Yesterday was the late Nat King Cole's birth date. An impossibly talented pianist and vocalist who not only re-invented romantic pop singing in the album era but also helped pave the way for desegregation. [Photo above of Nat King Cole with arranger-conductor Nelson Riddle at Capitol Studios in Hollywood]
Here are 10 of my favorite Cole vocal recordings and a bonus:
Here'sWhen Your Love Has Gone, with an arrangement by Billy May...
Here's Chester Conn and Sammy Gallop's Night Lights, with an arrangement by Nelson Riddle...
Here's Hub Atwood and Mel Leven's Tell Me About Yourself, with an arrangement by Dave Cavanaugh...
Here's Bobby Troup's You're Looking at Me, with Willie Smith on alto saxophone...
Here's Leroy Anderson and Mitchell Parish's Serenata, with the George Shearing Quintet and strings arranged by Ralph Carmichael...
Here's Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh's Rules of the Road, with an arrangement by Billy May...
Here's Hughie Prince, Robert Merrill, Marcia Neil and Philip Broughton's Funny (Not Much), with an arrangement by Ralph Carmichael...
Here's Leah Worth and Pete Rugolo's The Story of My Wife, with an arrangement by Rugolo...
Here's Irving Gordon's Unforgettable, with an superb arrangement by Nelson Riddle...
And here's Joe Sherman and George David Weiss's That Sunday, That Summer, with an arrangement by Ralph Carmichael, from a BBC TV special An Evening With Nat King Cole in 1963...
Bonus: Here's The Nat King Cole Musical Story from 1955, a short in Technicolor and CinemaScope with Nat King Cole on his meteoric singing career...
Freddie Redd, a hard-bop pianist whose funk-driven, percussive style and sophisticated sense of harmony were reminiscent of Horace Silver but whose recording output seemed thinner than his initial promise, died March 17. He was 92. [Photo above of Freddie Redd by Francis Wolff (c)Mosaic Images]
Born in New York and largely self-taught, Redd recorded sporadically in the 1950s as a sideman, disappearing for blocks of time while touring. In the decades that followed, Redd seemed to shy away from exposure. Two of his most important albums as a leader were for Blue Note, but a third fell short and wasn't released until years later, a misstep that may have affected his confidence and determination in the years that followed.
In February 1960, Redd recorded what is widely considered to be his masterpiece—Music From "The Connection"—an original soundtrack for an avant-garde, dramatic play in New York centered on the lives of drug-addicted jazz musicians. The quartet on the album featured Freddie Redd (p), Jackie McLean (as), Michael Mattos (b) and Larry Ritchie (d).
Redd's followup album for Blue Note in August 1960 was Shades of Redd, featuring Redd (p), Jackie McLean (as), Tina Brooks (ts), Paul Chambers (b) and Louis Hayes (d). The quality of Redd's originals and the playing by all of the musicians was superb, placing the album on par with Music From "The Connection."
And then for some reason, his third album recorded for Blue Note in January 1961 was ill-conceived and short on his earlier brilliance. Shelved by the label, the material wasn't issued until 1988 as Redd's Blues, first on vinyl and then on CD in 2002. The album featured Benny Bailey (tp), Jackie McLean (as), Tina Brooks (ts), Freddie Redd (p), Paul Chambers (b) and John Godfrey (d).
Listening again to all three albums yesterday, the first two remain remarkable, but Redd's Blues clearly was rushed into the studio. It lacks the compositional edge and cohesiveness of Redd's first two for Blue Note, and came off more like a half-baked rehearsal than a finished product. The one song that stands out is Redd's Somewhere. But in all fairness to Redd, if all he ever recorded were the first two Blue Note albums, his contribution to jazz would be important.
Here'sMusic From "The Connection," the full album...
