JazzWax

Jackie McLean on Mars

Yesterday, I came across an interesting documentary about alto saxophonist Jackie McLean and thought you'd dig. It's a 1979 film by Ken Levis that explores McLean's life and career as he taught at the University of Hartford in the mid-1970s. The film runs only 32 minutes, but it provides a harrowing feel for the despair gifted jazz musicians felt in an age of dwindling recording and performing opportunities. One can sense McLean's resentment. Here's Jackie McLean on Mars...

Charles Mingus: Montreux '75

On July 20, 1975, Charles Mingus was in Montreux, Switzerland, to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival. He was on tour to promote Changes One and Changes Two, a pair of albums recorded for Atlantic months earlier in December 1974. They are among the bassist's finest albums of the decade and were his first studio recordings in the States in the 1970s up until that point. For better or worse, a bulk of Mingus's 1970s albums were concert recordings.

Now, Eagle Rock Entertainment has released Charles Mingus: Live at Montreux 1975, a two CD set that is a follow-up to the DVD it released of the concert back in 2004. The music sounds as if the band had been recorded in the studio. The fidelity is fantastic and the applause has been kept to a hushed minimum. On stage, bassist Charles Mingus was joined by George Adams (ts, fl, vcl), Jack Walrath (tp), Don Pullen (p) and Dannie Richmond (d), with special guests Gerry Mulligan (bs) and Benny Bailey (tp).

The new album's first three tracks are from Changes One. The first is Devil Blues, a raw, fire-spitting blues with a snarling vocal by Adams. The second track is announced by Mingus as Free Cell Block F, 'Tis Nazi U.S.A. It's not. It's actually Remembering Rockefeller at Attica. I'm not sure whether Mingus confused the two, he purposefully said "Cell Block F" because it was a more controversial or because the two songs have similar chord changes. Either way, it's a wonderful rendition that runs 10:32 instead of the album's 5:58.

But the album's high point is Sue's Changes. The song, written for Sue Mingus, Charles Mingus's wife, runs a resplendent 33:27, with a wind-swept piano solo by Pullen, a trumpet solo by Walrath, a bass solo by Mingus and a drum solo by Dannie Richmond. [Photo above of Sue and Charles Mingus courtesy of Sue Mingus]

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat has a slow, mournful pace. Joining in, Bailey and Mulligan are a perfect pairing, and the song in Mulligan's hands sounds as if it belongs on the soundtrack to I Want to Live. Take the "A" Train is fairly pedestrian by contrast to the other songs performed, but it is spirited just the same. Once again, the feel of Bailey's blistering trumpet against the smooth grunts of Mulligan's baritone topped by Pullen's piano makes it worth hearing. [Photo above of Gerry Mulligan at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1975 from YouTube]

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Charles Mingus: Live at Montreux 1975 here.

The DVD is available here.

JazzWax clip: Here's Take the "A" Train...

Leslie Pintchik: Eat, Drink, Steal

Sophistication is widely admired but little understood. There's no secret formula for creating something considered sophisticated nor are there any classes that teach it. Sophistication is simply a higher level of caring and soulfulness that comes from the heart, not the mind. Complexity is often mistaken for being sophisticated. In truth, complexity is almost always long-winded, overly rendered, difficult to understand and boring. A jazz musician either gets this distinction or doesn't. Pianist Leslie Pintchik gets it.

As I wrote when reviewing her last album, True North (go here), Leslie brings depth and thought to everything she plays. On her new album, You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl, Leslie plays with complete engagement. She surfaces melancholy and joy through unusual chord voicings, well-placed pedal tones and bell-like tones in her melody lines. There's always a mood to Leslie's approach, a breathy feel that comes from caring and a natural understanding of the instrument's personality. In this regard, she plays the keyboard as if it's a harp.

Six of the eight tracks on her new album are originals, and all have an elegant sheerness, like the hushed swish of a dress, the inward blowing of a thin curtain or the stroke of a hand. For example, the title track is a feline soul-jazz piece with an easy funky feel. The title comes from a line overheard by Leslie when crossing New York's Canal Street. Mortal is more urgent and haunting, with a stillness and sadness that reminds me of Jimmy Rowles's The Peacocks. Hopperesque has a nocturnal tone and can serve as an apt backdrop to any of painter Edward Hopper's night scenes illuminated solely by streetlights, porch lights or the moon. Hopper's Summer Evening (1947) came to mind when I heard the song (painting above). Shoko Nagai's accordion is added to this one, giving it a Buenos Aires shading.

Happy Dog is a perky work that also features light touches of accordion. As with many songs on the album, Leslie never pounds on the keyboard but always delivers cleans swinging lines as if whispering the notes in your ear. The two standards—I'm Glad There Is You and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes—are transformed in Leslie's hands. She brilliantly avoids the cliche traps in both. I'm Glad There Is You is a sultry sashay and Smoke Gets In Your Eyes is taken at a mid-tempo ballad, transforming it's original intent. [Leslie Pintchik, above, at New York's Kitano recently]

My favorite song on the album has all the makings of a jazz standard. Leslie recorded A Simpler Time on her Quartets album in 2008. But here, the execution is more cohesive and straightforward. The mood is nostalgic, but hardly sad or regretful. Instead, it's a look back to earlier years without melodramatic yearning or regrets. It's simply a recollection in passing. And a sophisticated one at that.

The album features Ron Horton on trumpet and flugelhorn and Steve Wilson on alto saxophone on selected tracks. Plus Michael Sarin on drums, Satoshi Takeishi on percussion and Leslie's sensitive soul mate, husband Scott Hardy, on bass.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Leslie Pintchik's You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl (Pintch Hard) here.

The album is also available on Spotify.

JazzWax clip: Here's A Simpler Time, which provides panoramic view of Leslie's gifts as a sophisticated songwriter and pianist...

A Simpler Time

David, Barbara and Betty

In the Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed folk-rock legend David Crosby for my "Playlist" column in the Review section (go here). David talked about folk singer-guitarist Josh White's version of Strange Fruit. David said it was one of the most moving pieces of music he had ever heard at age 10 and that it started him on his career path. David's latest album is Sky Trails. From the album, here's She's Got to Be Somewhere, which was deeply influenced by Steely Dan...

For my "House Call" column in the Mansion section, I interviewed acclaimed novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford (go here). Barbara first saw her name in print at age 10 and went to work for a local newspaper in England at age 15. Her first novel, A Woman of Substance, was published when she was in her 40s, proof that amazing things can happen at any age. Her latest novel is Secrets of Cavendon. [Photo above of a young Barbara Taylor Bradford, courtesy of Barbara Taylor Bradford]

On March 7, catch my monthly appearance on SiriusXM from 9:15 to 10 a.m. (EST) on Feedback, on the VOLUME network, channel 106. I'll be the guest of co-hosts Nik Carter and Lori Majewski (above) to talk about my latest "Anatomy of a Song" column, which will be up online Monday and in print on Tuesday. I'd love to tell you which song it is, but I'm sworn to secrecy. We'll just have to wait.

Two fantastic R&B sets by the Main Ingredient and the Bar-Kays:

The Main Ingredient: Brotherly Love, the RCA Anthology (SoulMusic). This group from New York pioneered the romantic soul movement in the late 1960s and early '70s. The vocal group formed in 1964 as the Poets but soon changed their name to the Insiders and were signed by RCA. They changed their name again in 1970 to the Main Ingredient. After being assigned producer Bert DeCoteaux, the group began recording hits, including You've Been My Inspiration and Spinning Around. After Cuba Gooding Sr. joined the group, the Main Ingredient took off with hits such as Everybody Plays the Fool, Just Don't Want to Be Lonely, Make It With You and Rolling Down a Mountainside. This two-CD set features 41 songs, and the sound is absolutely terrific. A 24-page booklet with notes by Charles Waring. Go here. 

