to put a song over in the mass market, she was singular, poetic and a distinct voice with conviction that compels you to feel. You have no choice.
Though her first album was posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 (Nyro died in 1997), she never won a Grammy nor has she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Even more shocking is that no serious documentary has ever been made of her life and music, to explain the artist behind the work or why the music mattered.
One day, I suppose, a leading jazz singer will decide she's had enough of the American songbook and attempt a credible and empathetic Laura Nyro tribute album. A singer shouldn't attempt imitation, but yearning, pain and a sense of bounding freedom, as if running through a field, are required. One can only hope.
At any rate, here are the precious few video clips available of Nyro in concert along with a few of my other favorites:
Here's a solid CBS Sunday Morning segment from 2001...
Here's Nyro on TV's Kraft Music Hall in January 1969...
Here's Nyro performing at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967...
Here's clean audio from a Fillmore East concert in 1970...
Here's a concert in Pittsburgh in June 1994 (the video is bleary so just let the music play in the background)...
And here's my favorite Nyro album—the complete Eli & the Thirteenth Confession (1968)...
Laura Nyro died on April 8, 1997 of ovarian cancer, at age 49.
A 19 CD set,Hear My Song: The Collection 1966-1995 Deluxe, was issued by Madfish last year here.
The 1950s produced two pop superstars—Elvis Presley and Miles Davis. Both began the decade recording for smaller labels and were launched into the mainstream by larger ones—Presley on Sun and then RCA, and Davis on Prestige and then Columbia. Both were perceived as ultra cool and a departure from the norm, both were viewed as sex symbols and both achieved fame through a conversational lyricism—Presley with his vocal approach and Davis with his trumpet.
What's more, both Presley and Davis are still thought of as cultural starting points for their musical realms in the 12-inch LP era. Presley continues to be viewed as the king of rock 'n' roll and Davis is still considered the first jazz superstar. Interestingly, both began their trajectory to fame and fortune between 1954 and '55.
In the case of Davis, two albums he recorded for Prestige offer a glimpse of the trumpet star during his ascent: Walkin' (a compilation of earlier work recorded in April 1954) and The Musings of Miles (his first 12-inch LP recorded in June 1955). Walkin' wouldn't be released until 1957, thanks to a deal worked out between Prestige and Columbia
Eager to sign Davis to Columbia in 1955 with the onset of the 12-inch pop LP, Columbia jazz A&R chief George Avakian convinced Bob Weinstock of Prestige to have Davis record the four remaining albums he owed Prestige all at once over two recording sessions in 1956.
As George said during one of our many conversations, he told Weinstock that by releasing these four albums slowly along with any other 12-inch reissues, Prestige would be able to boost sales by riding the coattails of Davis's success at Columbia. Weinstock immediately saw the value and agreed.
Recorded in 1954 but released three years later, Walkin' was a 12-inch LP of material previously issued by Prestige on two 10-inch LPs. The title track, credited to Jimmy Mundy and Richard Carpenter, is often mischaracterized as the first hard bop recording. In fact, that honor belongs to the Lou Donaldson/Clifford Brown Quintet's New Faces, New Sounds album recorded in June 1953.
The first two tracks of Walkin'—Walkin' and Blue 'n' Boogie—feature Miles Davis (tp), Lucky Thompson (ts), J. J. Johnson (tb), Horace Silver (p), Percy Heath (b) and Kenny Clarke (d). The last three—Solar, You Don't Know What Love Is and Love Me or Leave Me—combines Miles Davis (tp), David Schildkraut (as), Horace Silver (p), Percy Heath (b) and Kenny Clarke (d).
The Musings of Miles (recorded in 1955 and released that year) featured Miles Davis (tp), Red Garland (p), Oscar Pettiford (b) and Philly Joe Jones (d). This album was the first to provide an inkling of Davis's tender approach that he'd exploit at Columbia starting with 'Round About Midnight, recorded in 1955 and '56 and released in 1957.
The tracks on Musings are Will You Still Be Mine?, I See Your Face Before Me, I Didn't, A Gal in Calico, A Night in Tunisia and Green Haze.
Now, Craft Recordings has remastered and reissued both albums on 180-gram vinyl with the original cover art and back-cover liner notes by Ira Gitler. The new LPs sound warm and dimensional.
For vinyl fans who want to have fun, listen to Walkin', then The Musings of Miles followed by 'Round About Midnight (Columbia) for a full sense of Miles Davis's chronological evolution, from trumpet innovator in 1954 to stylist in 1955 and '56, and jazz superstar in 1957.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find the LP reissues of Walkin' and The Musings of Mileshere and here.
Or listen on all major streaming platforms. YouTube's Musings is streaming here. Craft doesn't seem to have posted a Walkin' album stream on YouTube yet.
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of 55 More Songs," "Anatomy of a Song," "Rock Concert: An Oral History" and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards.
