In July 1963, drummer Louis Bellson was in the Las Vegas area performing a summer residency with an eight-piece band at the Thunderbird hotel and casino on the Strip.
The Thunderbird was in Winchester, about 12 minutes southwest of Las Vegas. The hotel began operating in 1948 and was only the fourth resort on the strip at the time. It had 79 rooms, a casino, a lounge and a bar. In the 1950s, there were rumors of the mob owning stakes in the hotel. The resort struggled in the 1960s as ownership changed, and by 1977 it was gone.
As Louis told jazz writer Stanley Dance about this octet's stay at the Thunderbird, "We had the graveyard shift from midnight till six in the morning. All the show people used to come in and listen, and we liked that."
Before the group disbanded, they went into a studio in Las Vegas and, at their own expense, recorded eight tracks. While working with Duke Ellington two years later, Louis was in New York when he let Bob Thiele at Impulse Records have a listen to the tape. Thiele put out the album in 1966.
The musicians in Louis's Thunderbird ensemble consisted of Harry "Sweets" Edison (tp), Carl Fontana (tb), Sam Most (as), Ed Scarazzo (ts), Jim Mulidore (bar), Arnold Teich (p), Jim Cook (b) and Louis Bellson (d), with arrangements by Jay Hill, Lalo Schifrin and Marty Paich.
The tracks were Thunderbird, (Bellson, F. Thompson), The Little Pixie (Thad Jones), Nails (Bill Perkins), Serenade in Blues (Jay Hill), Back on the Scene (Kenny Sampson), No More Blues (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes), Cotton Tail (Duke Ellington) and Softly With Feeling (Neil Hefti).
The album has a nifty pocket-sized Count Basie feel, driven by Bellson's double bass drums and enhanced by solos all around. Best of all, it has the sound of old Las Vegas, without a live audience.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Louis Bellson's Thunderbirdhere.
JazzWax note: My multipart interview with Louis Bellson starts here. It was my first for JazzWax in September 2007.
In November 1968, Verve Records released what today may seem like an unusual album but back then was perfectly in sync with the youth-focused times. The LP was called Leonard Feather Presents...The Sound of Feeling and the Sound of Oliver Nelson. The album's first side featured a six-person ensemble called The Sound of Feeling with Oliver Nelson soloing on soprano saxophone. The group consisted of three singers, one of whom played piano with three other members of the rhythm section. The second side featured just the Oliver Nelson big band. [Photo above of the Sound of Feeling, from left, Rhae Andrece, Alyce Andrece and Gary David]
Recorded in 1966 (tracks for Side B) and 1967 (Side A), and produced initially by Creed Taylor and then Jesse Kaye after Creed left for A&M to start CTI, The Sound of Feeling featured a Los Angeles-based vocal trio formed by pianist Gary David that comprised of Gary and identical twins, Alyce and Rhae Andrece.
Gary first met the twins in San Francisco in the early 1960s. They were originally from the Midwest but had moved to Las Vegas where they appeared as showgirls at the Sands Hotel. They were in San Francisco trying to get started as a singing duo when a friendship formed and Gary helped them put together a book of arrangements.
The three of them relocated to Los Angeles in 1964 and began singing as a jazz trio, with Gary on piano, Paul Breslin on bass and Curry Tjader (Cal Tjader's brother) on drums and vibes. Their first gig was at The Losers on La Cienega Blvd., but they were too far out for long runs. Nevertheless, the jobs kept coming, and in 1967 they played Donte's in North Hollywood.
In the audience that night was producer and critic Leonard Feather. He wrote a rave review about their performance and reached out to Gary to ask if the group was up for recording an album for Verve. Nelson had just recorded half an album, heard The Sound of Feeling and agreed to record the other half of the album with them. The group featured the twins with Gary David (p,vcl,marxophone), Ray Neapolitan and Chuck Domanico (b) and Dick Wilson (d).
As Gary writes in his liner notes to The Sound of Feeling: Up Into Silence, which compiles all of the group's recordings released by Britain's Sunbeam Records in 2007:
The band had been playing together for over a year, and though our charts were simple, the moves were not easy. Oliver did not have an easy task. He took my scores, some of them skeletal schemes, and went into a room by himself. After about 45 minutes, he came out and said, "Let's play some music."
The album's release in 1968 led to an invite by George Wein to appear at the Newport Jazz Festival that year, which, in turn, resulted in a Mercury Records contract. The album was called Spleen and came out in 1969. As Gary writes:
I experimented with everything, from original compositions to a theme by Bartok, to Simon and Garfunkel and Donovan... We were treated well at Mercury but there was dissatisfaction with the way the group was being promoted. The beauty of the twins as well as their acting turns on TV's "Star Trek," "Bonanza," "Batman" and other shows naturally led the label to commercial thoughts. We tried a number of tracks along those lines that were never released, for which I'm grateful. [Photo above of the twins with Oliver Nelson]
After the group's release from Mercury, other opportunities emerged with art rock bands, but the group eventually ran aground and broke up in the early 1970s. [Photo above of the twins with Leonard Feather]
The first five vocal tracks with Nelson remain bold and way ahead of their time. Most of all, there's a youthful sophistication about them that was both provocative and fresh. Gary and the Andrece twins weren't jingle singers or commercial vocal harmony swingers. They were innovative artists who could go places most vocalists and groups couldn't. Nelson clearly sensed the trio members were risk-takers and were up for something free and cutting edge. As you'll hear, he invokes John Coltrane's feel on soprano, weaving in and out of the vocalists, who were well up to the task
Interestingly, the Nelson album came out the same year that Verve released the Velvet Underground & Nico. Believe it or not, the Velvets' album sounds more pedestrian and safe. The Sound of Feeling, as you'll hear, was theatrical and avant-garde, eager to push the boundaries and stick to a sound the group felt was artistically significant.
