For The Wall Street Journal last week, I interviewed actress Annabella Sciorra for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Annabella talked about her passion for acting at a young age, her determination to flatten her strong Brooklyn accent and her many roles. She's currently in Sylvester Stallone's Tulsa King, playing Stallone's sister. The two performed together in a terrific 1997 film, Cop Land. [Above, Annabella Sciorra and Sylvester Stallone in the new Paramount+ TV series Tulsa King; photo by Walter Thomson, courtesy of Paramount+]
Here's Annabella in The Sopranos. Study her face in this scene, as Sciorra, who plays a Mercedes-Benz car dealer, rides with a passenger who wanted to take the car for a test drive. Watch as her face shifts from bothered to worried to terrified and, finally, to shock. That is what superb acting is about, these subtleties in a character's portrayal (click "Watch on YouTube in the black box below)...
Here's Annabella in Cop Land (1997)...
And here she is in True Love (1989)...
Also in the WSJ last week, my Opinion section essay on the moving music and tragic life of singer-songwriter Jim Croce (go here). Here's Croce singing Operator (It's Not the Way It Feels)...
Here's New York's Not My Home...
Here's Lovers Cross...
And here's Photographs and Memories...
Anatomy of 55 More Songs. Last week, I kicked off the publication of my book with a wave of interviews. The first was a TV segment on WGN in Chicago co-hosted by Patrick Elwood and Dina Bair. Go here...
Also last week, I was with Up to Date host Steve Kraske (above) on NPR's KCUR-FM (89.3) in Kansas City. What a great station. Listen here.
I also was gratified to learn last week that Anatomy of 55 More Songs reached #1 on three Amazon best-seller charts, including essays, above.
And remember, you can listen to the songs I wrote about in my book as you read by going here (scroll down slightly). On my home page, you'll find a Spotify playlist in which I assembled all the songs in order.
Several JazzWax readers sent along photos of my book just after it arrived in the mail. Below is Ernestine Sclafani's copy...
Below is the book that arrived at Dan Podkulski's home...
And below is the book fresh out of the box at the home of Jordan Frosolone, executive chef and partner at The Leopard at Des Artistes, a terrific restaurant near New York's Lincoln Center.
Send me a photo of your book resting comfortably on a chair or sofa and I'll include next week.
Chuck Israels. Following my post on Vince Guaraldi and my post on Shorty Rogers's The Swingin' Nutcracker, bassist, leader and composer Chuck Israels sent along a note:
Hi Marc. Just a friendly hello and a remark that Vince Guaraldi’s music is somehow easy to overlook in its simple directness, clarity and lack of excess embellishment, but it’s better than it has been given credit for. Not that it hasn’t been justifiably successful, but that it isn’t often considered as serious jazz among the cognoscenti. I think its ease and Mozartian balance is deceptive—and fooled me into thinking it was superficial for too long. Durability counts.
Also, regarding the extensive post on holiday music: I suggest listening to Dave Berger’s music for "The Harlem Nutcracker." I think it’s his best work, and some of it is stunningly good. This is specifically ballet music—expanded from what Ellington started and, I think, equally good. That’s an extraordinary accomplishment.
Listen here...
Bill Evans, the docudrama. Pianist Dave Thompson spotted a bit of news last week about a dramatic feature film planned in the U.K. on pianist Bill Evans. For more information, go here.
Vince Guaraldi memories. After my post on the San Francisco pianist, I heard from ethnomusicologist and guitarist/saxophonist Robert Garfias:
Hi Marc. A few years back, I was in a shopping mall during the holiday season and suddenly heard this beautiful song. I didn't know what it was and there was no way to find out. A year later, the same thing happened. but this time I Shazammed it. The song turned out to be Vince’s "Charlie Brown’s Christmas." I was overwhelmed with tears. I knew the sad story of Vince’s death, but it was still a shock hearing this tune.
We had been buddies in San Francisco. We often played together. Vince would take three buses out to the Mission District where we would jam at my uncle's house because he had a piano. Funny, in those days musicians would trek across town just to jam or to try out some new charts. My uncle told me that years later, he ran into Vince on the street somewhere in San Francisco and Vince shouted, “Uncle Bernard!" which was how I always referred to my uncle. He thought it was me.
I knew that Vince had stayed with music, but I became an ethnomusicologist, although at heart I was always a jazz musician and told people that if they asked. Vince established his trio and went on to fame. But coming upon him again that Christmas was a powerful blast for me. Good old Vince. Thanks so much for this.
On the radio. Last week, following my WSJ essay on Steely Dan and my post on the new Freddie Hubbard box from Mosaic, I heard from Kim Paris at the FM Radio Archive:
Hi Marc. Thanks for your feature on the 50th anniversary of Steely Dan's "Can't Buy a Thrill." Although the original Steely Dan band toured selectively when they began, they also made rare live appearances on FM stations, including KMET in Los Angeles, Ca. To listen to a 1974 broadcast from KMET, go here.
As for Freddie Hubbard, we have five broadcast recordings of Freddie on the FM Radio Archive—two with the CTI All Stars, one with his own band, and one each with McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock's bands. All are from the 1970s and '80s. Go here.
Freddie Green. In the wake of my Freddie Green Backgrounder post, I heard from Jeroen de Valk in the Netherlands:
Hi Marc. Freddie Green did indeed record as a leader only once, but he recorded as a co-leader as well, with Herb Ellis for Concord Jazz. The album is "Rhythm Willie" (1975). Here's the full album...
Brad Terry, a superb clarinetist and whistler who recorded notable duet albums with several jazz artists, including guitarist Lenny Breau (above), wrote last week to let me know that many of his albums, including the one with Breau, are available at Bandcamp here.
Tammy Burdett released an album of original songs on Fresh Sound earlier this year (go here). From that album, here is Christmas Is Almost Here...
Lalah and Donny Hathaway. Lalah Hathaway, the Grammy-winning daughter of the late Donny Hathaway, released a single and video of her singing a duet with her father on his hit This Christmas. Here it is...
And finally, here are clips I feature every year—Andy Williams (above) and his brothers, Dick, Bob and Don, singing a few holiday classics in tight, effortless harmony:
Here they are on one of Andy Williams's Christmas TV shows...
Here they are a bunch of years earlier...
And here they are in 1964...
There also was a singing Williams sister—Jane. She comes on about halfway in to join in singing White Christmas. Go here...