Let me start off by saying you're about to be turned on to an exceptional trumpet player. If you already know Joan Mar Sauqué, then you know what I'm talking about. If not, you can thank me later, after you say "Oh, wow." [Photo above of Joan Mar Sauqué]
A bunch of weeks ago, Joan Mar Sauqué sent along an email with an invitation to check out his latest album, Gone With the Wind (The Changes). The album features Joan on trumpet, Josep Traver on guitar and Giuseppe Campisi on bass. When I gave a listen, I was struck by Joan's romantic phrasing and passion for harmony. His sound is similar in some ways to Chet Baker's and Art Farmer's articulation on their 1950s recordings—delicate and brightly optimistic.
The album's song choices are smart: Thad Jones's Bitty Ditty, Tadd Dameron and Harlan Leonard's My Dream, Ray Brown and Dizzy Gillespie's Ray's Idea, the standard I Only Have Eyes For You, Gillespie's In the Land Of Oo-Bla-Dee, the standards I Cover The Waterfront and Gone With The Wind, Dameron's Kitchenette Across the Hall,Bill from Showboat, Gigi Gryce's Shabozz and Strictly Romantic, and the standard Stompin' at the Savoy.
Joan (above) has a fine understanding of each song, having clearly researched original versions and superb interpretations. You can hear the comprehension in his feel. His blowing is loving and sympathetic, and he curls around each melody on the horn as if dancing with the songs. Even on Shabozz, which requires just the right feel, the arrangement is spot on. You can't fake these songs. Joan triumphs throughout. The same goes for Traver on guitar and Campisi on bass. Their feel and taste level are perfect. You'll find the album here.
Recently, I had a chance to connect with Joan by email:
JazzWax: Where did you grow up? Joan Mar Sauqué: I was born January 19, 1996 in a tiny village in North Catalonia, Spain, called Garrigoles, which has only 100 inhabitants. My mother was the music teacher in a local primary school. She studied piano but never worked as a musician. My father used to work as a captain on ships but doesn't play an instrument. He studied art history and has spent many hours listening to music and reading about music history. While neither of my parents listened to jazz, there was an orphaned album at home by Dizzy Gillespie that someone had bought for them. It became my introduction to jazz. I moved to Barcelona when I was 16.
JW: How did you come to study the trumpet? JMS: I started on the trombone because we had one at home. But I was 7 and my arms weren't long enough, so I switched to trumpet. That trombone had been at my grandparents' house. My grandfather worked as an antiquarian, so he had some old instruments. When I was a kid, I spent time blowing old cornets and that trombone.
JW: Who did you study with? JMS: In Barcelona, I studied trumpet with David Pastor (Taller de Musics), Matthew Simon (jazz ESMUC) and Mireia Farrés (classical ESMUC). I also met trumpeters Terell Stafford, Joe Magnarelli, Gustavo Bergalli and Jeremy Pelt. But my main influence has been the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, which is a big band led by multi-instrumentalist and arranger Joan Chamorro. He combines education with gigs and recordings with great players, like Dick Oatts, Scott Robinson, Scott Hamilton, John Allred, Perico Sambeat, Joel Frahm and Joe Magnarelli. In the program, I met some of my best musical colleagues and friends. I grew up with other young, standout Barcelona players like Andrea Motis, Joan Codina, Rita Payés, Magalí Datzira and Marçal Perramon.
JW: Who were your influences? JMS: I feel I've been influenced by musicians who have a lyrical approach to music. The list includes Clifford Brown, Don Byas, Tadd Dameron, Mary Lou Williams, Gigi Gryce, Chet Baker, Charlie Parker and Gerry Mulligan. João Gilberto, too. Gilberto is one of my favorite Brazilian artists. When I listen to music, I focus on melody and phrasing, as well as its relation with harmony. Phrasing depends on rhythmic sense, and vice versa.
JW: Why does Barcelona have such a thriving jazz community? JMS: There are many jazz musicians in Barcelona who have started young. The number has increased significantly during the last decade. Barcelona has three music conservatoires with jazz programs—ESMUC, Taller de Músics and Conservatori del Liceu. These programs have brought many young players from Catalonia and Spain to the city, so they have helped develop a bigger scene.
JW: Has the pandemic hurt the programs? JMS: Before the virus, there were jam sessions every day. Now it's hard to find places to play regular gigs in the city. Most of the musicians often play outside of the city with several different bands to make a living. There aren't many stable bands playing now, and that's a pity. But not only in Barcelona, it's the same in all the country. Valencia, Málaga, Mallorca, Sevilla, Donosti and Madrid have their own musicians and schools with great players. During the pandemic the situation has been really hard for jazz musicians. Now you're allowed to play some gigs, but there are not so many venues planning concerts. So, musicians' livelihoods depend on teaching. But despite this tough situation, some musicians are working on new projects with energy. I hope to keep my trio together and establish us as my main activity.
JW: Tell me about your latest album, Gone With the Wind? JMS: We recorded compositions in the trio format—with guitar and bass. Most of the songs were composed by modern musicians from the 1940s and ‘50s, like Tadd Dameron, Gigi Gryce and Thad Jones. I decided to record these tunes because of the feel. First comes the melody, then the harmony. I don't like thinking about harmony divorced from melody. They are together. Melody can be very dramatic if harmony has been crafted to offset the melody. Dameron and Benny Golson are great composers in this sense. Harmony always enhances melody. So, I decided to create an album following this concept. I'm happy that we recorded tunes that are rarely recorded, such as Strictly Romantic, Shabozz, Kitchenette Across the Hall and My Dream. These are clear examples of the musical conception I had in mind.
Here's Joan playing Polka Dots and Moonbeams in 2016, with Joan Chamorro on bass...
And here's the Joan Mar Sauqué Trio playing live last year at the Barcelona Jazz Festival. They covered nearly the entire album and more, including Dig. And if I'm not mistaken, that's Joan Anton Cararach announcing the group at the very start. I miss Barcelona...
On Saturday, August 9, 1980, the Bill Evans Trio was in Norway performing at the Molde Jazz Festival. The trio featured Evans on piano, Marc Johnson on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums. Five weeks and two days later, Evans would be dead in New York of a peptic ulcer, cirrhosis, bronchial pneumonia and untreated hepatitis—all conditions related to his persistent and tragic drug use. The following video is one of the last known visual performances by Evans.
Here's the Bill Evans Trio playing its 43-minute set at the Molde Jazz Festival. A special thanks to Bert Vuijsje in the Netherlands for sending along the link...
West Coast jazz was the music of migrants. After World War II, work opportunities for skilled jazz musicians skyrocketed in Los Angeles, attracting gifted artists from different parts of the country. Two principal architects of the West Coast jazz sound in the early 1950s were Gerry Mulligan and Shorty Rogers—transplants from the East Coast. Many other participants were refugees from big bands that either broke up in Los Angeles or were touring there when musicians decided to quit.
Big bands were on the skids at the start of the '50s, as costs associated with touring climbed, audiences dwindled and new possibilities opened for small groups. Better musicians who wanted to be leaders could form small groups, giving them greater control of the music and maximizing paydays. This was only possible because a revolution had taken place in the recording industry—the launch of the 10-inch album. The new format opened doors to prolific composers and players who previously were members of big bands but now could record as leaders and be recognized and promoted on album covers.
The music that these small West Coast groups created was rooted in bop but more centered on group harmony and newly composed melodies rather than blues, standards or the chord changes of standards. The music also was more relaxed and airy in feel. As I wrote in my 2012 book, Why Jazz Happened, the upbeat spirit of this sound was built on the euphoria experienced by exceptional white musicians (and Black artists that included Harry "Sweets" Edison, RedCallender, Lee Young, Curtis Counce and Buddy Collette). In the early 1950s, many saw a limitless economic future for themselves and their families. As a result, the music was loaded with optimism. Environment played a role in the sound of jazz.
The white artists bought homes in the city's newly developed suburban regions, began to raise families and found themselves swamped with calls to record albums and movie soundtracks and compose for film and perform on live TV. Black West Coast jazz artists had it harder for a range of reasons due largely to racism and segregationist policies set by the city, the police department and the American Federation of Musicians. [Photo above of Buddy Collette]
The point being that the ecstasy experienced by these white and Black musicians in boom times was expressed in the music they wrote and recorded. For context, it's important to know what Los Angeles was like at the dawn of the 1950s. An early automobile and highway culture, the city was the most future-forward region in the country with the fastest-growing suburbs. Strip malls and large supermarkets were emerging, traffic still moved unhindered, the weather was comfortable throughout the year, the beach was nearby and life was better than it had been for musicians while touring in big bands or shivering through winters in Midwestern and Northeast cities.
