Each December for the past 10 years, I've carefully chosen a different album for inclusion in my annual JazzWax Vintage Holiday Album Hall of Fame. I established this yule repository in 2008 to steer you to great old-fashioned favorites that may be unknown to you or merely forgotten. I'm a shameless fan of holiday music, provided it meets my criteria: smart song choices and arrangements with a sentimental holiday feel.
My vintage pick this year is The Doris Day Christmas Album. Recorded in 1964 for Columbia, the album featured Day's warm, neighborly voice on a dozen holiday favorites. What's interesting about the album is that virtually all of the tracks are taken at near-ballad tempo, which allows you to soak up the sunny sound of Day's timbre. The album was produced by Allen Stanton and arranged by easy-listening maestro Pete King.
Fortunately, the Real Gone Music label recently re-issued the album on Doris Day: Complete Christmas Collection along with 10 additional holiday tracks that appeared on other Day albums or were never before released (go here).
Here'sI've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm with Frank De Vol and His Orchestra from Day's Hooray for Hollywood album in 1959...
Now meet the rest of the JazzWax Vintage Holiday Album Hall of Fame family, in order of their induction, with links to Amazon (most are probably available at Spotify as well)...
2015—Two albums with the same name: Bobby Timmons' Holiday Soul and Don Patterson's Holiday Soul. Both trio albums were recorded for Prestige in Nov. 1964—the former on the 24th and the latter on the 25th.
Here are albums that have already been inducted into the JazzWax Holiday Album Hall of Fame... - See more at: http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/11/duke-pearson-merry-ole-soul.html#sthash.V0RZmXiQ.dpuf
Bonus:Here's one of my favorite all-time holiday tracks—Jo Stafford's By the Fireside, from her Ski Trails (1956) album with the Starlighters, arranged by husband Paul Weston...
Keely Smith, a vocalist best known in the 1950s at Las Vegas nightclubs and on TV as the stone-faced half of a husband-and-wife comic duo in which she impatiently waited out and mocked the rubbery crooning style of mate Louis Prima before delivering a sincere rendition of her own, died on December 16. She was 89.
After the Smith-Prima divorce in 1961, fans were left with the realization that the team's funny fractious personality differences on stage actually extended to their home. Everything about Smith's darting looks on stage and Prima's apprehensive glances seemed a little too real. The discord they ginned up—Prima's primal R&B delivery and Smith's controlled pop response—on hit songs such as That Old Black Magic, Just a Gigilo and Don't Worry About Me reminded many of Ralph and Alice's relationship on TV's The Honeymooners.
In some respects, their mass appeal rested largely in the subtext of their act, depending on your perspective. From a woman's vantage point, the pains of enduring the loud, clownish antics of a husband were all too familiar, while the male view saw Smith as an uptight kill-joy only too eager to extinguish her husband's fun. In truth, the act borrowed quite a bit from the jazz-pop vocal pairing of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.
In the 1960s, a newly single Smith went on to have a strong solo career at clubs and on albums, thanks in part to the benevolence of Frank Sinatra, whose Reprise label signed her. Some of her best albums were recorded during this period.
In the 1950s, Smith and Prima helped loosen up pop music, injecting heat and mischief into a genre that had grown staid and sexless. A Tin Pan Alley tune in the hands of Prima and Smith was updated as a novelty song, particularly when Sam Butera's rock 'n' roll saxophone was added.
On reflection, Smith's voice, with Prima or alone, was fresh and optimistic, even on ballads. Though her approach didn't often bring a song to its knees, Smith had a way of slow-cooking a tune with conviction and timing, holding her vocal power until the end. There also was a strong feminist undercurrent running through Smith's stage persona that made her admirable in an age of conformity. I'm not sure if Smith ever wrote a tell-all memoir, but that's one I'd love to read.
I last posted on Keely Smith in October 2016 here.
Here are a bunch of videos celebrating Smith's voice on a wide range of standards and rock-era hits:
This week in The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed actress Patricia Arquette for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Patricia talks about growing up poor in a Virginia commune in the early 1970s, the strains of childhood and a mom who was abusive due to the stress. Patricia's latest film is Permanent...
