JazzWax

Belgian Jazz: 1950-1970

I've never been a big fan of jazz sampler albums. Samplers typically provide you with an overview of a jazz period by featuring dull songs by a wide range of household-name artists. Most samplers are uninspiring because they load up with filler. Instead of enlightening and inspiring, they generally turn off audiences new to the music. One new set that defies this trend and is one of the most rewarding survey albums I've heard in years is Let's Get Swinging: Modern Jazz in Belgium 1950-1970, which was released last month by Sdban, a London label.

Rather than pack this two-album set with familiar or boring tracks by well-known Belgian artists, the label has created a smartly curated release that includes lesser-known leaders and songs you probably haven't heard before. Best of all, these recordings will make you curious about the artists and motivate you to explore their discographies as leaders and sidemen.

The song choices here are sparkling, and there isn't a single dud. Who knew that 1960s Belgian jazz was this juicy and lyrical? Every song choice on the set is solid, which means you can put the album on and sail through all 20 tracks without encountering a lull. Since Amazon and other retailers don't seem to feature the track names or years they were recorded, let me provide you with the information:

CD1
1. Jack Sels - African Dance (1961)
2. Jon Eardley - Subtroyan Influence (1969)
3. René Thomas-Bobby Jaspar Quintet - Bernie’s Taste (1962)
4. Jacques Pelzer And His Young Stars - Don’t Smile (1958)
5. Philip Catherine & Robert Pernet - Grelots (1968)
6. Francy Boland - Dark Eyes (1967)
7. Saxorama & Jack Sels - Minor 5 (1963)
8. Herman Sandy Quartet - Digging Chick (1955)
9. Fats Sadi Quartet - Ensadinado (1966)
10. Bobby Jaspar Quintet - Clarinescapade (1956)
11. The Clouds - Cecilia (1965)
 

CD2
1. Lucky Thompson & Jack Sels Sextet - Minor Works (1959)
2. Francy Boland Trio - Night Lady (1967)    
3. Bobby Jaspar - Coraline (1954)
4. Jacques Pelzer Sextet - There’ll Never be Another You (1955)
5. René Goldstein and His Group - Witch of Salem (1958)
6. The Clouds - Hall’s Blues
7. René Thomas Et Son Modern Group - Get Happy (1956)
8. Jacques Pelzer Quartet - Work Song (1961)
9. The St. Tropez Jazz Octet - Let’s Get Swinging (1970)

For jazz lovers who have collected nearly all great American artists and are hitting a wall, Europe offers a bounty of unexplored material by continental greats from the late 1940s, '50s and '60s. This is particularly true of Sweden and Britain, where modern jazz flourished after World War II. Let's Get Swinging proves that Belgium should be added to this list.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Let's Get Swinging: Modern Jazz in Belgium 1950-1970 (Sdban) here. As for fans of the free online Spotify service, you're in luck. The double-album is available there.

JazzWax clips: Here's Jon Eardley's Subtroyan Influence. Eardley, an American trumpeter, moved to Belgium in 1963...

Here's the Francy Boland Trio playing Night Lady...

And here's Fats Sadi with Francy Boland, Jimmy Woode and Kenny Clarke playing Ensadinado...

Paula, Jerry and Kenny

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed country music star Trisha Yearwood for my "House Call" column on growing up in a small town in Georgia and her burning passion to sing professionally (go here). I also interviewed comedian Paula Poundstone for my "Playlist" column on Rickie Lee Jones's Chuck E's in Love, Paula's funny inability to figure out the lyric (did anyone know what Jones was singing?) and why Paula cried herself to sleep on Greyhound buses when she started out doing standup comedy (go here).

SiriusXM. Last week, I was on my favorite satellite radio show, FeedBack, on Volume SiriusXM 106 (106) hosted by music pros Nik Carter and Lori Majewski. We talked about my most recent "Anatomy of a Song" column for the WSJ on Donovan's Sunshine Superman. Except for a few Donovan-Dylan slips on my part, it came off well. If you're driving today or tomorrow, you can tune in to SiriusXM from 9:15 to 10 a.m. (EST) and listen to the rebroadcast. Or you can listen immediately by going here.

Jerry Coker. Following my post last week on the arranger, composer, reed and woodwind player, and educator Jerry Coker, I received the following email from Jack Greenberg...