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The Bar-Kays: As One, Nightcruising, Propositions and Dangerous (Robinsongs). The Bar-Kays were from Memphis and were best known as Otis Redding's backup band. Then in December 1967, Redding boarded a private plane with four members of his band. The plane crashed into a Wisconsin lake. The sole survivor was trumpeter Ben Cauley. Fortunately, Bar-Kays bassist James Alexander had skipped the flight. So Cauley and Alexander rebuilt the band and went on to record nearly 20 albums. The four albums on this two-CD set are among their best. The band had a funk-freak Earth Wind & Fire disco feel. What's amazing about these four albums together is that you can listen to them all the way through like a concept album. Songs such as Anticipation, You Made a Change in My Life and Traffic Jamms sound fresh and say it all about this tight-sounding group. Included is a 12-page booklet with notes by Charles Waring. Go here.

In New York on March 18? Singer-songwriter Richard Barone will be hosting "Village Nights" at the Washington Square Hotel. The first event in this series on March 18 will feature composer, conductor and multi-instrumentalist David Amram. Then modern folk artists The Kennedys will perform on Sunday, April 8. Ben Allison & The Easy Way jazz trio will appear on Sunday, May 6th. Show times for all performances are at 7pm at the hotel’s North Square Lounge. Cover charge is $20 with no drink minimum. The Washington Square Hotel is located at 103 Waverly Place in Greenwich Village. For more information: (212) 777-9515 or WashingtonSquareHotel.com. To buy tickets, go here. [Photo above of Bob Dylan and David Amram]

Oddball album cover of the week.

It's a little unclear where this album cover's action was taking place. Take the "A" Train by Billy Strayhorn and recorded first by Duke Ellington was the story of a ride up to Sugar Hill in Harlem. The problem is the A train remains underground the entire way. The only place it peeps above ground is heading in the other direction, way out in Queens. And there's no station platform with people standing just before it emerges after Grant Avenue in Brooklyn. Don't believe me? Here, take an hour-long ride on the "A" train. You'll see daylight at 55:57...

BBC Documentary: Charlie Parker

Where exactly did saxophonist Charlie Parker first meet Dizzy Gillespie? How did he pay for his first Selmer saxophone? What was Buster Smith's role in Parker's development? And what was the root cause of Parker's heroin addiction? Answers to these questions and much more in an hour-long BBC documentary from 2005 called The Charlie Parker Story...

Bobby Jaspar: Clarinescapade

Even though Bobby Jaspar died in New York at 37 of a heart attack in February 1963, he remains one of the finest jazz woodwind players in Europe and the States. Jaspar played a confident and swinging tenor saxophone akin to Stan Getz, a gorgeously fluid clarinet and a warm flute. There are no bad Jaspar recordings. His improvisational skills were richly melodic and soulful, with a seemingly endless supply of ideas. Jaspar could do it all, yet his career was all too short-lived.

If you know zero about Jaspar and want an entry point, go with Clarinescapade, which was treated to a 24-bit remastering by Fresh Sound in 2007. The music sounds grandly revitalized and bright. On the album, Jaspar played tenor sax, clarinet, alto flute and flute over three sessions in New York in November 1956, assembling a quartet and quintet.

The first session, on November 12, featured Jaspar (ts, fl, cl alto-fl), Tommy Flanagan (p), Nabil "Knobby" Totah (b) and Elvin Jones (d). These tracks include How Deep Is the Ocean, Jaspar's Clarinescapade, Jaspar's Tutti Flutti, I Remember April and Spring Is Here.

The second session came two days later and included Jaspar (ts), Tommy Flanagan (p), Nabil "Knobby" Totah (b) and Elvin Jones (d). The songs recorded were I Remember You, J.J. Johnson's Wee Dot and I Won't Dance. 

