Posting about Shirley Scott earlier this week left me hankering for video of great Hammond organ players. [Photo above of Jimmy McGriff] On the last Friday in November, here are six clips:
In the summer of 1963, Joe Mooney had one last crack at the mass market. The singer, organist and accordionist was blind from the time he was 10. In the 1940s, his quartet was the rage at New York clubs, where they knocked out audiences and critics. Mooney on accordion was tasteful, deft and whimsical, and the quartet's arrangements were smart and catchy. (Their appearances have been documented on CDs released by Hep Records.) In the early 1950s, Mooney sang briefly with the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, most notably on Nina Never Knew, which was a hit. Mooney's singing voice had a hip and relaxed confidential sound that put ears at ease. [Photo above of Joe Mooney and Andy Fitzgerald on clarinet in October 1946 by William P. Gottlieb]
But New York winters were too much for Mooney, and he moved to Florida in 1954, where he worked steadily on organ. In 1956, he recorded two studio albums for Atlantic before album opportunities dried up. Then in 1963, Mooney had another shot at national fame. Grammy-winning producer Mike Berniker convinced Columbia to let him record two albums with Mooney. They would become Mooney's last albums and his finest work. The two albums were The Greatness of Joe Mooney and The Happiness of Joe Mooney.
I never tire of hearing these albums from start to finish. They are spectacularly tasteful. For The Greatness of Joe Mooney, Berniker brought in Mundell Lowe to arrange. In turn, Mundy assembled a crack team of New York studio multi-instrumentalists, including Gene Allen (cl,b-cl-ts) Al Klink and Walt Levinsky (cl,fl,ts); Phil Bodner (cl,fl,oboe,ts); Andy Fitzgerald (cl,bass-fl,ts); Don Ashworth (cl,oboe,bassoon,ts); Leon Cohen (oboe,ts); Phil Kraus (vib); Barry Galbraith (g) or Mundell Lowe (g); George Duvivier (b) and Ed Shaughnessy (d); with Mundy conducting. Mooney sang and played accordion and organ.
Joe Mooney died in 1975.
I would urge you to grab both albums, which for a time were offered together on one CD (with superb liner notes by Terry Teachout, who wrote an essay for The New York Times in 1997 here). Every track is pure perfection. Here'sWait Till You See Her. Pay particular attention to Mundy's swinging arrangement, with reeds sliding in and out...
Just as American jazz musicians of the 1950s typically headed off to jam sessions following their last sets at clubs, Cuban musicians did the same in Havana. Musicians who dressed in guarachera shirts to play for tourists in hotel ballrooms slipped into button-down shirts and slacks after work at 3 a.m. and headed off to play for themselves. In some cases, they wound up at the recording studio of Ramón Sabat's Panart Records. There, a dozen or so guests stood along the studio's perimeter waiting to enjoy the music. Musicians and guests were usually fortified by food and rum and cola, creating a party atmosphere. The results of these early-morning gatherings were five albums entitled Cuban Jam Session Vol. 1-5.
Vol. 1 was recorded in 1956 and was directed by jazz-influenced pianists Julio Gutiérrez and Pedro Nolasco Jústiz Rodríguez. Vol. 2 was recorded in 1957 and was led by the same musicians. Vol. 3 was recorded in 1962 in Havana, despite Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. It was led by be-bop influenced guitarist Niño Rivera, who played the tres. Vol. 4 was recorded in 1957 and was led by bassist Israel “Cachao” Lopez. And Vol. 5, led by flutist Jose Fajardo, was recorded in New York in 1964. By then, Sabat had fled Cuba.
Now, Craft Recordings has released the Complete Cuban Jam Sessions in a five-CD or five-LP box set. It's also available as a digital download. The music on these discs provides insights into the development of Latin jazz by legendary Cuban musicians before, during and apart from the Castro regime. As you'll hear, the improvised music has strong, rich rhythms but there's a quaint lyricism as well. It's not as explosively mambo-centric as American Cuban dance music of the period, emphasizing instead individual jazz-inspired soloists and the more subtle and nuanced countryside folk forms popular in Cuba.