"Jerry was on the faculty at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas from around 1959 to 1962. He earned his masters degree there, I think. I met him when I started school there in 1961. He was director of the jazz ensemble, which I played in. I also played some gigs with him in a quintet (I'm a trumpet player). Jerry had a really gorgeous tone on tenor saxophone, the way he sounded on the Music from Indiana University album you highlighted. It was a real downer to lose him when he decided to take the job at Monterey Peninsula College in 1962. The last time I saw him was in Miami around 1967.  I had been a graduate student at the University of Miami just prior to his taking over the jazz program there. Unfortunately, I had decided to move back to Texas by then and never got to play with him again. That's us in the photo above—me on trumpet and Jerry on tenor sax. The drummer's name is Dick Eaton, and the image was taken during a gig we played in Dallas, probably in late 1961."

Bob Porter. I recently posted (here and here) on Bob Porter—radio host, author of Soul Jazz, and producer for Prestige and other labels since the early 1960s. Last week, Bob sent along a link to a video interview he did recently with Michael Fitzgerald, host of the Jazz Forum...

Kenny Dorham. Following up on my post on trumpeter Kenny Dorham, here are four favorite audio clips to illustrate the warm, fierce tone of his horn and approach...

Here's Kenny's Windmill from his Whistle Stop album in 1961...

Here's Dorham with Joe Henderson on Dorham's Blue Bossa in 1963...

Here's Dorham with Sonny Rollins on Sonny's Kids Know in 1957...

And here's Dorham with Sonny Rollins and pianist Elmo Hope on the title track of Sonny's album Movin' Out in 1954...

Musicians' humor. Bill Page, a multi-instrumentalist with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra in the 1960s and a prolific recording studio musician, took to his skis in this clip to add some levity to the bandleader's normally square TV show...

What the heck. Here are the Stylistics singing their 1972 hit Betcha By Golly Wow...

Oddball album cover of the week.

This one was part of the "Hear How To" series that illustrated through recordings a wide range of work and downtime activities. Not sure who this one was for though. Parents who couldn't read? Or those unsure how to spin the birds and the bees? Best of all are the photos of the parents talking to their kids. Hard to tell which one is the parent. Or are they the grandparents because the parents couldn't bring themselves to do it. By the way, aren't these "kids" a little old for such a talk?

Five Stan Getz Videos

Let's end the week with a bunch of Stan Getz videos that went up at YouTube fairly recently:

Here's I'll Remember April, recorded in Stockholm with Jim McNeely (p), George Mraz (b) and Victor Lewis (d) on a warm evening in 1983...

Here's the same group on the same date playing Billy Strayhorn's Blood Count, with an emotionally moved Chet Baker on stage...

Here's Stan Getz in Copenhagen playing Antonio Carlos Jobim's Wave...

Here's Getz on Late Night With David Letterman in 1985....

And I'll add this one uploaded in 2009 by Bev Getz, Stan's daughter, featuring Flora Purim (v), Stanley Cowell (p), Miroslav Vitous (b), and Jack DeJohnette (d) from 1969...

Kenny Dorham: K.D. Is Here

Kenny Dorham played his trumpet with a pinched tone. It wasn't blisteringly hot or flabby but romantically taut and mildly piercing. The notes were like the dots on exclamation points—just distinct enough to make a statement. And he often made notes shimmer briefly, like a hovering bumblebee. He used this punctuating and shimmer technique to great effect when playing with Charlie Parker from 1948 to 1950 and throughout the 1950s on great albums such as Tadd Dameron's Fontainebleau, Max Roach + 4, Sonny Rollins' Rollins Plays for Bird, A.K. Salim's Pretty for the People and so many others sideman and leadership dates.

Last December, Uptown Records released K.D. Is Here—two live recordings from 1962 and 1966 that were previously unissued in the States (the latter gig did appear on the Kenny Dorham Quintet: ‎Live At The Half Note 1966 released in 1992 on the Magnetic label). Both club dates were emceed by Alan Grant, one of the smoothest and intelligent voices of jazz radio in the late 1950s and '60s and about whom too little is known.

The 1962 date was broadcast at the Flamboyan in Queens, N.Y., and featured Joe Farrell (ts), Walter Bishop Jr. (p), Larry Gales (b) and Stu Martin (d). This date offers only three tracks (the third, Au Privave is incomplete), but they show off the ensemble well, especially on If Ever I Should Lose You. Interestingly, Farrell had just come off of two years with the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra, the great one that had recorded for Roulette.

