JazzWax

Googie René: Romesville

Rafael Leon "Googie" René was one of the more colorful and overlooked West Coast R&B artists of the 1950s and '60s. René's songwriter and band-leader father, Leon, and singer-songwriter Bobby Day formed Class Records in Hollywood at the dawn of the 1950s. Rene worked in the production end of the label. In 1956, René, who played jazz and jump-blues piano, began writing and recording singles for Class as the Googie René Combo and Googie René Band. Many of these singles featured legendary Hollywood session players such as saxophonist Plas Johnson, drummer Earl Palmer, bassist Red Callender and guitarist Johnny "Guitar" Watson. The Googie nickname was given to him by his father because it was the first word he uttered as an infant. (For car fans, that looks like a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT on the album cover.)

What made René so fascinating was his mashing of swing, jazz, R&B and pop. The result was an unusual and addictive mix that captivated the sophisticated ear and kept feet tapping. His mid-1950s singles are pure R&B with a polyester feel, while his early '60s work marks the start of hipster lounge music—a form of jazz-infused pop with an easy-listening sheen.

One of René's more fascinating albums was Romesville, recorded for Class in 1959. It was a travelogue concept—a hip, flip Cook's tour of an imaginary place inspired by American and Italian films shot in Rome during the period. Here's how the opening paragraph of the album's liner notes describes the destination...

"Romesville. A place of mind. It could be in Italy or in some far-away place in your imagination. It has no definite time. It could have existed in the glorious past, or it could exist in the mystic future, but most likely in the existing present. With this concept in mind, Googie René presents his impression of Romesville in this modern jazz album.

The tracks are Romesville, Cool It at the Coliseum, Serenade in the Night, Flippin' the Pizza, Come Back to Sorrento, Caesar's Pad, Cafe Roman Candle, Rebecca, Cherry Ferrari and Farewell to Rome. All were René originals except for Come Back to Sorrento and Serenade in the Night.

But the album was much more than a groovy goof. As the album's liner notes point out,"30 of the finest jazz musicians were selected to record the music of this modern jazz album." Here's the personnel: Gerald Wilson (tp,arr), Conrad Gozzo, Mickey Mangano, John Audino and John Anderson (tp); John Ewing, Vern Friley and Lester Robinson (tb); Buddy Collette (reeds,fl); Plas Johnson, Jackie Kelso, Floyd Turnham and Willie Smith (reeds); Larry Bunker (vib,marimba); Googie René (p); Howard Roberts (g); Al Viola and Al Hendrickson (mandolin); Red Callender (b); Earl Palmer (d); Milt Holland, Modesto Duran and Jack Costanzo (bgo,cga); Leon Rene (arr), except Come Back to Sorrento, which was arranged by Gerald Wilson.

Googie René was a Los Angeles R&B original, an artist whose music was a tasteful tapestry of styles that had emerged in the city in the 1950s. A shame so little is known about him. I couldn't find a formal obit, but a write-up here provides the basics. Hopefully his son, Chris Rene, will develop a Wikipedia entry.

Googie René died in 2007.

JazzWax tracks: Googie René's Romesville is available at iTunes and on CD. You'll find the CD at Amazon and eBay. There are several René compilations at Amazon as well.

JazzWax clips: Here's the album's opening track, with René stringing together all of the song titles into a hipster monologue before the big band takes over...

Here's Cool It at the Coliseum, building off Jimmie Lunceford's Yard Dog Mazurka and Ray Wetzel's Intermission Riff...

Cool It At the Coliseum

Here's Cherry Ferrari...

Cherry Ferrari

And here are a few of René's pop-R&B singles:

Here's Beautiful Weekend (1957)...

Beautiful Weekend

Here's Moonglow (1958)...

Moonglow

And here's Side-Track, a 1957 example of René's straight-up R&B...

Side-Track

Electrifying Track: Traneing In

From time to time, I intend to focus on a single track that I find electrifying and represents a definitive work by a significant jazz artist. The purpose of such a narrow focus is to separate one song from an artist's body of work, put it in context with the time in which it was released, and offer a gateway into an artist's discography for those who may be less familiar with him or her. For those who are familiar, it will likely be a track you've forgotten about.

The first "electrifying track" in this series is Traneing In, from John Coltrane's third studio album as a leader—John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio (Prestige). The album was renamed Traneing In in 1961 and given a new cover with Coltrane's image.

Why bother with a new cover in 1961? Bob Porter had the answer: "Rudy Van Gelder began recording in stereo in 1957, but stereo issues were not done right away. It wasn’t until more than a year later (1958) that stereo releases began to appear on Prestige. While some stereo sessions were mixed down to mono, Van Gelder ran one mono and one stereo tape machine.

"What controlled the decision to reissue an album with a new cover was the jacket [cardboard shell] and slick [glossy cover image] inventories. If you had slicks, you could fabricate jackets. Once your old slicks were gone, your album was out of print. When you reissued, you could reorder the old cover slick or design a new one based on sales, shifts in the market, artist success, a label's new look and other trends and factors.

"Prestige founder Bob Weinstock was pretty good at estimating quantities for slicks. Jackets were fabricated based on advance orders and adjusted, if needed, based on initial sales. But when sales happened quickly, the adjustment had to be made quickly and sometimes the number was moving so well that you could create a new cover in the same amount of time."

Recorded on August 23, 1957, the Traneing In track featured Coltrane (ts), Red Garland (p), Paul Chambers (b) and Art Taylor (d). What makes this original blues by Coltrane special is the way in which Garland digs in with block chords during the lengthy opening, which lasts 3:33. It's some of the finest assertive blues piano you'll ever hear. Coltrane's playing here is particularly muscular and decisive, and it features an early use of his "sheets of sound" technique while soloing. Chambers's bass solo shows off his powerful hand and lyrical lines while Taylor's drums are spry and sharp. Garland's outro solo is equally spectacular.

If ever a saxophonist announced to the jazz world that a new player was in town, Coltrane did so on this track. And the trio was there with him the entire way. Makes my hairs stand up on end each time I hear it.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find John Coltrane's album, Traneing In, here.

The album also is available at Spotify.

JazzWax clip: Here's Traneing In...

Grant Green: Funk in France

Blue Note Records probably owes Grant Green's family an apology. The guitarist was the finest jazz guitarist of the 1960s, topped only by Wes Montgomery. Today, virtually Green's entire discography has made it into the digital age. But it may surprise many that a good number of his albums for Blue Note weren't released during his lifetime, including his first. By my count, nine as a leader were shelved for reasons that escape me. These albums include First Session, Remembering, Gooden's Corner, Nigeria, Oleo, Born to Be Blue, Blues for Lou, Matador and Solid.

Perhaps there were flaws in the music or recordings I can't detect. Or perhaps Blue Note recorded him so often as a sideman that they figured his leadership releases would saturate the market and could wait. Or perhaps Blue Note had released too many albums and couldn't afford to support them all. I can only assume that holding back so many leadership albums can do a number on an artist's head. Either way, holding back so many leadership recordings seems unfair and was likely solely a business decision without regard for the artist.

Between 1967 and '69, Green succumbed to drug problems, resulting in an arrest and a prison sentence. When Green was released in '69, he needed income to get back on his feet. So he re-joined Blue Note and began recording the more lucrative form of jazz-funk that the label had pioneered in the mid-1960s when the boogaloo took hold. Green, a soulful master of the single-note jazz guitar, transitioned beautifully, and many of his albums and singles released between 1969 and '73 did well on the R&B charts. These albums include Carryin' On, Green is Beautiful, Alive!, Visions, Shades of Green, The Final Comedown and Live at the Lighthouse, followed by additional albums on other labels after he left Blue Note for a second time.

During that pivotal year between 1969 and '70, Green toured in Europe. While there, he recorded in Paris in October 1969 and was taped live at the Antibes Jazz Festival on the Côte d'Azur in July 1970. Both recordings appear now on the new two-CD release, Grant Green: Funk in France (Resonance). We have these recordings thanks to the close relationship developed by Resonance Records and producer Zev Feldman with France's Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA).