The album's remaining four tracks on the second side feature the Oliver Nelson big band in a straight-ahead, brassy mode, a fascinating contrast coming off of the kaleidoscopic vocals of the Sound of Feeling. Spleen is on the Sunbeam set as well and is equally edgy and alluring. One of my favorite tracks is Simon and Garfunkel's Sound of Silence. Because the song is familiar, you have a fine sense of how interesting the arrangement and approach were here. [Photo above of Oliver Nelson]
Alyce died in 2005; Rhae passed away in 2009. I'll have an interview with Gary in the coming weeks.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find The Sound of Feeling: Up Into Silence (Sunbeam) here.
A special thanks to Bill Kirchner. Bill also sent along a Star Trek episode featuring the twins. Herethey are as eye candy in the episode I, Mudd (1967), further proof that the series today is unwatchable. But the twins stand out...
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]
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'sThe Arrival, arranged by Neal Hefti...
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'sTuba 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...
Recorded over four sessions in January 1970 and released later that year, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra's Consummation was one of the finest big band albums of the decade. A hit album and Grammy nominee, the LP's eight tracks were composed and arranged by Thad Jones. At the Grammys that year, the album lost out to Miles Davis's Bitches Brew.
The combined personnel over the four sessions included Thad Jones (fluhrn); Snooky Young, Danny Moore, Al Porcino and Marvin Stamm (tp); Eddie Bert, Benny Powell and Jimmy Knepper (tb); Cliff Heather (bass tb); Jimmy Buffington, Earl Chapin, Dick Berg and Julius Watkins (Fr hon); Howard Johnson (tuba), Jerome Richardson, Jerry Dodgion, Billy Harper, Eddie Daniels, Richie Kamuca, Pepper Adams and Joe Farrell (reeds and woodwinds); Roland Hanna (p,el p); David Spinozza (g); Richard Davis (b, el b) and Mel Lewis (d).
The tracks are Dedication, It Only Happens Every Time, Tiptoe, A Child Is Born, Us, Ahunk Ahunk, Fingers and Consummation.
Here's the entire album without ad interruptions...
On this date 16 years ago, I put up my first JazzWax post without images. I wasn't able to do that at first, but it was the start of an adventure that continues to amaze me.
Starting my blog came at the nudging of the late arts and drama critic and dear friend Terry Teachout. Sitting on my apartment's sofa as we listened to music, Terry claimed I knew too much about jazz and that I had to blog about it. When I protested about being too busy (I was a financial writer then), he would hear none of it, saying no one was busier than he was, that he blogged and that doing so was essential.
So within two weeks, I came up with a name, grabbed the JazzWax URL and trademarked the name. I never looked back. Along the way, the blog changed my life, it turned out to be a ton of work and many spectacular things happened along the way.
So here we are at another anniversary. On JazzWax's birthday each year, I traditionally take the day off from posting so that you and I can reflect on how far we've come over the years. As of yesterday JazzWax logged 5,169 posts with 7.5 million lifetime pageviews.
There are many readers and jazz legends who started with the blog who are still readers. I call them "originals." Some originals, sadly, have passed away, and a day doesn't go by that I don't think about them, since many corresponded with me regularly. I'm convinced they are still readers somewhere, someplace.
To give you a sense of how much time has passed, Steve Jobs(above) first announced the introduction of the iPhone in January 2007, and Apple released the first model June 9. JazzWax came two months later. I know, scary.
Over the past 16 years, I have interviewed more than 300 jazz artists for JazzWax and I've kept access to the blog free, making it an open, educational source for readers, media obit writers and musicians curious about albums I've favored and legendary musicians they've known or admired. It's my way of paying back the artists for all of the pleasure they've given me.
With all of that said, I'll leave you now. Tomorrow, Friday, we embark on the site's 17th year. Like a proud father, I'm stunned. JazzWax is all grown up!
San Francisco is most often associated with happenings, the Grateful Dead, LSD, the free speech movement, face painting, free love, the Summer of Love, underground newspapers and comics, Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, Bill Graham, the Fillmore Auditorium, Jefferson Airplane, the Matrix, Carlos Santana, Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, Timothy Leary, psychedelic art and concert posters, Steve Miller and City Lights Booksellers. [Photo above of Malo]
But San Francisco had a much more diverse music scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s. East Bay, across the San Francisco-Oakland Bridge, was a hotbed of bands that mixed styles, including soul, horn-driven funk, Latin, and Mexican-American rock. Even San Francisco was a hotbed of hybrids, fusing funk, rock, jazz and boogaloo. Perhaps the most sucessful of these fusion bands was Sly and the Family Stone and Tower of Power, both of which featured horns prominently.
