JazzWax

Spike Robinson and Harry Warren

It should be noted from the outset that there are no bad Spike Robinson recordings. The little-known tenor saxophonist had a bold swinging style, much like Al Cohn, but Robinson tended to climb into instrument's higher register and linger there longer, likely a result of his early years on alto saxophone and clarinet. In this regard, he shares more in common with Stan Getz, both in tone and the lyricism of his playing and solo work.

One of Robinson's finest albums (and there are many) is Spike Robinson Plays Harry Warren (Hep). Part of the album was recorded for Discovery Records in December 1981 and features Spike Robinson (ts), Victor Feldman (p) Ray Brown (b) and John Guerin (d). The balance was recorded in 1993 in Los Angeles with Pete Jolly (p), Jennifer Leitham (b) and Paul Kreibich (d). The album is flawless.

 

Henry "Spike" Robinson was born in Kenosha, Wis., in 1930. He began playing the saxophone at age 12 and then the classical clarinet, starting his professional career at 14. After high school in 1948, he joined the Navy as a musician and was stationed in the U.K. in 1950, where he recorded his first few 10-inch LPs for Esquire Records starting in 1951. In the mid-1950s, Robinson was discharged and returned to the States, winding up in Chicago. Disenchanted with the jazz scene there, Robinson studied electrical engineering with NASA in Columbus, Ohio, on the G.I. Bill.

For the next 30 years, he worked as an electrical engineer, playing in jazz bands at night, mostly in Boulder, Colo., where he lived, and Denver. Robinson had an unusual way of playing the saxophone, using the side of is mouth to blow into the slightly turned mouthpiece. In the mid-1980s, he retired from his engineering job and moved to England to play the saxophone and record. He also worked in Paris, where he became seriously ill and nearly died. His agent, Susan May, stayed in Paris and probably saved his life by being his advocate. They later married.

The tracks from 1981 are: This Is Always, This Heart of Mine, The More I See You, Chattanooga Choo Choo, Cheerful Little Earful, I Only Have Eyes for You, Lulu's Back in Town and I Wish I Knew. The tracks from 1993 are At Last, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, There Will Never Be Another You, I Had the Craziest Dream, Shadow Waltz and Serenade in Blue.

This rare album remains solely in the CD format, and I see there are quite a few that are reasonably priced at eBay. I will say that Robinson's albums are uniformly excellent and some can be found on Spotify.

Spike Robinson died on October 29, 2001 in Writtle, England. He was 71.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Spike Robinson Plays Harry Warren (Hep) here or on eBay.

JazzWax clip: Here's This Heart of Mine...

This Heart Of Mine

Here's a clip of Robinson that comes from a local TV profile of him...

A special thanks to David Langner.

Lucky Thompson: Paris 1956-59

Eli "Lucky" Thompson was one of jazz's most confident and engaging tenor saxophonists. On recordings, his imagination on solos was so fast and bountiful that he filled virtually every spare space with warm, exciting ideas. Over the course of his career, Thompson was artistically most at home in Paris, as evidenced by his exhilarating slippery and smokey sound on recordings made there in the 1950s. In recent years, his Paris recordings have been released haphazardly on French and American labels, only to drift out of print. Now, we have all of them on two new sets from Fresh Sound.

The first is Lucky Thompson: The Complete Parisian Small-Group Sessions 1956-1959, a four-CD set that comes with a glossy 34-page booklet featuring color and black-and-white images and lengthy notes by Jordi Pujol. The second is a single CD—Lucky Thompson in Paris 1956: The All Star Orchestra Sessions. The fidelity on both sets is remarkable.

Born in Columbia, S.C., Thompson moved with his family to Ohio and then Detroit. After nearly 15 years of recording with top jazz bands and ensembles, Thompson moved to Paris in early 1956 after enduring professional problems that involved unfairness and unemployment. There were songs he wrote that weren't credited to him, clubs that tried to stiff him and record labels that shortchanged him and repeatedly passed over him when staffing dates. The work dried up.

Back in the late 1940s and early '50s, he was considered "difficult' by those skilled in chiseling musicians. Thompson simply grew wearing trying to figure out why he wasn't receiving what he was promised or due, going so far as to start his own publishing company in the late 1940s.