The Paris studio material in '69 was recorded at the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF). The session featured Green (g), Larry Ridley (b) and Don Lamond (d), with Barney Kessel (g) added on I Wish You Love. It's largely a jazz set with one jazz-funk tune added: James Brown's I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open the Door I'll Get It Myself). The rest of the songs were Sonny Rollins's Oleo, Antonio Carlos Jobim's How Insensitive, Untitled Blues, Sonny's Sonnymoon for Two and Charles Trenet's I Wish You Love.

The live Antibes Jazz Festival material featured Green (g), Claude Bartee (ts), Clarence Palmer (org) and Billy Wilson (d). The game-changer for Green between the two recordings was Upshot, a huge jazz-funk hit off his Carryin' On album that had been released just months earlier. That album launched the jazz-funk phase of Green's career, which would last until his death in 1979.

The other tracks from the Antibes' sets were Little Anthony and the Imperials' 1965 hit Hurt So Bad, Tommy Tucker's Hi-Heel Sneakers and a second 20-minute performance of Upshot.

Listening to this Resonance release, the jazz-funk tracks sound so much freer and alive for Green, who clearly was tiring of the kind of straight-up that dominates the Paris studio recordings. Listening to him peck away on the Antibes material, particularly Hi-Heel Sneakers and the longer version of Upshot. They are a revelation. Jazz-funk allowed Green to express himself more soulfully and connect with his St. Louis roots. What's most remarkable about Green is that he had three enormous careers in all—a prolific jazz sideman, a vastly under-released jazz leader and a pioneering jazz-funk avatar.

Hopefully, live recordings from the early '70s of Green in his jazz-funk prime will surface. For now, these are a remarkable find, since they allow us to hear the bridge Green crossed from threadbare jazz to the much more dynamic and emotional jazz-funk.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Grant Green: Funk in France (Resonance) here.

JazzWax clip: Here's a mini documentary from Resonance on Grant Green's embrace and expansion of jazz-funk...

And thanks to Murari Venkataraman for reminding me about this three-part documentary on Grant Green as his son, Grant Green Jr., goes in search of his father...

For Part1, go here...

For Part 2, go here...

And for Part 3, go here...

Doc: Mrs. Miles Davis

Trumpeter Miles Davis began a relationship with dancer Frances Taylor in 1958, and the couple married in December 1960. It was a particularly bad time for Davis. He was without a stable working group as jazz began to change without him, and he was suffering from sickle cell anemia.

To help ease the pain of his blood disorder, Davis turned to alcohol and cocaine. Domestic violence soon followed. A week after Taylor posed for the cover of Davis's E.S.P. album in 1965 (below), she left him. The couple remained separated until their divorce in 1968.

Here's Frances Davis, Her Story: Life Before & After Miles, a 50-minute video interview with Taylor by videographer Rick Bowman for the Shapshot Music & Arts Foundation headed by Jonathan Bewley...

Françoise, Ozzy and Patricia

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed the legendary Françoise Hardy for my "House Call" column in the paper's Mansion section (go here). Ms. Hardy talked about her difficult time growing up with a father who had an affair with her mother and had a family of his own. She also reflected on how she got her big break in 1962. [Photo of Ms. Hardy courtesy of Amazon]

Here's Ms. Hardy in the '60s...

Here's the title track of La Question (1971), my favorite Françoise Hardy album...

Also in the WSJ, my "Anatomy of a Song" column on Black Sabbath's Paranoid (go here), a 1971 song that helped kick off the heavy-metal rock movement. Interviewing Ozzy Osbourne was a gas. He's completely open and so funny. I also spoke with the song's producer Tom Allom. [Photo above courtesy of Ozzy Osbourne]

Here's an early performance by the band on Britain's Top of the Pops TV program in '70...