To quote from the liner notes: "The Cuban Jam Sessions collectively feature a line-up that to today’s aficionados of Cuban music and Latin jazz could seem simply unbelievable, including not only many of the most forward-thinking Cuban musicians of the era but many of the greatest of all time."
JazzWax tracks: You'll find the Complete Cuban Jam Sessions Vols. 1-5 (Craft Recordings) here.
You'll also find the set at Spotify.
JazzWax clips:Here'sTheme on Perfidia led by Julio Gutiérrez...
Shirley Scott was an extraordinary organist. Whether in a trio setting or teamed with her most frequent partners—tenor saxophonists Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis or Stanley Turrentine—Scott could rock. She was masterful at unleashing soulful chords, working the blues and getting under your skin with swinging lines. She also could match her male partners note for note in the groove department. But Scott also was a terrific pianist. [Photo above of Shirley Scott by Francis Wolff]
An album that shows off her organ and piano prowess is Like Cozy, which devotes four tracks to each instrument. Recorded for Prestige's Moodsville label in September 1960, the album features Scott backed by bassist George Duvivier and drummer Arthur Edgehill. Scott's work as a professional jazz pianist actually predates her switch to the Hammond organ in 1955. And it shows. Scott plays piano with regal grace, her most discernible influence being Red Garland.
Scott plays piano on You Do Something to Me, More Than You Know, Once in a While and Little Girl Blue. She shifts to the organ on Laura; Like Cozy, a walking blues original; My Heart Stood Still and Deed I Do. The contrast between her attack on the two instruments is fascinating. On the piano tracks, shes in a metaphoric evening gown while on the organ, she's stylistically in a relaxed blouse and capris.
At times you can hear one instrument's influence over the other. On piano, she employs spare lines and block chords, building to a crescendo the way she would on the organ. On organ, she's much funkier as she deploys one crisp groove after the next. For those who may not be aware, Moodsville was Prestige's line for record buyers who wanted to unwind or cuddle on the couch with jazz as background music. Like Cozy may be loaded with pop standards but it's hardly Mantovani.
Shirley Scott died in 2002.
JazzWax track: You'll find Shirley Scott's Like Cozyhere, combined with tracks recorded in 1958
JazzWax clips:Here's Shirley Scott on piano, playing You Do Something to Me from Like Cozy...
Some creations are distinctly American: a black leather motorcycle jacket, the Zippo lighter, a surf board, the Corvette and the iPhone. Add to the list Frank Sinatra's "Hey" that opens Angel Eyes on Frank Sinatra Sings forOnly the Lonely. Recorded in May and June 1958, the album of saloon-y torch songs recently was reissued on two CDs, featuring the original mono version and a new stereo remix. In addition, the set includes a handful of alternate takes, false starts and outtakes.
I've never been a fan of Only the Lonely, which came out in September 1958. This is the album with the harlequin cover and Sinatra in clown makeup. His voice sounds suicidal on a majority of the songs, and the arrangements must have had the orchestra sobbing after each take. Gordon Jenkins was supposed to arrange the music (a scary proposition), but he was unavailable. As a result, Nelson Riddle took on the task of writing the morose arrangements ordered up by Capitol. Interestingly, Riddle didn't conduct what became the master take. Instead, the baton was passed to classical violinist and conductor Felix Slatkin. On the second session, Riddle was committed to a tour with Nat King Cole (which must have gone over big with Sinatra).
Re-listening to Only the Lonely via the re-issue yesterday, I found the album even more gloomy and sullen than I remember it. Song after song sounds like the worst day of Sinatra's life. I have no idea why fans continue to argue the dreary album's merits or why they insist it's Sinatra's finest recording. Neither is accurate. Though Sinatra's voice is virtually flawless throughout, the music sounds like Sinatra is at the end of his rope. The album isn't sorrowful or melancholy; it's downright depressing.
