In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed actor-comedian Mike Myers for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). A fun interview, as you might imagine, and great to finally talk to the person I'm most often confused with when I dial in to a customer service rep. For example, whenever I call a restaurant, FedEx or a store, I'll spell my name and they wind up calling me Mike anyway before we hang up. [Photo above of Mike Myers's many characters in The Pentaverate, courtesy of Netflix]
Mike's latest project is a Netflix miniseries called The Pentaverate. It sounds like there's going to be a fourth installment of Austin Powers, but Mike wouldn't give me a full-throated commitment. But as we say in the media business, he didn't deny it either. Here's the Pentaverate trailer...
Here's Mike in Inglorious Bastards (2009), a rare appearance in a dramatic role...
Also in the WSJ, my monthly essay for the Opinion pages on important rock and soul albums that changed music history and are celebrating an anniversary this year, I took a fresh look at the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street, released in May 1972. Go here.
Ahoy there! Somewhere near Grand Cayman, Dan, a friend and eagle-eyed JazzWax reader, was aboard a cruise last week and snapped the photo above. Looks like he took along the perfect book for an afternoon of reading on the high seas. The whisky sour and melting sunset were a bonus. You'll find my latest book, Rock Concert, here.
Mike Abene, the jazz pianist and arranger pictured above, sent along an email last week following my post on lead trumpeter Bernie Glow...
Hello Marc, I especially loved the article on Bernie Glow. I had the pleasure of using him on a number of dates. He was a fantastic lead player, and we had a great time. Bernie also played on the Burt Collins and Joe Shepley Time, Space and the Blues and Lennon and McCartney Live albums. Whenever the Maynard Ferguson Band played the Cork 'n' Bib in Westbury on Long Island, Bernie was usually there hanging out.
For my post on Time, Space and the Blues, go here.
Cannonball Adderley. Here's a quintet that doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves: The Cannonball Adderley Quintet, in 1960, playing Jeannine, featuring Cannonball Adderley (as), Nat Adderley (cnt), Victor Feldman (p), Sam Jones (b) and Louis Hayes (d)...
Sonny Stitt. Fifty years ago, saxophonist Sonny Stitt released Tune Up! on the Cobblestone label. On the album was I Can't Get Started, played as a mid-tempo ballad, with Barry Harris on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Alan Dawson on drums. Here's the track...
On Saturday, (today, May 14), radio host Fritz Byers on NPR's WGTE in Toledo, Ohio, will focus on saxophonist Bill Kirchner's new album, For All We Know, featuring Carol Fredette and pianist Marc Copland. I posted about the album here. Since 1989, Fritz has hosted one of jazz radio's longest-running shows and he'll be on tonight from 8 p.m. to midnight (ET). To listen from anywhere in the world, go here, click the "Radio" tab at the top and then the "Listen Now" button.
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, the rock guitarist on the bottom left of the album cover above who has played most notably with Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers during the 1970s and Spirit in the 1980s recently was celebrated during a two-hour Greasy Tracks radio show hosted by Chris Cowles of WRTC-FM in Hartford, Ct. To listen, go here.
Zabar's. Anyone who has visited New York most assuredly was urged to make the trek to Manhattan's Upper West Side to visit Zabar's, the food emporium. It's crowded every afternoon, seven days a week, with locals shopping for dinner—buying prosciutto from Italy, cheeses from Europe and New England, freshly sliced smoked salmon for a weekend breakfast, and fresh ground coffee and bagels, to name just a few of the thousands of things you can buy and eat in this stuff-jammed store. There are hundreds of everything, from jam, to mustard, pasta sauce, olives, you name it.
If you've been, you may have wondered about the store's history and pedigree. Now your curiosity can be fed, too, with a new book by Lori Zabar, a member of food's first family. The store opened in 1934 and has grown ever since. And if you frequent the counters, everyone who works there knows your name. Which adds to the neighborhood charm. I happen to live near by, so Zabar's is my extended refrigerator. A fun book loaded with historic pictures, stories and recipes. To buy, go here.
Pianist Dave Thompson has something he'd like to play for you. Go here...
And finally, here's pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi with then husband and alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano playing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes in 1963, featuring Masanaga Harada on bass and Takeshi Inomata on drums...