Stan Kenton. Following my post last week on The Road to Stan, a 1961 album featuring the North Texas State big band on 90th Floor Records, I heard from Joann Kenton (above, in the 1960s), Stan's third wife. They were married from 1967to 1969:

"Marc, this is so interesting to read, as I can tell you firsthand that Stan told me it was a lifesaver for him to get his musicians right out of North Texas State. He said it used to take him years to get new guys hired for the road to learn the skills that these kids had right away. Dee Barton was one of my very favorites, as I knew him quite well during the time that I was married to Stan. At my request, he did several arrangements for me, such as Here’s That Rainy Day and MacArthur Park."

Marcos Valle at Birdland. This week, Brazilian bossa nova legend Marcos Valle will appear at New York's Birdland from Tuesday, May 29 through Saturday, June 2. Don't miss this run if you're in town. Marcos is bringing along Paula and Jaques Morelenbaum as well as Patricia Avles. If you're looking for an affordable vacation to Rio in the '60s, this is it. For more information, go here.

Dudley Moore. A British comedian, yes. But also a jazz pianist. How good? David Chilver sent along a link to this clip from 1965...

Patricia Scot recorded one commercial vocal album, Once Around the Clock, in 1959 for the ABC-Paramount label. Creed Taylor produced. Scot was backed by the Creed Taylor Orchestra, led by Kenyon Hopiins. The band featured Jimmy Cleveland, Jim Dahl and Frank Rehak (tb); Dick Hixson (b-tb); Phil Woods and Jerome Richardson (as); Joe Venuto (vib,bgo); Milt Hinton and Al Hall (b); and Don Lamond (d).

Larry Allen sent along a link to Ms. Scot's site, where you can hear other recordings she made over the years. Ms. Scot is still with us. Go here.

Here's Patricia Scot singing You Leave Me Breathless from Once Around the Clock. Dig the super trombone-driven arrangement...

Marty Sheller, one of the great boogaloo and Latin-jazz arrangers, sent along a great link to Herbie Hancock performing his Cantaloupe Island with Freddie Hubbard (tp), Joe Henderson (ts), Ron Carter (b) and Tony Williams (d)…

Keely Smith and Louis Prima. Here's the Las Vegas comedic duo in color...

What the heck. In 1964 and '65, the band that gave the Beatles a run for their money wasn't the Rolling Stones. It was the Dave Clark Five. Here's the DC5's Because, on Shindig...

Oddball album cover of the week.

Surely there were other ways to show a woman falling in love. Covers like these gave Cupid a bad name.

Doc: Why the Fuss in '68?

I was 11 through most of 1968 (I'd turn 12 in September). For some reason, I remember everything that happened in the news that year. My parents subscribed to The New York Times, and reading the paper was a religion in our Manhattan apartment. Everyone took a section. And not just for the news. My father was Lou Myers, the commercial artist (and later New Yorker cartoonist) whose wild illustrations for major advertisers often graced full pages of the paper. It was exciting turning the pages and seeing one or more. [Pictured above, Lou Myers cartoon illustration for United Aircraft circa late 1960s]

In 1968, almost everything that had been building up in the '60s reached a break point. And so little made sense. The Tet offensive began in Vietnam in January, the Mai Lai massacre occurred in March and was soon revealed, the same month President Johnson announced he wouldn't seek re-election, Martin Luther King was assassinated in April and Columbia University was seized by students that month, Bobby Kennedy was killed in June, Chicago went nuts during the Democratic Convention in August, two African-America Olympic track athletes raised gloved fists on the stepped medals stand in protest that summer, Richard Nixon won the presidency in November and the Beatles' White Album came out on the fifth anniversary of President Kennedy's November 22 assassination. No one I knew had a clue what that album was about, just that there was way too much music to consume and a million enigmatic messages to untangle.

Earlier that year, in June, when school let out, my family went to Paris to stay with family friends. Then we spent about four weeks driving through Europe (four of those days were spent in an Alpine village after our windshield cracked and needed to be ordered and replaced). Paris in May had endured the worst street violence since the storming of the Bastille in 1789. Remnants of the battles were still evident. While it's easy to understand why America was melting down, what exactly were the issues that pulled Paris apart?

As May 2018 comes to a close, Jimi Mentis sent along a link to this terrific BBC documentary that explains how Paris and other European cities reached a boiling point 50 years ago...

Spotlight on Jacy Parker

My obsession with female singers who recorded in the late 1950s and early '60s continues. Today's focus is Jacy Parker, a superb pianist and singer who all but disappeared after 1974. Astonishingly, she recorded only one album—Spotlight on Jacy Parker—for Verve in 1961. What makes this album remarkable is that Parker accompanied herself on piano, backed by Ernie Royal (tp), Don Cinderella (b), Sticks Evans (d, bongos) and Roy James (d, likely when Evans played bongos). The album was produced by Eddie Heller, probably just before Creed Taylor's arrival at the label.

According to the album's original liner notes, Parker was in her mid-20s when the album was recorded. Born Jacqueline Corinne, Parker began playing piano at age 5 and studied with Marjorie Hyams, who had played in Woody Herman's First Herd and then played more famously in the original George Shearing Quintet. Parker then attended the American Conservatory in Chicago to study harmony and theory. At 17, she played her first professional gig. She fronted her own trio, spending her spare time listening to Shearing. "I was playing his things and playing like him," she said in the album's liner notes.

In 1954, she moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School of Music. But her late arrival to the city prevented her from starting a semester, so she applied for her union card. Parker gigged in New Jersey, where manager Lee Magid spotted her and booked her into New York's Left Bank, the Embers, Le Bistro, the Crystal Room, Jilly's and, in Chicago, the Black Orchid.

Parker said she didn't start out to be a singer but it became a necessity because "it was easier to get booked." Parker said she chose all the songs on the album. "Music is something else. I love it. I've played it nearly all my life. How do you make music a career? Music decides that for you. After a while you find you can't get along with it. It's more than a career. It's a whole life."

The songs Parker chose for the 1961 session were I Thought About You, Guess Who I saw Today, Here Comes Trouble Again, My Ship, Time After Time, You're the Cream in My Coffee, I Like the Likes of You, Sweet William, Long Gone Love, It's You or No One, You Mean Old World and But Beautiful. Every song is a winner. Parker's playing was exceptional and her singing was even better.

So what happened to Parker? How could someone this talented record just one album? Bad management, lousy contacts in the record business or a lack of interest on her part are among the possible reasons. Yesterday, I did a little research to see if I could pick up the trail. Here's what I discovered: 

Parker played New York's Gold Bug In April 1964. The she was at Indianapolis's Crescendo that August, at Alioto's Arbordale in Sausalito, Ca., in October and November 1965, in San Francisco at the Sheraton-Palace's Tudor Room in November 1967, at the Rhum Room at Miami's Newport Resort in April 1970, at the Bradford Hotel's New Orleans Room in Fort Myers, Fla., in June 1970, at Waldo's Safari in Los Angles in March 1972, at Cafe Brasserie on the Sunset Strip in April '72, at the Carriage Inn in Van Nuys in August '72, and at the Cafe Brasserie in September 1974.

And that's as far as her newspaper gig ads go. Did Parker marry and take her husband's last name? Did she change her name back to her birth name? How could she have pulled the plug on a career in music that was so much of a part of who she was in 1961? 

Hopefully I'll hear from Jacy or from a family member with the rest of the Jacy Parker story.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Spotlight on Jacy Parker teamed with Marian Bruce's Halfway to Dawn (Fresh Sound) here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Tommy Grey's Here Comes Trouble Again, which sounds like an artful merging of The Night We Called It a Day and Angel Eyes (remember, Parker is singing and playing piano)...

Here Comes Trouble Again

And here's But Beautiful...

But Beautiful

Duduka Plays Dom Salvador

Dom Salvador is a Brazilian hard-bossa legend. Despite living in New York for decades, he's not nearly as well known in the States as he should be. Hard bossa (or "samba jazz") was a movement that started in Rio de Janeiro just as the bossa nova was catching on in the early 1960s. It was an attempt to anchor the popular Brazilian form more closely to jazz and samba syncopation. The instrumental form was a push-back against the cooler, more romantic and commercial sound of the tender and whispery bossa nova. The piano recordings of Horace Silver were a big influence.