But enough elbows. Let's turn to the album's brightest moment and the point of this post—Angel Eyes, which was recorded on May 5 (conducted by Riddle) and May 29, 1958 (conducted by Slatkin). The best thing about the reissue is the previously unreleased 17 minutes of Angel Eyes outtakes. On takes 1 through 5 of the Matt Dennis-Earl Brent standard, the song opens the same way. After two brief overlapping strings motifs (one minor and the other major), Sinatra enters the song on the refrain, singing "Drink up all you people / order anything you see," as if bursting through swinging bar doors.
But then, on take 6, Sinatra adds "hey" as a downbeat, which soon becomes a sweeping "hey-ay" on take 8, as in: "Hey-ay, drink up all you people / order anything you see." It's a miraculously inspired touch, breathing fresh life into a beautiful song and shifting its metaphoric location from the funeral parlor to the barroom. Why Sinatra added it is unclear. The answer doesn't turn up in the banter between the control booth and the singer. In fact, his "hey" is completely ignored by the booth. Presumably, Sinatra instinctively grew tired of singing the dirge-like intro and felt it needed a jolt. As an artist, he took matters into his own hands.
Sinatra's loose and improvised "hey-ay" is as American as apple pie. When it comes to creation and design, the artist often knows best. His touch wasn't thought out, it was felt. He also didn't ask the producer or conductor for permission. He simply tossed in a dash of street to lighten up a ridiculously maudlin opener. In the process, the rest of the lachrymose arrangement becomes tolerable.
Also interesting is that the original minor-key portion of the strings intro heard on all eight outtakes was dropped for the master. The strings intro used on the album features just the ascending major-key motif to speed up Sinatra's entrance. I would have loved to have been around for that conversation. I wonder whether producer Dave Cavanaugh (above) came to that conclusion himself or Sinatra insisted on the cut. I also wonder whether the revision was recorded that way or they took a blade to the tape. Sounds like the latter to me.
And while we're at it, so much for the myth that Sinatra recorded songs in a single take. Hey, he was mortal after all.
'Scuse me while I disappear.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find the new two-CD re-issue of Frank Sinatra's Only the Lonelyhere.
You'll also find the new re-issue at Spotify.
JazzWax clip:Here's the new stereo mix of Angel Eyes...
And here are takes 1 through 8 of Angel Eyes from the new set...
In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Todd Rundgren on Hello It's Me for my "Anatomy of a Song" column (go here). Todd talked about the high-school breakup that inspired the No. 5 Billboard hit, which first was recorded in 1968 as a ballad with his group Nazz and again in 1972 as the more familiar bouncier rendition for his Something/Anything? solo album. Todd is a 2019 nominee for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Here's Todd performing Hello It's Me in 1973. David Bowie wasn't alone..
Also in the WSJ last week, I reviewed Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills, a mind-blowing, two-CD set from Columbia/Legacy due Nov. 30 featuring 30 tracks—29 of them from Janis Joplin and Big Brother & the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills recording sessions in 1968. Cheap Thrills is one of the most important early hard-rock albums. Without Janis, no Robert Plant et al. Twenty-five of the 29 tracks have never before been released, and 10 songs never made the album. That's a whole lot of new Janis Joplin previously unheard.
Here's Joplin blowing minds at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, from D.A. Pennebaker's documentary of the concert...
And here'sPiece of My Heart in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1968...
Finally, for the WSJ, I interviewed actor Jeff Goldblum for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section. When he isn't starring in major films, Jeff plays jazz piano, something he has been doing since his teens. [Facebook portrait above of Jeff Goldblum courtesy of Jeff Goldblum]
Here's Jeff and band on Herbie Hancock's Cantaloupe Island...