Prior to leaving for Paris, Thompson had established himself as a saxophone giant with a distinct sound. He first recordings were with Hot Lips Page in 1944. He recorded with Count Basie later that same year and into the first half of 1945 before recording with Boyd Raeburn's band in 1945 and '46. Thompson recorded with Charlie Parker in 1946 and '49, Johnnie Ray in 1951, Thelonious Monk in 1952, King Pleasure in 1954 and Oscar Pettiford in 1956 before leaving for Paris. During a return visit to the States that year, he recorded again with Pettiford and on Stan Kenton's Cuban Fire.

As these Paris recordings show, Lucky was spiritually free in France. His playing on standards is polished and daring, while his work on his own compositions is tremendously exciting. That's one of the great treats of this set: Thompson was a brilliant songwriter, and it shows on songs such as Passin' Time, Nothing But the Soul and Why Weep?, to name just a few.

On many of the recordings, Thompson unleashes ideas as if he's operating a Singer sewing machine. His quick thinking and steady precision take you aback. In addition, while Thompson could latch on to an uptempo song like a tiger, he was deeply emotional on ballads such as Time on My Hands and Everything Happens to Me.

But what makes this set especially rewarding are the many groups in which he recorded. There are 19 different ones in all, which means different musical moods and challenges on each one, and the results are never dull. Among these varied sessions are eight bluesy tracks with pianist Sammy Price and four hard boppers with drummer Kenny Clarke that features a masterful version of Four. All of the French sidemen on this set are terrific and easily on par with their American counterparts. There are simply too many to list here.

The all-star orchestra sessions of 1956 include a crack Quincy Jones-influenced band led by Herni Renaud and three recording sessions with drummer Gerard Pochonet. All of songs recorded by Pochonet were written and arranged by Thompson and equal to Quincy Jones's work during this period. Which makes one wonder why Thompson wasn't arranging for Basie and other big bands in the States.

Thompson returned to the U.S. in 1963 and recorded here through 1968 before moving to  Lausanne, Switzerland. In the early 1970s, Thompson returned to New York, taught at Dartmouth in New Hampshire in 1973 and '74 and then disappeared. He reportedly lived for a time on Manitoulin Island in Ontario and in Georgia before moving to Oregon, where he was largely homeless in the 1990s and early 2000s. There may have been mental illness issues that went unmedicated.

Lucky Thompson died in Seattle in 2005. He was 81.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Lucky Thompson's Complete Parisian Small-Group Sessions 1956-1959 here and here.

You'll find Lucky Thompson in Paris 1956: The All Star Orchestra Sessions here and here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Passin' Time...

Passin' Time

Here's But Not for Tonight...

But Not for Tonight

And here's Easy Going...

Easy Going

Bill Evans: Another Time

About a year ago, I received an email from Dr. Jan Dropvat in the Netherlands. Jan is a major Bill Evans collector, and he told me about a rare recording of an Evans concert on June 22, 1968 at the Netherlands Radio Union in Hilversum. I have a vast Evans collection and knew nothing about it, which was strange, and I couldn't find any mention online.

At the studio concert, Jan said, Evans was joined by bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Wow, I thought, another trio album with DeJohnette just two days after they recorded at MPS Studios in Germany's Black Forest and a week after appearing at the Montreux Jazz Festival. The Montreux concert was released by Verve in 1968, and the previously unknown MPS session was released in 2016 by Resonance on Bill Evans: Some Other Time.

If Bill was as relaxed as he was on the other two albums and the sound was just as pristine, the tape Jan mentioned would be a major find, since it represented only the third DeJohnette recording with Evans and Gomez. When Jan sent a couple of tracks, I flipped. The quality of Evans's piano and the sound were warm and loving. I immediately thought of producer Zev Feldman. Once I connected Jan with Zev, the rest, as they say, is history. That fortuitous email from Jan led to a green light by Resonance owner and producer George Klabin and extraordinary detective work by Zev to secure the tape and turn it into an album. The result is the new Bill Evans CD release, Another Time: The Hilversum Concert. The album from Resonance is absolutely gorgeous, and it comes with a 34-page booklet featuring multiple interviews with surviving artists and those associated with securing the tape.

