If your heart aches watching what is going on in Ukraine in real time, spend time today listening to Ukrainian jazz to understand what freedom and liberty means to the people of that country. And if you're reading this in Ukraine, please know that JazzWax readers worldwide are thinking of you [photo above, barley fields in Ukraine]...
Here's a 2018 tribute to Charlie Parker's Bird with Strings...
Rhythm and Blues Records is at it again with a new installment in its Jazz Goes Mod series. I've posted about this series in the past (see bottom of this post for links). I love how the label pairs what was going on in London at the time on one CD with what was happening in the U.S. on the other. This time around it's Soho Scene '58: Jazz Goes Mod. And again, the tracks were tastefully compiled by Nick Duckett, with a 12-page booklet expertly written by Simon Spillett.
The beauty of this series is you can listen to the Brit-jazz disc first and then the American disc. Or you can import them all into your computer and mix or shuffle them around. The contrasts are fascinating.
On the new set, the British tracks include Eddie Thompson, Don Rendell, the Jazz Couriers, Tony Crombie, Alan Clare, Ronnie Ross, Vic Ash, Ken Moule, Johnny Dankworth, Tony Kinsey and others. The American tracks include Eddie Costa, Art Blakey, Hampton Hawes, Harold Land, Kenny Burrell, Mose Allison, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Count Basie and others. [Photo above of Vic Ash at the BBC in London]
The beauty is the intermingling of the two. The British jazz tracks are lively, brisk and assertive while the American tracks are moodier and more introspective. Both are reflections of the two cultures at the time—the joy, musical maturity and optimism of London jazzers in the late 1950s and American jazzers' anxiety over the rapid rise of rock 'n' roll and the tensions that were accompanying the ongoing civil rights struggle.
All of the installments in this series are uniformly excellent and wonderfully chosen by Nick. And Simon's notes are a hip education.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Soho Scene '58: Jazz Goes Mod (Rhythm and Blues) here.
JazzWax clips: Here's the Jazz Couriers' Mirage...
In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed the two Italian actresses who co-star in the amazing HBO series My Brilliant Friend for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). The actresses—Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace—play Lenu and Lila and are just 19 and 18, respectively. They weren't professional actors when they were cast in Naples four years ago, but now they are accomplished but humble superstars. I've been watching the series since its start, and interviewing Margherita and Gaia separately in Naples via Zoom was pure bliss. Pure delight. If you haven't watched, make time and start Season 1. You'll thank me. [Photo above of Gaia Girace, left and Margherita Mazzucco on set in My Brilliant Friend, courtesy of HBO]
Every scene is a moment of tension or elation, a mini movie inside a larger one. It's a pleasure to watch unknown actors this good and to listen to their expressive articulation in Italian. If you want to feel deeply, watch the series on HBO.
Jerry meets Ornette. Last week, Max Frazee sent along a recording of the Grateful Dead live at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in 1993 when they were joined by free jazz alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman. You'll find them together on tracks 15, 16, 17 and 18. Go here. [Photo above of Jerry Garcia and Ornette Coleman]
Sammy Nestico.For the one-year anniversary of arranger Sammy Nestico's passing, Diane Estelle Vicari put together a mini doc. You can watch it here. [Photo above of Sammy Nestico]
You also can read my complete JazzWax interview with Sammy here.
Here'sIt's Oh, So Nice, Sammy's composition and arrangement for Count Basie...
Mary Kaye Trio. In 2020, Les Block and David Cummings put up a YouTube tribute to Mary Kaye, whose music-and-comedy trio pioneered the Las Vegas lounge act in the late 1940s and paved the way for Louis Prima and Keely Smith and many others. I last posted about the Mary Kaye Trio in 2019 here. Here's Les and David's remembrance...
Ernie Andrews. Following my post on the late singer Ernie Andrews last week, I heard from Kim Paris of the FM Radio Archive:
Hi Marc, thanks to Mark Rabin, I can share this recording of Ernie Andrews at the LA Garlic Festival in 1987 on FM Radio Archive. Ernie performed some jazz classics in this set, including Satin Doll, 'Round Midnight and Take The A Train.Go here
Ornette Coleman and Bix Beiderbecke birthday broadcasts. WKCR-FM in New York at midnight (ET) on March 8 will begin a 36-hour birthday tribute to alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Then at noon on March 10, you'll hear 24 hours of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke until noon on March 11. Listen from anywhere in the world on your phone or computer by going here.
Johnny Ventura radio. Before the Coleman birthday broadcast, WKCR-FM's Latin Music Department is presenting a special 24-hour broadcast that will look at the life and career of Johnny Ventura, the musician and public figure from the Dominican Republic, on March 8. All regular programming will be preempted that day. Listen from anywhere in the world on your phone or computer by going here. [Photo above of Johnny Ventura]
Here's a taste of Johnny Ventura, who died last July...
And finally, let's stick with the Latin bag. Here's Tito Puente's El Cayuco, from RCA's Dance Mania, recorded in 1957 and released a year later. Crank it up...
