This week in The Wall Street Journal, I interview former Hollywood executive Sherry Lansing for my "House Call" column on growing up in Chicago and what she said to her dad as a child that she wishes she could take back (go here). Also in the WSJ, my chat with Scottish author Christopher Broomyre for my "Playlist" column on why Big Country's In a Big Country was so meaningful to him (go here). [Photo above courtesy of Sherry Lansing]
JazzWax interviews. JazzWax is undergoing a bit of summer cleaning, so some of the interview links in the right-hand column may be down. They're being re-uploaded little by little. Sorry for the inconvenience but all should be back to normal by summer's end.
Bill Evans. Producer Zev Feldman informs me that Resonance Records' release last year of Bill Evans's Some Other Time: The Lost Session From the Black Forest just won the Downbeat Critic's Poll Award for Best Historical Album. I wrote the main liner notes. Congratulations to Zev and the team at Resonance!
Benny Golson and Jimmy Heath will be performing together in New York at 92Y's "Jazz in July" festival series on Wednesday, July 19, at 7:30 p.m. The legendary Philadelphians will be playing their jazz standards, which hopefully will include Benny's Along Came Betty and Jimmy's For Miles and Miles. You can read my JazzWax interviews with Benny here and with Jimmy here.
Here's Benny's Along Came Betty...
And here's Jimmy's For Miles and Miles, recorded by Chet Baker, Art Pepper and Phil Urso...
From Bill Crow's Facebook page. Writes Bill, "I forget where I got this photo of Charlie Ventura's band. Must be in the late 1940s. Tiny Kahn on drums, Gerry Mulligan (bs), Brew Moore (ts), Curley Russell (b) and George Wallington (p)."
Slippery When Wet. The surf craze began in Southern California in the late 1950s after amateur filmmakers began shooting footage of friends surfing and screened the results accompanied by a voiceover tape and recorded music at auditoriums in small towns along the Pacific Coast. Among the surfing cinematographers who pioneered the genre was Bruce Brown, who would go on to make The Endless Summer (1966), the big daddy of all surf movies. Brown's first film was Slippery When Wet in 1958. But when Brown shot the film, the Del Tones, the Beach Boys and surf rock didn't exist yet. So Brown turned to Bud Shank and his quartet for music.
Fascinating that the very first surf-film soundtrack would feature West Coast jazz. Here's the film, with Brown explaining how he recruited Bud at the Lighthouse nightclub in Hermosa Beach. All of the music is by saxophonist Bud Shank backed by guitarist Billy Bean, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Chuck Flores...
You'll find the Slippery When Wet soundtrack here.
What the heck. Here's Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, featuring Teddy Pendergrass, singing Bad Luck on Soul Train in 1975...
Oddball album cover of the week.
Yes, relaxing, until he had to scramble to get up and turn over the album.