Great as gifts. If you're stuck on what to give a music lover, try either of my two books (or both!)—Anatomy of a Song (Grove) here (or here in the U.K.) or Why Jazz Happened (University of California Press) here. You'll find all of the Anatomy songs in order on a Spotify playlist on the home page of my book site here.
Al "Uh-Uh" Hibbler.Here's singer Al Hibbler, with multi-saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, singing Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me in March 1972...
Denny Zeitlin. Will you be in the San Francisco area on December 7? Go catch pianist Denny Zeitlin at the Piedmont Piano Company at 728 San Pablo Avenue (at 18th Street) in Oakland, Calif. Denny will be performing George Gershwin solo. There are two shows—at 8 and 10 p.m., and admission is $25. For more information and tickets, go here. Denny's latest album is Wishing on the Moonhere.
Coleman Hawkins radio. During this weekend's "Coleman Hawkins Birthday Broadcast" on WKCR-FM in New York, "Symphony Sid" Gribetz will be on the air on Sunday, November 25, from 2 to 7 p.m. (EDT) covering Hawk's recordings from 1957 to 1963. You can listen from anywhere in the world on your computer or phone by going here.
What the heck.Here's Ray Charles and country star George Jones (watch Charles's feet) [photo above from YouTube]...
Oddball album cover of the week.
The space ship on this 1962 album looks mighty familiar—like the "space ship" I see each time I fly into Los Angeles (the LAX Theme Building, completed in 1961)...
Ray Noble, the same English songwriter and bandleader who gave us Cherokee, The Touch of Your Lips and The Very Thought of You, among others, wrote By the Fireside with lyricists Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly. Composed in London in 1931, the song was published in the U.S. that same year by Robbins Music. Noble was first to record the song in London with his New Mayfair Dance Orchestra on January 8, 1932, with Al Bowlly singing the vocal. American bands quickly followed, recording the song in February and March and beyond. That year, By the Fireside reached acclaim on American college campuses just before the bank crashes and the onset of the Depression. [Photo above of Ray Noble]
In the early 1940s, the song was something of a period tune, reminding listeners of a simpler, gentler time before the chaos of economic collapse and onset of another world war. The song resurfaced again in the 1950s for the same reason—only this time listeners were yearning for a time before the Cold War, rock 'n' roll and juvenile delinquency. [Photo above of Jo Stafford relaxing at home in 1948 by Allan Grant for Life magazine]
Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. today, a day that many people traditionally spend overeating and settling old scores at the family dinner table before sulking in front of the fireplace. To help repair any rift, I've chosen a handful of recordings of By the Fireside to remind you of an earlier time:
Here's the Leo Mathisen Orchestra in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1942...
Here's pianist Paul Smith in 1950 (by the way, that's one sweet RCA transcription turntable)...
Here's Jo Stafford in 1956 backed by an orchestra arranged by husband Paul Weston, with the Starlighters arranged by Norman Luboff...
Here's Matt Dennis in 1958 backed by a band arranged by Sy Oliver...
And here's the wonderful Diana Panton on her 2017 album Solstice/Equinox...
Trumpeter Woody Shaw had an urgent sound, even on ballads. There was a take-charge quality about his approach, but unlike many other horns of the 1970s and '80s, his attack wasn't about ice and heat. Shaw had an enveloping warmth. Whenever I listen to him, I can't take his music off. I'm too engaged. He takes you on a thrilling journey with velocity and color. His notes move like hurled darts. [Photo above of Woody Shaw by Jan Persson/CTSImages.com]
Shaw formed his second great quintet in 1980. It featured Woody Shaw (tp,flhrn), Steve Turre (tb), Mulgrew Miller (p), Stafford James (b) and Tony Reedus (d). On tour in January 1983, the group, minus Turre, became a quartet when performing at the Post Aula concert space in Bremen, Germany, on the 18th. Now, Elemental Music has released the music on the Woody Shaw Quartet's Live in Bremen 1983.
