Danny, Bill and Gunhild

This week for The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed actor-director Danny Huston for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Danny is the son of John Huston and actress Zoe Sallis. As Danny said during our conversation, "I was conceived while my father was directing Freud in 1961, born in 1962 just before he directed The Night of the Iguana and  teething in Rome on the set of The Bible." When his father would screen films for guests at his estate in Galway, Ireland, Danny saw his father and grandfather on the wall. Films like The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, he said, were like home movies. [Photo above of Danny Huston by Austin Hargrave for The Wall Street Journal]

Danny currently stars in HBO's Succession and he directed and stars in The Photograph, which was just released. Here's the trailer...

SiriusXM. Last week, I was on SiriusXM's Feedback with Lori Majewski and Nik Carter to talk about my WSJ "Anatomy of a Song" column on Gary Numan's Cars. As always, we had fun. Go here...

Bill Evans. Last week, I found a transcribed audio interview with pianist Bill Evans conducted by Bill Goldberg and Eddie Karp at Evans's Fort Lee, N.J., apartment. The interview was broadcast on July 4, 1979. Go here.

ABBA reloaded. Here's Gunhild Carling (above) on trumpet, tap and vocal with Scott Bradlee on piano and Aaron McLendon on drums giving ABBA's Dancing Queen new meaning with a 1920s Hot Jazz spin...

Twitter used right. Last week, I came across a fabulous Twitter feed. It's simply called People Dancing to Steely Dan @steelydance. Go here and follow. It will make your day.

 

Roger Kellaway on Don Ellis. On Friday, pianist Roger Kellaway sent along the following note after reading my post on Don Ellis:

 

Marc, Nice post on Don Ellis. I played with Don and his Hindustani Jazz Sextet from around 1966 to 1968 during my off months with Bobby Darin. Of course, I learned to play the odd time signatures Don favored. Since I learned to play in 19/8, I wrote a piece for the band carrying the idea of 19 to its absurd point of having the piece cover 19 events. You could achieve that kind of an idea only with Don. We did play the piece at Bonesville in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Don never recorded it.

 

Note: If you want to hear this group live at Bonesville playing other material, go here and here.

 

More Don Ellis. Bucky sent along a link to a UCLA project that lets you listen to Ellis's recordings. Go here.

 

Bill Finegan, the superb, unheralded arranger (above), penned Soon for Les and Larry Elgart in 1966. A special thanks to Bill Kirchner for sending the track along...

Billy and Marlene VerPlanck. Jerry Kline sent along the following email on a Library of Congress page that pays tribute to arranger Billy VerPlanck and his wife, vocalist Marlene VerPlanck:

Marc, here is a lovely honor for two talented people. I’m sure you’ll you’ll want to know about it. My wife, Janet, and I were friends of Billy and Marlene for more than 30 years. We still miss them both. Go here.

Bud, Chet and bossa. Bud Shank and Chet Baker teamed up in September 1968 to record Marcos Valle's Summer Samba for Bud's Brazil! Brazil! Brazil! album on World Pacific Records. Go here...

Sonny Rollins. Last week I found this video of Sonny in Copenhagen in 1974 playing his Alfie's Theme with Rufus Harley. Ordinarily, I find that droning bagpipes can be a tad grating. But here, with Sonny, they sound fantastic...

Morgan Ames. Last week, singer-songwriter Morgan Ames sent along a note and a song:

Marc, "My Real Home" is a song I wrote with the great Brazilian composer Dori Caymmi in 2001 for an album entitled Prairie Jazz, by the vocal group Inner Voices. I wrote it because when I was a child, I wanted to run off and live with the cowboys around a campfire, with horses and cows and family. Such was my fantasy. I arranged, produced and sang on the album, too. It actually still sells copies.

This YouTube clip was beautifully put together by someone named Jymster, whom I don't know. What makes it even sweeter is that the clips are from a movie called "The Cowboys," starring John Wayne and directed by Mark Rydell, a close friend. He's going to love this. I just stumbled across the clip on YouTube, but it was made seven years ago. A lovely memory, a touching version. Love, Morgan...

Arlene Corwin, a JazzWax reader and friend in Sweden, had a few tricky health issues lately but is bouncing back nicely. Once again, her emails are full of fizz and optimism. Here she is in 2009...

Podcasts Til Dawn. Director Raymond De Felitta's latest podcast is an interview with director and photographer Jerry Schatzberg (above), director of Panic In Needle Park, Scarecrow, etc. As Raymond notes, "You’ll even get to hear Jerry explain how he almost directed A Star Is Born (1976) with Barbara Streisand, a bullet he seems happy to have dodged." You can access Raymond's Movies Til Dawn here.

What the heck: Here's Eumir Deodato (above) performing Super Strut at the Festival Jazz Lugano in Lugano, Switzerland, in 2010...

Oddball album cover of the week.

Based on this guy's glare, you'd think wishing someone love was the same as casting a revenge spell.