JazzWax

Colman, Esther and Paula

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Colman Domingo for my "House Call" section in the Mansion section (go here). Colman plays Cutler, the bandleader and trombonist, in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, now streaming on Netflix. We talked about Rainey, growing up in West Philadelphia and coming out to his parents and wondering if they'd ever speak to him again. They did. His mother called him back in 20 minutes and put his father on: “Hey, Jay, we know you’re a good boy. We love you, and there’s nothing you could tell us that would make me stop loving you.” [Image above courtesy of YouTube]

Here's the Ma Rainey trailer...

Bassist Chuck Israels sent along the following clip of him playing Who Can I Turn To with trumpeter Charlie Porter and guitarist Dan Faehnle. Chuck tells me they're starting to work on a trio recording...

Pianist Jan Lundgren last November teamed up with the Gotenburg Orchestra to play arrangements of Swedish folk music. Ian Mackenzie in Canada hipped me to the clip...

Singer Esther Bennett in London takes on Janis Ian's At Seventeen...

Antonio Carlos Jobim radio. This Monday, January 25, WKCR-FM in New York will feature its Jobim Birthday Broadcast, spinning the Brazilian composer's music for 24 hours starting at midnight (ET). Listen from anywhere in the world by going here.

Roy Eldridge radio. Next Friday and Saturday, WKCR-FM will present its annual Roy Eldridge Birthday Broadcast, celebrating the career of the legendary innovator and virtuoso of the jazz trumpet.Listen from anywhere in the world by going here.

The Liner Notes Project. I heard from Steve Lieblich last week, who informs me that he's created The Liner Notes Project. The site is meant to be a resource for musicians, writers, DJs, and music enthusiasts. There's no log-in or personal information or credit cards rquired. The retired software developer just created the site as a labor of love. You can search by featured artist, musician, producer, writer, song, album title or record label. Go here.

Here's Ahmad Jamal performing Poinciana in 2015...

Here's Paula Castle singing Why Can't I in 1955 backed by Sam Most (fl), Ronnie Selbey (p), Chet Amsterdam (b) and Herbie Wasserman (d). Made me wonder why this was Selbey's only record date...

And here's something to put a smile on your face...

Phil Spector (1939-2021)

Phil Spector, a record producer, songwriter and co-founder of Philles Records whose "wall of sound" studio formula launched a new, influential approach to pop-rock orchestration in the early 1960s, died at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton on January 16 at age 81. He was 11 years into a 19-year prison sentence for killing actress-model Lana Clarkson in 2003 with a gun in his home just hours after meeting her at a club.

Known for his eccentricity, cruelty, egomania and, later, severe paranoia, Spector was part of a new generation of producers to emerge after the 1959-'60 Congressional payola hearings who geared R&B and rock for a younger and more innocent generation. His R&B and pop-rock songs were less sexually explicit than those in the 1950s and his vision for instrumentation was more dense and sophisticated than anything that preceded him. He referred to his signature layered sound as "little symphonies for the kiddies."

In the early 1960s, he produced and co-wrote songs for a range of unknown artists, including the Righteous Brothers, the Ronettes, the Crystals, the Dixie Cups, Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans and Darlene Love. Many of the songs on his label became hits thanks to the anxious arrangements, rocketing some of these artists to stardom.

Born in the Bronx in 1939, Spector moved to Los Angeles with his mother in 1951, returned briefly to New York in 1960 before returning to L.A. Despite his passion for L.A., Spector's singles on Philles had a distinctive New York urban vibe. His so-called "wall of sound" approach behind singers used a staggering number of musicians in small studio space, a formula that was rather ingenious.

While Motown, Stax, Fame, American Sound and other R&B studios used house bands on the records produced there, Spector brought in a cavalry of young Hollywood studio musicians who were shunned by an older and more traditional generation of session players. These musicians were encouraged to be creative and invent the mood Spector was seeking. Spector's studio musicians came to be known as the Wrecking Crew, many of whom recorded on pop-rock hits of the 1960s and '70s, including singles and albums by the Beach Boys, the Carpenters and, eventually, Frank Sinatra. By the late 1960s and early '70s, Spector was producing the Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison.

Here are 10 of my favorite Phil Spector productions:

Here are the Righteous Brothers singing Cynthia Weill, Barry Mann and Spector's You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'...

Here are the Ronettes singing Be My Baby...

Here are the Ronettes singing How Does It Feel?...

Here are the Ronettes singing Walking in the Rain...

Here are the Ronettes singing Do I Love You?...

Here's Darlene Love and the Crystals singing Gene Pitney's He's a Rebel...

Here are Ike and Tina Turner singing Spector, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich's River Deep, Mountain High...

Here's the Beatles' The Long and Winding Road...

Here's John Lennon's Instant Karma!...

And here's John Lennon and Yoko Ono's masterpiece, Imagine...

Bonus: Here are takes 38 and 39 of the backing track (the basic instrumental) to You've Lost That Lovin Feelin' with the Wrecking Crew. And yes, it's great to pull up the lyrics and sing along as the track backs you...

Documentary: Bird in K.C.

Charlie Parker (above) was born in Kansas City, Kan., in 1920. When he was 7, his family moved to Kansas City, Mo. In fifth grade, Parker began playing the saxophone in school after the city put in force a music-education program. As he progressed, his mother bought him an alto saxophone in a pawn shop for $40. At the time, vice thrived in Kansas City. Despite Prohibition, the city's mayor and bosses allowed virtually everything that was illegal elsewhere to be plentiful and available at the many bars and clubs lining the streets. Where there's vice there's music, and dozens of bands found work in the city's dance halls and touring, regionally. As a result, there was abundant work to go around for dance-band musicians. At 15, Parker joined The 10 Chords of Rhythm and he was on his way to becoming a revolutionary alto saxophonist and a co-founder of bebop and post-war jazz.

Here's a terrific documentary from Kansas City PBS called Bird—Not Out of Nowhere: Charlie Parker's Kansas City Legacy. By the way, on the film's opening song from 1947, that's pianist Duke Jordan's pensive intro to Out of Nowhere...

A special thanks to Matt LeGroulx in Montreal.