I wound up writing the album's main essay, in which I explored why Evans always seems to sound so beautiful when recorded on tour in Europe. My dear friend Laurie Verchomin (above), author of The Big Love, a memoir about her relationship with Evans from April 1979 until his death in September 1980, told me the pianist's passion for Europe was a result of three factors: the quality of the pianos there, the ambiance of the venues and the audience's enveloping vibe. All three aligned in Hilversum, the Netherlands, in June 1968.

What we have in this CD is a sterling Bill Evans Trio recording. Evans is at ease, which means his playing is even, his swing is rich and his ideas are inventive on songs you may have heard before. Gomez is conversational on the bass and DeJohnette is splendidly expressive without sounding overly percussive.

The song choices are lyrical and perfect—You're Gonna Hear From Me, Very Early, Who Can I Turn To, Alfie, Embraceable You, Emily, Nardis, Turn Out the Stars and Five. Evans plays each with measured joy. Listening to him here is like watching tulips blow in the wind in slow motion.

Kudos to Zev and George (above), Fran Gala and John Koenig for another superb job preserving a sterling recording and doing so with enormous elegance and a swell journalistic approach in the liner notes. A great package. I think Laurie would agree that Bill would have been delighted with his performance and the album's presentation.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Bill Evans's Another Time, the Hilversum Concert (Resonance) here.

The album also is available as a download and on vinyl here.

JazzWax clips: Here's You're Gonna Hear From Me (dig how Jack DeJohnette interacts on drums with Evans throughout)...

You're Gonna Hear From Me

And here's a video on the project hosted by Zev Feldman....

The Things We Did Last Summer

Written in 1946 by Sammy Cahn (words) and Jule Styne (music), The Things We Did Last Summer had a rough start. Cahn and Styne had promised Frank Sinatra that if he recorded the song for Columbia, they would see to it that no other recording of their ballad would be released before his. But Columbia couldn't ready the Sinatra recordings until October 15. Meanwhile, Jo Stafford liked the song as well and had recorded it for Capitol, which planned to release hers on Sept. 1. Sinatra was livid, so Cahn and Styne's publishing company, Mayfair Music, asked Capitol to wait until after mid-October. But Capitol insisted it had received no release restriction letter from Mayfair, and that the best it could do was hold Stafford's record until Sept. 15. Stafford's version peaked at #10 on Billboard's pop charts; Sinatra's never charted. Whether a letter from Mayfair actually went out is anyone's guess. Songwriters loved when top pop singers battled to record their songs. The more the merrier meant one of the versions had a shot at Billboard's top 10, resulting in fatter copyright royalties.

As summer psychologically ends today, here are 11 of my favorite versions of this lyrical fond farewell to a warm season past:

Here's Jo Stafford...

Here's Nancy Wilson with George Shearing...

Here are the Beach Boys...

Here are the Four Lads with Claude Thornhill...

Here's Fats Navarro...

Here's Beverly Kenney...

Here's Carmen McRae and Sammy Davis Jr....

Here's Bill Holman...

Here's Lou Donaldson with Horace Silver on piano...

Here's Al Cohn...

And here's the Australian Jazz Quartet...

Bob, George and Meredith

For the Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed comedian Bob Newhart (go here), and I'm still laughing from our conversation. Bob has this infectious way of working you up without working hard doing it. We talked about growing up in Chicago and the series of accidents that led to his big break. This will tell you all you need to know about Bob's genius...

Also in the WSJ, my chat with folk singer Dar Williams on Judy Collins' version of Jacques Brel's Sons Of (go here). It's a haunting anti-war song with a captivating carousel arrangement. Here's Dar singing What Do You Hear in These Sounds...

SiriusXM. Each month, after my "Anatomy of a Song" column appears in The Wall Street Journal, I'm graciously invited on SiriusXM VOLUME (106) by "Feedback" co-hosts Nik Carter and Lori Majewski. Last week, Lori was away, so SiriusXM's Jim Shearer took her seat in the studio. To listen to our chat about the Hollies' Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress), go here...

George Coleman. Jimi Mentis sent along this one, featuring George Coleman and saxophone band playing Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely in 1983...

Meredith d'Ambrosio. First Snow (above), a painting by singer Meredith d'Ambrosio, won first prize at the Plymouth (Mass.) Art Guild several weeks ago. As Meredith noted in an email, "It's the scene of Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia." Meredith will be singing shortly in Brookline, Mass. One of the songs she'll be playing and singing is Dave Frishberg's Our Love Rolls On from her Little Jazz Bird album. You can read my interview with Meredith here. For more on Meredith's art, go here.

Oliver Nelson. Dave Walker sent along the following clip, featuring a spirited version of Oliver Nelson's Reuben's Rondo by the pupils of Takasago High School in Japan. As Dave noted, wryly, in his email, "Makes for a nice change from In the Mood, Little Brown Jug and other typical high-school band fare, don't you think?"

Thad Jones. Bill Kirchner sent along a clip of Thad Jones leading his Eclipse Big Band in Denmark in 1979, featuring Sahib Shihab, Horace Parlan, Ed Thigpen, Tim Hagans and Richard Boone...

What the heck. Here's Ron Isley and Burt Bacharach recording what may be the very finest version of Burt's The Look of Love for their Isley Meets Bacharach: Here I Am album in 2003...

Oddball album cover of the week.

I'm not sure what to make of this one from 1961. Frank Sinatra's label must have been desperate to fill the Schwann Catalog that year. It's a novelty album by Katie Lee, a folk singer with a rather good voice, and her original songs poked fun at psychotherapy. If you check YouTube, you'll find the material comes off as whimsical show tunes for the straitjacket set.

Larry Elgart (1922-2017)

Larry Elgart, an alto saxophonist and enterprising and tireless big-band leader whose major success began at the very moment when nearly all other swing orchestras were arthritic relics and the word "band" typically referred to four guys with long hair playing electric instruments and a drum set, died on August 29. He was 95.

In the 1950s and '60s, Elgart frequently teamed with his trumpet-playing brother, Les, on albums and in concert, drawing deserved comparisons to other Swing-era siblings including Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Benny and Harry Goodman, Bob and Bing Crosby, and Fletcher and Horace Henderson.

Despite Elgart's rise at the tail end of the 1950s and into the '60s and beyond, he created a signature sound that distinguished his commissioned arrangements and performances on all songs. Just as the best big bands of the 1940s had their own orchestral personalities—Glenn Miller with the clarinet in the top-note position in the reed section or Count Basie's playful stomp style on piano—Elgart's reeds played in a tippy-toe staccato. The result made the saxophones sound spry, like someone sneaking upstairs, shoes in hand, after being out late.

Larry's brother, Les, also created a special sound for his own band, which combined society reeds with sassy trumpets and a broad, meaty trombone section. In the case of both bands, what made their arrangements so appealing was the tight dialogue between the sections, which seemed to finish each other's musical sentences. Solos were often brief and typically belonged to the brothers. When they united on albums, one heard the best of both Elgart worlds—tap-dancing reeds supported by a loping swing undercurrent driven by the trombones and pecks by the trumpets.

Both brothers earned a good living, so their albums together and apart could vary from captivating finger-snappers to easy listening and middle-of-the road seasoned liberally with schmaltz. While many jazz fans may have been lost along the way on the more commercial albums, it was impossible not to love the chattering sectional interplay and conversational approach to the instrumentation. When the Elgarts were on point, especially Larry, the music was positively addictive (Les died in 1995). The last time I posted on Larry Elgart was in May 2017 here.

To honor Larry Elgart, here are 10 clips illustrating his gift for engaging big band recordings and performances:

Here's the Les and Larry Elgart dance band in action in 1965, with Larry's stealthy reeds and Les's languid wide-bodied brass section playing Skyliner, Cherokee, It's De-Lovely and Begin the Beguine on Chicago's WGN-TV...

Here's Larry Elgart in 1995 playing Bye Bye Blues. Dig how tight the band was arranged, especially the reeds...

Here's Honeysuckle Rose...

Here's Larry Elgart's After You've Gone...

Here's Let's Turn It Off...

Here's Let My People Swing...

Here's Let's Turn It Off...

Here's This Heart of Mine...

Here's The Lady Is a Tramp in 1960, with a vocal by Carol Sloane! (known then as Carol Morvan)...

And here's Frim Fram Sauce, one of my Elgart favorites...

Bonus: Here's the old WNEW-AM theme arranged in the style of Les and Larry Elgart...

JazzWax tracks: You'll find many of his best swinging albums reissued here.