The 1966 recording was broadcast from New York's Half Note and was aired on WABC-FM—yes, FM—just as mono AM stations were beginning to invest in FM stereo and had to fill the airtime, since few advertisers bought time early on (there were too few radios with an FM band). The group included Dorham (tp), Sonny Red (as), Cedar Walton (p), John Ore (b) and Hue Walker (d). The high point is The Shadow of Your Smile, taken at a loping mid-tempo. Dorham works through his solo with grace, turning the song's melody on its head. What's especially fun is listening to Kenny seemingly wind up in a difficult place during his solo but finding a way out and landing right side up beautifully.

Also of note is the playing of his pianists on both gigs—Walter Bishop Jr. and Cedar Walton. Dorham always had great keyboardists on board. Both were shrewd, confident players who typically had a plan for the musical story they intended to tell.

Naturally, after listening to this CD, I brought up Una Mas (1963), which features Kenny Dorham (tp), Joe Henderson (ts), Herbie Hancock (p), Butch Warren (b) and Tony Williams (d). Still one of the most magnificent albums of the early 1960s.

Sadly, as beautiful a trumpet player as Dorham was, he never really received the glory he was due nor the same recognition afforded peers such as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. Dorham was a less flamboyant and more subtle and subdued giant. In addition to Una Mas, I'd recommend Quiet Kenny (1959), Blue Spring (1959) and Whistle Stop (1961). There's plenty more where those came from if you fall in love.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Kenny Dorham: K.D. Is Here 1962 & 1966 (Uptown) here or here.

JazzWax clip: Here's Jung Fu from the 1966 gig...

Jerry Donato and Pete Jolly

At the end of April, my dear friend and arranger Bob Freedman sent along the following email about the late pianist Pete Jolly:

"A few years ago, I wrote a arrangements for a CD being recorded by Jerry Donato, a wonderful Phoenix-area reed player. Among the other local players was a piano player named Pete Jolly. Pete was very ill the entire time he was here, but he played typically beautifully throughout the three days of recording, and his spirits were remarkably high considering the pain and distress he was enduring. These sessions turned out to be the final recordings of Pete's career. I'm telling you this because I know how interested you are in bringing unknown recordings of the great ones to the public's attention through JazzWax."

Jerry was cc'd on the email. So naturally I asked Jerry if he'd kindly send along a copy of the CD and he did. Jerry is a pro multi-reed and woodwind instrumentalist with a beautiful tone. Pete Jolly, of course, was one of the finest and most highly regarded session jazz pianists on the West Coast in the 1950s and beyond. [Photo above of Jerry Donato courtesy of Marcellino Ristorante in Old Town Scottsdale, Az.]

Let me quote from the album's liner notes, written by guitarist Madelyn Roberts (above), daughter of guitar great Howard Roberts:

"With charts arranged by Bob Freedman (above), Pete lived up to his 'A'-player reputation, bringing his best game to town regardless of how ill he was feeling... I applaud Jerry Donato for many things in bringing this project to fruition and having had the courage to contact Pete, a former stranger, and bring him to town. Then doing right by the artist and the project, he got one of the finest arrangers in the country to do original charts. When they did the record [in May 2004], Jerry treated Pete and his devoted wife, Lew, with the deference and respect Pete deserved. I am also glad that during the time of adversity, when Pete was in the hospital, Jerry took care of Pete and Lew as if they were his own parents."

This album is a charmer. Everyone on the session is fabulous, and the musical dialogue between Jerry and Jolly throughout is extraordinary. Jerry wisely left plenty of room in his solos so Jolly's piano could rise up and be heard. And Jolly's solos are firm, confident and magical. The producer's mix wisely set the piano on the same audio level as Jerry's blowing, so it's easy to hear Jolly in action. Knowing the back-story about how ill Jolly was on this recording (he died six months later in November 2004), his playing becomes that much more poetic and important. But as Roberts points out in her notes, this is a musician for whom nothing, not even ill health, cut into a stellar record date. Jolly knew only one way. [Photo above, from the It's a Cool Heat session in May 2004, from left, Pete Jolly, Bob Freedman and Jerry Donato; courtesy of Jerry Donato]

A word about the personnel for downloaders: Jerry Donato plays and solos on soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax as well as on flute, alto flute and bass clarinet. He was joined by Pete Jolly (p), Dwight Kilian (b) and Dom Moio (d). [Photo above of Jerry Donato courtesy of Jerry Donato) 

Tom Miles joins on flugelhorn on I'm Old Fashioned and trumpet on There Is No Greater Love; Hugh Lovelady (as) on Tangerine; Brad Bauder (ts) on Broadway; Bob Freedman (p) on Deep Purple; Clarke Rigsby (g) on Jerry's Everyday Walk; and Madelyn Roberts (g) on Little Bird. Lady is a Tramp is an early recording of Pete Jolly on accordion.

