Busy schedule at The Wall Street Journal this week. Three pieces in all. First, my "Anatomy of a Song" column featuring a rare interview with Jackson Browne on his 1972 hit, Doctor My Eyes (go here). Jackson started writing the song around the time he was struggling with an eye infection. But the eye trouble quickly became a metaphor for lost innocence in the song's words. Jackson is important for many reason, particularly for developing the Southern California country-rock sound that was quickly picked up and leveraged by the Eagles and for pioneering a new singer-songwriter movement. [Photo above of Jackson Browne courtesy of Facebook]
Jackson's new album, Downhill From Everywhere, can be found here.
Here's Jackson performing Doctor My Eyes in 1972...
Next, my "House Call" column with blues legend Bobby Rush for the Mansion section (go here). Bobby talked about how his father's harmonica playing and a song about a dog outrunning a train started him on his blues career. His new memoir, I Ain't Studdin' Ya, can be found here.
Here's Bobby Rush in 1997 with Little Milton...
And finally, my essay (here) on the significance of Laura Nyro and the two new Nyro albums coming from Omnivore Recordings—one released today (Trees of The Ages: Laura Nyro Live in Japan) and the other (Go Find the Moon: The Audition Tape) due in September.
As I wrote in the last paragraph of my piece: "Nyro’s songs and live performances still sound fresh and urgent. Like Joan Baez and Nina Simone, her voice rings with early feminist courage and artistic independence. Along the way, she inspired pop and rock to reach new levels of intimacy."
Here's Nyro singing her song Stoned Soul Picnic. Listen how complex her pop music was in 1968 and how remarkably vibrant and inventive the lyrics remain...
SiriusXM. I'll be on SiriusXM's Feedback (channel 106) with co-hosts Nik Carter and Lori Majewski twice in the coming two weeks. On Thursday, July 22, at 8 a.m. (ET), I'll be on for the hour talking about Jackson Browne, So-Cal rock and spinning a Hot 10. Then on Tuesday July 27, I'll be on at 9 a.m. (ET) for the hour talking about Laura Nyro and the female singer-songwriter movement. Tune in!
Astrud Gilberto. After my two posts on Astrud Gilberto (here and here), I heard from author and photographer Hank O'Neal [Photo above of Astrud Gilberto by Hank O'Neal and courtesy of Hank O'Neal]:
Hi Marc. Nice post. Just a point of information regarding your post on Astrud in Japan and the possibility she was singing in Japanese using a sheet of phonetic lyrics. Astrud's father was German and his profession was a linguist. She told me he spoke seven languages and he taught in Brazil. Astrud was obviously fluent in Portuguese and English. I was with her on tour in Spanish- and German-speaking countries where she seemed to get along just fine. In Japan, I recall her saying things to the audiences in Japanese. She probably inherited some of her father's linguistic ability. Hope all is well.
And from Guy Vespoint...
Hi, Marc. I just wanted to thank you for posting all those Astrud Gilberto clips in one place for me to enjoy. I’ve been a fan of hers since I was a kid (I’m now 60), when an aunt gave me "A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness." I was able to see Gilberto live for the first time in the mid-1980’s at the Vine Street Bar & Grill in Los Angeles. A friend who went with me knew how much I liked her and insisted I go backstage after. So I did.
When we met, I told her that as a kid, I assumed “The Girl From Ipanema” was a sad song, because in my juvenile way of thinking, I thought she was blind (e.g. “When she passes he smiles / but she doesn’t see”). This amused her to such an extent that she translated my tale to her companions who grinned. Astrud offered an autograph and added “The girl from Ipanema is not blind!” Thanks again for your posts. I read them daily.