One of the lesser-known Latin-rock bands in the city in 1970 was Malo, which is Spanish for bad, but in this case it meant wicked good. The band was a combination of two local bands—the Malibus and Naked Lunch. Malo was led by Richard Bean, Arcelio Garcia and Jorge Santana, the guitar-playing younger brother of Latin-rock guitarist Carlos Santana.
Malo in its original configuration lasted only until 1974. Then the group re-formed in 1981 and continues to play today. The original band recorded four albums for Warner Bros.—Malo, Dos, Evolution and Ascención. The first reached #14 on the Billboard 200, the second peaked at #62 and the last two sputtered at #101 and #188, respectively. Their music was too sophisticated and jam-focused to gain traction on AM radio or FM.
But a listen to their singles today reveals a remarkable band akin to War. A great intro to Malo is Malo: Latin Bugaloo, the Warner Bros. Singles, a 2020 collection that was produced by the magnificent Cheryl Pawelski, co-founder of Omnivore Recordings, a terrific independent label. The album features 14 tracks, and each one has a different groove.
One wonders whether the band might have had a better shot if they had focused more on songwriting rather than jamming. On the other hand, the album provides us with a fascinating snapshot of San Francisco's musical brew in the early 1970s.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Malo: Latin Bugaloo, the Warner Bros. Singles (Omnivore Recordings) here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Malo playing its biggest hit, Suavecito (or Smooth), which reached No. 18 on Billboard's pop chart in 1972. Clearly, the Young Rascals' Groovin' (1967), Tommy James and the Shondell's Crystal Blue Persuasion (1969) and War's All Day Music (1971) were indirect inspirations...
In 1963, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs teamed with tenor saxophonist Sal Nistico to record a terrific little-known swinger for Time Records known as Gibbs & Nistico. I say "known as" because the album cover, as you can see below, doesn't distinctly feature a title. [Photo above of Terry Gibbs]
Produced by Bob Shad, the LP included Sal Nistico (ts), Terry Gibbs (vib), Nat Pierce (org), Turk Van Lake (g), Charlie Andres (b) and Jake Hanna (d). At the time, Nistico and the rhythm section (minus Van Lake) were members of Woody Herman's new band in 1963, which recorded for the Philips label. All nine tracks were composed by Terry and will definitely get your right foot going. I couldn't stop moving both legs.
Time was started by Shad in 1960. He'd already had an extensive career in the record business and worked for several labels, including Savoy and National in the 1940s. In 1951, he became director of A&R at Mercury Records, where he founded the EmArcy jazz label.
Terry and Nistico were both high-energy jazz players, and the rhythm section here was aces. It's fascinating to hear Pierce groove on organ, and you'll marvel at Van Lake's rhythm guitar. Gibbs swings and bounces beautifully on the vibes and Nistico is terrific with his fried-egg sizzle, making this a nifty pairing of cool vibes and a hot sax. [Photo above of Sal Nistico]
Terry will turn 99 on October 13. He's had a stunning career, recording bebop throughout the 1940s starting in 1946 and playing in some of the top bands of the era led by Chubby Jackson, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman and others. He began leading recording sessions in the early 1950s, when he gave the marvelous pianist and vibraphonist Terry Pollard her break in his working quartet from 1953 to 1956. [Photo above of Terry Gibbs]
Throughout the 1950s, Terry recorded as a sideman on superb sessions and as a leader. He formed a big band in the late 1950s that recorded numerous albums into the early 1960s. It was called the Terry Gibbs Dream Band, and the personnel lived up to that boast. During the 1960s, he recorded Latin records as well as many albums with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco. He also was close with Steve Allen, a relationship that began during TV's infancy in the mid-1950s.
It's still a mystery to me why Terry hasn't been named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Fellow when virtually every other living jazz legend has been awarded this honor. Maybe next year.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find the tracks on Gibbs & Nistico on a Sal Nistico set released by Fresh Sound here.
The tracks also are on YouTube.
If you're interested in Terry Pollard, go here. As for Terry Gibbs, there's plenty to choose from here.
Bonus:Here's Terry Gibbs with Terry Pollard on piano and vibes on The Tonight Show hosted by Steve Allen in 1956. Herman Wright is on bass and Jerry Segal is on drums. The quartet plays a Terry Gibbs original, Gibberish, and then the two Terrys collaborate on the vibes on Now's the Time. Your jaw will be hanging open by the end. Gibbs and Pollard were so remarkable...
Here's Sal Nistico (far right in the reeds) and the album's core rhythm section in Woody Herman's touring band in 1963 playing The Days of Wine and Roses...
And here's Nistico soloing on Horace Silver's Sister Sadie, with Woody Herman on tour in London in 1964...
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of 55 More Songs," "Anatomy of a Song," "Rock Concert: An Oral History" and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards.
