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 a taste...
Here's Joplin blowing minds at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, from D.A. Pennebaker's documentary of the concert...
And here's Piece 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 Moon here.
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)...