Last week in The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed actor Manuel Garcia-Rulfo for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Manuel stars in the Netflix series The Lincoln Lawyer, now in Season 2. Born in Mexico, Manuel is as kind and humble during an interview as he is talented. In the fast-paced drama, he plays Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney. When he isn't shooting the streaming color noir, Manuel is in Guadalajara, Mexico, tending to his lime orchard on his grandfather's ranch. [Photo above of Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, courtesy of Netflix]
Here's Manuel in The Lincoln Lawyer...
A big thanks to the thousands of JazzWax readers who offered their congratulations by email, comments, social-media likes and simply read my posts at Facebook and Xwitter (or wherever the former Twitter is called now). Always a joy to provide you with music and cultural happiness six days a week. On to year 17.
Chick Webb. Here's a taste of one of the swing era's greatest drummers...
Tommy Dorsey. Here's Dorsey's 1949 recording of Again, with Marcy Lutes on the vocal. The band included Charlie Shavers (tp), Babe Fresk and Boomie Richman (ts), Paul Smith (p) and Louie Bellson (d). Great arrangement by Deane Kincaide...
Harry James. James's Hollywood bop band in 1949 was drop-dead fabulous. Here's The Arrival, arranged by Neal Hefti...
Another? Here's Hefti's Six, Two and Even...
One more? Here's Hefti's Raffles...
Buddy DeFranco. Here's Buddy's sextet in 1949, with Buddy DeFranco (cl), Teddy Charles (vib), Harvey Leonard (p), Jimmy Raney (g), Bob Carter (b) and Max Roach (d)...
Oscar and Joe. Here's pianist Oscar Peterson and guitarist Joe Pass in the 1980s...
Three great new albums out...
Spinners: The Complete Atlantic Singles—The Thom Bell Productions 1972-1979 (Real Gone). Producer-arranger-conductor Thom Bell was brilliant. He also was a great guy with a fast sense of humor. I had two lengthy phone conversations with him—once when writing my "Anatomy of a Song" on the Spinners' I'll Be Around, and again just to talk. Thom produced the Spinners, the Delfonics and the Stylistics among others. Thom's arrangements for the Spinners not only launched the lush Philadelphia International sound in 1972 but also helped usher in disco and gave the music dimension with strings, horns and beats. Absolutely extraordinary. Now Real Gone has released a two-CD set of Thom's productions for the Spinners. The 43 freshly remastered tracks are a spectacular body of work by one man for one group. Songs include Could It Be I'm Falling in Love, One of a Kind (Love Affair), Then Came You, They Just Can't Stop It (Games People Play), I'm Tired of Giving and many more. I miss Thom. You'll find the set here.
Dig what Thom did with the arrangement on this one. Here's I'm Tired of Giving in 1977...
Andrew Gold—The Fraternal Order of the All—Greetings From Planet Love (Esoteric). Originally released in 1997, the album was conceived by Andrew Gold as a tribute to psychedelic pop-rock, evocative of the Byrds, the Beach Boys, the Zombies and late-'60s Beatles. Gold, who died at 59 in 2011, was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and producer who played on albums by Linda Ronstadt and others. His songs were used as themes to American TV sitcoms The Golden Girls and Mad About You and in advertising. The Fraternal Order has just been remastered and reissued by Britain's Esoteric label and is Gold's Smile meets the White Album—tapping into all of his many talents. It's pop with a trippy overwash. Gold played most of the instruments and was joined by guest artists such as Graham Gouldman of 10cc. As you listen, you'll feel as if you took a swan dive into a wet Peter Max canvas. You'll find the album here.
Here's Tuba Rye and Will's Son - Balloon in the Sky...
Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos (Craft Recordings). Concord's Craft legacy label has just released a superb 7-CD box featuring demos of mostly slower songs never released by the label. A demo, for those unfamiliar, is a skeletal idea of what a song and vocal should sound like based on the songwriter's vision. It's often recorded with just a rhythm section and allows producers to think of how to give it dimension. There are 146 tracks in this box that feature demos by artists such as William Bell, Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, Homer Banks, the Staple Singers, Bettye Crutcher and many others. Part of the fun of this set is going through and wondering why songs weren't released. For the handful that did become recordings, it's interesting to hear how they sounded stripped down. You'll find the box here.
Here's the demo of Mack Rice's I Could Never Be Satisfied...
And here's the recording in 1978, which Stax passed on, so it wound up on Atco...
My guess is Stax passed because the bass line sounded too much like Stax's Who's Making Love by Johnnie Taylor in 1968. Hear for yourself...
Irving Greines (above), a terrific Los Angeles photographer I posted about back in 2021, sent along the following:
Hi, Marc. A piece on my "Street People” photo project was just published on PetaPixel, a website devoted to photographic news, equipment and images. I thought you and readers might be interested. Go here.
Original Vinyl Records is now on eBay. The record store in Warwick, N.Y., owned by Jim Eigo now has an eBay page, which means you can order the vinyl you've been hunting for online, no matter where you live. Go here.
And finally, here are the O'Jays with Daryl Hall...
One more? Here's Chromeo at Daryl's Place doing a nifty version of Lowdown, Boz Scaggs's hit in 1976...