Just days left. Order your paperback copy of Anatomy of a Song now, before you're stuck for a holiday gift. The paperback is now #1 at Amazon in the "music history and criticism" category. I hear that those who have received the book as a gift keep thanking those who gave it to them. And remember, there's a free playlist featuring all the songs—in table-of-contents order—at Spotify. Just type in "Anatomy of a Song" and my name. If you're buying in the U.S., go here. If you're in the U.K., go here.
Shhh. I'm hoping to have a gift for all of you ready by late next week. I can't say more than that now, but each and every one of you will love it, I'm sure. Stay tuned.
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Stuff Smith radio. "Symphony Sid" Gribetz will be presenting another one of his must-listen, five-hour radio shows. This time his focus will be jazz violinist Stuff Smith. Tune in Sunday (December 17), from 2 to 7 p.m. (EST) on WKCR-FM in New York. Listen from anywhere in the world on your cell phone or computer by going here.
Alan Broadbent, the exquisite jazz pianist, will be appearing in New York at Mezzrow on December 22 and 23. I can't think of a better way to spend a snowy evening than sipping a Campari and soda listening to Alan with bassist Don Falzone and drummer Billy Mintz. If you haven't been to Mezzrow yet, the acoustics are exceptional. Two sets each night, at 8 and 9:30 p.m. For more information, go here.
What the heck. Vocalist Jimmy Sabater was the master of the bolero and boogaloo styles of Latin music. No one could deliver a ballad like Sabater.
Here's Sabater and Cheo Feliciano singing the Si Te Dicen in the style of "bolero filin"...
Here's Sabater's 1963 hit, To Be With You, which he recorded originally with the Joe Cuba Sextette...
When Sabater died in February 2012, here's how his friends celebrated his life (thank goodness someone taped it). I believe that's David Oquendo on guitar...
And here's Sabater singing his original hit, To Be With You, with Joe Cuba...
Oddball album cover of the week.
This album, on French Decca, was sent along by Michael Bloom of Michael Bloom Media Relations. I can't quite figure out whether the female model is helping our inebriated patron down his drink, keeping him from falling off his perch or is trying to get him to call it a night. Also hard to decipher what exactly is going on in back on the left. All we know is the bartender is making money. Nice linoleum flooring, though.
Oscar Peterson was an exceptional jazz pianist, especially in front of a live audience. His rousing playing style and robust sense of swing swept up everyone in a concert hall. My favorite live period for Peterson is from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. Here are three recently posted videos from that era:
Here's Peterson with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen playing On Green Dolphin Street on Belgian television...
Here's Peterson, guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown playing A Gal in Calico in Amsterdam in 1958...
And here's Peterson with tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Bobby Durham playing Polka Dots and Moonbeams in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1969...
I've been on a bit of a Dave Brubeck jag ever since architect and pal Bev Thorne died last week (go here). Yesterday, I came across this splendid newly surfaced video of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, featuring Paul Desmond, with Gerry Mulligan, the Charles Mingus Quartet and Jimmy Smith at the 1971 Newport Jazz Festival in Doelen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Here's an hour and a half of pure jazz bliss...
Something happened in the 1950s. Actually two things did. The generation that grew up during the Depression and fought in World War II turned 40 in 1955. Just as they blew out the candles, the long-playing album expanded from 10 inches to 12. Both trends set the table neatly for Frank Sinatra's recording comeback. It was quite a rebound. [Photo above of Frank Sinatra and Billy May]
By the time Columbia producer Mitch Miller had finished with him in 1951, Sinatra was a washed up novelty singer. What's more, the syrupy ballads he sang that used to give comfort to forlorn teenage girls in the late 1940s no longer made much sense in the early '50s. Those girls had married. [Photo above of Dagmar and Sinatra in 1951 recording Mama Will Bark, one of Sinatra's last recordings for Columbia before being let go]
After Sinatra signed with Capitol Records in 1953, he quickly became known for his swaggering singing style as he began to update the Swing Era songbook with brassy arrangements. His output for the label in the years that followed would connect more firmly with men going through a midlife crisis than their wives. But Sinatra wasn't the inventor of that ring-a-ding-ding approach. We have Billy May to thank for that. [Photo above of Frank Sinatra and Billy May]
Starting in 1951, May had hits for Capitol with instrumentals in which he overhauled Tin Pan Alley standards. His arrangements had an elasticity that built on the approaches taken by Count Basie and Les Brown. In 2015, I posted on May's studio recordings from the early 1950s issued by Jasmine Records (go here). Yesterday I spent time with Let's Go to Town With Billy May & His Orchestra: Transcription Recordings, which Jasmine released in 2002. Listening to the tracks is like spending time with the tailor who designed Sinatra's musical wardrobe at Capitol in the years to come.
