In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Melanie Chisholm for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). For those unfamiliar with Melanie, she is perhaps better known as Mel C or Sporty Spice to women who grew up in the 1990s and listened to the Spice Girls, a teenage phenomenon and one of pop music's most successful all-female vocal groups of all time. Her memoir, The Sporty One: My Life as a Spice Girl, is worth reading (go here). It's beautifully written, revealing and open. During our Zoom interview, I found Mel down to earth, enormously upbeat and open about the challenges she had to overcome during her childhood. [Signed publicity still above of Melanie Chisholm courtesy of eBay]
Here's Mel's mom, on the left, singing harmony in Petticoat & Vine, an English sunshine-pop group, in 1971...
Here's Mel (in white) with the Spice Girls at their reunion 10 years ago at the 2012 London Summer Olympics...
Here's Mel today with Bryan Adams singing a new version of a hit they first recorded together in 1998. Note that this video was done as a "one shot"—there are no breaks. Similar in spirit to the Steve Allen one shot at NBC Burbank in February 1958...
And here's This Could Be the Start of Something Big, a one shot in 1958 done presumably with a seated cameraman and standing boom team on a flatbed dolly. There are no breaks and no room for mistakes as the action and song unfold live around the soundstage's outer perimeter...
More me. Bret Primack's recent on-camera interview series with me continues with Chapter 4. Go here...
Miss earlier chapters? For the previous three interview installments by Bret, go here.
Holidays are coming. Get your shopping out of the way now by pre-ordering my new book, Anatomy of 55 More Songs, and last year's oral history, Rock Concert. Both are fast and fun reading, and are perfect for anyone who grew up listening to hits on the radio or attending live music. Go here and here.
Two bits and a shave. Last week, following my week-long series of posts on shaving, I heard from Andrea Baroni in Italy...
Hi Marc. I should like to say that I deeply appreciate your jazz writing and, I must confess, I often link to your posts or take inspiration from them for articles I write in the music magazine I run with some friends here called Tracce di Jazz.
But the reason for contacting you now is your recent posts about the world of shaving. I was aware that all kinds of stuff like double-edge razors and brushes existed, but I thought all of it was totally out of fashion. Instead, I found that a lot of people are still open to handling these tools. This brought me to discover some razors left in my parents' house that I'd like to have revamped to replace my modern Gillette Mach3. So I have to thank you also for this.
In the end, I think that jazz and shaving are a good couple, even if I don't really know why. The photo at the top is of a little shop in Genoa, one of the last to sell special shaving products in this part of the city.
Meanwhile, in Tuscany, Rob Hyman of the Philadelphia band The Hooters is vacationing in Italy with his family and came across the store above in the local village. He emailed me the following:
Greetings from Italy, Marc. Thought this shop display would be right up your alley—the lower half anyway. Iffy weather, but hopefully clearing up soon. Have had some great road trips, food and wine, of course. Ciao for now.
Twyla Tharp. If you missed my Q&A post with Twyla Tharp (above), the famed choreographer (here), you should know that two of her ballets—Nine Sinatra Songs and In the Upper Room—will be performed at the New York City Center from October 19 to 23. For more information and to buy tickets online, go here.
Speaking of Bret Primack, back in 2008, he created a phenomenal video interview series with legendary producer Orrin Keepnews (above) for Concord Records' re-issues of Orrin's Riverside albums. Here's one of Bret's mini-docs with Orrin reflecting on producing Sonny Rollins...
Want more Bret with Orrin Keepnews? Go here.
Jazz at Lincoln Center has a new streaming subscription service, Mark Rabin writes. Now anyone can access the performances, including dates at Dizzy's Club. Go here.
Bette Davis. Last week I came across this rather fascinating interview by Dick Cavett of Bette Davis in November 1971. A bit too much fawning by Dick in places and he perhaps didn't fully realize that Bette was interviewing herself, meaning he could have said less. Yet Dick still managed to get Davis to be herself instead of a character, which is a tribute to his easy-going, curiosity-fueled interview sytle. Go here...
