JazzWax

Carlos Lyra: Além da Bossa

In the late 1950s, Rio de Janeiro experienced enormous optimism. North American trade was on the rise, and the advent of jet travel between Brazil, France and the U.S. boosted tourism. Business at the city's hotels, lounges and restaurants soared. Throughout Rio, a new form of music was stirring. The home-grown sound was more jazz-romantic and folk-centric than the whistle-infused samba. It also was more intimate and sophisticated, and celebrated the sensuality and cool of the young beach crowd. When João Gilberto released his seminal first album, Chega de Saudade, in 1959, the new music percolating at the city's clubs and coffee houses crystallized as the bossa nova.

Gilberto wasn't a major composer, but he was a master interpreter of the new music. His soft, hushed voice and yearning guitar were intoxicating. Of the 12 songs on his first album, two composers stood out—Antonio Carlos Jobim and Carlos Lyra. Three songs were by Jobim and lyricist Vinicius De Moraes, and three were by Carlos and lyricist Ronaldo Bôscoli. When I interviewed Carlos in 2015, he told me that the term "bossa nova" was born at the Hebraic Club in the Flamengo district of Rio in 1957, where he and lyricist Ronaldo Bôscoli, guitarist Roberto Menescal and singer Sylvia Telles regularly performed. "At this place," he said, "the event manager of the club announced us as a bossa nova [new beat] group. He used a slang term that was not very common then, and we accepted this title. At the same time that our group was getting together, other groups were also doing the same thing. We became aware of each other at gatherings on the beach at night. There was no one single place where the bossa nova happened."

In effect, the bossa nova was beach music developed by a network of musicians influenced by each other and the surf. Bossa nova emerged the same way that West Coast jazz was born at clubs along the beaches of Hermosa, Newport and Redondo in California and West Hollywood in L.A. The bossa nova was the sound of the horizon, the sun, beauty and love. The emphasis was on catchy melodies and emotional harmony backed by a breezy rhythmic guitar. And like all music influenced by the beach and lost summer love, it was portable and easily exported. If you heard the music in the dead of winter in Europe or the U.S., you instantly thought of warm weather, relaxation, resorts and romance. It couldn't be helped.

Last week, Magda Botafogo, Carlos Lyra's wife and manager, emailed to let me know that Carlos had a new album out—Além da Bossa (MCK). Recorded in 2018, the songs are all originals that he wrote alone or with other great Brazilian artists over the years. The list of Carlos's collaborators on his new album includes Marcos Valle, João Donato, Daltony Nóbrega, Ronaldo Bastos, Joyce Moreno, Paulo César Pinheiro, Castro Alves, Lope de Vega, Machado de Assis and Claudio Lyra. 

The beauty of Carlos rests in the colors of his voice. They're warm and woody, and masculine-sexy. Also lush are the lyrical twists and turns of his melodies and vocal harmonies, not to mention his assertive guitar playing. Music this beautiful and honest is a treasure. In the old days, Carlos's album might have remained in Brazil waiting for an American label to distribute it in the U.S. Which means you wouldn't likely have heard it. Now, thanks to Spotify and the global distribution of music, the album is readily available to whisk you away to the sands of Rio's Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. Bravo Carlos!  

To read my 2015 JazzWax interview with Carlos Lyra, go here.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Carlos Lyra's Além da Bossa (MCK) here (at just $6.99 for the download in the U.S.).

The album also is available at Spotify.

JazzWax clips: Here's Na Batucada...

And here's Até o Fim...

Bonus: Here's Carlos Lyra and daughter Kay Lyra some years ago singing Você e Eu (You and I), one of his most famous compositions (with lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes)...

John Coltrane in 1958

John Coltrane in 1958 was unnerving. If you were a tenor saxophonist back then, Coltrane's playing in clubs and on albums must have been gripping and daunting. A year earlier, Coltrane was largely a sideman on recordings, notably with pianists Thelonious Monk, Red Garland, Sonny Clark and Tadd Dameron as well as with a batch of trumpeters. There were two major leadership dates where Coltrane began to show his prowess and promise—Coltrane and Blue Train. But 1958 was a different bag. That year, it was as if Coltrane had developed a passing gear no one else had or even knew existed. His ribbons of improvised ideas, sheets of sound and wide-bodied ballads left most musicians in awe.

But it also was a ghost year of delayed expression. Coltrane's albums of note recorded in '58 were The Believer (not released until 1964), The Last Trane (not released until 1966, without Coltrane's input or permission), Soultrane (released in October 1958), Settin' the Pace (not released until late 1961), Stardust (not released until late 1963) and Bahia (not released until 1965).

One can only assume these albums were held back because Prestige didn't want to release too much Coltrane at once and because by 1959, Coltrane had signed with Atlantic. The move to a new label was pure business. In '58, Prestige was pushing to handle Coltrane's publishing, so he refused to record originals for the label. Instead, Coltrane and Garland turned to American popular songs from the 1930s and ‘40s. According to Bill Kirchner, Garland carried a little notebook with the names of hundreds of songs and their keys. When Coltrane signed with Atlantic, the label had the good sense to let him keep his publishing, which meant greater income. As a result, his Atlantic albums were filled with original material.

In addition to all of these albums for Prestige in 1958, Coltrane also was dominant in the studio and on tour with Miles Davis, recording tracks that would wind up on Davis's Kind of Blue in 1959. As an artist, Coltrane matured rapidly in '58. His playing became stronger and bolder, not to mention increasingly political and spiritual in tone. Through his horn, you could hear his meditative complaint with the slow pace of civil rights, the sound of love for Africa and his loquacious bitterness with a value system that didn't view him as a phenomenon or place him on the same level, artistically or commercially, as other artists, such as Armstrong, Ellington or Dave Brubeck.

Coltrane's growth spurt as a leader can be heard on Coltrane '58: The Prestige Recordings, a new five-CD set from Craft, a division of Concord. Tracks are in order of their recording sessions, and the results paint an impressive picture of a quiet artist who let his saxophone do the talking. Coltrane was on a mission in 1958 to voice injustice on his horn and show his stuff. With these tracks isolated from the albums on which they appeared, Coltrane's work is even more breathtaking.

Like many of you, I already own all of these tracks on their respective albums. So why bother with this box? All I can say is that snapped from their original albums and isolated here, Coltrane's leadership and co-leadership recordings in '58 offer a distinct and beautiful jazz skyline. As you listen to them in recorded order, the tracks provide us with a proverbial door frame with penciled height measurements detailing the growth spurt of an exceptional artist. Listening to Coltrane this way, we hear an artist break free from the pack, much the way Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Charlie Parker did before him.

Surprises here include Nakatini Serenade, Russian Lullaby, You Say You Care, Lyresto and Freight Train (from Coltrane's co-leadership session with guitarist Kenny Burrell), Rise and Shine, If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You, Love Thy Neighbor and Goldsboro Express. They are amazing for their fluidity, their energy, their speed and their soul. A bonus treat is hearing Red Garland at his very best accompanying the saxophonist on many of the tracks. Coltrane's playing would grow more ambitious and adventuresome adventuresome in 1959 and beyond. In 1958, he was in transition, but it wasn't a fleeting or flailing period. Instead, he exhibited grace and a new depth before moving on to his next level of artful discovery.

John Coltrane died in 1967 of liver cancer. He was 40.

JazzWax tracks: You'll Find Coltrane '58: The Prestige Recordings (Craft) here.

You'll also find the box at Spotify.

JazzWax clips: Here's a promo video for the set...

Here's Calvin Massey's Nakatini Serenade from Coltrane's The Believer...

Here's Lyresto with Kenny Burrell...

And here's The Believer...

Charles, Duke and Ella

This week in The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed actor-comedian Charles Grodin for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Chuck talked about living near the Pittsburgh zoo as a kid. Coming up with jokes at bedtime, he'd try them out loud, but he'd time the punchlines so the hyenas would laugh at the right moment. A laugh-track with spots. [Photo above of Charles Grodin at his Connecticut home by Julie Bidwell Photography for The Wall Street Journal]

Here's the full Heartbreak Kid (1972), Chuck's favorite film, with Chuck, Jeannie Berlin, Cybil Shepherd and Eddie Albert. The terrific opening theme was composed by Garry Sherman, and the vocal is by Bill Dean...