The two-CD set features four different groupings of transcriptions. But first, for those who are unfamiliar with the definition of a transcription, I quote from George Hulme's notes:
"In the U.S, every town of any size had its own radio station and the larger cities had several. Most of the stations were quite small and could not afford to employ orchestras and there were restrictions on the use of commercial records. They solved the problem by buying recordings from transcription services offering records that were free of copyright restrictions and could be used to create programs or used as filler or background music. The transcription companies were often associated with the major record companies and used the same artists to perform similar material to that which the artists had recorded for commercial release. The U.S. government sponsored a large number of programs that were used as entertainment for military personnel."
The two Jasmine CDs feature four different transcription recording sessions by May—the Talent Standard sessions in 1951, The Billy May Show for the Navy in 1954, the Voice of America show in 1954, and the National Guard's Let's Go to Town show recorded sometime in the '50s.
In the 1951 recordings, we hear the sassy approach that Sinatra would wear so well two years later. All of these May tracks are abbreviated versions of May's studio recordings and are taken at a slightly faster clip. All run about two minutes or a pinch longer. There's All of Me, with May's signature dragging saxophones; the breezy When Your Lover Has Gone, which sounds as if you're riding in a speeding convertible from the period; and the fascinating I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan, which glides along with the band's sections folding neatly into each other.
At Capitol following Sinatra's signing, the deft arranger Nelson Riddle (above) was able to deliver the high-octane power of May's style, but he quickly developed his own more sophisticated sound for Sinatra that would come to define him. But in 1951, as Sinatra languished, May's arrangements of Just You, Just Me and You're Driving Me Crazy were already fully formed Sinatra charts minus the voice.
Sixty-six years after these transcriptions were recorded, May's vast contribution to Sinatra's '50s style and the influential innovations he brought to big band arranging have been largely forgotten. And that's a shame.
Billy May died in 2004.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Let's Go to Town With Billy May & His Orchestra: Transcription Recordings (Jasmine) here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Talent Standard's Just You, Just Me...
Like many JazzWax readers, jazz is my first love. But I also love rock, pop, folk, soul, reggae, bossa nova and anything else that's great, no matter the genre. Here are 10 new box sets that I've enjoyed that you might find ideal as gifts for you or for others on your holiday list...
The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection of Thelonious Monk (Craft). Between 1952 and 1954, Monk recorded 21 songs issued on five 10-inch LPs. The albums were Thelonious Monk Trio: Thelonious (1952), Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows For LP, Featuring Sonny Rollins (1953), Thelonious Monk Quintet (1954), Thelonious Monk Plays (1954), and Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk (1954). This set's five 10-inch LPs include sessions with Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Ray Copeland, Frank Foster and Julius Watkins, among others. For some reason, Monk always sounds best on vinyl. Go here.
David Bowie: A New Career in a New Town (1977-1982) (Parlophone). This is the third in a series of remastered boxes covering the Thin White Duke's recording career. This 11-CD box (or 13 vinyl discs) includes Low, Heroes, Lodger, Stage, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and Re:Call 3 (a collection of singles) plus new mixes. The first three albums were recorded in Berlin, Stage was recorded on tour and featured his Berlin recordings, Scary Monsters was recorded in New York. Online carping about the box's mastering are addressed here. (Go here)
Johnny Mathis: The Voice of Romance. The Columbia Original Album Collection (Sony Legacy). This 68-CD "cinder block" set includes all of Johnny's 67 albums plus his new Johnny Mathis Sings The Great New American Songbook. The box features a 200-page booklet with notes and photos. I had a chance to interview Johnny recently. He's a wonderful, friendly guy, as you might imagine. (Go here)
Jazz Cosmopolit: Swedish Jazz History Vol 11 (1970-1979) (Caprice). As you can tell from the volume number of this set, Sweden has produced its share of great jazz recordings. The music on this set is wide-ranging from hard bop to ballads but nearly always beautiful and pensive. You can sample tracks here. (Go here)
Elvis Presley: A Boy From Tupelo—The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings (Sony Legacy). This three-CD set allows you to hear the early evolution of an artist in the innocent years prior to his electrifying emergence as a national phenomenon in '56. Good looks and a captivating delivery were only part of the story. Presley worked tirelessly touring and winning over crowds during these years. The set includes a 122-page book with photos, notes and recording details. (Go here).
Bob Dylan: Trouble Me No More. The Bootleg Series Vol 13 (1979-1981) (Sony Legacy). Someone who was born on the day Sony released its first Bob Dylan bootleg set would be 26 today. The recordings in volume 13 cover much of Dylan's born-again Christian years. His studio albums of the period were Slow Train Coming (1979), Saved (1980) and Shot of Love (1981). The material on this set consists mostly of live recordings as well as unreleased session demos and outtakes from the three studio albums cited above. As always, Sony does a terrific job archiving, researching and packaging Dylan's work-product over three narrow years. (Go here for the two-CD set and here for the 8-CD/1-DVD deluxe set).
Woody Guthrie: The Tribute Concerts (Bear Family). When Woody Guthrie died in 1967, folk lost its founder. To pay tribute to Guthrie, whose dusty songs of Depression-era injustice and hardship, folk artists who had been inspired by him gathered for two concerts—one at Carnegie Hall in 1968 and another at the Hollywood Bowl in 1970. Now Germany's Bear Family has issued a three-CD box featuring the two concerts plus newly released material that never made it onto the original releases in 1972. Artists include Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger and Odetta as well as Ry Cooder, Rambln' Jack Elliott and many others. (Go here)
The Eagles: Hotel California, 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Asylum). When this album was first released in December 1976, disco was on the rise. For those uninterested in the hustle and didn't care much for urban dance floors in general, Hotel California became a folk-rock alternative. The album was No. 1 for eight weeks and won two Grammy Awards. The line-up of songs on the album was staggering (the first three are Hotel California, New Kid in Town and Life in the Fast Lane). This anniversary set includes a remastering of the original album. The second CD features 10 live tracks recorded during the band's three nights at the Los Angeles Forum in 1976. The deluxe edition includes a DVD. (Go here).
The Ramones: Rocket to Russia, 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Rhino). In November 1977, the Ramones released their third studio album, Rocket to Russia. It would become the last album featuring all four founding members, since drummer Tommy Ramone left soon after. Songs include Rockaway Beach, Sheena Is a Punk Rocker and Teenage Lobotomy. (Go here)
In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed French chef Daniel Boulud, owner of 13 restaurants, five of which are in New York, including Daniel (go here). Chef talked about growing up on his family farm near Lyon in the late 1960s and early '70s. He also mentioned the food item he dreams about most but can't get it in the States. His most recent book is Letters to a Young Chef.
Also in the WSJ, I interviewed Time Warner executive vice president Olaf Olafsson on living in Iceland as a child and trying to make sense of the Beatles' Norwegian Wood (go here). He didn't speak English then and had to run off to use his father's dictionary to figure out the lyrics. Olaf's new novel is One Station Away.
And don't forget, the holidays are closing in fast. Order your paperback copy of my book, Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop. You'll find it in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. Or order my book, Why Jazz Happened,here. If you love JazzWax, please support the writer behind the posts.
Terry Teachout is many things. He's the Wall Street Journal's drama critic; culture critic for Commentary; author of biographies of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, among others; writer of an opera libretto (The Letter); and a playwright (Satchmo at the Waldorf). Now Terry has written his second play, Billy and Me, which had its opening night on December 8. If you plan to be down in Palm Beach, Fla., be sure to catch the show ("Tennessee Williams and William Inge: two great American playwrights, one turbulent friendship"). For more information, go here.
Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars. Richard Salvucci sent along this clip of bassist Howard Rumsey leading his Lighthouse All Stars on Frankly Jazz, an early 1960s Los Angeles TV jazz show hosted by Frank Evans. The players here in 1962 are Bobby Bryant (tp); Bob Cooper (ts); Forrest Westbrook (p); Howard Rumsey (b) and Douglas Sides (d)...
Two noteworthy albums...
Bianca Rossini's Vento do Norte (Apaixonada/BDM Records). Born in Rio de Janeiro, the singer-songwriter currently lives in Los Angeles. This album features Rossini's sultry voice and original songs in collaboration with Patrick Lockwood, Marilyn Berglas, Steven Rawlins, John Gilutin, Harvey Mason and Peter Roberts), all sung beautifully in Portuguese. A beach vacation without ever leaving home. Go here or listen at Spotify.
Adam Rudolph's Morphic Resonances (Meta). Adam defies categorization. To me, he carries on the spiritual work of Yusef Lateef and Rahsaan Roland Kirk while charting his own path forward. As Adam says for the album's liner notes, "Everything is vibrating in the universe. So, we're sitting on this planet. We're sitting on these chairs. We're bodies, but when you move into the finer elements of vibration, we can talk about it as thought or even feeling or spirit." To Adam, spirit isn't religion but mystery. His new album has a classical feel and is abstract in the finest sense of the word. I love his music. Go here or listen at Spotify. Here's Adam's Orbits, performed by the Odense Percussion Group...
Jon Hendricks. Sid Gribetz sent along a link to an hour-long clip of the Duke Ellington Orchestra playing A Concert of Sacred Music at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on September 16, 1965. Catch Jon Hendricks on In the Beginning God...
What the heck. How hip was the late Mundell Lowe? Dig his score for Love on a Rooftop, a TV sitcom that aired from September 1966 to April 1967. Whoever uploaded it to YouTube disabled the embed feature. To access, please go here.
Oddball album cover of the week.
Why schlep a real harp onto the set of a photo shoot when someone can just draw one badly, on sheetrock. Not sure why there are exclamation points on the illustrated harp, why some woman is pictured with a real harp inside the "o" in Harpo, or why Harpo has flowers tucked behind his ear. Mercury wasn't big on cover design other than making sure the word "stereo" was as large as possible.
Beverley "David" Thorne, one of the last Case Study architects and the designer of Dave and Iola Brubeck's modernist homes in California and Connecticut, died December 6 in Sonoma, Calif. He was 93. (Photo above of Beverley Thorne, left, with Dave Brubeck and son, Darius, at the newly completed Brubeck house in Oakland in 1954).
Bev's death was confirmed yesterday by architect Paul Wood, Bev's colleague and long-time friend. Paul said from France that he learned the sad news from Jane, Bev's companion. Bev was admitted to the hospital in Sonoma last week with pneumonia.
I knew Bev through Paul, and I exchanged emails routinely with Bev (and Paul) since 2010, when I posted on Dave Brubeck's contemporary homes in Oakland, Calif., and Wilton, Ct. Both residences were testaments to the Brubecks' love of modernism and their early appreciation of residences with clean geometric lines that were fully integrated into their natural surroundings. In this regard, there was little philosophical distance between their homes, which were devoid of Americana or pre-war European influences, and Dave's passion for modern classical and modern jazz. Bev's home designs were breathtakingly radical at the time, considering most suburban builders then clung to the safety and conformity of picturesque farmhouses, Cape Cods and neo-Victorians.
Bev was anything but a me-too designer. Throughout the 1950s, he was among a select group of architects re-inventing how we lived. His vision rejected the heaviness of stone and interior clutter and embraced sleekness and the use of plate glass, which allowed as much of the outside in as possible. By incorporating the spareness of Japanese tea-house design and a passion for right angles, his residences (and those of his colleagues) turned homes into works of modern art. These homes weren't retreats but an entirely new way of living.
In the early 1960s, Bev was part of the celebrated Case Study Houses project. Between 1945 and 1966, Arts & Architecture magazine hired cutting-edge architects to design inexpensive, efficient homes in California and Arizona. These experimental residences were numbered, and steel and glass were used predominantly in the spare designs. The point was to show that modernist residences could be built for ordinary people using low-cost pre-fabricated materials. Bev designed Harrison House, Case Study No. 26, in San Francisco in 1963 (pictured above).
Ten years earlier, Bev had designed the Brubecks' "house in the sky" in Oakland, where the Brubecks resided until they moved to the East Coast in 1960. The Oakland home, with its bold new futuristic design, was photographed for magazines and ads, and was the backdrop for TV interviews with Dave.
In February 2010, after Paul sent Bev my JazzWax interview with Dave (go here), Bev reached out to talk about the Brubecks' Oakland home and the thinking that went into the contemporary design. In December of 2010, I spoke again with Bev about Dave's Wilton home, which I had just visited. In tribute to Bev, I've combined the two posts.
Here's Part 1, on "Brubeck West"...
Bev Thorne: "When Iola Brubeck and I first met in Oakland in 1949, I was attending architecture school [with Paul Wood] at the University of California at Berkeley. A mutual friend and jazz aficionado introduced us. Oli told me she was interested in having a modern residence built on a lot that she and her husband Dave had purchased. I had no idea at the time that Oli’s husband was Dave Brubeck, the jazz pianist.
"Oli and I first met to talk about the house at their rugged 50 by 100-foot site. Oli told me that she and Dave had purchased the property with a War Bond given to Dave by his father when he returned from World War II. The lot was high in the Oakland Hills and had a spectacular view of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.
"When I asked Oli for her most important design criteria, she said there was just one: "I plan on having a large family so I want a single level house. No stairs." When I looked at the site that day based on Oli’s criterion, the design that came immediately to mind was obvious. So obvious, in fact, that I believe any designer standing there would have arrived at a similar solution.
"The hillside site was plenty rugged. There was a large outcropping of bedrock that climbed about 25 feet up from Heartwood Drive. To the naked eye, the outcropping looked like a small bluff. My vision was to perch their house on top of that bluff, so Oli and Dave would have the panoramic view.
"But there was no road to the top of the outcropping due to the land’s physical contour and width. So stairs would be needed from the road up to the residence, but those would be the only stairs used on-site. Keep in mind, there was no road access to the rear of the house high on the bluff. That would come years later, when Dave and Oli, flush from success, began buying all of the empty lots on the hill. That's when they built a new access road to the back of the house.
"But we're getting ahead the story. In the weeks following my initial meeting with Oli in 1949, I sketched my vision for their home. My original design called for the kitchen and living room to be cantilevered, extending 8 feet and supported by three columns of thin pipe. For those who don't know, a cantilever is a structure that is anchored only on one end. Imagine a T-square, with your foot placed on the short section to hold the longer part steady as it extends freely into space.
"Fortunately, the Brubecks could not afford to build immediately. I say 'fortunately' because soon after our meeting, I left the country to spend the next few years traveling through Europe and the Middle East. It was a journey that dramatically changed my view of architecture and design. I was particularly taken with Egypt, where the massing of structures is breathtaking, especially the pyramids.
"When I returned to the U.S. in 1953, Oli and Dave had the financing necessary to build their dream home. Oli told me, however, that she needed two more bedrooms. Her family was indeed growing. By then, my trip abroad had made me realize that the pipe columns I had originally envisioned could be eliminated in an altered design. When I reworked the plans, I extended the original cantilever to 16 feet and replaced the pipe supports with a 16-inch thick concrete wall. I also added a bedroom wing and used an 8-inch thick masonry wall for its support. [Pictured above, Bev's rough sketch of the property drawn exclusively for JazzWax]
"The bedrooms I designed were like monastic cells. They had to meet my established 8-feet by 8-feet modules. The reason for these strict dimensions had nothing to do with some spiritual leaning on my part or an architectural play on Dave’s terrific music. The dimensions simply matched the inexpensive, standard-sized building materials of that era. It was a cost decision.
"The master bedroom was cantilevered just short of a nice pine tree that I insisted we keep. To anchor the steel girders supporting the cantilever, I attached one to the outcropping of rock at the top of the site. The other girder was supported by a deep, standard foundation pad at the upper level.
"Soon after the house was completed in 1954 and the Brubecks had moved in, they had enough money to add a carport down at the lower level on Heartwood Drive. However, that pine tree I had originally insisted we save now restricted the dimensions required to house two cars.
"The problem was we needed an additional two feet. The local zoning ordinance prevented us from building the garage wall closer than five feet to the property line. That's when it dawned on me: If we cantilevered the entire carport roof structure, anchoring it to the bedrock rather than the ground, we would eliminate the wall, be able to extend the roof, and still be within the local setback requirements for a roof edge.
"This may sound easy, but the pine tree we saved was in the way again. It was impossible to extend the anchored part of the carport’s steel girder back far enough to counterbalance its overhanging weight.
"I’m sure Dave has never forgiven me for this, but I decided to build a concrete pad above where the carport’s girder was to be anchored. Doing this would allow me to place a heavy boulder on top of the pad to form a counter balancing mass for the steel girder supporting the carport roof.
"All went well until the boulder arrived. I had plans to lift it into position using a hoist suspended from one of the girders supporting the bedroom wing of the house. But when Dave came by to see the planned procedure, he was fearful that the boulder's weight would bend the girder. He nixed the operation with a thunderous, 'Thorne, stop! I will get a crane up here to set that boulder.'
"So we used a crane, and all went well. The bonus for Oli is that we covered the carport roof surface with a canvas veneer. The canvas surface gave the children a soft level play area that Oli could observe from the kitchen deck above. The roof deck had low, protective Plexiglass walls, making it completely safe for the kids.
"For some strange reason, Ed Sullivan did one of his shows from the house. I am certain of this because Patricia, my fashion-model, artist wife at the time, was there to watch the proceedings. Patricia and I had spent our honeymoon in the Brubecks’ house. We were there for three months. This period of our lives was right out of a Hollywood script: 'Architect lives in first house with new redheaded bride.' Fantastic times for both of us, as you can imagine.
"Dave liked to write his compositions using glass as a tabletop. Since we had the site rock outcrop exposed inside the house where he played and composed, I decided to get a piece of tempered glass to use as a table for him. As I recall, Dave, Oli and I cut a slot into the rock, wrapped the glass edge with a soft cloth and set it into the rock. This table became the birthplace of a lot of beautiful jazz!
"The rock was very important. As I understand it, Dave and Oli used to go up to the rock just after they bought the lot in the 1940s to see the San Francisco view, dream about building on it one day and, I would guess, smooch a bit.
"One day in 1960, my wife and I were invited over to the Brubecks' home just before they moved East. We were there to hear a preliminary rendition of The Real Ambassadors, which Dave and Oli had written. Louis Armstrong was going to be the lead male singer. Dave was singing his part, off-key, and the woman there that day singing the female part was Carmen McRae, who was appearing nearby at San Francisco's Black Hawk.
"I will never forget Carmen or the terrible scar she had across her lower neck [the result of a childhood accident with boiling oil]. It looked like someone had had a knife fight with her. Carmen was a delight and a humble lady. When Dave and Oli rented a farmhouse in Connecticut during the period when I was designing their East Coast home, Dave had a basement studio there with a piano. I often worked in that studio. When Carmen came to visit Dave, she loved looking over my shoulder at my sketches. [Pictured: A Sears Kenmore washer ad featuring the Brubecks at home in Connecticut; click to enlarge]
"But back to California. The Heartwood House or 'Brubeck West,' as the Oakland home came to be known, received much attention over the years since its completion in 1954. The person who deserves credit for bringing my design to life was builder Art Houvanitz. He was the low bidder on the project, and we were very fortunate that he agreed to build the house on such a ridiculously contoured site, especially given the Brubecks' minimal budget. [Pictured: Heartwood House today, courtesy of Google Satellite]
"I’ve often wondered why this house has received so much attention and acclaim. To me, it was simply a straightforward, economical solution to an impossible site. The solution to me always seemed obvious, but to others the house took on a magical quality. In all honesty and fairness, credit for Heartwood House must go to Oli Brubeck (right) and her 'step-less' requirement back in 1949. Three cheers and double kudos for her!"
Here's Part 2, on "Brubeck East"...
In December 2010, I interviewed Dave Brubeck for The Wall Street Journal at his home in Wilton, Ct. (go here) [Photo above of Dave Brubeck at home, by Beverley D. Thorne]
When I pulled up at Dave and Iola's house, the structure from the road looked like an unassuming one-story Japanese house. But once inside, I saw that it wasn't a single-story house at all but a split-level abode built into the hill. I also noticed that the back facade of the home is nearly all glass. The massive windows allowed for a panoramic view of the trees, hills, rocks, a lily pond and a rushing stream that runs alongside the house. The sound of the waterway permeates the glass and creates enormous tranquility. It's Christmas in Connecticut meets The Fountainhead. [Photo above of the Brubecks' home from the second-story catwalk, by Bev Thorne]
During my afternoon with Dave and Iola, Dave told me that Bev often slept outdoors on the property in a sleeping bag while designing the house. He did this to chart where the sun emerged in the sky each day so he could best position the structure for maximum sun exposure during season changes. You could only appreciate how much Dave adored the sun if you saw him bathed in it. Only then would you see that the piano wizard of dark clubs and college-campus stages is really a California raisin at heart. [Photo of the home's exterior gardens, by Bev Thorne]
Upon my return from Connecticut, I reached out to Bev for his thoughts on the house. Here's Bev on "Brubeck East"...
Bev Thorne: "While I was designing the Brubecks' home in Connecticut, I worked in the basement of the farmhouse Dave and Iola were renting. Many times I would work very late or even all night. The large window above my desk would attract all manner of bugs from the local area, since my drafting-table light was the only one within miles.
"It used to scare the hell out of me when the big bugs banged into the screen on the window. However, their clatter did tend to wake one if there was a tendency to doze off for a few minutes.
"The boulder you wrote about in your Wall Street Journal article about is indeed granite, at least to the best of my geologic knowledge. This is one reason I spent so much time at the building site in Connecticut. The stream and the boulders were an integral part of my design composition. [Pictured: View from the Brubecks' house facing the boulders and stream, by Bev Thorne]
"As you most likely noticed, the entrance to the Brubecks' home sits on a large boulder outcrop that emanates from the natural ground. I wanted to continue this rock theme that was started on the 'Brubeck West' house. [Photo of Bev Thorne with Iola Brubeck, courtesy of Bev Thorne]
"As you recall from our earlier conversation, at the very top of their West Coast home [pictured] was an outcropping of rock inside their home that rested about three feet above the floor. This is the rock that we notched and installed a 3/4" thick sheet of glass in order to make a table for Dave to use for writing music. To continue the theme out West, we used a large boulder as the counter balance for the cantilevered carport's wide flange beam.
"For the East Coast home, I also allowed an outcropping of granite to emerge into their living room, forming a garden.
"I do hope you found Dave and Iola as regular and unassuming as I had mentioned to you. They have always been very family focused and down to earth. Even with all of Dave's fame, I don't believe they have changed very much. [Pictured: View of the Brubecks' living room, courtesy of Bev Thorne]
"To emphasize this point I would like to relate a simple short tale to you:
"When Dave was just beginning to get some notoriety in California, he was playing at the Black Hawk in San Francisco, I believe. We used to meet near the club on his breaks to talk about the house I was designing for him and Iola.
"One evening Dave and I were working on the plans during an intermission. Naturally, a long line had formed outside trying to get into the club to hear this new jazz pianist sensation.
"Well, when it became time for Dave and the group to return to the stage, Dave was nowhere to be found. Then one of the waiters saw Dave and me standing in line waiting to get into the club with everyone else.
"The comment from the waiter, who stepped outside, to Dave was priceless: 'Mr. Brubeck, you really don't need to stand in line to get back to the stage.' Three cheers for that!
"PS: Dave's story about the soup bones in your Wall Street Journal article is true. My wife and Dave's wife used to go shopping together for groceries at the "dented food-can center" down in Berkeley, where prices were reduced to an absolute minimum." [Pictured: Dave playing on his favorite concert grand, accompanied by his son Matthew on cello in lower left-hand corner, courtesy of Bev Thorne]
JazzWax track:The composition that reminds me most of Dave's Connecticut home is Nomad, by Dave and Iola Brubeck. It also musically expresses Bev's passion for modernism and organic design. I'll miss Bev, and I miss Dave, who died in 2012. Iola died in 2014. What an afternoon that was in Connecticut. Here's the Dave Brubeck Quartet, with Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, playing Nomad...
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of 55 More Songs," "Anatomy of a Song," "Rock Concert: An Oral History" and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards.