In 1969, June Millington and her sister, Jean, started Fanny, one of the first all-female hard-rock bands to sign with a major record label. Fanny had four hits on Billboard's pop chart in the early 1970s. It also opened for Jethro Tull, Humble Pie and other top acts of the day, releasing five albums between 1971 and 1974—including one produced by Todd Rundgren. David Bowie called Fanny "one of the finest rock bands of their time." In 2011, June and her sister, Jean, released Play Like a Girl, their first CD in 10 years. June has a new one out now, but first, a little background. [Photo above of June Millington by Marita Madeloni]
June plays a mean rock guitar and Jean played a funky bass. The Millingtons were born in the Philippines, where their father served in the U.S. Navy and met their mother just after World War II. They moved to California in 1961 and, in 1965, the sisters formed their first band—the Svelts. Then came Fanny in 1969. [Photo above, from left, Jean and June Millington, by Marita Madeloni]
Since 1986, June has taught at the Institute for the Musical Arts a nonprofit teaching, performing and recording space run by Ann Hackler in Goshen, Mass. IMA supports women and girls in music and music-related business. I've known June for 10 years. She is such a wonderful soul—giving, kind and a kickass player. The sound of her guitar shredding away on a solo still raises hairs on my arm. Proof that being a tried and true rocker doesn't require issues, just soul.
June's latest album is Snapshots, with June on guitar and vocals, Earl Slick on guitar, Lee John, her nephew, on bass and drums and vocals, Naia Kete on bass/vocals, and girls from the IMA'S summer camp on lead and backing vocals. At 73, June still plays the guitar as if she's riding a Harley. She hops on that instrument with confidence and opens the throttle on each song. The new album is beautiful because it comes from a determined and fearless place known as Female Power. Each song blooms like a rock 'n' roll rose. June was born to jam.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Snapshotshere. All proceeds go to benefit the IMA and their rock camp this summer. You just have to make a donation, starting at $15, to download.
JazzWax clips:Here's part of a documentary in progress about Fanny...
Carlos Barbosa-Lima, a Brazilian child prodigy whose touch and counterpoint on the guitar were virtually unrivaled and who arranged Antonio Carlos Jobim's music for the guitar in the 1980s at Jobim's request, died on February 23. He was 77. [Publicity still above of Carlos Barbosa-Lima]
Barbosa-Lima began his professional career at age 12. A master of pop interpretation as well as classical guitar, Barbosa-Lima earned his living performing around the world and recording. His arrangements of songs by Brazilian composers, including Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, were nonpareil. Why were such arrangements such a big deal? From Matt Schudel's excellent obituary of Barbosa-Lima in The Washington Post...
“At that time, [in the 1980s], there were actually very few good charts” — arrangements — “of Jobin's music, and he was the first one to complain,” Mr. Barbosa-Lima told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1995. “He said, ‘Let’s get together and at least make sure that the harmonies are the way I composed them.’ ”
Born in New Orleans, trumpeter, singer and entertainer Louis Prima grew up in the city's Italian-American community. He was influenced not only by New Orleans's Black jazz and folk culture but also the tradition of commedia dell'arte that dates back to 16th-century Italy. Comedy's earliest form of improv, this form of street theater poked fun at neighborhood characters and customs, and gave us the buffoon, the harlequin and, later, the clown and circus. Prima's combination of jazz and humor was intoxicating for audiences, especially in Las Vegas in the 1950s, when Prima teamed with his wife vocalist Keely Smith and high-energy saxophonist Sam Butera. [Photo above of Louis Prima, courtesy of Paramount Pictures]
There may be quite a bit about Prima and his career that you're unaware of, including the fact that he wrote the swing era anthem Sing, Sing, Sing. This wonderful 2006 documentary, Louis Prima: King of the Swingers, will enlighten and fill in the blanks.
The band Chicago was one of the most successful jazz-rock bands of the 1970s and '80s. They recorded 36 albums and had 20 Top-10 singles on the Billboard pop chart, including three #1 hits. Seventeen of its first 20 albums were certified platinum (at least 1 million units sold) by the R.I.A.A. Songs like 25 or 6 to 4 and Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? remain a joyous fusion of horns, captivating melodies, rock guitar and vocals. Somehow, when added together with a shrewd arrangement, they became knockout hits that helped define several generations of listeners. [Photo above of Terry Kath]
But the band's rapid success and fame in the '70s came at a steep price. Long tours, odd hours, extreme emotional highs and lows, and being away from family not to mention the flood of money pouring in led nearly all members of the band to become hard partiers. Then tragedy struck in January 1978 when lead singer and guitarist Terry Kath unintentionally shot himself in the head with a gun he thought he had fully unloaded. He left behind a wife and 20-month-old daughter, Michelle.
In 2016, Michelle Kath Sinclair completed a documentary about her father called Chicago: The Terry Kath Experience, which achingly looks at her journey to find out who her father was and to locate one his prized guitars. You can watch it on Amazon Prime (here) or for free on YouTube, here...
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Rock Concert: An Oral History" (Grove), "Anatomy of a Song" (Grove) and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards
