In The Wall Street Journal this week, my "Anatomy of a Song" column for April was on Steely Dan's Peg, from their 1977 Aja album, arguably their best (go here). I spent 45 minutes interviewing Donald Fagen, who talked about co-writer Walter Becker as well as the analysis behind all of their lyrics and their instrumental and arrangement choices.
I also interviewed background vocalist Michael McDonald, reed player Tom Scott and guitar soloist Jay Graydon. Despite being a major Steely Dan fan, I had no idea what Peg was about based on the lyrics despite listening to it dozens of times since buying the Aja album. So much of what Donald told me was a revelation.
Here's drummer Rick Marotta, Donald and Walter, and Michael McDonald talking about the instrumental texture in Peg...
Here's Part I of Donald illustrating his gorgeous chords for Peg a few years earlier with pianist Warren Bernhardt...
And here's Part 2...
And yes, I did notice that Donald does sound a bit like Bill Evans. Both were born in New Jersey.
Also in the WSJ, I interviewed actress Alice Eve for my "House Call" column in the paper's Mansion section (go here). Yes, she does have one blue eye and one green. Alice co-stars in the new Epix period series Belgravia. Here's the trailer...
Here's Alice on the red carpet in the U.K....
And here's Alice with the king of late night, Craig Ferguson, in 2014...
Zoot Sims. Following my post on Zoot Sims, I received the following email from photographer and author Hank O'Neal, whose latest book, Sincerely, Ty Cobb: A Baseball Memoir (Texas Christian University Press) will be out in May (go here).
Hi Marc. Thanks for this post. Zoot was quite a guy and a lot of fun. I looked in my appointment diary and saw that Zoot came by for dinner on December 5th. He told me about this recording from a couple of months earlier. He didn't know if it would come out or not, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't be around to see it.
He had a couple of pals with him that night and I remember one had a real shiner, a souvenir from a dust up at Bradley's a few nights earlier. Zoot brought me a bottle of Irish whiskey in a ceramic crock. I never opened it and it's still on a shelf in the country. I seem to remember there was a VHS tape available of the performance soon after he died and an LP as well. They, too, are probably on the shelf somewhere.
Then about a month later, I heard Zootly for the last time. He did a concert with Al and Dave McKenna at the Church of Heavenly Rest in Manhattan. I'd stayed over at Gerry's [Mulligan] place out of town the night before and told him about the concert. Gerry came down with me to New York, and sat in for the second half of the concert. It was exceptional. Stay safe. [Photo above, from left, of Gerry Mulligan, Dave McKenna, Zoot Sims and Al Cohn by (c) Hank O'Neal]
Red Mitchell. After reading my post on Zoot, bassist Chuck Israels sent along the following email about bassist Red Mitchell...
Hi Marc. These videos are some of the best examples of Red Mitchell’s phenomenal playing (tuned in 5ths rather than the usual 4ths, which he taught himself to do in just under two weeks!). Mozart-ian melodic integrity and gorgeous bass lines. I could wax rhapsodic except for the fact that all I’d be doing is talking about something that explains itself better than I can put into words.
Not to take anything away from Zoot—another swinging creator of impeccable beauty. And there’s an element of Rune Gustafsson’s playing I appreciate, too. When he comps in 4/4, he moves either the whole chord, or at least one voice, on each beat, matching the kind of movement bass players get with walking bass lines by using neighboring chords. It keeps the music flowing.
Some rhythm guitarists simply repeat the predominant harmony until the next chord change—the same chord for four beats, for example. What Rune does is more fluid and more in character with the texture of the music.
I never missed a chance to visit with Red, whenever our paths crossed in Scandinavia, Europe, New York, or here in the Northwest, where he settled with Diane when her father gave them a house in Salem, Or. He had three basses, one he kept in Europe (the Claudot in the video), a Klotz now owned by Bob Marx, son of one of the Marx brothers (in Seattle), and his West Coast bass he kept at our home. I wish I could have afforded to buy it when he died, but Diane needed more money than we could afford at the time.
I first heard Red in 1955 (I was 19) with Hampton Hawes and Jim Hall at Storyville in Boston. Red and Jim plucked strings, making them sing like voices instead of simply playing their instruments like percussion instruments. They had an indelible effect on the way I hear music.
In the early 60s (maybe '63), I’d been playing with Bill Evans, and he went to play at Shelley’s Manne Hole in L.A. without his trio. He'd been playing there for a week with Red when I finished a tour with another group in Denver. I called Bill to ask if he’d like me to come to L.A., since I was already halfway there and available. Had I known he’d been playing with Red I might not have had the nerve to ask. He was happy for me to join him.
To Red’s credit, he welcomed me, came to hear me, invited me to his home, and cemented a lifelong friendship. He was remarkably free of competitive envy. Of course, he was so busy, day in and day out in studios and clubs at the time. As important as playing with Bill was to me, doing so for Red couldn’t have been quite that essential.
And incidentally, the island of Lidingo, where the Zoot video was filmed, was where Bill, Larry Bunker and I had stayed at singer Monica Zetterlund’s home when we played in Stockholm some 20 years earlier.
Thanks for posting this. I’d seen one of the tunes but hadn’t known the whole set existed.
Ellis Marsalas. Following my tribute post to the late pianist Ellis Marsalis, Danilo Morandi in Switzerland sent along a link to a video of Texas Blues featuring pianist Marsalis with tenor saxophonist Arnett Cobb in 1984. Here it is...
Gene Kelly. To raise the spirits, here's Gene Kelly singing I Like Myself and dancing on skates in It's Always Fair Weather (1955)...
Bill Withers. Here's Still Bill, a 2011 documentary on the late singer-songwriter Bill Withers, who died March 30 at age 81. A special thanks to Jim Eigo of Jazz Promo Services for sending along the link...
Speaking of Withers, Chris Cowles sent along a link to his two-hour Bill Withers tribute broadcast on his weekly Greasy Tracks show on WTRW-Hartford. Try to avoid using Google Chrome to access, since the sound cuts out with that browser. Use Firefox or Safari. Go here.
Grapevine. Here's Gladys Knight and the Pips with Marvin Gaye in 1983 singing I Heard It Through the Grapevine. Both artists had a hit with the Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong song. Gladys's version was released in 1967 and hit No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart; Marvin's was released in 1968 and hit No. 1. A special thanks to Olivia for sending it along...
Mike McCartney, formerly of Liverpool's Scaffold, has reworked the group's 1968 U.K. hit, Thank U Very Much, in support of British healthcare workers courageously caring for coronavirus patients there. Here's the revamp...
What the heck. Live and Let Die was written by Paul and Linda McCartney and recorded by Wings for the James Bond film of the same name in 1973. Lesser known and also on the George Martin-produced film soundtrack album was a cover of the song by B.J. Arnau. Here are both versions:
Here's Paul and Linda McCartney...
Here's B.J. Arnau...
