JazzWax

Chet Baker: '60s, '70s & '80s

The last day of the year always feels exhilarating and melancholy. Exhilarating, because we're on the threshold of a new year fresh with promise and hope. Melancholy, because another year is sliding from the present to the past, becoming a memory rather than a real-time experience. It's a day of sighs.

The horn that sounds most to me like December 31st is Chet Baker's. It's innocent and melodic but there's enormous sadness in there, too.

Chet Baker died in 1988.

Here are five videos of Baker in the 1960s, '70s and '80s that recently were posted with a New Year's Eve day feel: 

Here's Chet Baker playing flugelhorn in Belgium in 1964, with saxophonist and flutist Jacques Pelzer, pianist Rene Urtreger, bassist Luigi Trussardi and drummer Franco Manzecchi...

Here's Baker playing trumpet on Softly As in a Morning Sunrise at the Kongsberg Jazzfestival in 1979, backed by pianist Michel Graillier, vibraphonist Wolfgang Lackerschmid, bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse...

Here's Baker on trumpet with saxophnist Stan Getz at Stockholm's Södra Teatern in Sweden in February 1983, backed by pianist Jim McNeely, bassist George Mraz and drummer Victor Lewis...

Here's Chet Baker on trumpet with Elvis Costello on vocal singing You Don't Know What Love Is at Ronnie Scott's in London in 1986, backed by pianist Michael Graillier and bassist Riccardo Del Fra...

And here's Chet Baker on trumpet playing Four in Tokyo in 1987, backed by pianist Harold Danko, bassist Hein van de Geyn and drummer John Engels....

Kenny, Tippi and Chuck

This past week in The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed Kenny Rogers and Don Schlitz on The Gambler for my "Anatomy of a Song" column (go here). Don wrote the song and Kenny recorded it in 1978, sending The Gambler to #1 on Billboard's country chart and to #16 on the pop chart. Both Kenny and Don won Grammy Awards for the song.

Here's Kenny on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in September 1978, months before the album and single were released...

Also in the WSJ, I interviewed film legend Tippi Hedren on growing up near Minneapolis, her early modeling career and her interactions with director Alfred Hitchcock on The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Here are Tippi's screen tests for The Birds. Clearly the camera loved her...

Nutcracker 1. Following my post on Shorty Rogers's Swingin' Nutcracker, bassist and composer-arranger Chuck Israels, sent along an email [photo above of Chuck Israels and Bill Evans]:

"Marc, form my perspective, this hardly holds a candle to Dave Berger’s completion of Duke Ellington’s Harlem Nutcracker. I just discovered that the whole production (with Donald Byrd’s brilliant choreography) is suddenly available on Vimeo. Nothing but the one-minute teaser has been available for years. This is among my favorite musical experiences. I played the show for five weeks while Dave’s regular bassist was unavailable. It was the outstanding theatrical experience of my life. David Berger is an unconscionably overlooked composer-arranger while dozens of people of lesser accomplishments are lauded. And Donald Byrd is an extraordinary artist. This was an expensive production, and I think it may have lost money during its run some years ago. David and Donald have made efforts to revive it, so far unsuccessfully." Here's The Harlem Nutcracker...

Nutcracker 2. Nelson Combs sent along the following...

"Marc, add another performance of The Nutcracker to your list. Spike Jones released a children's rendition on RCA Victor in December 1945." Here it is...

J.J. Johnson. Following my post on trombonist J.J. Johnson's Broadway Express (1965), Chuck Israels sent along a few observations about J.J.'s Broadway, a show-tune album from 1963...

 

"Hi Marc, I was on some of the sessions for JJ's Broadway, and they were memorable. The experience demonstrated how inadequately most recordings represent the real sound of music played by fine musicians and experienced by listeners in the same space. Those five great trombonists, JJ, Urbie Green, Lou McGarrity, Dick Hixon, and Paul Faulise made an overwhelmingly rich and powerful sound in the studio. We recorded at the old A&R Studio above Jim and Andys on 48th Street. It was loud and beautiful, perfectly balanced, in tune and rhythmically coordinated. You not only heard it with your ears, you could feel it on your body.

 

"But when we heard the playbacks, I was deeply disappointed. Little of the experience carried over into the recording, and the lush, deep and powerful blend of sound, the humanity of it, was rendered thinner and more brassy after being processed through a reverb system that the engineer, Phil Ramone, had installed in the building’s stairwell. When I hear the recording now, I enjoy it. JJ’s arrangements and the performances are all fine. The sound is good by most standards. But it’s a fraction of how the music sounded in the room.

"My friend, Jerry Rosen, former associate concertmaster and later pianist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, says listening to music on recordings is like getting kissed over the telephone. Another friend, pianist and composer-arranger Bill Dobbins, says it’s like eating a picture of food. I’m still glad we have recordings."

At the keys: Here's pianist Joe Alterman with bassist Kevin Smith and drummer Justin Chesarek playing Time After Time...

Oddball album cover of the week.

Our model seems to be taking the album's title literally. "Where did you say you dropped that silver lining?"

Rare Docs: Goodman and Byas

Two rare videos surfaced this week on YouTube. The first is The Art of Performing, taped for television in 1967. There is little about the performance online. The video features Benny Goodman (cl), Clark Terry (tp,flglh), Zoot Sims (ts), Hank Jones (p), Gene Bertoncini (g), Milt Hinton (b) and Ed Shaughnessy (d). Earlier versions of this video are bottle green and largely unwatchable. Quite odd to see these jazz giants treated like children by Goodman and nervously replying to his square questions. A rather silly bebop lesson from Goodman on How High the Moon, during which he plays swing, not bop. I guess in 1967, Goodman meant income and visibility.

The second is a Dutch documentary called Homecoming, focusing on tenor saxophonist Don Byas and his one-time return to New York in 1970. The artist who Byas refers to as his close friend is pianist Jaki Byard. The band he plays with is the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. Earlier versions of this film on YouTube have been blurry. Byas was clearly past his prime and would die in 1972. A special thanks to Milan Simich for sending along the link.

Here are superb versions of the two documentaries in a single YouTube clip...

Billy Eckstine: Mr. B in Paris

One of the least known and most rare albums recorded by singer Billy Eckstine is one of his best—Mr. B in Paris. Recorded for Britain's Felsted label while Eckstine was on tour in Europe between releases for Roulette, the album features Mr. B. singing 12 songs in French backed by the Bobby Tucker Orchestra. Mr. B in Paris was produced by Quincy Jones and arranged by Jones, Billy Byers and Bobby Tucker. The orchestra was recorded in Paris in 1957 while Eckstine's vocal was overdubbed in London in 1958. Little is known about the musicians on the date, other than the inclusion of Don Byas (ts), Bobby Tucker (p), Pierre Michelot (b) and Kenny Clarke (d). The album was released in France on the Barclay label and in England on Felsted, a Decca subsidiary. It's unclear if the album was ever released in the States on a U.S. label.

The French pop songs recorded include Avec Ces Yeux La, Nuages, Pardonnez-moi, Les Feuilles Mortes, Quand j'y Pense, La Valse des Lilas, Chez-moi, Aime-moi, Place Blanche, Je Sais que Vous Etes Jolie, Tout Doucement and C'est Lui L'Amour.

Tucker began his musical career on piano as a teenager in the Barons of Rhythm, a Newark, N.J., group. After several years in the Army during World War II, Tucker in 1946 accompanied Mildred Bailey until he was approached by a frantic Tony Scott in front of a club in Manhattan. Billie Holiday was set to perform but her pianist didn't show up. Scott, a clarinetist who knew Tucker, begged him to come inside and accompany Holiday. Tucker reportedly took the stage without a warmup and, after the gig, Holiday offered him the job. Tucker was Billie Holiday's accompanist from 1946 to 1949, at which point he left to work with Eckstine when the vocalist began to have enormous success at MGM. Tucker's relationship with Eckstine lasted 44 years, up until the singer's death in 1993. Tucker recorded only one album as a leader—Too Tough, in 1973.

Bobby Tucker died in 2008.

JazzWax tracks: The bad news is that Billy Eckstine's Mr. B in Paris never made the leap to the digital age. As for vinyl, it's selling on eBay for $80 (go here).

JazzWax clip: The good news is that I've assembled the entire album for you via YouTube:

Here's Avec Ces Yeux...

Here's Nuage...

Here's Pardonnez-moi...

Here's Les Feuilles Mortes...

Here's Quand J'y Pense...

Here's Les Valse De Lilas...

Here's Chez Moi...

Here's Aime Moi...

Here's Place Blanche...

Here's Je Sais Que Vous Etes Jolie...

Here's Tout Doucement...

And here's C'est Lui L'Amour...

A special thanks to Dennis Galloway.

J.J. Johnson: Broadway Express

Back in the 1960s, jazz guitarist Mundell Lowe was busy. In addition to recording as a leader and sideman, he arranged and conducted sessions for his own band and for others, always with enormous taste. His albums as an arranger, conductor and player included Satan in High Heels (1961), a film score; Hey! This is Kevin Gavin (1962); Jerry Winters Again (1962); Alice Darr (1962); The Happiness of Joe Mooney (1963); The Greatness of Joe Mooney (1963); and two tracks on Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is (1969). Among the best of these nifty recordings was an album for trombonist J.J. Johnson called Broadway Express. [Photo above of J.J. Johnson by Francis Wolff]

Recorded for RCA in December 1965, Broadway Express was a show-tune followup to J.J.'s Broadway that the trombonist had recorded for Verve in 1963.

Broadway Express was recorded in three sessions using three different bands. The first on December 13 included Once in a Lifetime, Sunrise Sunset, Sew the Buttons On and More Than One Way. The band featured Ernie Royal and Burt Collins (tp,flhrn); J.J. Johnson (tb); Tony Studd and Dick Hixson (b-tb); Jerome Richardson (cl,fl,pic); Phil Bodner (oboe,cl,fl); Frank Wess (fl,cl,b-cl); Danny Bank (bar,b-cl,pic); Jimmy Buffington and Bob Northern (fhr); Hank Jones (p); Kenny Burrell and Carl Lynch (g); Richard Davis (b) and Grady Tate (d), with Mundell Lowe (arr,cond). [Photo above of Grady Tate]

The second session on December 16 captured Night Song, Come Back to Me, Something's Coming and Why Did I Choose You? The musicians were Ernie Royal, Joe Newman and Burt Collins (tp,flhrn); Wayne Andre, and J.J. Johnson (tb); Tony Studd and Dick Hixson (b-tb); Jimmy Buffington and Bob Northern (fhr); Jerome Richardson (cl,as,fl); Frank Wess (ts,fl,cl); Phil Bodner (ts,fl,cl,oboe); Danny Bank (bar,b-cl,fl); Hank Jones (p); Carl Lynch and Kenny Burrell (g); Richard Davis (b); Grady Tate (d); and Warren Smith (perc), with Mundell Lowe (arr,cond) (above).

The third session recorded The Joker, Goodbye Old Girl, I Believe in You and Xanadu on December 17. The band on the date: Burt Collins and Ernie Royal (tp,flhrn); J.J. Johnson (tb); Tony Studd and Dick Hixson (b-tb); Jimmy Buffington and Bob Northern (fhr); Jerome Richardson (cl,as,fl); Frank Wess (ts,fl,cl); Phil Bodner (ts,fl,cl,oboe); Danny Bank (bar,fl,b-cl); Hank Jones (p); Carl Lynch and Everett Barksdale (g); Richard Davis (b); Grady Tate (d); and Phil Kraus (perc), with Mundell Lowe (arr,cond). [Photo above of Frank Wess]

The beauty of Mundy's arrangements is that they swung hard, they were airy, and they often featured flutes and interesting instrument combinations. J.J. Johnson was the dean of the post-war jazz trombone and one of the first to master bebop. His firm command of the instrument and his powerful fleshy tone enabled him to dominate as a leader, dating back to the late 1940s. Also in Johnson's favor was his ability to compose and arrange gracefully.

J.J. Johnson died in 2001; Mundell Lowe died in 2017. To read my interview with Mundy, go here.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find J.J. Johnson's Broadway Express (Vic), arranged by Mundell Lowe, here.

JazzWax clips: Here's I Believe in You from How to Succeed in Business (Without Really Trying). Dig Mundy's arrangement with clarinet, flutes, French horns, oboe and glockenspiel...

Julie London's Holiday Album

Today it's Christmas around the world, the day on which I traditionally feature the Julie London holiday album that never was. As JazzWax readers know, London is one of my favorite female vocalists. She had a captivating, cool singing style that never felt forced. Her satiny delivery, superb taste and sophisticated delivery was nocturnal and relaxed, and she routinely took on tough songs and aced them with an understated, whispery strength.

I've long wondered why London resisted recording a classic holiday album. She released only one holiday side—I'd Like You for Christmas (1957), written by husband Bobby Troup. Did London keep the Yule at arm's length because she thought recording a holiday album would be too square? Or did Liberty Records decide to have her steer clear of holiday fare to guard her hip image? Or perhaps she did indeed record a full holiday album but the tape reel is sitting in a temperature-controlled vault someplace mislabeled or misplaced and forgotten.

In a post several years ago, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I created a London holiday album by corralling all of her winter-themed recordings. I playfully named it Julie London Wishes You a Merry Christmas. This year, it's only fitting once again to revisit the London Christmas classic that never was using the seven seasonal songs she recorded:

Here's I'd Like You for Christmas...

 

Here's Warm in December...

 

Here's I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm...

 

Here's Sleigh Ride in July...

 

Here's November Twilight...

 

Here's The Thirteenth Month...

 

And here's The Party's Over...

Shorty Rogers: Nutcracker

What do Shorty Rogers, Larry Clinton, Les Brown, Hal Mooney, Duke Ellington, Herbie Fields, the Nutty Squirrels and Gene Krupa have in common? All recorded a jazz interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. Of the bunch, Rogers's The Swingin' Nutcracker is probably the hippest and most fun to hear. It avoids musically sucking up to European traditions and jumps like jazz popcorn on a hot skillet.

The album was recorded in 1960 for RCA in three sessions—one with a sax quintet and two with a big band.

Overture for Shorty, Nutty Marche, Dance Espresso and The Swinging' Plum Fairy were handled on May 3, 1960 by the reed quintet, featuring Shorty Rogers (flhrn); Richie Kamuca, Harold Land and Bill Perkins (ts); Bill Hood and Bill Holman (bar); Pete Jolly (p); Joe Mondragon (b) and Frank Capp (d).

Flowers for the Cats, Blue Reeds, Pass the Duke and Six Pak were recorded by the big band on May 17. The powerhouse band included Shorty Rogers (tp,flhrn); John Audino, Conte Candoli, Ray Triscari and Jimmy Zito (tp); Harry Betts, Frank Rosolino, George Roberts and Ken Shroyer (tb); Art Pepper (as); Bud Shank (as,fl); Richie Kamuca, Bill Perkins and Bill Holman (ts); Chuck Gentry (bar); Pete Jolly (p); Joe Mondragon (b) and Mel Lewis (d).

With Snowball, China, Where? and Like Nutty Overture, the big band wrapped up the album on May 26, with two changes—Lou Levy (p) replaced Pete Jolly, and Jimmy Giuffre (cl) was added on Snowball. All of the song titles, of course, are whimsical plays on the ballet's original Tchaikovsky titles.

The arrangements were written by Rogers. The most remarkable aspect about the score is how boldly it re-imagines the original. The Swingin' Nutcracker is contemporary from an American perspective without patronizing the European original. It's free from cliches and winds up a purely West Coast jazz Nutcracker with a 1960 TV theme-song sound. Nearly 60 years after its recording, Rogers's music still sounds fresh and sassy, a Nutcracker for post-war prosperity seasoned with humor and instrumental brinkmanship, and abandonment of Euro-stuffiness. I only wish Rogers had given West Side Story the same West Coast makeover.

Shorty Rogers died in 1994.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Shorty Rogers's The Swingin' Nutcracker here.

JazzWax clip: Here's Pass the Duke...

And here's the entire album...

A special thanks to David Langner and Todd Selbert

Eric, Nat and Sarah

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed chef Eric Ripert for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section on growing up in France (go here). Several weeks ago, I went down to Eric's Manhattan restaurant, Le Bernardin, to chat in his office about childhood—how his mother helped him develop a refined palate and the emotional issues he had to deal with after his parents divorced. [Photo of Eric Ripert at his Le Bernardin restaurant in Manhattan by Matt Furman for The Wall Street Journal]

SiriusXM. Last week I was on SiriusXM's Feedback (channel 106) taping an hour-long show with co-hosts Nik Carter and Lori Majewski on Janis Joplin and Big Brother & the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills album from 1968. The show will air five times in the coming two weeks: This Monday, December 24, at 8 and 11 a.m. (EST) and on Tuesday at 2 a.m. It also will be re-broadcast at 8 a.m. on December 29 and 30.

Nat King Cole was the first male pop star of the LP era. Before any of his contemporaries, Cole's 10-inch albums were massive hits, and the revenue generated by their sales had a great deal to do with Capitol expanding to the Capitol Tower in 1954. Here's Cole singing Unforgettable...

And, of course, here's The Christmas Song...

Back to 1950s Italy. Wish there were something decent on TV that was dramatic and intellectually stimulating? There is. I rarely watch TV (no time) but I managed to binge a new series in two sittings. It's called My Brilliant Friend, and it's the best television I've seen since the Sopranos. Season 1 of My Brilliant Friend features eight episodes. The series is based on the novels of Elena Ferrante and focuses on the relationship between two girls growing up in the suburbs of Naples, Italy, in the 1950s. You'll find this engaging series on HBO on Demand (free).

Here's the trailer...

And here's a little backgrounder...

Jaki Byard. Following my post last week on pianist Jaki Byard, Duff Bruce sent along a link to Byard's appearance on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz series on NPR. Go here.

Carpenters. If you dig the brother and sister duo who dominated 1970s pop, you'll be happy to know that an album has just been released of hits by Karen and Richard Carpenter backed by the Royal Philharmonic. The orchestral arrangements and piano parts are by Richard Carpenter. To me, it's probably the best of the Royal Phil treatment albums. Here's Rainy Day and Mondays...

The album is available at Spotify or here.

What the heck: Here's Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan singing I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm for Mercury in 1957, with a band arranged by Hal Mooney...

Oddball album cover of the week.

To the best of my knowledge based on a little research, Tee-Kays was a Canadian maker of canvas sneakers in the 1970s...

Hot Track: Someone in Love

Unfamiliar with Shirley Horn? Like Someone in Love, from her album Embers and Ashes (1960), is as good an entry point as any. Horn sings and accompanies herself on piano, backed by Joe Benjamin (b) and Herbie Lovelle (d). The song was written by Jimmy Van Heusen, with lyrics by Johnny Burke, for the film Belle of the Yukon (1944). In the movie, the song was sung by Dinah Shore.

Here's Shirley Horn singing and playing Like Someone in Love...

And here's Dinah Shore in a colorized Belle of the Yukon introducing the song in 1944...

Jaki Byard: Anything for Jazz

Back in the early 1980s, I'd head down to Barry Harris's Jazz Cultural Theater on New York's Eighth Avenue in the 20s to hear Jaki Byard & the Apollo Stompers. As I recall, you never knew who you'd see in the band. There often were guys in the trumpet section who played Broadway shows. But the biggest surprise of all was hearing Byard play the piano. There was a lot of abstraction in his attack, but there always was a traditional jazz core. Byard was an exceptional technician, a rambunctiously creative player and a mischief-maker on the keyboards. In some ways, his artistry was a fascinating mash of Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and Erroll Garner. All were widely admired players, but all brought a vivid sense of humor to the fore.

Last week, director Raymond De Felitta passed along a link to Anything for Jazz, a short 1980 documentary on Byard based on film that director Dan Algrant gathered in the late 1970s. There are even two clips of Bill Evans talking about Byard. Evans looks very ill, so I suspect the interview was conducted in late 1979 or early '80. A reminder of what brilliant jazz artists sacrificed for the music and the suffering many black artists endured from a lack of widespread recognition and praise. A good way to end the week.

Here's the documentary on Jaki Byard...