This week in The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed edgy celebrity TV chef Alton Brown (go here). He talked about the family move from Los Angeles to Georgia when he was young and how out of place he felt. He also talked about his father's murder (no one believed it was a suicide). Alton has a new cookbook out, EveryDayCook (Ballantine) (go here).
Also in the WSJ, I interviewed Sydney Finkelstein (go here), the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, on his favorite song: Joni Mitchell's All I Want, from her 1971 album Blue. Sydney's excellent new book is Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent (Portfolio) (go here).
Mahalia Jackson. Following my post last week on Mahalia Jackson, I nosed around YouTube and found Jackson in duets with pop singers. Those singers were brave, since all of their voices were thin and ill-suited when matched with Mahalia's. Here's Nat King Cole...
Lesley Gore. Last week I posted on guitarist Wes Montgomery and noted that his version of California Nights was first a hit in 1967 for Lesley Gore, a superb singer. Following my post, I heard from producer and recording engineer Jim Czak:
"Hey Marc, I had the unique privilege of being Lesley Gore's pianist and conductor in the summer of 1964 on a California tour she did while she was still at Sarah Lawrence College.
"I was a year older then Lesley and we became friends. She took me all around San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose during the day when we weren't working at night. The people who came out to hear her were impressive: Rosemary Clooney, James Coburn, four Los Angeles Rams linemen among a whole group of interesting people.
"She was signed to Mercury Records then, and Quincy Jones was her producer. He loved the way she sang. So did I, and I know from your posts that you do, too. At one point, Lesley told me she loved the singing voices of June Christy and Chris Connor and that their recordings had a big influence on her. We stayed friends for some 50 years. I'll never forget how kind she was to a young piano player who was over his head."
Here's 18-year-old Lesley Gore in 1964 on The T.A.M.I. Show singing Maybe I Know...
Roland Kirk. Following my post last week on saxophonist and flutist Roland Kirk, reader and music journalist Michael Simmons emailed the following:
"Have you ever noticed that Kirk’s Serenade to a Cuckoo has the same melody early on as Washington Square by the Village Stompers?
Here's Serenade to a Cuckoo...
And here's Washington Square...
NBC's Monitor radio show. Reader Tom Fine sent along the following:
"While doing research for a project, I came across this website (go here). It's well worth a good surf! Fascinating." Monitor was an American radio program broadcast that lasted the entire weekend. It aired from June 12, 1955, until January 26, 1975. The on-air magazine program offered a mix of news, sports, comedy, variety, music, celebrity interviews and other short segments along with bland pop records.
Bossa nova accordion. Reader Larry Pluth sent along this clip of Chico Chagas playing Desafinado...
Rudy Van Gelder poem. Reader Geoff Page wrote the following touching poem, entitled, Lines on the Death of Rudy van Gelder (1924-2016):
The tenor sax and trumpet sound,
a texture you could touch;
the drums so solid there behind
but pressing in as well;
double bass and grand piano
checking through the changes;
those tunes with fewer notes than bebop —
then add the gospel tinge;
chords from childhood churches plus
the wisdom of the streets;
the sound assertive, brash perhaps,
but stopping at bravura;
a carbon whiff of industry,
Pittsburg and Detroit;
the mix of discipline and freedom;
a tightness from the paid rehearsals;
the solos opening out;
the feel for repetition,
a triplet held too long for some
then finally released.
Art Blakey Bobby Timmons,
Lee Morgan Donald Byrd.
Their names are not the point although
they’d crowd a page or two.
’55 to ’65,
it flourished and was gone,
somewhere into space maybe
and onto Rudy’s tapes,
not a second older now
than when across there in New Jersey
he smiled behind the glass.
What the Heck. Here's Willie Bobo's version of Herb Alpert's Rise, with Jeff Littleton on flute...
Oddball album cover of the week.
It's only fitting that an album of migraine-producing percussion would be graced by a cover featuring a junkyard still life. Here's a taste...