A album that expresses all of this optimism and is a good starting place for those not fully familiar with West Coast jazz is the two-CD set Modern Sounds From California: Historic Recordings, 1954-1957. Released in 2006 on Fresh Sound, the album includes material originally produced by Leonard Feather on Blue Note's two Best of the West 10-inch LPs plus addition tracks. The recording features the West Coast's singular brand of harmony and counterpoint in group settings. The cross-section of music and artists is a ripe survey of the music's early and evolving sound and still takes you back to a time when everything was new, exciting and limitless.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Modern Sounds from California (Fresh Sound) here.
The music also is available at Spotify in two volumes under Best From the West: Modern Sounds From California.
JazzWax clips: Before I play you some music, let me set the scene. Here's Los Angeles in 1954...
And here's a travelogue produced by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway featuring L.A. and its environs in 1953...
Keep in mind, rock 'n' roll in 1954 hadn't been named yet, the Korean War had just ended, TV was starting to make its way into people's homes and Charlie Parker was still performing. Into this environment came the following recordings featured on this album:
Here's Scarf Dance, a Shorty Rogers composition recorded by Milt Bernhart and His Octet in September 1954, featuring Shorty Rogers (tp), Milt Bernhart (tb), Bud Shank (as,fl), Bob Cooper (ts,oboe), Jimmy Giuffre (bar), Pete Jolly (p), Curtis Counce (b) and Irv Kluger (d)...
Here's Here's Pete, a Pete Rugolo composition, featuring Conte Candoli (tp), Buddy Collette (fl), Jimmy Giuffre (ts,bar), Gerry Wiggins (p), Howard Roberts (g), Curtis Counce (b) and Stan Levey (d). Dig the harmony parts...
And here's Hooray for Hollywood, featuring Harry "Sweets" Edison (tp), Bob Enevoldsen (v-tb), Herb Geller (as), Lorraine Geller (p), Joe Mondragon (b) and Larry Bunker (d). Listen for wife and husband Lorraine and Herb Geller run away with this...
In the Wall Street Journal last week, I interviewed John Fogerty on Bad Moon Rising for my "Anatomy of a Song" column (go here). John wrote the song for Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969 and was inspired by a 1941 movie, Elvis and San Francisco hippie astrology. I last interviewed John on the writing and recording of Proud Mary in 2013. As you might imagine, John is a great guy and a wonderful interview. Recently, he released Fogerty's Factory, an album of his songs played by his musical family. [Image above of John Fogerty courtesy of YouTube]
Also in the WSJ, I interviewed actor Gary Oldman for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Gary remains one of today's finest film actors, winning awards for stunning performances as Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017) and Mank (2020), to name just a few. He's currently in the film Crisis. [Image above of Gary Oldman courtesy of YouTube]
And here he is in JFK as Oswald on the black-and-white TV, a remarkable performance...
Fats Navarro. Last week, following my post on trumpeter Fats Navarro, Stuart Yasaki sent along a link to a 2003 interview with trumpeter Uan Rasey (above) on Navarro. Go here. If you're unfamiliar with Rasey, here's probably his most notable trumpet solo...
The L.A. jazz life. Last week, Wester Potter sent along the following:
In the 1960s, I was single and working in Los Angeles and had too many free evenings. Shelly’s Manne-Hole became a favorite haunt. Rudy Onderwyczer, the club's manager, was buying clothing from me at the store Phelps-Wilger, as was John Smith, one of the club's doormen. They took good care of me whenever I arrived. Shelly used to tease me by hitting on my dates. If I paid the cover, it was not uncommon to be served a free frozen lemon ice. They knew I didn’t drink.