The tracks are You and the Night and the Music, Shaw's Rahsaan's Run, Miller's Eastern Joy Dance, Miller's Pressing the Issue, Shaw's The Organ Grinder, Shaw's Katrina Ballerina, Diane, Walter Davis Jr.'s 400 Years Ago Tomorrow/The Theme and Shaw's Sweet Love of Mine.
This album features some of the group's finest blowing from the period. The playing is impossibly rich and daring, making the album an ideal entry point for those curious about Shaw but don't own anything by him. Interestingly, the least engaging pieces on this release are the standards—You and the Night and the Music and Diane. They come off flat and mannered, probably because they bored the musicians to tears. [Photo above of Mulgrew Miller, courtesy of Spotify]
The true art and excitement are found on Shaw's and Miller's original works. On these compositions, the group is speaking a familiar dynamic language loaded with political feeling and invention. And they're in their element, boiling over in places, expressing love in others. Dig Rahsaan's Run, for example. The song has all of Shaw's feeling and ferocity, with a tender overlay. As for the album's sound, it's terrific.
Woody Shaw died in 1989.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find the Woody Shaw Quartet's Live in Bremen 1983 (Elemental Music) here.
Farley's House of Pianos in Madison, Wisc., specializes in the restoration of 19th and 20th century pianos. When owner and president Timothy Farley isn't managing his team of craftsmen, he and his wife, Renee, have sponsored and recorded dozens of classical and jazz concerts at their store. In 1991, the Farleys were on a jazz cruise when they met pianist Dave McKenna. During their on-board chat, Tim mentioned that his team had restored a Model C Steinway that pianists were calling "The Voice of God." [Photo above of Dave McKenna courtesy of the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame]
Naturally, McKenna wanted to play the piano, so the Farleys arranged for a series of McKenna performances in Madison that included the Model C at the store. In 1991, the Farleys recorded McKenna playing the Model C, solo, at Farley's House of Pianos. The result has just been released by Arbors as Dave McKenna in Madison.
McKenna was born in Woonsocket, R.I., and played his first professional jazz piano gigs as a teenager in Boston. In the late 1940s and early '50s, he was a member of big bands led by Charlie Ventura and Woody Herman before serving in the Army. After his discharge, McKenna began playing solo piano and rarely left the East Coast, living for years on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. He also recorded as a sideman on many ensemble recordings. In the 1980s, he played regularly at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston.
McKenna's first solo album was in 1955, for ABC-Paramount. The album was called Solo Piano. Other significant solo recordings were Both Sides of Dave McKenna for Honey Dew in 1972 and Solo Piano in 1973 for Chiaroscuro. In the 1990s he began recording solo albums for Arbors.
On Dave McKenna in Madison, the song choices are beautiful: Too Marvelous for Words, a Vernon Duke medley (featuring Autumn in New York, April in Paris, Cabin in the Sky, What Is There to Say?, I Can't Get Started and I Like the Likes of You), Craziology, a Soon medley (featuring Soon by Rogers & Hart and Soon by Gershwin, as well as Rose Room), a medley consisting of You're Driving Me Crazy and Moten Swing, Exactly Like You, Detour Ahead and a time medley (Bidin' My Time, Time on My Hands, Some Other Time and Time After Time). [Photo above of Tim and Renee Farley courtesy of Salon Piano Series]
McKenna was a rock-solid pianist with impeccable time and swing who was familiar with all styles of jazz. He also was a master of the "three-hand swing effect," an approach with two hands that creates the impression that three hands are at work on the keyboard. As you'll hear on this recording, McKenna was one graceful player who could pitch any song right over the moon. [Photo of Dave McKenna with Tony Bennett]
Dave McKenna died in 2008.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Dave McKenna in Madison (Arbors) here.
The album also is available at Spotify.
JazzWax clip: Here's a medley of You're Driving Me Crazy and Moten Swing...
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.