As Jerry told me earlier today:

"Lady is a Tramp originally was given to Clarke Rigsby, our album's producer and engineer, by a man named Johnny Dixon. Johnny is a long-time DJ in the Phoenix area. Pete was recorded live in the 1940s with his Phoenix-based trio playing at a club that was called the Jazz Mill. Johnny informed us that that recording was the first recording of Pete, so it’s kind of cool to be able to say that on this CD we have the first and last recording of Pete Jolly. [Photo above, from left, of Howard Roberts and Pete Jolly from YouTube]

"Pete was in great shape when he was at the studio and showed no signs of any illness. We knew he was sick but he sure didn't show signs of it. He was great to work with."

In true jazz fashion, Pete Jolly's last official recording was similar to his first in 1954 with Shorty Rogers—swinging and right on time.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find It's a Cool Heat (Tempest) at CDBaby here.

JazzWax clip: Here's Bob Freedman's superb arrangement of Tangerine, with great playing by Jerry and Jolly...

Tangerine

A special thanks to Bob Freedman. For more on Jerry Donato, go here.

Jerry Coker: Modern Music

Jerry Coker should have been a household name (and maybe he will be among readers after this post). A composer, arranger and tenor saxophonist from Indiana, Coker in the 1950s and beyond had a beautiful ear and gorgeous sound. Coker recorded only one album and a few tracks as a leader in 1955. He also recorded as a sideman small groups led by Mel Lewis and Nat Pierce in the mid-'50s as well as a big band led by Rudy Salvini. In the early 1950s, he recorded and toured with Woody Herman's Third Herd and he recorded with Clare Fischer's band in the early 1960s. Except for two albums in the early 1980s (A Re-emergence and Rebirth for the Revelation label), that was pretty much it.

Coker played with Stan Kenton in 1957 and then he spent much of his career as an exceptional educator. He taught at the Monterey Peninsula Junior College in 1963, at Indiana University as head of their jazz program and then, in 1966, at Coral Gables University in Miami, developing first-rate BA and MFA degree programs. He left in 1972. [Photo above of Jerry Coker courtesy of Fresh Sound]

While in Miami, Coker played gigs for entertainers, including Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Next came Pembroke State College and Duke University before he settled with his wife in Knoxville, Tenn. Over the course of his career, Coker wrote 20 jazz education books and is a member of the International Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame. Coker is still with us today.

Fortunately for us, Fresh Sound Records has gathered many of Coker's recordings between 1954 and 1956 on a single CD entitled Jerry Coker: Modern Music From Indiana University and the Bay Area. It is a stunning collection of jazz recordings that will leave your jaw hanging. The sound is a perfect blend of West and East Coast jazz styles during this period, and Coker's composing and arranging was extraordinary. It's highly melodic with tasteful harmony parts and exquisite blowing by everyone on the dates.

The 12 tracks from Modern Music From Indiana University feature a reed ensemble comprised of three different configurations. The first includes Jerry Coker, Bob Cowart and Louis Ciotti (ts) Jack Coker (p) Monk Montgomery (b) and Charlie Mastropaolo (d). The second adds Freddy Fox and Roger Pemberton on baritone sax. And finally Al Kiger (tp) and Jim Hewitt (tb) sit in on selected tracks.

Coker's reed writing was so gorgeous you'll want to cry. Heartfelt and fully maximized, the arrangements have a sensitive passion for the harmonized saxophone sound while the musicians have a nimble Four Brothers feel. The players on the session were all students at Indiana University, where Coker had attended college. 

Next are three tracks (Coker's You'll Stay and Giggling Oysters and Wayne Crabtree's Water's Edge) that feature Coker in a quartet setting in San Francisco: Al Kiger (tp) Jerry Coker (ts) Eddie Duran (g) and Dean Reilly (b). A Mel Lewis Sextet track, 'Enry 'Iggins 'Ead, composed and arranged by Coker, includes Kentonites Ed Leddy (tp) Jerry Coker and Richie Kamuca (ts) Pepper Adams (bar) John Marabuto (p) Dean Reilly (b) and Mel Lewis (d).

This is followed by a Rudy Salvini Orchestra album called Intro to Jazz, recorded at the Sands Ballroom in Oakland, Calif., in November 1956. The band on these five tracks include Rudy Salvini, Allen Smith, Al Del Simone, Wayne Allen and Billy Catalano (tp), Van Hughes, Archie Lecoque, Chuck Etter and Ron Bertuccelli (tb), Charles Martin (as), Jerry Coker, Tom Hart and Howard Dudune (ts), Virgil Gonsalves (bar), John Marabuto (p), Dean Reilly (b) and John Markham (d), with arrangements by Jerry Cournoyer, Jerry Mulvihill and Coker.

There are two bonus tracks recorded in Paris in 1954 with groups that included members of Woody Herman's Third Herd: First, Coker's Embarkation, with Cy Touff (b-tp), Jerry Coker (ts), Ralph Burns (p), Jimmy Gourley (g), Jean-Marie Ingrand (b) and Chuck Flores (d). And Coker's Thanks for You, featuring Jerry Coker (ts), Ralph Burns (p), Jean-Marie Ingrand (b) and Chuck Flores (d). [The top photo on the album cover above features, from left, Cy Touff, Jerry Coker, Jean-Marie Ingrand and Ralph Burns]

Coker was masterful, and in an ideal, selfish world, he would have moved to Los Angeles, recorded dozens of albums in the studios and written for television. Then again, hundreds of fledgling jazz musicians studying at the various universities where Coker taught would be poorer for it. I'm just thankful we have what we have here. So gorgeous.

Hopefully Jerry Coker will reach out to me at marc@marcmyers.com. I'd love to ask him a handful of questions.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Jerry Coker: Modern Music From Indiana University and the Bay Area (Fresh Sound) here as a CD and download.

JazzWax clips: Here are two of Coker's reed arrangements in 1955: First, Nancy With the Laughing Face. Dig the harmony!...

Here's Lost April...

Here's Wayne Crabtree's Water's Edge in 1956, with Al Kiger (tp) Jerry Coker (ts) Eddie Duran (g) and Dean Reilly (b)...

And here's Coker in 1983, playing Bud Powell's Un Poco Loco in Gainesville, Fl., with Jerry Coker (ts), Frank Sullivan (p), Scott Walton (b) and Billy Bowker (d)...

A special thanks to Jordi Pujol.

Melvin Sparks: Live at Nectar's

Just three months before guitarist Melvin Sparks died on March 15, 2011 at age 64, he recorded at a club in Burlington, Vt., called Nectar's, a club that's still there today (go here). Sparks was backed by members of his working trio—organist Beau Sasser and drummer Bill Carbone. But on this night, he added alto saxophonist Dave Grippo and tenor saxophonist Brian McCarthy. It had been several years since Sparks had last used horns.

Now this live date has been released as Live at Nectar's (One Note) in the digital and vinyl formats. According to the credits, it was recorded on Dec. 30, 2010 by Caleb Bronz , a working drummer based in Burlington. According to the liner notes by Carbone, Caleb had the approval of Sparks and Nectar's co-owner Alex Budney. It seems the recording was a favor to Sparks, since the credits thank Sparks's family for "making the album possible." [Photo above courtesy of Nectar's]

Sparks, of course, was one of the leading guitarists of the soul-jazz movement starting in the mid-1960s. Born in Houston, Sparks started playing guitar at 11 and began working as a professional musician in high school with Hank Ballard and the Midnighters and then Little Richard's Upsetters, Little Richard's touring band in the 1950s. Sparks moved to New York in the late '60s to work and record with Lou Donaldson's band. He released his first leadership album Sparks! (Prestige) in 1970. From there, Sparks recorded on a long string of soul-jazz gems for Prestige and other labels. His great strength was powerful rhythm playing and soulful solos.

On Live at Nectar's, the quintet recorded Leon Spencer Jr.'s Miss Riverside, the Four Tops' hit Ain't No Woman (Like the One I Got), Rusty Bryant and Jerry Taylor's Fire Eater, Sparks' Cranberry Sunshine, Bobby Womack's Breezin' and Sparks' funky Whip! Whop!.

The sound on this album is fantastic, and the soul-jazz is just the way it was back in the early 1970s. It has heat, energy and lots of soul, with Sparks taking lyrical guitar solos and laying down a thick mattress of rhythm when the horns are soloing. This previously unreleased live album is a worthy addition to the soul-jazz canon and further evidence of Sparks's stirring role in the movement.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Melvin Sparks' Live at Nectar's (One Note) here.

JazWax clip: Here's Ain't No Woman (Like the One I Got)...

And here's Breezin'...