There were many great nights there and lots of stories, but the one that's most memorable was the night Wes Montgomery appeared. He had the audience floating three feet off the ground. He was at the peak of his popularity then, and the audience responded enthusiastically to everything he played. Sunday afternoons often featured local big bands on their way up. Later Don Ellis used Mondays to introduce and rehearse new music with his band. Ruth Price also was a regular on Monday evenings.
I was there the night Chet Baker showed up, fresh out of an Italian prison. And one night I was seated at the next table to Miles Davis and his wife, not realizing who he was until Don Ellis handed him his four valve trumpet. Miles blew a few notes and commented, "Weird," before handing it back. That voice tipped me to his identity. My last night there, Carmen McRae appeared. It was a wonderful night, but she was hospitalized the next day with pneumonia.
At almost 87, I look back with fondness on those times. I’ve spent far too much on CDs featuring artists I saw in those days, but they were worth every dollar.
George Martin. Before George Martin produced the Beatles, he was experimenting with electronic music with "Ray Cathode." In April 1962, two months before Martin met the Liverpudlians, a single was released on EMI's Parlophone label featuring the mysterious Cathode. On the A-side was Time Beat, a two-minute instrumental. The B-side featured Waltz in Orbit. He was photographed for promotion next to Cathode, who turned out to be a computer with a sombrero and mustache. Martin and electronic musician Maddalena Fagandini were the brains behind the sounds.
In May, the two sides will be issued on a vinyl EP limited to 100 copies. The release also includes remixes of the songs by Sparkle Division (brainchild of composer William Basinski) and Drum & Lace (electronica composer Sofia Hultquist). Hey, it was 1962. The Mercury-Atlas 6 had just gone up with John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the earth. I still remember the radio broadcast. Everyone stopped and listened.
I'm told that EPs No. 1 through 10 are now sold out, but there’s still available stock for numbers 11-100 here.
Brian Charette—Power From the Air (SteepleChase). By air, they mean reeds and flute. If you love those early '60s Prestige recordings with saxes and organ, Brian Charette does, too. But he takes the configuration to a new exciting, dimensional level with Larry Young-like grooves combined with broad and breathy arrangements. The organist is joined on his new album by Itai Kriss (fl), Mike DiRubbo (as), Kenny Brooks (ts), Karel Ruzicka (b-clar) and Brian Fishler (d). Recorded in December 2019, the album swings with the combined windy sound of saxes, the bird sound of a flute, the grounded call of the bass clarinet, and Brian's organ stirring it all up. Except for Harlem Nocturne and Cherokee, the rest of the tracks were written and arranged by Brian. Gifted and tightly arranged playing gives the group a wonderful breathy accordion articulation. The boldness of the scoring and the highly skilled playing make this album exceptional. Go here.
And here's a visit with Brian on famous Hammond draw-bar settings...
Tadd Dameron radio. Sid Gribetz of WKCR-FM in New York will be serving up a five-hour profile of Tadd Dameron on Sunday, March 14, from 2 to 7 p.m. (EST). The beauty of Sid's deep-dives into the discographies and biographies of great jazz artists is how much you learn. His narratives are always hip, and the music he chooses to illustrate is always the best stuff. Listen from anywhere in the world by going here.
Barney Kessel. Do you play guitar? Fancy a lesson? I found the following video of Barney Kessel giving an on-camera tutorial. Even if you don't play the instrument, it's fascinating to listen to how Kessel did his thing. Here it is...
Eartha Kitt was a captivating pop singer. In addition to being highly stylized with an almost comic sense of sexiness, Kitt (above) from the waist up had the moves of a ballerina. Watch in these four videos of the same song—C'est Si Bon—as she uses her arms and hands so poetically.
