JazzWax

JazzWax List: 16 for Mother's Day

Sunday is Mother's Day. Whether you're traveling to mom's house, can't make it there this weekend or just have fond memories, here are 16 jazz tracks to remind you of her love and care. They are in order of my favorites, with the album's title in parenthesis. All are available as downloads:

1. Mother Knickerbopper—Chubby Jackson (Chubby's Back)
2. Lady Chatterley's Mother—Gerry Mulligan (Concert Jazz Band at the Village Vanguard)
3. Four Mothers—Shorty Rogers (Very Best of Shorty Rogers)
4. Motherland—Meredith d'Ambrosio  (Silent Passion)
5. Old Mother Nature Calls—Horace Silver (United States of Mind)
6. My Mother's Eyes—Sonny Stitt (Salt and Pepper)
7. The Brothers Go to Mother's—Henry Mancini (Peter Gunn)
8. Mother of Earl—Bill Evans (At the Montreux Jazz Festival)
9. Helen's Mother's Song—George Cables (Looking for the Light)
10. Mother Goose—Bunny Berigan (Bunny Berigan: 1937)
11. Your Mother and Mine—Bix Beiderbecke (Trumbology)
12. Mother—Ray Charles (Thanks for Bringing Love Around Again)
13. Mama Don't Allow—Sonny Stitt (Low Flame)
14. M-O-T-H-E-R—Sonny Sitt (Sonny's Blues)
15. My Mother Told Me—Nat King Cole (Unforgettable: Remastered)
16. Universal Mother—Don Cherry (Hear & Now)

Dick LaPalm's DJ List

Dick LaPalm is a legendary jazz and pop record promoter who made his reputation in the 1950s and 1960s. Back in those days, Dick's job was to get records on the air for artists like Nat King Cole, Ahmad Jamal and others. Often musicians consulted with him to determine what types of songs and albums would have the best shot of clicking with listeners. Which meant enormous musical knowledge on Dick's part as well as super networking skills and a tack-sharp memory. Remember, no cell phones, no emails, no Internet back then. Just a Rolodex, a telephone, and plenty of shoe leather and horse-trading.

Last week, Dick sent along a wonderful list of radio disc jockeys who he says were most influential in breaking in jazz artists. As Dick wrote in his email to me: "It's often hard to believe that with the exception of five or six of the names on the list, I called on every one of them and enjoyed many great 'hangs.' "

Here then is Dick's swinging list of platter batters who mattered: 

Most Influential:

• Mort Fega - WEVD - New York City [pictured]
• "Symphony" Sid (Torin) - WADO - New York City
• Sid McCoy - WCFL - Chicago
• Dick Buckley - WNIB and WBEZ - Chicago
• Felix Grant - WWDC  - Washington DC
• Dick Martin - WWL - New Orleans
• Chuck Niles - KBCA - Los Angeles [pictured below]
• Rick Holmes - KBCA - Los Angeles
• Harvey Huston - WPEN - Philadelphia
• Doug Arthur - WCAU - Philadelphia
• Norm Nathan - WHDH - Boston
• Bill Marlowe - WBZ - Boston
• Jim Rockwell - WKMH - Detroit
• Ed Love - WCHD and WDET - Detroit
• Jim Lowe - WRR - Dallas
• Leo Chears - KWK and WSIE - St. Louis
• Pat Henry - KJAZ - San Francisco
• Oscar Treadwell - WNOP - Cincinnati
• Bill Currie - WBT - Charlotte

Important:

• Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins - WNEW - New York City
• Ed Beach - WRVR - New York City
• Allan Grant - WABC-FM - New York City
• Fred Robbins - WOV - New York City [pictured with drummer Sid Catlett, by William P. Gottlieb]
• Holmes "Daddy-O" Daylie - WAIT - Chicago
• Marty Faye - WAAF - Chicago
• Yvonne Daniels - WSDM and WCFL - Chicago [pictured]
• Bob Perkins - WHYY and WRTI - Philadelphia
• Sid Mark - WHAT - Philadelphia
• Joel Dorn - WHAT - Philadelphia
• Bob Murphy - WJBK - Detroit
• John McClellan - WCOP - Boston 
• Tony Cennamo - WBUR - Boston
• Alex "Sleepy" Stein - KNOB - Los Angeles
• Jim Gosa - KBCA - Los Angeles
• Gene Norman - KLAC - Los Angeles
• Willis Conover - WWDC - Washington DC, VOA
• Bill Mayhugh - WMAL - Washington DC
• Paul Anthony - WRC - Washington DC
• Harley Brinsfield - WBAL - Baltimore
• John Hardy - KFRC - San Francisco
• Jerry Dean - KJAZ - San Francisco
• Herb Wong - KJAZ - San Francisco [pictured]
• China Valles - WTMI - Miami
• Tony Mowod - WDUQ - Pittsburgh
• Phil Brooks - WKPA - Pittsburgh
• Ronnie Barrett - WDOK - Cleveland
• Dave Hawthorne - WDOK - Cleveland
• Tom Brown - WHK - Cleveland
• Ray Allen - WCUY-FM - Cleveland
• Ray Scott - WNOP - Cincinnati
• Leo Underhill - WCKY - Cincinnati
• Leigh Kamman - MN Public Radio
• Al Gourrier - WYLD - New Orleans
• Spider Burks - KXLW - St. Louis
• Jim Bolen - KWK - St. Louis
• Joe Rico - WEBR - Buffalo
• Carroll Hardy WEBR - Buffalo
• Phil McKellar - CBC - Toronto
• Herb Lance -WERD - Atlanta
• H. Johnson - WABE - Atlanta
• Tom Mercein - WTMJ - Milwaukee
• Ron Cuzner - WFMR - Milwaukee
• Bill Ardis - WHAM - Rochester, NY
• Harry Abraham - WHAM - Rochester, NY [pictured above with Freddie Hubbard] 
• Gene Amole - KVOD - Denver
• Wes Bowen - KSL - Salt Lake City
• Ed Horne - WLOK - Memphis
• Henry Wailes - WCVE - Richmond, VA

Total: 61 radio stations listed (46 AM, 15 FM)

Gene Lees on Waltz for Debby

Last week, while writing about the late Gene Lees, I pulled out a CD that Gene had sent me back in the 1990s: Yesterday I Heard the Rain: Gene Lees Sings Gene Lees, which he produced. The album features 12 songs—9 with lyrics by Gene.

When I opened the CD, a sheet of paper folded into a square fell to the floor. Puzzled, I opened the square and there was a printout of an email Gene had sent me dated September 15, 1997. Gene and I had been going back and forth by email over favorite versions of jazz songs. In my email, I had asked Gene about the origin of his lyrics to Bill Evans' Waltz for Debby. Here's Gene's reply:

"Marc: I wrote the lyric with my sister Vicky in mind. My father had once said to me, 'Did you ever watch a little girl dance, as if she could hear music in her head?' Vicky was already a teenager when I wrote the lyric; she is 16 years my junior. So it was a memory. 'Silly old bear' is a phrase from the last volume of Winnie the Pooh. The lyric was written in 1962 and '63. There is more story attached, nothing significant. The only version I ever really liked was by Ed Ames."

Here's Ed Ames's version of Waltz for Debby from My Kind of Songs (RCA) in 1965...

Waltz For Debby

Herb Geller on Bill Evans

Following my interview series last week with alto saxophonist  Herb Geller, I was curious about Herb's interactions with bassist Scott Lafaro in the late 1950s and his flute playing with pianist Bill Evans in 1972.  

It turns out Herb was the one who first introduced LaFaro to Evans, that Herb began playing flute only after relocating to Germany, and that there's a reason why Bill Evans looks so dazed in the YouTube clips.

