JazzWax

Elizabeth, Al and Lucy

Last week in The Wall Street Journal, my "Anatomy of a Song" column was on Al Stewart's Year of the Cat, a mystifying soft-rock hit in 1976 with nine influences (go here). Al and I talked about the roles that the following played in the song's creation: Bob Dylan (two influences), the films Casablanca and Last Tango in Paris, English comedian Tony Hancock, a piano riff played during sound checks, a book on Vietnamese astrology, novelist W. Somerset Maugham and Queen Anne's horse. Here's the hit, but I warn you, Year of the Cat is a ferocious earworm...

Also in the WSJ, I interviewed actress Elizabeth Perkins for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Elizabeth is precious and as fine a dramatic actress as she is a comedian. You probably remember her in Big (1988), as Tom Hanks's girlfriend. She's currently in The Moodys, a Fox TV comedy. Much of her childhood was spent isolated, which worked wonders on her imagination. First her parents divorced, then her mother remarried and they moved to a remote Vermont farm 4 1/2 miles from the main road and 2 miles from the nearest neighbor. Then her two older sisters left for boarding school. She was left at home with her youngest stepbrother to deal with alcoholic parents. She coped by compartmentalizing. [Photo above of Elizabeth Perkins courtesy of Elizabeth Perkins]

Here's Elizabeth in Big. She a master of facial expressions and gets to use a lot of them in this film...

Here she is in Curb Your Enthusiasm at the head of the table, bringing just the right level of tension and controlled disgust...

And here's the trailer for The Moodys...

Bill Evans. Following my post on Bill Evans at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, N.Y. in April 1977, I heard from writer Tonino Vantaggiato in Italy. Tonino writes on Evans and pointed out that there weren't two concerts, just one, on April 12. He reminded me that Evans's mother, Mary Soroka Evans, died on April 5, 1977. As a result, the April 8 concert and the classroom time the trio planned to spend with Eastman professor Bill Dobbins had to be cancelled and rescheduled. While bassist Eddie Gomez fully expected to make the April 8 concert date, he was already obligated to record with Jack De Johnette on April 11 and 12 in Berkeley, Calif., on McCoy Tyner's album Supertrios. So Bill asked if Chuck Israels could make it. He could. 

On April 12, the concert was videotaped for At the Top, a series of jazz concerts produced for Rochester's WXXI, a PBS TV station. In addition to the video being broadcast on TV on Thursday, July 21, 1977. Tonino notes, the music also aired on WXXI-FM. In addition, he said there were two sets at the concert separated by an intermission. The video is likely the first set. I've updated the post to incorporate all of this new information. Thank you Tonino. Stay safe!

Lucy Yeghiazaryan. If you weren't able to catch Emmet's Place on Monday night, with the Emmet Cohen Trio and vocalist Lucy Yeghiazaryan and tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart, you missed one swinging scene. The gig was so hot it lasted nearly two hours and was sensational. As close to going out to hear music as it gets. But you're in luck. Here it is in full on YouTube (remember, Emmet's Place can be viewed every Monday, worldwide, starting at 7:30 p.m. (ET) or on YouTube days after...

Buddy Deppenscmidt died on March 20. He was 85. Deppenschmidt was the drummer on Jazz Samba, the first Grammy-winning bossa nova session in 1962 featuring Stan Getz (ts), Charlie Byrd (g), Gene Byrd (g,b), Keter Betts (b) and Deppenschmidt on drums. Matt Schudel of the Washington Post wrote a beautiful obit. To read, go here.

Virginia MacDonald. Cruising through Facebook before signing off last week, I came across clarinetist Virginia MacDonald playing along with Charlie Parker and his reinterpretation of Embraceable You. Here she is...

Tina Brooks radio. On Sunday, April 11, from 2 to 7 p.m. (ET), Sid Gribetz will be spinning Tina Brooks and talking about the tenor saxophonist for five full hours. Listen from anywhere in the world by going here. 

Dreaming of an album? A boxed set of CDs? Jim Eigo's Original Vinyl Records in Warwick, N.Y., likely has it. He has a ton of mint jazz plus rock, pop, soul, you name it. Email him to see if he has what you want at OriginalVinylRecords@gmail.com. Or call him at 917-755-8960.

WNEW. Each spring I play this seasonal jingle from the '70s for the now-defunct WNEW-AM. Even if you're not from New York, you'll feel like you are after you listen to it...

Here's a compilation of jingles used by WNEW...

And if you want to know the story behind the WNEW jingles, read my two-part interview with Larry and Toni Greene here and here.

New York and Paris in the Spring

The miracle of spring has arrived in New York and Paris. In New York, during my walk this morning through Central Park, I snapped a few photos on my iPhone 12 Pro Max that caught the explosive season unaware...

Over in Paris, my dear friend, photographer Gilles D'Elia, also has been busy snapping images of spring. Here is a wonderful series by Gilles, who has such a poetic eye...

New Videos: Dave Pell Octet

Between 1943 and 1947, tenor saxophonist Dave Pell started out recording with big bands led by Bobby Sherwood, Tony Pastor and Bob Crosby. Then in late '47, he joined the Les Brown Orchestra, where he remained until 1955. In '53, Dave began recording with an octet he formed made up of Brown bandmates. In '55, he left Brown to lead the octet. With the 10-inch album jumping to 12 inches that year and opportunities popping up on college campuses in California and the region, Dave turned his octet into a sensation on albums and at college dances and proms. [Photo above of Dave Pell]

Here's what Dave told me about the formation of the octet when I interviewed him in 2009:

JazzWax: What caused the shift to smaller jazz groups? New labels?
Dave Pell: I think that was part of it. Smaller groups meant fewer odds of re-takes on recording sessions, and a lot of arrangers wrote swell stuff for six to eight guys. But overall, smaller groups just sounded great and everyone got to solo. A lot of us, including [bassist] Harry Babasin, hung around at Drum City in L.A. All were great players. We were learning a whole new way of playing from each other. On the arranging side, Shorty Rogers and Bill Holman led the way. So much was being recorded out there in the early 1950s, both in the studio and at clubs when tape became popular. Before he died in 2003, Roy [Harte], the co-owner of Drum City and co-founder of Nocturne and Pacific Jazz Records, started to realize he had a ton of stuff recorded still in the can. A lot of it has still not been released.

JW: How did the idea for your octet come about?
DP: I was playing in Les Brown's orchestra in the early 1950s. I just put together eight musicians from the big band. We originally had Don Fagerquist on trumpet; Ray Sims, Zoot's brother, on trombone; I was on tenor; Ronnie Lang was on baritone, Geoffrey Clarkson was on piano; Tony Rizzi was on guitar; Rollie Bundock was on bass, and Jack Sperling was on drums.

JW: How about the tight arrangements?
DP: That was Shorty Rogers’s idea to borrow ideas from Les’s big band arrangements written by Frank Comstock and Skippy Martin. Actually, we didn’t steal anything or anyone. This is why Les was so beloved by so many musicians. I went to Les and told him what I wanted to do. He was all for it. When Albert Marx started Trend Records, he came to one of the octet's rehearsals and flipped when he heard us. We began recording for Trend soon afterward.

JW: What did Shorty do?
DP: When we were just getting together, Shorty was very excited. He said he’d write charts with the guitar on the bottom and Don Fagerquist on top, with the rest of us voiced in between. He said, “We’ll do hipper stuff than the big band.” Two weeks later, Shorty finished the charts. The big idea was to take the new West Coast linear jazz sound and apply it in a more compact, commercial format.

JW: How so?
DP: We kept the formula tight. We'd play a song's intro and then each horn would take a short solo. I didn't want 17 choruses. Just one solo each. It was very different for the time.

In short order, the Dave Pell Octet became wildly popular and the gold standard for small West Coast groups seeking a sound with harmony and counterpoint. Videos of the Dave Pell Octet are rare. Which is why I'm grateful to a friend who reached out over the weekend with links to two videos from 1958. The octet at that point featured Jack Sheldon (tp), Bob Enevoldsen (v-tb), Dave Pell (ts), Ronnie Lang (bs), Marty Paich (p), Tommy Tedesco (g), Buddy Clark (b) and Frankie Capp (d). Bobby Troup with the host of Los Angeles TV's Stars of Jazz.

Here's My Heart Belongs to Daddy from the TV broadcast on April 28, 1958...

And here's Mountain Greenery...