Leading hard-bossa practitioners included Sergio Mendes, the Sambalanco Trio, Tamba 4, Tenorio Jr. and pianist Dom Salvador, whose Rio '65 Trio album in 1965 marked a significant shift in the robust dialogue between piano, bass and drums. Interestingly, the music by hard-bossa artists was just as melodic as the bossa nova, just more focused on jazz improvisation and a heavier percussive attack.

Now, drummer Duduka Da Fonseca honors this sound and Salvador with his new album—Duduka Da Fonseca Trio Plays Dom Salvador (Sunnyside). Let me quote from Duduka's liner notes:

In 1965, my hometown of Rio de Janeiro was marking the 400th anniversary of its founding. In celebration of that anniversary, Rio 65 Trio (Dom Salvador, Sergio Barrono and Edison Machado) released their first album together as a trio. I was 14 years old at the time and had been playing the drums for a year. This album had the most profound impact on my life as a musician and beyond.

The way they interacted was amazing. I had never heard Brazilian instrumental music being played that way before, and more than 50 years later, only a few people understand the concept well enough to play in that direction. Dom Salvador was one of the main creators in the early '60s of Samba Jazz, and in my opinion, he is one of the most gifted musician-composers that Brazil ever produced.

Now let me quote from Dom Salvador's notes from the same album:

I moved to New York City in 1973, and Duduka arrived in 1975. In 1980 I decided to form a new group in New York City, with Duduka on drums, Dennis Irwin on bass and Ion Muniz on sax and flute. At the first rehearsal, I was blown away by Duduka—he knew all the breaks and hits in my compositions and arrangements, and he'd never played in my band before...I am so thrilled and honored that Duduka Da Fonseca has chosen to record my compositions, and can barely find the words to thank him for this beautiful CD. To know that someone holds my music in such high regard and has produced such a deeply felt recording makes my heart sing. [Photo above of Dom Salvador courtesy of the Public Theatre]

In essence, this is a jazz album with a Rio feel. There are strong traces of gospel and soul-jazz in the piano playing of David Feldman, with touches of Dave Brubeck. Guto Wirtti is equally busy on bass, while Jaques Morelenbaum plays cello on one track—Para Elis.

Most important is the drumming by Duduka, who stirs all of this together with frothy beats and intoxicating polyrhythms. A glorious celebration of Dom Salvador's timeless music and his powerful contribution to the hard-bossa movement. [Photo above of Duduka Da Fonseca courtesy of Wikipedia]

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Duduka Da Fonseca Trio Plays Dom Salvador here.

The album also is available at Spotify.

JazzWax note: To read my 2012 interview with Duduka, go here.

JazzWax clips: From the new album, here's Clauditi...

Clauditi

And here's Valsa De Esquina...

Valsa De Esquina

Bonus: Here's pianist Dom Salvador in 1965 playing Meu fraco é café forte, from his Rio 65 Trio album...

To read an interview with Dom Salvador, go here.

Interview 2018: Marcos Valle

Next week, the legendary bossa nova pianist, singer and composer Marcos Valle will make his only New York appearance this year at Birdland. Joining him will be singer Paula Morelenbaum and cellist Jaques Morelenbaum. They toured with Antonio Carlos Jobim between 1984 and 1994.

The BossaBrasil spectacular at Birdland—from May 29 to June 2—is being produced by the exceptional Pat Philips-Stratta, who each year brings Marcos and other bossa legacy artists to the club with the support of Delta Air Lines for a taste of toasty Rio de Janeiro. It's pure passion for Pat, who recently produced Forever Django at Carnegie Hall. If you love bossa nova, seeing Marcos live next week should not be missed. I'm always swept away and can't wait. [Photo above of Marcos Valle, courtesy of Birdland]

For those who might be unfamiliar with Marcos, he came up in the early '60s and is the composer and singer of many superb bossa nova standards, among them Summer Samba (So Nice), The Face I Love, Crickets Sing for Anamaria and many others. [Photo above, from left, of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sylvia Telles and Marcos Valle, c. 1963]

For example, here's The Face I Love (Seu Encanto) from his 1965 album O compositor E O Cantor...

Last week I had a chance to catch up with Marcos in advance of his visit to New York's Birdland next week...

JazzWax: You’re always so busy. What’s new since I saw you last year in New York?
Marcos Valle: Well, I have been touring in Brazil and Europe. I’ll be touring soon with the Brazilian group Azymuth. I’ve also been composing many new songs and will have two new CDs coming out. One features new songs for which I’ve written the words and music. It’s my fifth for Far Out Records and will be out toward the end of the year. It’s a Brazilian pop album. I will be doing a tour to support it.

The other album is Dori, Edu and Marcos—an album I recorded last year with Edu Lobo and Dori Caymmi. I started my career with them 55 years ago. We were classmates when we formed a trio and recorded Samba Demais in 1963. After that, each of us went our separate ways to develop our own careers. [Photo above, from left, Edu Lobo, Marcos Valle and Dori Caymmi]

The idea to get back together came during a Brazilian performance I did with Stacy Kent. One night I invited Edu and Dori to be my guests on stage, and it was a lovely show. They suggested we do an album. We decided that each of us would sing the songs of the other two. So I sang four songs on the album, two of them are by Edu and two by Dori. They did the same. This CD will be out soon.

Besides that, Roberto Menescal (left, above) and I arranged and produced O Tom da Takai, a new album by singer Fernanda Takai (center). The album features lesser-known songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Here's a taste...

Since this year is the 60th anniversary of the bossa nova, I have many, many shows coming up in Brazil.

Finally, an album that I recorded in 2008 with Menescal—Os Bossa Nova—is being reissued with two bonus tracks that we have written. I wrote mine with João Donato, and Menescal wrote his with Carlos Lyra. It will be out in September, and we’ll be touring for it.

JW: Next week at Birdland you’re bringing Paula and Jaques Morelenbaum with you. A new sound?
MV: I love playing with them. We have performed together many times in different places in Brazil and around the world. Paula, of course, is a lovely singer and songwriter, and Jaques plays a cello that brings a different kind of depth to the music. I want to take advantage of this sound, so I have written interesting arrangements for the group using a lot of cello and Paula’s vocal style. We’re going to be playing Jobim’s music, my songs and songs by Paula. We’re also going to celebrate the bossa nova.

JW: Are young musicians and composers in Rio playing bossa nova or reinventing it?
MV: As you know, Brazil is very large and rich with many different styles of music from the north and the south. There are so many young musicians and songwriters in Brazil. They aren’t writing bossa nova but their music is still influenced by it. They know about the music’s history and the bossa nova’s rich harmony, rhythm and simple melodies, which attract younger artists.

With the Internet today, songwriters no longer have to be under the control of record companies when it comes to the music they want to create. They are free to experiment and attract an audience this way. So yes, a lot of artists are doing beautiful things and the bossa nova is an influence.

JW: Who are some of the new artists we should know about?
MV: There are some lovely new groups influenced by the bossa nova. These include Bem, the son of Gilberto Gil, and Moreno, (the son of Caetano Veloso). Alberto Continentino, my bass player, has recorded a lovely album with bossa influences—Ao Som dos Planetas. For a taste, go here...

JW: What inspires you most as a composer today?
MV: Basically the same things that have always inspired me. Nature is very important to me. Many times I write songs walking by the ocean. The sun also inspires me. And the rain. As you can see, I love nature. Romance, too. Love is a big influence. In other cases, I’m inspired by my thoughts about life. I believe you must live each day and you have to be positive. And we need to believe in what we are doing and must be open to others. These sayings are inspiring, too. With age, these get stronger, and the feeling winds up in my lyrics. If I’m writing about romance in a song, these thoughts come to me. So basically, the same things that inspired me in the past inspire me today. The only difference is that with new discoveries and worries come new things that shape my writing.

JW: Your wife, Patricia Alves, who is coming to New York as well, has a beautiful voice. Are there albums by her?
MV: Yes, she is coming up. And I agree with you, Patricia has a beautiful voice. She hasn’t recorded albums by herself. She has recorded on many of my albums. She also has recorded on albums that feature different artists. She'll be joining us at Birdland along with Jesse Sadoc on trumpet, Roni Ben-Hur on guitar, Itaiguara Brandao on bass and Renata Massa on drums.

JW: What five favorite Brazilian albums are you listening to now?
MV: I still listen to Jobim’s Wave (1967); Joao Gilberto’s Chega de Saudade (1959), his first album; and I'm listening a lot to the album we produced for Takai. I've also been listening to the album I recorded with Edu and Dori called Edu, Dori and Marcos. So, I will see you in New York!

JazzWax note: For more information about Marcos Valle's Birdland run in New York next week and reservations, go here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Marcos singing three recorded versions of Samba de Verão...

And here's Eumir Deodato playing Marcos's Out of Time...

The Road to Stan, 1961

Stan Kenton had a long and supportive relationship with North Texas State College (now the University of North Texas). His connection to the university's music program dated back to the 1940s. Worried about turnover in his orchestra and the need for a solid pipeline of young, gifted musicians eager to tour, Kenton understood the benefit of colleges with a crack orchestral curriculum.

Kenton sensed that even without the drain of the draft and shifting music trends, the stress and strain of the road eventually sent musicians packing to join their families while band standouts inevitably became stars and gave notice. Such attrition meant that a campus farm team could ably fill the gap.

The risk of a shortage of great band players wasn't high in the late '40s, of course. There were so many regional bands across the country that empty seats in A-list bands could be filled pretty quickly by top regional musicians eager to move up. What's more, many musicians who were veterans of the armed forces were in college studying music for free on the GI Bill. When they graduated in the early '50s, most returned to the bands.

But by the late late 1950s, the risk curve steepened. Kenton grew concerned about the depletion of exceptional band musicians as rock, pop and small-group jazz flourished. In addition, hundreds of touring big bands folded as they became economically unfeasible, leaving bands such as Kenton's with fewer places to draw reserves in a pinch.

Kenton became an ardent supporter of music education and encouraged bandleaders and musicians who were thinking of throwing in the towel to take their skills into universities such as North Texas rather than deliver mail, sell insurance or seek other safe-haven jobs. Without Kenton's support, North Texas might not have become such an vital force for big-band training in the '60s and beyond. When Kenton died, he donated his entire library of scores and papers to the school.

The quality of the North Texas band can be heard on a CD from 90th Floor Records. In 1961, a deal was struck between the label in Dallas and North Texas State College in Denton, Texas, to record the band. The collaboration was a direct result of Kenton's involvement with the college. The label used the band's rehearsal hall for a studio.

The resulting reissue, The Road to Stan, offers great sound and showcases enormously hungry talent under the direction of the college's Leon Breeden. Several of the musicians in the band went on to play with Kenton (hence the CD's title), including trumpeter Marvin Stamm and trombonist and drummer Dee Barton.

Today this powerhouse LP is available on CD along with two dynamic concert performances of the band, also from 1961—Bill Holman's arrangement of Stompin' at the Savoy (happy birthday, Bill!!) and Johnny Richards's La Suerte de los Tontos. In addition to these two songs, the CD tracks are Dee Day, Gold Rush, La Procesion de los Esclavos, Moon Bag, Old Devil Moon, Reflections, Spring Sketch and Vino for Doris.

The album is like listening to a lion's den at feeding time. The musicians' ambition and playing is hair-raising, and the musicianship is remarkably close to Kenton's band at the time. I dare say that the North Texas recording of Stompin' at the Savoy is nearly as good as the original Kenton recording on Contemporary Concepts. For composer, arranger and soloist credits, go here.

This album is like discovering a Kenton recording you never knew existed.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find The Road to Stan (90th Floor Records) here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Bill Holman's arrangement of Stompin at the Savoy, with Don Gililland on guitar...

Stompin' at the Savoy

And here's Old Devil Moon, arranged by Tom Wirtel, who also solos on trumpet. In addition, there are solos by Lanny Steele on piano, Archie Wheeler on alto saxophone, Jerry Keys on tenor saxophone and Paul Guerrero on drums...

Old Devil Moon

A special thanks to Bruce Collier.