Live jazz on the radio. Last week I heard from Kim Paris of the FM Radio Archive [photo above of Ramsey Lewis courtesy of JazzTimes]:
Hi Marc. In response to your recent JazzWax columns about the passing of several musical giants, here are links to broadcasts by these late greats...
Pharoah Sanders—two concert broadcasts, one in London in 2011 and another in Paris in 1975. Go here.
Ramsey Lewis—a broadcast of his Legends of Jazz radio show on PBS, from 2006. Go here.
Joey DeFrancesco—three broadcast concerts: one in Germany in 2007 (with Bobby Hutcherson), one in New York on NPR in 2019, and one in Sweden in 1993 (with John McLaughlin). For all three, go here.
I also will dedicate 90 minutes of my Sunday "Melting Pot" radio show on Freeform Portland to all three jazz artists above and songs written by Motown's Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team, in tribute to the late Lamont Dozier. The show airs online Sunday from 8 to 10 a.m. (PT). To live stream, go here.
For anyone who misses this show when it airs live, it will be posted after the show on MixCloud. Go here.
New from Rio. Far Out Recordings in Brazil has just issued Natureza, by Joyce with Mauricio Maestro. The album was recorded by Columbia in New York in 1977 but never issued. What's more, the album was the brainchild of Claus Ogerman, who arranged, produced and conducted the orchestra. It seems the problem was that Columbia, at the time, wanted Joyce to return to New York to record the lyrics in English for commercial purposes, but Joyce was pregnant with her third child and couldn't leave Brazil. Soon, correspondence between the two parties faded and the project was shelved.
The album's astonishing personnel:
- Joyce Moreno - lead vocals, lead guitar (all tracks, except for ‘Coração Sonhador’ and ‘Ciclo da Vida’), rhythm guitar & vocals on ‘Ciclo da Vida’
- Mauricio Maestro – rhythm guitar & vocals on all tracks, lead vocals and guitar on ‘Coração Sonhador’ and ‘Ciclo da Vida’
- Buster Williams - bass
- João Palma - drums (all tracks except for ‘Moreno’, ‘Pega Leve’ and ‘Descompassadamente’)
- Naná Vasconcelos - percussion
- Tutty Moreno - percussion, drums on ‘Moreno’ and ‘Pega Leve’
- Joe Farrell - flute (except for ‘Pega Leve’)
- Ion Muniz - flute on ‘Pega Leve’
- Michael Brecker - tenor saxophone
- Mike Mainieri – vibraphone
- Warren Bernhardt - Keyboards
You will find Natureza here.
Here's the full album posted on YouTube by Far Out Recordings...
Bob Wilvers. Fishink, a site in England devoted to mid-century graphic design, this week features a post on the art of Bob Wilvers (above). A fascinating essay and artist. Go here.
The year is 1964 and you don't know how to handle marital conflict and a highly emotional spouse. Someone for some reason produced a film that showed viewers the worst and best ways to settle your strife peacefully. My guess is that this film was shown to anger-management groups or couples in therapy. Hard to imagine it running on TV or as a lead-in to a feature film. Caveman stuff from nearly 60 years ago. Here's the how-to instructional...
More Ramsey Lewis radio. Chris Cowles, host of Greasy Tracks, which airs each Saturday starting at 3:30 p.m. (ET) on WRTC-FM in Hartford, Ct., recently devoted a three-hour show to Ramsey Lewis. To listen, go here.
And finally, I had a craving last week to hear Lynn Anderson's hit I Beg Your Pardon (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden). Probably because the Ray Edenton, one of country music's top studio guitarists, had passed. he played on the record. Here's Anderson on the BBC's Top of the Pops in 1971 with live strings...
And here's Ray Edenton playing Cincinnati Rag...