The third session featured Jaspar (ts, fl), Eddie Costa (p), Barry Galbraith (g), Milt Hinton (b) and Osie Johnson (d). The songs are Jaspar's In a Little Provincial Town, Manny Albam's They Lock Alike, Barry Galbraith's Barry's Tune and Belgian pianist Francis Coppieters' Minor Drop. Jaspar wrote the arrangements for all three sessions. [Photo above of Barry Galbraith]

The standouts on the album are Clarinescapade, with Jaspar playing a smooth and taut clarinet; Wee Dot, featuring Jaspar sailing along on a brash tenor sax and a nifty drum solo by Elvin Jones; and Barry's Tune, on which Jaspar's tenor jousts with Galbraith's guitar.

Jaspar was married to singer Blossom Dearie when he died. For more on Jaspar, read my two-part interview in 2010 with David Amram here and here. [Photo above of Bobby Jaspar and wife Blossom Dearie]

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Bobby Jaspar: Clarinescapade (Fresh Sound) here and here.

You'll also find this album at Spotify.

JazzWax clip: Here's Barry's Tune...

Barry's Tune

Jemal Ramirez: African Skies

One of the hottest Latin-jazz and salsa markets in the country is San Francisco. This may come as a surprise to many but it shouldn't. The city's Latin Quarter (now North Beach) has been a music center since the 1930s. The district's Latino history dates back to the 1910s, when, according to The Heart of the Mission: Latino Art and Politics in San Francisco by Cary Cordova, Mexicans settled there after fleeing their country's revolution. During World War II, the Spanish-speaking neighborhood became a magnet for a more diverse Latino population. As a major Naval port, San Francisco was home to many war plants that operated around the clock. All of them needed workers. Over the years, the district's vibrant club life gave rise to successive generations of Latino, black and white salsa and Latin-jazz players. [Photo above of Jemal Ramirez]

Jemal Ramirez is a drummer and band director at the University Preparatory Academy in nearby San Jose. He also has a tremendous new album out called African Skies. The album features Ramirez on drums; Warren Wolf on marimba and vibes; Howard Wiley on saxes; Matthew Clark on piano and Fender Rhodes; and John Shifflett on acoustic bass, with special guest Mike Olmos on trumpet on several tracks.

What I love about Ramirez's drums is how thick and wide-bodied they are without stealing the show. They are ever-present throughout the album but Ramirez never makes the mistake of drowning out everyone else or soloing excessively. Instead, he provides his cohesive hard-bop unit with a meaty, Latin-tinged frame that works wonderfully.

The group takes on an interesting range of music here, including Freddie Hubbard's Latina, Ramirez's own No Time Left, Michael Brecker's African Skies, John Scofield's Don't Shoot the Messenger and Christian McBride's Youthful Bliss. Tom Harrell's It Always Is, Matt Finders' A Good Time and Wolf, Wiley and Ramirez's A Long Way Home are here, too. Two standards were added as well—Speak Low and Save Your Love for Me.
[Photo above of Warren Wolf]

As a drummer, Ramirez lets his crew shine. Clark's piano is absolutely terrific, and the same goes for Wolf on marimba and vibes. This is a perfect album and a must own. Honestly, I could listen to Ramirez play drums all day long.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Jemal Ramirez's African Skies (Joyful Beat) here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Jemal Ramirez's band in 2015 in San Francisco...

And from the new album, here's Ramirez's No Time Left...

No Time Left

Barbara Moore: Swinging Pop

The British rock invasion of the mid-1960s had a profound effect on American music and the country's culture at large. For the first time, adolescents held sway over the record industry. By decade's end, the generation's influence extended to virtually all corners of the marketplace. Young was in, old was out.

Kids no longer wanted to look grown up, and neither did adults. Fashion, car design, home furnishings, dancing, TV, hairstyles and so much more became more sporty and childlike. Colors were bolder, beats were louder, and being young and free was the thing. Older men cast their eye on younger women as a way to reset and revitalize their self-image. The sexual revolution was underway. Skirts shortened, sideburns dropped and divorce rates climbed. Everything was young and chaotic virtually overnight. [Photo above of Barbara Moore courtesy of Barbara Moore]

Interestingly, this trend wasn't limited to the U.S. Throughout Western Europe, the bachelor class was feeling its oats. In Europe, a new form of easy-listening music surfaced to meet the new tastes of happening men and women. Europe's mood music had a distinctly brassy and cool feel in the '60s—Peter Sellers meets Petula Clark. These albums weren't meant for settling down and relaxing but to get out there and swing.

Hundreds of albums in this groovy category—a European genre I call "swinging pop"—often featured breezily arranged young vocal groups. Think Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, Singers Unlimited and the Fifth Dimension. It's too easy to call this music "lounge." It clearly was designed to appeal to Europe's young-adult market that missed out on their teenage years.

The queen of this swinging-pop vocal sound was Barbara Moore. A first-call studio background singer, she was a member of the Anita Kerr Singers in 1966 as well as the Ladybirds, who sang backup on the BBC's Top of the Pops jukebox TV show. Later in the 60's and into the '70s, Moore led her own swinging vocal group known as the Barbara Moore Singers, who recorded on many British pop singles, films and lounge albums as well as on sessions for commercial background music. She also was a composer, arranger and conductor. As a singer, Moore's specialty was to scat gleefully at the high end of her girlish vocal range. [Photo of Barbara Moore, above, in 1966 courtesy of Barbara Moore]

Over time, I'll share more of this highly addictive and fabulous European "swinging pop" with you. It's yet another genre I stumbled across while wandering around YouTube last week. Let me illustrate the Barbara Moore Sound:

Here's she is scatting on Should I from Stan Butcher's Birds and Brass (1966)...

Here's Moore (right, in the video, with glasses) singing behind Dusty Springfield with Madeline Bell (left) and Leslie Duncan (center) in 1967...

One of the finest albums by the Barbara Moore Singers is Voices in Latin (1968). Here's Moore singing lead on I've Walked Alone...

Here's Fly Paradise, from Moore's Vocal Shades and Tones album in 1972, which gathered her work for the De Wolfe music libraray...

Here's Moore on the Roger Webb Sound in 1971 singing Sweet Thing...

Here's Hot Heels from Barbara Moore's Vocal Shades and Tones in 1972...

Here's an interview with Moore, including Moore playfully conducting Fly Paradise...

Here's Moore's first professional orchestral arrangement. It was for Deena Webster singing Scarborough Fair in 1968...

Here's Moore playing the piano in 2015 at Brighton Station. You can visit her Facebook page here.

In addition to the Barbara Moore site (here), there's a blog post on her here.

Videos: Bossa Nova Legends

Well, it's Friday once again. A long week. So let's tilt our seats back, put up our feet and jet down to Rio. Here are four fab videos of bossa nova founders that I found surfing around on YouTube yesterday:

Here's Luiz Bonfa playing his Batucada, Tenderly, Manhã de Carnaval and Menina Flor...

Here's João Gilberto playing his Desafinado...

Here's Roberto Menescal and Nara Leão playing O Barquinho, O Pato and Manhã de Carnaval...

And here's Carlos Lyra with his daughter Kay some years ago singing his Você e Eu...

Enjoy the weekend!

The Hot Wax of Stax

Stax Records was the South's answer to Motown and Atlantic, and the African-American response to the British Invasion and folk-rock. Founded in Memphis in 1957 by Jim Stewart and his sister, Estelle Axton, the company began as Satellite Records but changed its name in 1961. Jim and Estelle took the first two letters of their last names and combined them to form "Stax."

Looking back, the label's history divides into three general periods—the "deep soul" years from 1961 to Otis Redding's death in an air crash in 1967; the "fried funk" years from 1967 to the Wattstax concert in 1971; and the "mixed bag" years from 1972 to the label's bankruptcy in 1975, when Stax recorded country, folk, sunshine pop and even rock in a scattered effort to raise cash and fend off failure. [Photo above of Estelle Axton and Jim Stewart]

Interestingly, three recently released box sets trace these three important periods in the label's history:

Otis Redding: Live at the Whisky a Go Go, the Complete Recordings (Volt). This six-CD set was released in 2016, and the writer of the set's liner notes, Lynell George, won a 2017 Grammy earlier this year. The box covers six performance sets over three nights at Los Angeles's Whisky a Go Go in April 1966. The sound quality is fantastic, as is the backup band. The set vastly expands on the single album released by Atco in 1968, after Redding's death. At the Whisky, Otis unleashed a new style of earthy, emotional soul on a highly receptive and largely white audience. Gone was the mannered supper-club slickness and poised polish of most mass-market soul up until this point. While James Brown had already revolutionized soul with tight funk and coiffed attitude, Redding whipped audiences into a frenzy with a growling, sweaty rural energy that still leaves the listener breathless. High point: Redding's 10:08 cover of Brown's Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, in which he masterfully outdoes Brown, if that's even possible. Redding would become a national star after his appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival in '67 and the release of Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay in 1968 after his passing. My only quibble is hearing many of the same songs across each Whisky set. Then again, each one has a slightly different hue. Go here.

Isaac Hayes: The Spirit of Memphis 1962-1976 (Stax). One of Stax's most influential and successful artists was Isaac Hayes, who hasn't really gotten his due yet. He was a songwriter, studio musician, producer, artist and a pioneer of longer-form soul. In this four-CD set, the box artfully provides a loving overview of an empowered soul visionary. Disc #1 features Hayes as a songwriter and producer on songs such as Sam and Dave's Soul Man. Disc #2 covers his years as an artist on Stax's Volt and Enterprise subsidiaries, a period that included The Theme From Shaft. Disc #3 provides a taste of Hayes the cover artist. And disc #4 is a fascinating look at Hayes as orchestrator of long-form instrumental jams. Liner notes are by Robert Gordon, Mickey Gregory and Will Haygood. High points: (Disc #1) Billy Eckstine singing Stormy, Booker T. and the MG's Boot Leg and the Charmels As Long As I've Got You; (Disc #2) Theme From "The Men," The Look of Love and Rolling Down a Mountainside; (Disc #3) I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself, Never Gonna Give You Up and If Loving You Is Wrong; (Disc #4) Ike's Mood, Hung Up on My Baby and a 33:03 Do Your Thing. The set is certainly idiosyncratic, in that you're getting a small sampling of Hayes based on the producer's taste. But for those who may be unfamiliar with Hayes, it does the job. Go here.

Stax Singles Vol. 4: Rarities & Best of the Rest (Stax). Over the years, Concord has been releasing six-CD box sets of Stax's singles from 1968 to the label's demise in 1975. The material that predates these boxes (1960 to 1967) is owned by Atlantic today, which purchased the distribution rights to the catalog in 1967 when Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton needed cash. The horrible financial impact of this deal became apparent to Stax only after Otis Redding's death. With his passing, the distribution deal was severed, Atlantic gained control and Stax lost its best hope of generating revenue. Al Bell, Stax's new co-owner and savoir, had to develop an entirely new catalog of material with hopes that some of the singles would become big hits. Not enough did. In the third installment of Stax's post-'67 catalog (Vol. 1 was put out by Atlantic/Rhino years ago), we hear a wide range of rarities that chart an interesting history. In addition to a disc of early '60s singles (I suppose through a deal with Rhino), much of the box is devoted to the 1967-'75 period. There's funk, gospel-soul and many artists you probably never knew recorded for the label. The list includes Billy Eckstine, Chico Hamilton, Delaney & Bonnie and a number of white groups and artists. High points: Ollie & the Nightingales' Girl, You Have My Heart Singing, the Staple Singers' Stay With Us, the Newcomers' Mannish Boy, Hot Sauce's Echoes From the Past, Jean Knight's Pick Up the Pieces, Johnnie Taylor's Stop Teasing Me and Issac Hayes's Type Thing. The 76-page booklet features terrific notes by Rob Bowman, Bill Belmont, Alec Palao and Lee Hildebrand. Go here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Otis Redding's live Papa's Got a Brand New Bag...

Here's Isaac Hayes's Theme From "The Men"...

And here's Ollie & the Nightingales' Girl, You Have My Heart Singing...