Duke Ellington radio. WKCR-FM will present its annual "Duke Ellington Birthday Broadcast," spinning the Duke's music for 24 hours starting Sunday at midnight and running all day Monday, April 29. You can hear the broadcast from anywhere in the world on your phone or computer by going here.

Ella Fitzgerald. April 25th was the singer's 102 birth anniversary. A good excuse as any to watch a bunch of great Ella videos:

Here's Ella with Benny Goodman in Swing Into Spring in April 1958...

Here's Ella with Frank Sinatra singing Moonlight in Vermont in 1959...

Here's Ella with Sinatra singing Can't We Be Friends in 1959...

Here's Ella and Nat King Cole singing Too Close for Comfort in 1957...

Here are the two great female voices of the late 1940s and early 1950s—Ella with Jo Stafford singing a duet of upbeat and downcast love songs...

And here's Ella with Karen Carpenter singing a medley in 1980...

Denny Zeitlin will be in New York at Mezzrow Jazz Club from May 1 through May 4. The extraordinary jazz pianist will be playing solo on May 1 and 2. Then he'll be with his trio, featuring bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson on May 3 and 4. The first two nights will be a solo tribute to Miles Davis, from Denny's new album Remembering Miles (go here). The second two nights with the trio will be recorded by Sunnyside for a future live album. Sets are at 7:30 and 9 p.m.

Mezzrow is at 163 W 10th Street. To make reservations, call (646) 476-4346. Or go here, click on "schedule" and click on the link for your desired night and time.

Can't make it or you won't be in New York? Stream Denny live on these nights on your phone or computers by going here.

What the heck. Here's one of my favorite male vocalists, Giacomo Gates, at New York's Zinc Bar recently singing I Told You I Love You, Now Get Out...

Oddball album cover of the week.

Jeri Jorden either had one bloody Mary too many or she's unfamiliar with how to sit in Jorge Ferrari Hardoy’s Butterfly Chair.

Quincy Jones in Paris, 1960

In 1957, Quincy Jones moved to Paris. There, he studied with Nadia Boulanger, a French composer who educated numerous expatriate American composers and arrangers. As Boulanger told Jones, "Your music can never be more or less than you are as a human being." To pay the bills, Jones took a job with Barclay, the French record label, where he produced and arranged sessions for French pop singers and touring American jazz vocalists. 

After 19 months, Jones returned to New York. Producer John Hammond asked him to put together a big band for Harold Arlen's blues musical, Free and Easy. The goal was to have the band break-in the show in Paris before opening on Broadway. The prospect of a Broadway hit enticed Jones. But weeks after the show opened in the French capital in December 1959, it closed in February 1960.

Stranded in Europe and responsible for the musicians he hired and their families, Jones kept the band together and lined up a string of gigs across the continent, sinking deep into debt. Despite the emotional and financial strain (Jones actually contemplated suicide in Finland), the band and Jones's arrangements were first rate. The personnel included Clark Terry, Leonard Johnson, Floyd Standifer and Benny Bailey (tp); Jimmy Cleveland, Melba Liston, Quentin Jackson and Ake Persson (tb); Julius Watkins (fhr); Phil Woods and Porter Kilbert (as); Budd Johnson and Jerome Richardson (ts); Sahib Shihab (bs); Les Spann (g); Patti Bown (p); Buddy Catlett (b) and Joe Harris (d). 

One of the first concerts performed after Free and Easy folded came on March 5, 1960, when the Quincy Jones Big Band performed at the Alhambra theater in Paris, where they were taped for French TV.

Here's Part 1...

And here's Part 2...

Documentary: Ira Gitler Lives!

The late Ira Gitler was the delicatessen of jazz writers. While most jazz scribes of the 1950s and beyond had a fork-and-knife feel to their prose, Ira's liner notes on the backs of albums and his books were meant to be eaten with both hands. He was the New York cabbie, the cop on the beat, the doorman and the construction worker. He was jazz's everyman, and his liner notes always came with a pickle on the side.

Ira and I struck up a friendship when he began emailing me soon after I started JazzWax in 2007. He was encouraging, filling in the blanks on posts or complimenting me on an interview or album choice. We began speaking regularly on the phone. He was a walking encyclopedia and an eyewitness to the music I loved. It was an honor to hear from him, given how many of his essays I pored over on the backs of albums since the late 1960s.

His apartment on East 80th was like a Collyer brothers pied-à-terre. Vinyl and CD jazz albums, books and artwork jammed his living space to the point that he knew where stuff was but didn't want to remove the three layers stacked in front to reach them. If you don't already own Swing to Bebop, do yourself a favor and buy it (go here). The oral history is one of jazz's finest books, and you'll love reading how modern jazz evolved in the voices of the artists who made it happen.

Jazz musicians admired Ira for his transparency, his honesty and the directness of his writing. They dug his passion for the music and that he wasn't in the business to look cool or screw them over. Ira didn't see black or white, just art and artists. They also felt a kinship, since he had been involved in recording sessions from the dawn of the 1950s with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Zoot Sims, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins and many others. Best of all, Ira's writing was terse, always emotional, rich in his own sound and light on the fancy words and scholarly verbiage. [Photo above of Ira and me at a party celebrating his birthday on December 18, 2008]

Bret Primack, also known as "The Jazz Video Guy," recently put together a documentary on Ira. Fortunately, Bret was able to interview Ira over the years at his home on camera. [Photo above of Bret and me in November 2008 at New York's Barney Greengrass.

Here's Bret's documentary, Ira Gitler Lives!...  

John Graas: French Horn Jazz

According to Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, the French horn in jazz recordings dates back to 1921, when Vincent Lopez's brass band recorded The Sheik of Araby for Black Swan in New York. By the 1930s, the instrument was popping up on recordings by Bing Crosby and Woody Herman. In the 1940s, Artie Shaw, Claude Thornhill, Harry James and other bandleaders included the horn when they used strings. Neal Hefti included Vincent Jacobs on French horn when he recorded Repetition with Charlie Parker in 1947. Junior Collins was on the horn during Miles Davis's "Birth of the Cool" sessions in the late 1940s. And Julius Watkins played horn with Kenny Clarke and His Clique in 1949.

The first French hornist to lead a jazz recording session was John Graas. The album, French Horn Jazz, was recorded for Los Angeles's Trend label in June 1953. Originally a 10-inch LP (or two 45s with their own cover sleeves), the vinyl album was expanded to 12 inches in 1956 with four additional tracks. By the early 1950s, the French horn had escaped from the orchestra and was closely associated with the cinema and pop music, and it was a short leap from there to the birth of West Coast jazz. Several years later In New York, the horn in the hands of Collins, Watkins and David Amram was a sighing addition to East Coast jazz orchestras such as those led by Oscar Pettiford and Gil Evans, and in small ensembles, some of which were led by horn players.

Graas's seminal 1953 recording session in L.A. included a fabulous octet and terrific arrangements. The players were Shorty Rogers (tp), John Graas (fhr) Bud Shank (fl,as), Bob Cooper (ts), Jimmy Giuffre (bar), Russ Freeman (p), Bob Manners (b) and Shelly Manne (d). Nelson Riddle arranged Pyramid and Bananera, Shorty Rogers arranged Argyles and Be My Guest, Jimmy Giuffre arranged Egypt and Frappe, and Graas arranged 6/4 Trend and Not Exactly.

For the 1956 session, Graas's group shrank to a superb quintet featuring Graas (fhr), Jack Montrose (ts), Gerald Wiggins (p), Buddy Clark (b) and Larry Bunker (d). Graas arranged all four songs: Sequence, Cordova, Lady Like and Blue Haze.

As French horn fans know, there are no bad John Graas recordings, and all have a West Coast jazz feel. From his earliest records with Claude Thornhill in 1942 to his last on Henry Mancini's Hatari film soundtrack in December 1961, Graas always delivered a French horn sound that was sexy-breezy, assertive and melodic.

While Gerry Mulligan and Shorty Rogers played the most significant roles in shaping the emerging sound of West Coast jazz as arrangers and players, Graas certainly made a major contribution early on to the style's development, drama and warm tone.

As early as 1950, Graas was a regular member of Shorty Rogers and His Giants. His French horn gave the group a panoramic, Pacific Coast feel, and he did the same on Rogers's Modern Sounds (1951) and Mulligan's Modern Sounds (1953). What would Mulligan's Westwood Walk and Ontet be without Graas? Or Rogers's Cool and Crazy and Shorty Courts the Count albums?

And then there are all of the wonderful leadership albums Graas recorded: French Horn Jazz (1953), Jazz Studio 2 (1954), Jazz Studio 3 (1954), Jazz Lab 1 (1955 and '56), Jazz Lab 2 (1956), John Graas Sextet (1957), Jazzmantics (1957), Coup de Graas (1957) and International Premiere in Jazz (1958).

As you can hear on French Horn Jazz, Graas added a distinctive ingredient to West Coast jazz. Without his French horn and the dry, aggressive sound he pioneered, the music would have been less dimensional, less cool and less Hollywood hip.

John Graas died in 1962 of a heart attack at age 45.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find French Horn Jazz here.

JazzWax clip: Here's the entire 10-inch album, opening with Giuffre's brilliantly arranged Egypt (with a Speak Low flavor) and Graas's powerful horn. The track list can be found at YouTube...

A special thanks to David Langner.

Bill Evans in England, 1969

The year 1969 was a busy one for pianist Bill Evans. In January, February and early March, Evans and bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell recorded What's New with flutist Jeremy Steig. In February, the trio was recorded furtively at New York's Village Vanguard (The Secret Sessions). Then they moved on to Holland in late March (Live In Hilversum 1969) and Italy in July (Autumn Leaves). Back in New York in early November, Evans began recording From Left to Right, his moody Fender Rhodes-acoustic piano album backed by an orchestra. Later that month, the trio recorded live in Copenhagen (Jazzhouse) and Amsterdam (Quiet Now). [Photo above of Bill Evans courtesy of Resonance Records]

Finally, on December 1, the Bill Evans Trio opened at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London, a run that would last until December 27. At various points during the month, the gig was beautifully recorded. The tape captured Bill at his gentle and poetic best, a throwback to his perspicacious playing of several years earlier. Now, the music from December 1969 has just been released on Evans in England (Resonance). Like the Wes Montgomery set that I reviewed yesterday, this two-CD set with a 36-page booklet of liner notes and interviews was produced by Zev Feldman.

According to Zev's introductory essay, the tapes were in the possession of Léon Terjanian, a resident of Strasbourg, France. Terjanian is among the world's many "trench coat" tape collectors who own private and previously unreleased recordings of major jazz artists and trade them among each other. According to Terjanian, the tape's recorder was a guy named "Jo," a fictitious name to protect the person's identity. Terjanian continues in his notes that "Jo" used a Beyerdynamic mic on the floor between the piano and bass connected to an Uher tape recorder resting on his knees and covered by the tablecloth. [Photo above of Bill Evans courtesy of Resonance Records]

Zev traveled to Strasbourg twice to meet with Terjanian and to hear the tapes, research them and negotiate for their release. Terjanian, an entrepreneur, had befriended Evans and filmed him in Lyon , France, in 1978. He used the footage in his film, Turn Out the Stars, which he screened just once at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1981. [Photo above of Léon Terjanian above by Zev Feldman and courtesy of Resonance Records]

As Zev was readying Evans in England, he reached out to me for the album's main liner notes. To confirm that Evans actually was at Ronnie Scott's in December 1969, I called the club in London to verify the dates. They weren't sure, since their records were incomplete. So I went off to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at Lincoln Center, one of the finest arts research facilities in the city.

After an hour on the microfilm projector scrolling through the 1969 Melody Maker, the indispensable British music tabloid that published from 1926 to 2000, I found ads for Ronnie Scott's promoting the Bill Evans Trio's appearance throughout December (Blossom Dearie opened for the trio).