Here's Herb on LaFaro and Evans:

"In the spring of 1959, I was in Los Angeles preparing to fly to New York to rejoin Benny Goodman for a six-week tour. Just before I left, Scott LaFaro phoned. He said he was back in town after being fired by Stan Kenton.

"It seems a young drummer had approached Stan saying it was his life´s ambition to play in his band. Stan hired him on the spot, but Scott wasn't too keen on the drummer's skills. After the second night, Scott told Kenton that either the drummer had to leave or he would.

"Stan said he would keep the drummer and gave Scott two weeks' notice. The last concert Scott played with the band, I believe, was in Omaha. Stan was going to cover Scott's travel cost, so he asked him where he wanted to go, since the distance to New York and L.A. was about the same from Omaha. Scott chose L.A. [Photo of Scott LaFaro waving at Herb Geller's house in the Hollywood Hills in 1955 courtesy of Sam Geller]

"Scott told me on the phone that soon after arriving in L.A., he began to doubt that he had made the right choice. Scott said he wanted to go to New York and was looking for work there. I told Scott that I was flying out the next morning to join Benny in New York. Scott asked me who was playing bass. I said I had no idea but that if the occasion arose I would certainly recommend him to Benny. [Photo of Scott LaFaro by Ed Dephoure]

"In New York, Benny told me he was auditioning bass players because he wasn't satisfied with Tommy Potter in rehearsals. I told Benny about Scott, and Benny asked me to phone him to find out if he could be in New York the next day for the last rehearsal. I called Scott, and he made the trip. Benny was happy with him.

"That night, after the New York rehearsal, Scott and I went to hear Bill Evans at a club on the East Side of Manhattan. I introduced them, and Bill asked Scott to sit in for the second set. The next morning Scott and I left on the Benny Goodman tour. A few weeks into the tour, Scott received a telegram from Bill asking him to join the trio. [Photo: Scott LaFaro, Bill Evans and Paul Motian at the Village Vanguard in 1961]

"As for the flute, I first started to play it professionally after I joined Germany's NDR Orchestra in November 1965. I had joined the NDR as an alto saxophonist but decided to learn other doubling instruments. I started on the piccolo and moved on to the alto flute, bass flute, oboe and English horn. I was also arranging for the band.

"I always imagined I would return to Los Angeles with my new family, which is why I doubled on instruments. The more versatile you were, the more studio work came your way.

"But as things were getting better for me in Europe, there was a downturn in the American music studios.  Synthesizers were in and putting many musicians out of work. Complicating my plans was the undesirable political situation in the U.S. in the 1960s and hearing from musician friends who were looking for work similar to what I had in Europe.

"I decided to accept a new NDR contract that was for life with retirement at age 65, followed by pay at two-thirds the salary. NDR also offered me extra money at low interest to buy a home. So I became a Hamburger.

"In 1972, the jazz producer at the NDR asked me to perform with the Bill Evans Trio during the second set of a concert. The producer told me that Bill's trio would play the first set alone and that I would then join them on flute—no sax. 

"Bill had recorded an album with Jeremy Steig on flute in 1969 and the NDR wanted to recreate that sound. I was asked to write all of the original material for our set, though I did sneak in the sax during our rehearsal on a jam of What Is This Thing Called Love.

"Bill Evans, Eddie Gomez and Marty Morrell arrived in Hamburg very early in the morning. They were picked up at the airport, checked into their hotel and were brought immediately to the NDR studios. Only the rehearsal was filmed and eventually televised. The concert was just for the radio.

"Bill and the others were exhausted, and I believe Bill was stoned. He was nodding off during the rehearsal so I kept talking to him to keep him awake.

"The concert went well. I had known Bill for a few years, but that was the only time we played together."

JazzWax clips: Here's Part 1 of three parts featuring the Herb Geller and the Bill Evans Trio in 1972 rehearsing at Germany's NDR studios prior to a concert engagement...

Here's Part 2...

And here's Part 3...