Last week, Danilo Morandi in Switzerland sent along YouTube clips of two senior tenor saxophonists who played their tails off locally. I added a third. [Photo above of a woman at a Paris cafe, by Gilles D'Elia]
One of these saxophonists is Larry McKenna, a Philadelphian who spent six months in Woody Herman's road band starting in 1959 before devoting much of his career to playing locally. I last included Larry in a post in 2018 here. [Photo above of Larry McKenna, courtesy of Larry McKenna]
The other saxophonist Danilo sent is Aubra Graves. An astonishing player. Graves doesn't turn up in Tom Lord's Jazz Discography. Instead, he settled in Waco, Texas, in 1947 and made his livelihood playing at local jazz clubs and working at music stores as a bookkeeper, in sales and instrument repair. And yet he was a monster player. [Photo above of Aubra Graves, courtesy of YouTube]
And I added Irv Williams, who played in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and recorded about a dozen albums before passing in 2019. [Photo above of Irv Williams by David Cazares]
Here are the clips, starting with Larry McKenna, who was born in 1937:
Trumpeter Fats Navarro was the link between Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown. Navarro was in awe of Gillespie in the 1940s, particularly his fingering on the trumpet's valves. For Navarro and many bebop trumpeters, they were enamored of Gillespie's short cuts on the valves to produce pure notes. While Navarro modeled his own bebop approach on Gillespie's, he played harder, stylistically, as if pushing the notes out. Gillespie was more about dancing up and down the scales with elegance and a spray of high notes. Navarro's notes were fleshier, with bursts, ornamentation and longer lines that Brown would pick up and develop in the early 50s. [Photo above of Fats Navarro in the late 1940s by William P. Gottlieb]
Navarro is rarely studied carefully by listeners, viewed more as a short-lived jazz footnote. Born in 1923, Navarro began playing professionally in 1943 in Andy Kirk's orchestra. He then joined Billy Eckstine's bop band in 1945, joining Kenny Clarke's bebop nonet. Navarro's first leadership date was in 1946, teaming with Gill Fuller's Modernists. Able to play bebop fluently with Gillespie's feel, Navarro recorded with Coleman Hawkins, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Illinois Jacquet.
As an in-demand leader in New York, the pressure and competition led Navarro to develop a weight problem, heroin addiction and tuberculosis. Hospitalized in July 1950, he died five days later at age 26. He was buried in an unmarked grave. Finally, in 2002, friends and family members erected a headstone.
If you consider Navarro a Gillespie protegee and a prototype for Brown, listening to him on studio and live recordings becomes fascinating. Especially interesting were Navarro's recordings with composer-arranger and pianist Tadd Dameron in the late 1940s. Navarro's articulation was romantic and bouncy, and perfectly suited for Dameron's gently assertive, nostalgic works. Prime examples are Our Delight, Good Bait and Lady Bird. Musicians on their studio recordings included the finest young jazz players of the bebop revolution—Charlie Rouse, Wardell Gray, Allen Eager, Kai Winding, Dexter Gordon, J.J. Johnson, Sahib Shihab among others.
Live dates followed, including Dameron's group at New York's Royal Roost in 1948. The band featured Fats Navarro (tp), Rudy Williams (as), Allen Eager (ts), Tadd Dameron (p), Curly Russell (b) and Kenny Clarke (d). As you'll hear, it was an extraordinary sextet. Navarro's final recording came in June 1950, a month before he died. Navarro was taped playing with Charlie Parker (as), Bud Powell (p), Curly Russell (b) and Art Blakey (d) at Birdland. A short, sad life but one that left us with extraordinary music if you make time to listen carefully to it. [Photo above of, left, Tadd Dameron and Fats Navarro in the late 1940s by William P. Gottlieb]
JazzWax tracks:Here are a few must-own albums: Fats Navarro: The Complete Blue Note and Capitol Recordings of Fats Navarro and Tadd Dameron (here), Fats Navarro with Tadd Dameron Live at the Royal Roost (here) and Complete One Night Live at Birdland (here).
JazzWax clips: Here's a roundup of Navarro tracks, starting with a session in Billy Eckstine's band...
Here's the complete album, Live at the Royal Roost...
And here's Navarro's final recording session, live at Birdland, with Charlie Parker in June 1950...
Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan was a potent artist whose reach extended into many different areas of jazz across six decades. As a dominant arranger and player in the 1940s, he influenced big bands led by Gene Krupa, Elliot Lawrence and Claude Thornhill, fusing bop and swing. In 1949 and '50, he was a member of Miles Davis's so-called Birth of the Cool band as a player, arranger and composer. In the early 1950s, he formed a contrapuntal pianoless quartet on the West Coast that was different than anything that had come before it. Throughout the 1950s, he was a major force with his quintet, sextet and tentet, and as a composer. And he recorded important albums in the 1960s, shifting to touring and running college clinics in the '70s, when jazz fusion dominated. With the return of acoustic jazz in the '80s and early '90s, Mulligan was a festival headliner. Gerry Mulligan died in 1996.
Here's a sampling of Mulligan in action in four newly uploaded videos and one that has been around for a few years:
Here's Gerry Mulligan with Jon Eardley on trumpet, Bob Brookmeyer on valve trombone, Zoot Sims on tenor saxophone, Bill Crow on bass and Dave Bailey on drums playing Walking Shoes on Italian TV in Milan in February 1956...
Here's Gerry Mulligan on Ralph J. Gleason's Jazz Casual TV show in San Francisco in July 1962, with Bob Brookmeyer (v-tb), Wyatt Ruther (b) and Gus Johnson (d)...
Over the years, many jazz fans have assumed Cal Tjader was of Hispanic heritage, given his many Latin albums from the early 1950s onward. Actually, he was the child of Swedish-American vaudeville performers. His parents were a husband-and-wife team—his father tap danced while his mother played piano. They appeared at theaters in the region around their home in St. Louis before resettling in San Mateo, Calif., to open a dance studio. As a young boy, Tjader developed into an exceptional tap dancer, a skill that greatly helped his timing and vibraphone playing. Tjader also could play the piano and drums. Remarkably, lessons on the timpani were his only formal music training. [Photo above of Cal Tjader]
Tjader's first recording session as a sideman was on Charles Mingus's Presents His Symphonic Airs in February 1949, when the bassist was still on the West Coast and known as Baron Mingus. In September of '49, Tjader began recording as a member of the Dave Brubeck Trio with Ron Crotty on bass. They toured and recorded together for a year before Tjader led and recorded with his own trio in 1951 and then joined the George Shearing Quintet in 1953. The Shearing group recorded for MGM in the spring and late summer of '53.
Then came Cal Tjader's second 10-inch album, Vibist (above). It was a quartet date recorded in New York for Savoy Records over two sessions months apart. Side 1 was recorded on October 21, 1953 and featured Cal Tjader (vib), Hank Jones (p), Al McKibbon (b) and Kenny Clarke (d). The four songs were Gigi Gryce's Minority and the standards I Want to Be Happy, Love Me or Leave Me and Tangerine. Gryce must have played the Minority for Tjader at some point, since the very first recording of his song was in Paris on October 8, a few weeks before Tjader's.
Side 2 was recorded on March 2, 1954 and included Cal Tjader (vib), Richard Wyands (p), Al McKibbon (b) and Roy Haynes (d). The four songs were A Sunday Kind of Love, After You've Gone, It's You Or No One and Isn't It Romantic.
What's interesting about Tjader on these tracks is his modernity. Many other vibists of the early 1950s such as Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo still had a swing feel. A few had a sound that was years ahead, such as Teddy Charles, Milt Jackson, Terry Gibbs and Marjie Hyams. But there was an extra coolness to Tjader, a dancer's movement and keyboard approach on songs as straight ahead as I Want to Be Happy and It's You Or No One.
In the years ahead, Tjader would push heavily into Latin, which meant Cuban, Mexican and Brazilian music, mostly. I suppose it was his way of diversifying his repertoire and maximizing his earning potential. He didn't venture far without a conga and bongos. But in the beginning of the album era, when LPs were still 10 inches and held only eight tracks, Tjader played jazz the way Gene Kelly danced. Tjader's pure jazz sound would be short-lived.
Cal Tjader died in 1982 at age 56.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Vibist's tracks on Cal Tjader: The Classic Fantasy Collectionhere.
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of 55 More Songs," "Anatomy of a Song," "Rock Concert: An Oral History" and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards.