Today in the U.S., it's Halloween, an evening holiday where kids dress up in scary costumes and beg for candy at the doors of strangers by squealing, "Trick or treat." Since two companies now own virtually all the candy brands here, kids arrive home with their bags of candy only to find they have only four different types—M&Ms, Milky Way, Three Musketeers and Snickers.
To make matters worse for trick-or-treaters, parents gobble up much of their kids' candy by quietly filching their stash while they're fast asleep. As parents know, kids aren't very good about auditing their candy before bedtime. Then this weekend, parents dress up as scary characters at their own parties and keep their kids up by playing the music too loud. Kids can't get a break.
I'm giving out music for JazzWax readers who stop by the site. In celebration of the holiday, I've put together 10 jazz clips with spooky titles...
Here are The Mitchells (Whitey Mitchell, Red Mitchell and Blue Mitchell) with Frank Rehak, Pepper Adams and Frankie Capp playing Whitey Mitchell's Monster Rally in October 1958...
Dexter Gordon accompanied more vocalists than you might imagine. There was Helen Humes in 1950, Gladys Bentley in 1952, Kitty White in 1965, Pony Poindexter in 1966, Vi Redd in 1970, Miriam Klein in 1973, Eddie Jefferson in 1978 and Tony Bennett in 1990. In the mid-1940s, while in Lionel Hampton's band, Gordon accompanied Rubel Blakey; in Louis Armstrong's band in 1944, Gordon and the band accompanied Velma Middleton, Jimmy Ross and Pops himself; and with Benny Carter in 1946 he accompanied Maxine Sullivan, Lucy Elliott, Candy Ross and Kay Starr. And there were plenty of others. [Photo above of Dexter Gordon and Karin Krog]
One of Gordon's more unusual vocal-accompaniment albums was backing Norwegian singing star Karin Krog in Oslo, Norway. Recorded in 1970, Blues and Ballads included Krog (vcl), Gordon (ts,vcl) Kenny Drew (p,org), Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (b) and Espen Rud (d). The songs were Some Other Spring, Blue Monk, How Insensitive, Blues Eyes, Jelly Jelly, I Wish I Knew, Everybody's Somebody's Fool, Shiny Stockings and Ode to Billie Joe.
To American ears, Krog's voice takes a little getting used to. At first, it's like listening to an accented cross between Dinah Washington and Little Jimmy Scott. But to her credit, Krog had plenty of power, a jazz feel and terrific intonation. Gordon picked up on her sensitivity and dug in. The result was a collaboration that worked splendidly thanks to a collection of smartly chosen tunes.
Songs of note are Blues Eyes (written by Swedish jazz pianist Berndt Egerbladh and Krog), Jelly Jelly (on which Gordon joins Krog; his voice is reminiscent of Joe Williams), Everybody's Somebody's Fool, Shiny Stockings and even Ode to Billie Joe, accompanied during the first run-through by Pedersen playing the bass like a guitar. On the recent reissue, you'll find alternate takes of Some Other Spring, Blue Monk and Shiny Stockings.
Gordon throughout is in peak form, particularly on solos. He and Krog feed off each other beautifully, as you can hear on Some Other Spring and Jelly Jelly. And if you've never heard Gordon sing, you'll be quite surprised and impressed.
Dexter Gordon died in 1990; Karin Krog lives in Norway.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Karin Krog and Dexter Gordon's Blues and Ballads (Sonet) here.
You'll also find the album at Spotify.
JazzWax note: For more on Karin Krog, copy and past the following link into your browser: https://www.karinkrog.no/en/biography.html Also, Francis Capeau tells me that Krog recently won the 2017 French Academy of Jazz singer prize for The Many Faces of Karin Krog: Recordings 1967-2017 (ODN), a six-CD box set covering her career (go here).