Lester Koenig. Most jazz fans know that Lester Koenig was the founder of Contemporary Records in Los Angeles. But prior to his recording career, he was a screenwriter, producer and director William Wyler's second in command for nine years. Lester's son, John, and I recently were talking about his dad. I asked John to write a bit about his dad in Hollywood [photo above of Lester Koenig, second from right, on the set of Roman Holiday courtesy of John Koenig]:
I grew up in and around the jazz record business. My father was the founder of the jazz label, Contemporary Records, and as a teenager, I worked at the record company over many summers. When I graduated from UCLA, where I majored in music composition, I worked for my father full-time for two years at his insistence, during which time I learned everything about how to run an independent jazz record company. What I really wanted to do, though, was play the cello.
I had been practicing for six hours or more each day. I was extremely lucky. I wound up studying with Terry King, an assistant to the incomparable cello virtuoso, Gregor Piatigorsky, in his master class at USC's Institute of Special Musical Studies, where his musical partner, Jascha Heifetz, also taught. Terry took me to play for Piatigorsky, who took an interest in me and invited me to be in the class. My father realized I couldn't be held back, that I was going to pursue the cello, not take over his business.
Fast forward, a little more than two years, to the fall of 1977. Piatigorsky had died the previous year, and somehow I found myself in the cello section of the Swedish Radio Symphony in Stockholm, one of Europe's finest orchestras. During my time with the orchestra, we had a succession of prominent guest conductors. Among my most favorite was Carlo Maria Giulini. That fall, we had three weeks of concerts with him.
As Giulini came on the stage for our first rehearsal, he happened to walk by me and I surprised him by greeting him in Italian. During my early childhood, before achieving renown as a jazz record producer, my father was a writer-producer in the motion picture industry. He'd been director Willy Wyler's second-in-command for all of Willy's pictures, starting in 1943 with the World War II documentary, "The Memphis Belle," which my father wrote.
The last picture my father worked on for Willy was "Roman Holiday," starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. My family lived in Rome for around a year, from 1952 to '53, during the preparation for and production of the film. I became bilingual because for a good deal of the time, I was left in the care of two Italian maids. So in '77, when I greeted Maestro Giulini in Italian that day just before our rehearsal, I think he was surprised to encounter a musician in Stockholm who sounded Roman. Indeed, he asked me if I was Italian.
After Dad worked on "Roman Holiday," he was blacklisted. In the early '50s, the creative community in Hollywood was mired in political tumult. Paranoia and suspicion were rampant in the industry. When my father refused to name people he knew in the Communist Party, he was finished in the film industry. The powers-that-be were so fired up with right-wing hysteria that the studio removed my father's credit and excised all other evidence of him from the picture. My father founded Contemporary Records, and another career began.
Aside from a few photos of my father on the set and on location with Willy, Greg and Audrey and, more recently, references to my father's work on Willy's movies in a few books by Wyler biographers, the only evidence that we were ever there is my Roman accent when I speak Italian.
Louis Armstrong. Last week, I heard from Giancarlo Mattioni in Italy, who hipped me to a super article by Ricky Riccardi, director of research collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, N.Y. Ricky wrote about discovering the last tape Armstrong recorded at home before his death in 1971. To read the article, go here.
Greasy Tracks, a weekly radio show hosted by Chris Cowles on WRTC-FM in Hartford, Ct., recently featured a special on Alligator Records, in celebration of its 50th anniversary. To listen to Chris's full show, go here.
Jimmy Rushing radio. This Sunday, Sid Gribetz will present a five-hour radio broadcast celebrating the career of vocalist Jimmy Rushing from 2 to 7 p.m. (ET) on WKCR-FM radio in New York. To listen from anywhere in the world, go here.
Michael Weiss. Last week, I posted on guitarist Nathen Page and included a recollection from pianist Michael Weiss, who played with Page on The Other Page. If you're in New York next Saturday, you're in luck. Michael will be playing with his trio (bassist Paul Sikivie and drummer Pete Van) at Mezzrow. For more information, go here.
Pianist Joe Alterman has a new album coming, the Upside of Down. You can pre-order here. For now, here's Joe and his trio playing the title track live...