For the notes, I also interviewed Marty Morell, my favorite Bill Evans drummer. I love Marty's delicate but determined touch and how he plays in and around Evans's piano. After listening to the tapes, Marty said, he was certain the music was recorded in December 1969. During the trio's visit to London, Marty recalled, he agreed to endorse Paiste cymbals, a Swiss company with offices in London. Midway through the Ronnie Scott's run, he said, he switched out his Zildjian cymbal for a Paiste "Free Ride"—a cymbal without a bell. The model let him ride the cymbal without overshadowing Evans's playing, something that Evans's mother had groused about months earlier in Washington, D.C. Marty said he could hear the cymbal switch. [Photo above of Marty Morell by Jan Persson/CTSImages.com, courtesy of Resonance Records]

The final mind-blower that emerged from my research for these notes was the origin of Elsa. Composed by Earl Zindars, the song was an Evans favorite and has appeared on numerous Evans albums over the years. The list includes Explorations, Trio '65, Paris 1965, Momentum, Live in Paris 1972, Re: Person I Knew, among others. [Photo above of Earl Zindars]

Despite going through the liner notes of these albums and thumbing through books, I realized that no one ever bothered to look into why Earl Zindars named the song Elsa. Who was this woman? I called Anne Zindars, the late composer's wife. She said, "That's exactly what I asked Earl," she said, laughing. "After Earl wrote the song, I asked him, 'So, who's Elsa?' Turns out the song was named for the lioness, Elsa, in the 1960 book, Born Free, which then became a movie in '66. Earl loved the book when it came out."

I think you'll find that Evans in England is the finest live recording by the Evans-Gomez-Morell trio and easily in the top five live albums by Evans in general. For me, it's bested only by Sunday at the Village Vangaurd/Waltz for Debbie recorded in 1961 and Bill Evans at Town Hall in 1966. As you'll hear, the music in London is alive, spry and patient—without keyboard agitation or complaint. All 18 tracks feature Evans at ease; Gomez is warmly conversational; and Morell on sticks and brushes frames the music with a delicate but urgent touch. We're lucky that material of this audio quality and artistic grace surfaced and that Resonance producers Zev Feldman and George Klabin had the wisdom and determination to track down the music and pull it into the marketplace. [Photo above of Eddie Gomez by Jan Persson/CTSImages.com, courtesy of Resonance Records]

Bill Evans died in September 1980.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Evans in England (Resonance) as a download here and on CD here.

JazzWax clips: Here's a mini-documentary on the album...

Here's Sugar Plum...

Sugar Plum

And here's a perfect Polka Dots and Moonbeams...

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Wes Montgomery: Back on Indy

Back in 2012, Resonance producer Zev Feldman was contacted by Brook Reindollar, who worked with Carroll DeCamp, an Indianapolis pianist and self-taught arranger. Reindollar said he had digital audio tapes (DAT) of guitarist Wes Montgomery that the late DeCamp recorded in Indianapolis. Reindollar had been passed along to Zev by Lewis Porter, a jazz historian, professor of music at Rutgers University and pianist. That's how most "old tape" mysteries begin today—with an email to record producers or to bloggers about material that has remained on a shelf or in a closet for decades.

Reindollar told Zev that part of the Montgomery tape was recorded in a studio while the balance was live. Fortunately for us, DeCamp in the 1990s had loaned the the analog tapes to educator and saxophonist Jamey Aebersold, who converted them to DAT. Then Aebersold returned the tapes to DeCamp. Not long after, they were destroyed in a fire that consumed DeCamp's entire house. Sadly, any notes that DeCamp had about the tapes and its personnel were destroyed as well. But the DAT survived, thanks to Aebersold. [Photo above of Carroll DeCamp]

Zev was given the tapes and then left to guess about the time frame in which the material was recorded. After multiple trips to Indianapolis, Zev estimated they were from 1957 to 1959. He also tried to determine accurately with whom Montgomery was teamed on the different tracks, a challenge that proved to be impossible. [Photo above of Jamey Aebersold]

The result of all this jazz intrigue is the newly released Wes Montgomery: Back on Indiana Avenue, The Carroll DeCamp Recordings. The two-CD set from Resonance features 22 previously unissued tracks and a 44-page booklet of images and liner notes and interviews. The music is divided into three ensemble sections recorded during Montgomery's trips home to Indianapolis: piano quartets with guitar, piano, bass and drums; organ trio and sextet with trombone and saxophone; and Nat King Cole-style trios with guitar, piano and bass.

Based on the tracks in the first section, I'm guessing they couldlhave been recorded either as a late 1959 warmup for Montgomery's monumental Riverside album, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, in January 1960. Or more likely, the tracks were recorded while Montgomery was on tour in late 1960 to promote the album's release. If I had to guess, I'd go with late 1960.  

The tracks in the first section include Four on Six, Mr. Walker, 'Round Midnight, So What, The End of a Love Affair, Tune Up and West Coast Blues. The recording of So What puts the Montgomery recording after August 1959, when Miles Davis's Kind of Blue was released. And Four on Six, Mr. Walker and West Coast Blues all are from The Incredible Jazz Guitar from early 1960.

The album's second section also could have been recorded at the tail end of 1959 but I think it is more likely from early 1960, since many of the songs appeared on The Wes Montgomery Trio, released at the end of 1959. The tracks in this section include Jingles, It's You Or No One, Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You, Ecaroh, Sandu and Whisper Not.

The so-called Nat King Cole-style trios in the third section were probably recorded around 1957 or '58. The tracks are Stompin' at the Savoy, It's You Or No One, Opus de Funk, Summertime, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Easy Living, Four, I'll Remember April and The Song Is You.

Album songs that Montgomery plays for the first time are So What, It's You Or No One, Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You, Opus de Funk, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Easy Living and The Song Is You. What makes this new Resonance album special are the different groups playing behind Montgomery and the three phases in which his song choices mature and his playing grows more swinging and relaxed.

On the album, we hear Montgomery's guitar during his Riverside period fully formed. Earlier Montgomery material recorded in Indianapolis and released by Resonance featured a largely straight approach. Here, the guitarist is thoughtfully weaving and bobbing on songs like Tune Up and It's You Or No One, sailing along on The Song Is You and Horace Silver's Ecaroh, and digging in on the ballads 'Round Midnight and Whisper Not. 

This new album provides a glimpse of Montgomery on the cusp of superstardom and offers us bridges between Riverside albums in late 1959 and '60, and 1960 and '61. After Riverside filed for bankruptcy in July 1964, Montgomery would move on to Verve, A&M and CTI and, with producer Creed Taylor, change the sound of the jazz guitar.

Wes Montgomery died in 1968.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Wes Montgomery: Back on Indiana Avenue, The Carroll DeCamp Recordings (Resonance) here.

JazzWax clips: Here's a mini documentary for the album...

Here's Mr. Walker circa late 1960...

Mr. Walker

And here's Tune Up...

Tune Up

Stacy, Pinky and Ella

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed actor Stacy Keach for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Stacy talked about his cleft lip in childhood and the step his mother took to make sure a bully never picked on him again. Stacy is currently in the CBS sitcom Man With a Plan. [Photo above of Stacy Keach courtesy of CBS]

Here's Fat City's (1972) final scene with Keach and Jeff Bridges...

And here's director John Huston being interviewed about the film...

SiriusXM. If you missed my appearance on Feedback with Nik Carter and Lori Majewski last week, here's the complete broadcast on the history of T. Rex's "Get It On"...

Spotify for 78s. Last week, Jim Eigo of Jazz Promo Services sent along a link to the Boston Public Library's 78rpm collection. Yep, search or browse, click and listen. It's that simple. Go here.

Barefoot in the Park. Here's an acoustic guitarist playing Neal Hefti's catchy theme for Barefoot in the Park...

Charlie Byrd also recorded a rendition of the song...

Pinky Winters. The one and only Pinky Winters will be singing live in San Diego on Tuesday, April 23, from 8 to 10 p.m. (PCT) You can listen from anywhere in the world for free on your phone or computer by signing up. Go here.

Ella Fitzgerald radio. WKCR-FM in New York is presenting a special broadcast to celebrate Ella Fitzgerald, playing her music on the radio for 24 hours next Thursday, April 25. You can listen from anywhere in the world on your phone or computer by going here.

What the heck. Here's Mary Wells in 1964 on Shindig singing My Guy, which had hit #1 that year on Billboard's pop chart...

Oddball album cover of the week.

The first thing I thought of when I saw the above cover was Brent Hinkley in the Seinfeld episode known as "The Sidler" (below)...

Count Basie Videos: 1959-'61

By the late 1950s, Count Basie's European tour schedule was becoming increasingly crowded. Here are three recently uploaded YouTube videos of Basie's New Testament band on the road in 1959, 1960 and 1961:

Here's Basie in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1959...

Here's Basie in Milan, Italy, in 1960...

And here's Basie in Paris in 1961...