John Stubblefield always struggled for recognition. The obscure saxophonist was versatile and could play soul-jazz, funk-jazz and avant-garde jazz in the 1970s and beyond. Which probably is why he recorded with so many different types of artists and groups over the course of his career. Stubblefield brought enormous heat and polish to his solos, often sounding different with each artist. He recorded with Anthony Braxton in May 1972, toured with Charles Mingus in early 1973 and recorded with Miles Davis on Get Up With It in September '73. Dollar Brand, Roy Brooks, Mtume, McCoy Tuner, Gill Evans, Lester Bowie, Stanley Cowell and Reggie Lucas followed between 1973 and mid-1976.
In August 1976, Stubblefield recorded on a superb album led by Nat Adderley called Don't Look Back. The group included Adderley (cnt); Makanda Ken McIntyre (b-cl,as,fl,oboe); Stubblefield (ts,sop); Onaje Allan Gumbs (p,el-p,clavinet); Fernando Gumbs (b); Buddy Williams (d) and Victor See-Yuen (perc).
Don't Look Back is completely in tune with the soulful times but retains a jazz flavor throughout. Stubblefield fires up his soprano sax on Funny, Funny;I Think I Got It; Just a Quickie and Home. He solos on tenor sax on K. High and the title track, which was written by Harold Vick. [Photo above of Nat Adderley]
As you'll hear, Adderley and Stubblefield (above) were made for each other. It's remarkable how well they play on this album (and their followup album, Hummin', recorded in October 1976). And that was it. After Hummin', each went his separate way. Stubblefield recorded his first solo album, Prelude, later that year and would record seven additonal terrific leadership recordings while continuing to stay busy as a sideman. His playing was always exceptional. The fact that he isn't a household name today is somewhat unfortunate and sad.
Nat Adderley died in 2000; John Stubblefield died in 2005.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Nat Adderley: Don't Look Back (Steeplechase) with John Stubblefield here.
In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Sugar Ray Leonard for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Sugar Ray talked about nearly drowning as a child, nearly being killed in an auto accident and the single event that compelled him to box professionally after his Olympics gold medal in 1976. In the early 1980s, while working at The New York Times as a copy boy, I was sent to cover boxing at Madison Square Garden when beat reporter Mike Katz had a day off or was on vacation. By any measure, it's an astonishing sport. Sugar Ray Leonard was an exquisite fighter with superior stamina and the ability to unleash a storm of artful combinations that routinely resulted in opponents dropping their hands. When that happened, a fight's finish was moments away. As with Muhammad Ali, the naked eye never saw Sugar Ray's lightning-fast knockout punch. You had to see it in slow motion to catch the physical genius and speed of Sugar Ray. Today, Sugar Ray is a successful motivational speaker and a joy to listen to.
SiriusXM. If you missed me on Thursday on Feedback with the wonderful Nik Carter and Lori Majewski talking about the writing and recording of Papa Was a Rolling Stone,here's a link to the show...
Horace Parlan. Last week, jazz saxophonist and educator Bill Kirchner sent along a link to Steve Wallace's blog and his remembrance of Horace Parlan just after the pianist died in 2017. To read the post, go here. And here are a few Parlan tracks:
Here'sSpeakin' My Peace, with Tommy Turrentine (tp), Stanley Turrerntine (ts), Horace Parlan (p), George Tucker (b) and Al Harewood (d)...
Here'sMy Foolish Heart, with Parlan, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (b) and Tony Inzalaco (d)...
And here'sUp and Down, with Booker Ervin (ts), Horace Parlan (p), Grant Green (g), George Tucker (b) and Al Harewood (d)...
American Sound Studios. Between 1967 and 1971, about 120 Billboard hits were recorded at American Sound Studio in Memphis. Co-founded by Chips Moman and Don Crews, the studio hosted the "827 Thomas Street Band" of studio musicians who recorded behind Neil Diamond on Sweet Caroline, the Box Tops on The Letter, B.J. Thomas on Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Elvis Presley on Suspicious Minds, In the Ghetto, and Kentucky Rain and so many others recorded at American Sound.
Chris "King" Cowles, host of Saturday's weekly Greasy Tracks (3:30 to 5:30 p.m., EDT) on WRTC in Hartford, Ct., sent along a link to a documentary segment from Session Men on American Sound Studios. Go here...
Clifford Brown radio. WKCR-FM in New York will present its annual "Clifford Brown Birthday Broadcast" on October 30, playing Brownie's music for 24 hours on his birthday anniversary. The show will start on Monday night at 11:59 PM, and then air around the clock all day and night Tuesday. You can listen on your computer or phone from anywhere in the world by going here.
What the heck.Here's Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars performing Stompin' at the Savoy in Stuttgart, Germany, on February 15, 1959. The All-Stars included Armstrong (tp), "Peanuts" Hucko (cl), "Trummy" Young (tb) William "Billy" Kyle (p), Mort Herbert (b) and Danny Barcelona (dr)...
Oddball album cover of the week.
I can only imagine the tracks: That Old Black Magic, Dancing on the Ceiling, Guess Who I Sawed Today, Levitate and Ghost of a Chance.
Cruising around YouTube yesterday evening, I fixated on jazz artists whose first name is Joe. Hardly average, as you will see and hear, these giant Joes demonstrated exceptional talent on stage. [Photo above of Joe Morello]
Here are five videos by jazz artists named Joe:
Here's Joe Farrell on tenor saxophone with Elvin Jones on drums and Jimmy Garrison on bass in 1968...
Here's tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra...
Here's trumpeter Joe Newman playing Georgia on My Mind...
Here's Joe Williams with the Count Basie Orchestra in 1959...
And here's drummer Joe Morello with the Dave Brubeck Quartet playing Take Five on TV's Playboy Penthouse in 1959. What a drum solo!
The following 30-minute clip is as revealing as it is mystifying. The tape features Maynard Ferguson, Betty Carter, Ben Webster and, I believe, Don Byas in a Dutch radio studio. As Peter Levin writes: "The clip is a documentary that was filmed in a Dutch radio studio during the summer of 1968 and aired on October 1, 1968 on NTS, one of the Netherlands' public television networks."
Peter then translated from a Dutch TV listing:
"Tonight the NTS broadcasts a very special program on Ned.2, namely Session, the making of a recording. It is a kind of experiment that will be of interest to jazz enthusiasts. A number of renowned jazz musicians gather and try for an entire day to make a recording. This muscular struggle was recorded by an NTS camera team under the skillful direction of director Bob Rooyens...complete with unforced and often emotional conversations about music and the world in which the musicians, live.
"Boy Edgar [described as “the surgeon-jazz conductor,” and the founder of Boy’s Big Band, which was a significant force in Dutch jazz from 1960 to 1968] is in charge. Contributors include the famous jazz trumpet player Maynard Ferguson, who came from Paris for the recording, Betty Carter, Ben Webster, Piet Noordijk and Han Bennink."
There's quite a bit of drama here as the playing apparently runs more than six hours, late into the wee hours of the morning. Peter Levin's TV listing makes sense, since the camera is constantly cutting to the clock. Based on their expressions, the American musicians seem to be silently questioning what in heaven's name they're doing there and what possessed them in the first place to agree to the event. Since Byas (below) is un-billed, I'm guessing Webster told him to drop by after his gig.
Ferguson, Webster, Carter and Byas are in top form, though they seem to be at the mercy of a disorganized session and a producer who choose only tired standards. Dig Ferguson's Daniel Boone jacket and his funky limber-up exercises and restless demeanor. Love Webster's head-tilts between each line of notes on ballads. Carter keeps the energy going.
When Dexter Gordon recorded The Resurgence of Dexter Gordon for Jazzland in 1960, he was on parole from Chino State Penitentiary for drug posession. He also was co-starring in a Los Angeles production of The Connection, for which he wrote original music. The album marked the first time he recorded since 1955. For his next album, in 1961, Gordon recorded Doin' Allright for Blue Note. The top-flight personnel included Freddie Hubbard (tp), Dexter Gordon (ts), Horace Parlan (p), George Tucker (b) and Al Harewood (d). The album featured superb songs, including Gordon's own Society Red and For Regulars Only. In short, it's a perfect album, with Gordon in peak form, and a must own.
My favorite song on the album has always been the title track—the Gershwins' I Was Doing All Right. In addition to lyrical playing by Hubbard and Gordon, there's the added bonus of Parlan, one of my favorite session pianists. Listen to his solo build and the delight of his unusual chord voicings. [Photo above of Horace Parlan by Francis Wolff and courtesy of Mosaic Records]
Setting poetry to music is nothing new. Setting Margaret Atwood's poetry to music is a different matter. Most people probably aren't even aware that novelist Margaret Atwood wrote poetry. She has. Toronto saxophonist and composer Andrew Rathbun has taken her We Are Hard on Each Other and Two Islands: Excerpt From Circle/Mud Poem and set the prose to music on the two-CD set Atwood Suites (Origin). But this isn't ordinary music. First, it's richly orchestral. Second, the compositions and arrangements are uniquely original and expansive. And third, Rathbun invited Luciana Souza and Aubrey Johnson to sing on the album and their contribution is spectacular.
Combined, the result is a wide-ranging brassy expression that has a moody David Amram (Manchurian Candidate) or Don Sebesky (George Benson's White Rabbit) feel. The large ensemble's collective personnel consists of Seneca Black (tp); Matt Holman, Dave Smith and Russ Johnson (tp,flhrn); Tim Hagans (flhrn/solo on first six tracks); Alan Ferber, Mike Fahie and JC Sanford (tb); Chris Olness (b-tb); John O'Gallagher (sop,as); Ben Kono (as,fl,cl); Quinsin Nachoff (ts,cl); Dan Pratt (ts,fl,cl); Carl Maraghi (bar,b-cl); Jeremy Siskind (p,el-p); Nate Radley (g); David Ambrosio (b); Bill Stewart and Owen Howard (d); Andrew Rathbun (dir,comp); Luciana Souza and Aubrey Johnson (voice).
I can't recall the last time I heard an album this exciting on such a large scale. Rathbun has a firm command of the brass section's hues, sifting trombones together with French horns and topping them with trumpets and Tim Hagans' flugelhorn. The reeds have a misty feel, filling the spaces with breathy texture. And Bill Stewart's drums are quite busy throughout and keep the Rathbun's arrangements on edge. On the first of the two CDs, Souza's voice has a Flora Purim feel in places, giving the music a 1970s flavor. But Souza's voice is distinctly her own, which makes her inclusion all the more exciting and dynamic.
The reeds play a central role on the second CD, leaping around like wild hares. If you listen carefully, Johnson's vocal on the second CD mirrors the high-pitched instrumental tones, which is fascinating, especially on the song known only as I (the Roman numeral for one). Her voice gives these instrumental notes a warm, glowing value.
Recorded in 2016 and released earlier this year, Atwood Suites is a must own. The album is a feast for the ears and is perfect for autumn. Having interviewed Margaret Atwood, I can say that the music is as gentle and as perspicacious as she is. If you dig orchestral work, this one is most engaging and exciting.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Andrew Rathbun's Atwood Suites (Origin) here.
Trumpeter Don Goldie played with power and a Dixieland feel. There also were shades of Harry James in his horn. He began recording in 1959 and spent his first few years on albums by trombonist Jack Teagarden. He also recorded with Buddy Rich, Ralph Burns, Gene Krupa and others before recording a string of songbook albums for his own Jazz Forum label.
In June 1960, Goldie recorded Brilliant! The Trumpet of Don Goldie for Chicago's Argo label. The personnel was Don Goldie (tp), Eddie Higgins (p), Fred Rundquist (g), Richard Evans (b) and Jimmy Cobb (d). A fascinating trio behind Goldie. Higgins was an elegant pianist who at the time led a trio at Chicago's London House, Rundquist was a member of the Art Van Damme Quintet and Jimmy, of course, was Miles Davis's drummer.
The tracks were Soon, I'll Be Around, Hand Me Down My Walkin' Blues, Someday You'll Be Sorry, Look for the Silver Lining, Struttin' With Some Barbecue, Tis Autumn, Toy Trumpet, Do You Know What It Means and They Didn't Believe Me.
Goldie had a swell swinging sound that catches your ear and foot. There was a mellowness, too, with beautiful phrasing. He also knew how to hit the gas and run up to the top of a chord and hold a note. I could listen to Goldie play all day long.
Goldie came from a musical family His father, trumpeter Harry Goldfield, played with Paul Whiteman in the 1920s and 1930s while his mother, Claire St. Claire, was a concert pianist and a piano teacher for George Gershwin. Goldie began on the piano and moved on to the trumpet when he was 10. In the late 1940s, while still in his teens, he played with Art Hodes and Willie "The Lion" Smith. Goldie hit his stride just as opportunities were slowing and wound up recording on his own label. It's a shame these aren't available.
Don Goldie died in 1995.
JazzWax tracks: Don Goldie's Brilliant! is available on CD only in Japan. The album never made it to the download format. Hopefully a label will pick up on this one and team it with his other albums, which are all out of print.
JazzWax clips:Here's the entire Brilliant! album...
In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Burt Ward for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). If the name doesn't ring a bell, Burt played Robin on TV's Batman series in the 1960s. Burt talked about growing up in Beverly Hills, his father's touring ice show and how he wound up auditioning and winning the Boy Wonder roll. The show remains one of the most intelligent sitcoms of the decade—delightfully sophisticated and sophomoric. I did ask Burt how they filmed the building-scaling scenes. Apparently, the building set was on a 45-degree angle to give them an uphill feel. They also had firm fishing line in their capes to make them extend outward and look like they were climbing straight up.
Here's a reel of all 14 celebrity window cameos as the Dynamic Duo scale a building in Gotham City...
Also in the WSJ, my "Anatomy of a Song" column for the Life & Arts section looked at the writing and recording of the Temptations' Papa Was a Rollin' Stone (go here). I interviewed song lyricist Barrett Strong, arranger Paul Riser Sr. and the last surviving founding member of the Temptations Otis Williams. Here's the album version of the #1 hit in 1972...
SiriusXM. This Thursday, Oct. 25, from 9 to 10 a.m. (EDT), I'll be on SiriusXM's Feedback (Ch. 106) with Nik Carter and Lori Majewski to talk about Papa Was a Rollin' Stone.
Lenny Bruce. In 1959, the comedian taped a pilot for a TV show that never aired. On the show, Bruce featured Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans and Philly Joe Jones. Thanks to Bret Primack, who sent along this link to a video he posted at his YouTube channel...
Chiaroscuro Records. The jazz label was founded by Hank O'Neal in 1970 and was donated in 2011 to the Northeast Pennsylvania Educational Television Association, owner of WVIA-FM-TV, the PBS and NPR member for northeastern Pennsylvania. You'll find the entire Chiaroscuro catalog here (copy and paste the following link in your browser): www.chiaroscurojazz.org/catalog.php
Chet Baker. WRTC radio host Chris Cowles sent along a link to Chet Baker (tp,vo) performing in the Netherlands in 1975 backed by Bob Mover (as), Harold Danko (p), Dave Shapiro (b) and Beaver Harris (ds). The songs they play in the clip are The Lamp Is Low, The Thrill Is Gone, Look for the Silver Lining, I Waited for You and Mr. B. Here's the clip...
Count Basie. Here are a few superb Count Basie clips from Milan, Italy, in 1960:
What the heck:Here's Billy Stewart singing Sitting in the Park in 1965, an early romantic soul ballad...
Oddball album cover of the week.
How rough were the 1950s for women? Case in point, here dad and son build something neat while mom sits alone, ignored, with a pained expression on her face picking out yarn to knit.
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.
