Following my post on Monday on the new Peggy Lee collection Too Marvelous for Words, I received quite a few emails from readers asking me for my favorite Lee periods. As I hinted in my post, I’m a big fan of her early 1960s Capitol recordings. But the era I enjoy most are her many recordings made with husband, guitarist Dave Barbour, in the second half of the 1940s and early ‘50s. [Photo above of Dave Barbour and Peggy Lee]

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In 2014, I flew down to New Orleans to interview Dr. John for The Wall Street Journal. Mac Rebennack (his real name) lived in a place called St. Tammany Parish. To reach that community, you have to cross Lake Pontchartrain. Unfamiliar with the lake? You take the Causeway Bridge from metro New Orleans to Mandeville on the Northshore.

The causeway consists of two parallel spans with two lanes each and runs for 24 miles. Yep, a half hour on a bridge if you drive at 55 mph. The lake is astonishingly massive. About halfway across, you feel as if you’re driving across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, You can’t see New Orleans behind you and you can’t see Mandeville in front. Just water for 360 degrees. It’s like a Twilight Zone episode, where there’s no end and the people in the car eventually go mad.

I had the good fortune to have Mac’s publicist, Karen Dalton-Beninato, and her husband, Jeff, a musician-photographer, drive me there. Along the way there, I was warned to keep an eye on the woods around Mac’s house in case a gator wandered out.

At Mac’s place, every available shelf was filled with voodoo dolls, gris-gris, candles, and spiritual artifacts. Mac wanted to chat outside (watch for the gators!), so out we went onto his patio. He then began smoking thin, brown cigarillos. Mac knew I wrote on jazz and began talking about his days in West Coast recording studios in the early 1960s. Mac would say, “Yeah, I remember playing with this crazy trombonist.” “Frank Rosolino?,” I said. “Yeah, yeah, him. And this amazing alto saxophonist and flutist.” “Bud Shank?” “Yeah-yeah-yeah.”

This went on for about 15 minutes, with me finishing his sentences. Mac was most impressed and opened up on his life for my piece. After about 40 minutes, he asked if I had what I needed. I did. In his crackly voice, he said, “Great, let’s go inside. I want to play you something.”

Inside, he perched on a piano bench in front of his baby grand with a nice heavy sound. For the next half hour, Mac played me the history of New Orleans piano, explaining what made each style special—multiple boogie-woogie styles, including the butterfly; traditional Crescent City grooves; blues; R&B; stride and more. His sound was dazzling and the impact was like the taste of a great cup of coffee—each sip made you want another and another.

Not until a day later did I learn that Jeff—equally stunned—had the good sense to take some video of me sitting next to Mac as he performed. Here’s the clip:

Over the past seven years, six of Dr. John’s albums have been released thanks to the Estate of Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr. The estate is overseen by his daughter, Karla Rebennack Pratt, who serves as the executrix. The entity actively manages Dr. John’s posthumous album releases, merchandise and authorized usage of his legacy through its official Dr. John site here.

In celebration of Dr. John’s music, here’s a taste of the six releases:

Dr. John—Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya: The Singles 1968-1974 (Omnivore). This double-album release was originally produced for Record Store Day in 2024 on purple vinyl and features 26 tracks culled from five different Dr. John albums. To buy on CD or LP, go here.

Here’s Stack-a-Lee…

Dr. John: The Montreux Years (BMG). This double album features 14 live tracks recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival between 1986 and 2012, and released in 2023. To buy, go here.

Here’s a medley of In a Sentimental Mood, Mississippi Mud and Happy Hard Times…

Dr. John: Solo Piano, Live in New Orleans 1984 (Record Club). If you want the solo experience I encountered, your closest bet is this one, featuring seven tracks. To buy, go here for vinyl and here for digital download.

Here’s Dr. John covering Professor Longhair’s Tipitina, with original lyrics by Roy Byrd…

Dr. John: Live at the Village Gate (Omnivore). Recorded at the famed club in New York’s Greenwich Village on March 5, 1988, the 12-song double album captures Dr. John taking on a range of interesting material and the reactions by a loving audience. To buy, go here.

Here’s Georgia on My Mind…

Dr. John: Live at Rockpalast 1999 (MIG). This live performance took place on the German music TV show Rockpalast that appeared on German television station Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). It was broadcast during a concert at the Loreley Open-Air Theatre in St. Goarshausen, Germany. The CD/DVD set can be purchased here.

Here’s the full concert…

Dr. John: Things Happen That Way (Rounder). This was the last studio album by Dr. John, recorded between 2017 and 2019, the year of his passing, and then released in 2022. To buy, go here.

Here’s Funny How Time Slips Away…

Before satellite radio of the 2000s, the proliferation of FM in the 1970s and popularity of Top 40 programming in the 1960s, radio stations licensed extended prerecorded discs of music called archival transcriptions to air as specials. [Photo above of Peggy Lee in the 1950s]

When radio first became popular in the 1920s, the music that listeners heard on local stations was provided by live musicians playing in the studio. With the rise of recorded music on phonograph records, radio stations licensed these transcriptions on 16-inch, 33 1/3 rpm vinyl discs for extended play. These discs were produced only for radio air-play, and the music wasn’t sold to the public until decades later.

Among these transcription companies was the World Broadcasting System, founded in 1929. In 1955, WBS recorded 49 masters by singer Peggy Lee backed by a range of West Coast jazz and pop musicians. This Lee material first surfaced on the Audiophile label in October 2017 as a two-CD set entitled World Broadcasting Recordings 1955. Vinyl followed in July 2021 on Org Music as a limited-edition color LP for Record Store Day.

Now, Peggy Lee Associates has released Too Marvelous for Words, a newly restored and remastered digital-only set of the singer’s World Broadcasting transcription tracks recorded in 1955. The 49 songs are a treasure trove of music, featuring Lee singing American songbook standards. Not only does the new release sound warm and clear, but also half of the songs were recorded only once by Lee, including Autumn in New York, What Is This Thing Called Love? and Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.

More importantly, they feature Lee during a key period in her career—transitioning from eager and demure jazz-pop singer at Decca in the early and mid-1950s to laid-back superstar vocalist and sex symbol at Capitol in the LP and TV era of the late 1950s and early 1960s. You’ll find the new album at Spotify and other digital service providers.

Recorded over four sessions in February and August 1955 for the World Broadcasting System, the dates feature unidentified small groups. The musicians are thought to include Bill Pitman (g), Bob Whitlock or Don Prell (b), poss. Gene DiNovi (p), Stella Castellucci (harp), Larry Bunker or Ray Rivera (d) and Jack Constanzo (bgo). The only drawback are the arrangements, which tend to be wooden compared with her later swinging Capitol recordings.

Intimate ballads feature Lee influenced by Billie Holiday and backed by a wandering trumpet. Mid- and up-tempo songs include a Latin feel with bongos.

By 1957, Lee had re-signed with Capitol and began recording LPs with fresher arrangements. These Capitol albums include The Man I Love, Jump for Joy and Things Are Swingin’.

From the new WBS transcription album, here’s I May Be Wrong (but I Think You’re Wonderful)…

Here’s Mountain Greenery…

And here’s Speak Low…

Bonus: Here’s Lee in 1955 in the film Pete Kelly’s Blues…

Here’s Lee in 1955 recording He’s a Tramp for Lady & the Tramp…

For comparison between 1955 and 1958, here’s Lee in 1958 for Capitol singing Life Is For Livin’, from Things Are Swingin’, arranged and conducted by Jack Marshall…

Today is a national holiday in the U.S. The day has long been known in the black community as Juneteenth and commemorates the moment in 1865 when slavery officially ended.

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Two of my favorite Maynard Ferguson albums are A Message From Newport and Maynard ‘63, both on the Roulette label. The former was recorded and released in 1958 while the latter was recorded in March 1962 and issued in 1963. Today, I want to look at Maynard ‘63.

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In 1979, I spent the fall hitchhiking alone through Europe. I had graduated from college that spring and, with my savings, headed off on an adventure before my work life began.

Much of my time on the road that October was devoted to thumbing through Wales, spending nights at youth hostels. I loved that the country was way off the beaten path and that there was a storied respect for long-distance hiking. Within a week, I found Wales to be an enchanting and bewitching place where sheep outnumber residents, the countryside was a vivid green even in the autumn, the people were warm and generous, and anything could happen, usually for the better.

Today, of course, you’d have to be crazy to do something like that, but back then, the world was still pretty quaint. Drivers gave young foreigners like me a lift without fear of being murdered. Most were curious and asked lots of questions. In Wales, some of those who picked me up whisked me home for a hot lunch.

Some days I’d wind up having two lunches—since the next lift took me home as well. Everyone wanted to know all about New York, whether I knew French Connection star Gene Hackman, and whether the city was like it looked on TV cop shows. My New York accent was their entertainment and I was treated as if I had stepped out of their television set.

Fast forward to August 1995. Back then, the Kenny Barron Trio was on a brief tour of the U.K. and wound up in Brecon, Wales, at the Christ College Auditorium as part of the Brecon Jazz Festival.

Only about 7,500 people lived there in 1995. As I recall from a lunch at a Brecon pub, the town is quaint and sits just north of Wales’s largest mountain range, the Brecon Beacons. In the summer, it’s a popular destination for Welsh vacationers. [Photo above of Brecon, courtesy of the Brecon Town Council]

At the time, the trio consisted of Kenny Barron (p), Ray Drummond (b) and Ben Riley (d). Now, Elemental Music has released So Many Lovely Things: Live in Brecon, the trio’s previously unissued concert at the Brecon Jazz Festival.

The music comes from the Jordi Suñol Archives. For 60 years, the Barcelona-based producer has organized tours, booked festivals and concerts, and produced his own events, taping them with permission along the way and releasing them with the blessing of the musicians or their estates.

Throughout his career, Jordi has amassed an archive of nearly 1,000 taped performance recordings in Europe that have never been commercially available and only recently were digitized and catalogued for release.

Produced by Jordi and Zev Feldman, this new release is astonishing in so many ways. You’ll find it on a limited-edition 2-LP set on 180-gram vinyl. The recording also is also out on a 2-CD set, and via digital download plus streaming.

In many respects, Kenny took over where Oscar Peterson left off, swinging like mad and performing with a muscular and magical technique. On many of the new album’s tracks, there are sections where you can’t believe what you’re hearing.

The tracks:

• Oh, Look at Me Now (Joe Bushkin / John DeVries)

• Up Jumped Spring (Freddie Hubbard)

• Shuffle Boil (Thelonious Monk)

• Time Was (Gabriel Luna / Miguel Prado / Bob Russell)

• Silent Rain (Kenny Barron)

• Ask Me Now (Thelonious Monk)

• Nikara’s Song (Kenny Barron)

• The Surrey With the Fringe on Top (Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II)

• The Very Thought of You (Ray Noble)

• Canadian Sunset (Norman Gimbel / Eddie Heywood)

Some of the tracks that stand out are Up Jumped Spring, the Monk pieces Shuffle Boil and Ask Me Now. But to be honest, this is a perfect album, and choosing favorites seems almost absurd. The entire concert was breathtaking, and the trio works together beautifully.

I can’t recall the last time I heard such a terrific piano trio album. There’s so much going on, and the fidelity is warm and sterling, as if recorded in a studio. Kenny, Ray and Ben keep the music compelling throughout.

To buy the vinyl, go here. To buy the CD, download or stream, go here.

Here’s Up Jumped Spring…

And here’s Ask Me Now…

For every great jazz saxophonist recording in the 1950s, there were dozens of others who were highly gifted but struggled to carve out a name for themselves. Many went into R&B as sidemen, where they found steady work touring and recording with headline artists.

One of these musicians was Fred Jackson. Born in Atlanta in 1929, he played with Little Richard in the early 1950s and accompanied vocalists Billy Wright and Lloyd Price. His recording career began in 1949 as a jump-blues sideman on sessions led by baritone saxophonist Paul Williams for Savoy.

Jackson’s first album for Blue Note as a sideman was on organist Baby Face Willett’s Face to Face in 1961. He also recorded on two albums led by organist Big John Patton—Along Came John (1963) and The Way I Feel (1964).

His sole leadership album was Hootin’ ‘n Tootin,’ recorded for Blue Note in February 1962. The band featured Fred Jackson (ts), Earl Van Dyke (p,org), Willie Jones (g) and Wilbert Hogan (d). The tracks are Dippin’ in the Bag, Southern Exposure, Preach Brother, Hootin’ ‘n Tootin’, Easin’ on Down, That’s Where It’s At and Way Down Home.

Van Dyke, of course, would go on to become a member of Motown’s Funk Brothers, the label’s studio band. Jones was a notable pianist from Chicago and Hogan had perhaps the highest profile of the musicians on the session, playing with Lionel Hampton’s and Ray Charles’s big bands.

Another seven originals were recorded by Jackson for Blue Note in April 1962 for a second album. This date included Fred Jackson (ts), Earl Van Dyke (org), Willie Jones (g), Sam Jones (b), Wilbert Hogan (d) and unknown (cga-1,shaker-1). The tracks were Stretchin’ Out, Mr. B.J., Egypt Land, Teena, On the Spot, Minor Exposure and Little Freddie.

But these songs were never released on a second Blue Note album. Instead, the tracks were added to the CD release of Hootin’ ‘n Tootin’ in 1998.

Jackson had a singular forceful sound, especially on the blues, and he was a terrific composer. All of the tracks on the first and second Blue Note sessions were originals.

So why was his Blue Note career short-lived? My guess is that the label decided instead to put its resources behind tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, who had a stronger jazz feel. Both musicians had a similar forceful sound and both had come up through R&B in the 1950s.

Fred Jackson is in his late 90s.

Blue Note’s Tone Poet series has released this one on 180-gram vinyl here.

Here’s Hootin’ ‘n Tootin,’ with the tracks from both sessions (if they don’t play though in the embed, you’ll find the complete Blue Note tracks here)…

Born Albert Atkinson in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1922, A.K. Salim was a composer, arranger and, for a time, an alto saxophonist. His recording career began as an arranger for Gene Ammons in 1947, moving on to Illinois Jacquet in 1952 and Count Basie in 1949, ‘52 and ‘54.

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Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie gave Lalo Schifrin his first big break. To show his love and appreciation, Lalo wrote Gillespie a suite in 1959 called Gillespiana. The six movements were first recorded by Gillespie and his 16-piece orchestra for Verve in November 1960. [Photo above of Dizzy Gillespie and Lalo Schifrin]

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One of arranger-composer Johnny Richards’s many masterpieces in the LP era was Cuban Fire!, a 12-inch album recorded by the Stan Kenton orchestra in 1956. Richards’s six Afro-Cuban pieces for the band form the movements of a suite, and the album today is widely considered a masterpiece.

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Duke Ellington was late, but Dizzy Gillespie knew he’d show. I was 15 on that warm Saturday, August 15, 1972, and was already in love with jazz. Late that afternoon, I was standing behind the outdoor stage inches from Dizzy Gillspie, who was conversing with Stan Getz. We were on the sprawling grounds of Lyndhurst Mansion, an estate once owned by Jay Gould in Irvington, N.Y. I couldn’t believe my good fortune. [Photo above of a 32-year-old Queen Elizabeth II meeting a 59-year-old Duke Ellington ]

Getz had arranged a benefit concert to help raise money for the family of his son’s friend, Brian Sheldrake, a high school sophomore. Both of Sheldrake’s arms had been amputated at the shoulder four months earlier. We were virtually the same age, so his catastrophic accident hit home. [Photo above of Lyndhurt Mansion]

That spring, Sheldrake had climbed a utility pole to take pictures of the Hudson River. He fell into high tension, 11,000‐volt wires along the railroad tracks leading into New York City. This same railroad line appears in many movies, including North by Northwest. His fall into the wires also resulted in losing part of his foot.

The outdoor concert was scheduled to start at 6 and had sold out all 4,500 tickets. I had arrived at the venue super-early. Ellington was due to go on first since he and his band had to get back to Manhattan’s Rainbow Room, where they were performing.

When Ellington’s limo rolled slowly across the grass, kids like me surrounded the door eager to have something signed. I had a piano book of his most popular songs that I was learning on the piano. [Publicity still above of Duke Ellington]

When Duke got out, he seemed to be followed by a half-dozen women. It was something to see, since they were all dressed in evening wear. But rather than make time for eager kids, Ellington brushed us all off gruffly and headed to the stage where the band had already taken their seats.

It took me years to forget that snub. I never played that Ellington piano book again and moved on to the Bill Evans. I didn’t resume buying Ellington albums again until the late 1980s. Yesterday, on a similarly warm day outside, I listened to two of my favorites: The Queen’s Suite (1959) and …And His Mother Called Him Bill (1967).

The former is one of the oddest recordings in Ellington’s discography. Ellington first met Queen Elizabeth II in October 1958 at the Leeds Centenary Music Festival in Yorkshire, England. Following a cordial and mildly flirtatious exchange, Ellington promised to compose music for her.

The following year, he and collaborator Billy Strayhorn completed the work and the band recorded The Queen’s Suite. Only one gold copy was pressed. Ellington reimbursed Columbia Records the $2,500 production cost. The disc was sent directly to Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s ears only, along with a personal, hand-written note. Ellington was ensured it wouldn’t be released publicly until after his death.

The original master tapes later became part of Ellington’s commercial catalog at Columbia. In 1976, two years after his passing, the suite was finally released on the compilation album The Ellington Suites by Norman Granz’s Pablo label. The music remains as elegant and sensual as its original intent. The work combines formality with the graceful sass he saw in her.

…And His Mother Called Him Bill was recorded for RCA in the fall of 1968, a tribute to Billy Strayhorn, who had died in May at age 51 of cancer. The album featured Strayhorn compositions, among them ones that had not been previously recorded. The album won a Grammy for best large jazz ensemble album. [Photo above of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington]

Both albums are regal portraits of important figures Ellington admired for different reasons. The music and orchestrations are timeless, with the bands at their expressive best. I often listen to them together, one after the next. They have much in common.

As for Brian Sheldrake, little is known other than Slate reporting in 2005 that he was driving a 40-foot RV with his feet.

Here’s the complete Queen’s Suite…

And here’s The Intimacy of the Blues…

And here’s Rock Skippin’ at the Blue Note…

When people ask me which female jazz singers I fancy most after the bigs—Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Dinah Washington and Peggy Lee—one who instantly comes to mind is Chris Connor.

I’ve always loved her phrasing and timbre. Her range is my favorite, as is her husky, hip swing. She takes risks on songs and has a way of casting them beaut…

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Like most Manhattan jazz clubs in the 1950s, the Café Bohemia was in Greenwich Village. Located at 15 Barrow St. from 1955 to 1960, the club was revived at its original location in 2019 and closed in 2023. Today, it’s the Barrow Street Ale House.

Now, Blue Note has released Kenny Dorham’s The Complete ‘Round About Midnight at the Café Bohemia as part of its Tone Poet series. It’s available as a three-LP set remastered on 180-gram vinyl or as a two-CD set. The music was recorded on May 31, 1956, which means yesterday was the album’s 70th anniversary. The music sounds as fresh today as it did then.

Club owner Jimmy Garofolo had operated the space since 1949 as a restaurant and bar. In 1955, saxophonist Charlie Parker lived across the street in an apartment with poet Ted Joans, an extraordinary artist. Parker told Garofolo he’d play the club for free drinks.

The deal sounded good to Garofolo, but Parker died in March 1955 prior to the start of his engagement. The buzz surrounding his pending gig and death was sufficient to give Café Bohemia its start.

Of the many artists who recorded there, perhaps the one who stands out is Dorham on ‘Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia. Dorham had been the fourth of five regular trumpeters in Parker’s ensembles—Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee, Miles Davis, Dorham and Red Rodney.

At the Café Bohemia, Dorham was accompanied by J. R. Monterose (ts), Kenny Burrell (g), Bobby Timmons (p), Sam Jones (b) and Arthur Edgehill (d). Also there were recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder and Blue Note producer Alfred Lion. This early hard-bop session was Dorham’s second recording at the club.

The previous year, in November 1955, he had been a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, an early configuration of what would become Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. The musicians on the earlier date were Kenny Dorham (tp), Hank Mobley (ts), Horace Silver (p), Doug Watkins (b) and Art Blakey (d).

Dorham left the Messengers soon and formed Kenny Dorham’s Jazz Prophets, a competitive quintet with the same lineup that appears on the album that’s the subject of this post.

The 17-track release celebrates the brilliance of Dorham, whose gifts have never been fully appreciated by jazz listeners. On ballads, he’s beautifully soulful. On uptempo numbers, he’s as a fleet as a tap dancer. The group—Monterose, Burrell, Timmons, Jones and Edgehill—were perfectly suited for Dorham’s soft, muscular touch on trumpet.

Listen for Bud Powell’s influence on Timmons ; Monterose’s singular commanding style free from Lester Young or Coleman Hawkins; the influence of Charlie Christian on Burrell; Jones’s strong, pronounced bass playing; and the influence of Max Roach on Edgehill.

A few insights into the songs: Royal Roost, a blues by Bud Powell and Dorham, was first recorded by Dorham in 1946 and had been recorded a week earlier by tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins as Tenor Madness. Mexico City is a contrafact of Powell’s Tempus Fugit. K.D.’s Blues sounds like a reworking of Lean Baby. Hill’s Edge is a reworking of Tune Up.

And it’s interesting how the intro to Monaco sounds similar to the intro to The Scene Is Clean on Tadd Dameron’s Fontainebleau (recorded on March 9, 1956), a date that included Dorham. And dig how Dorham scrunches notes on the alternate track of Who Cares?

It’s fabulous to hear this live album again with great sound and additional tracks. The recording is a perfect entry point for those unfamiliar with Dorham. Most of all, we get to hear artists in their early years, clearly influenced by other jazz masters and before their own style took shape.

Kenny Dorham died in 1972 at age 48 of kidney disease.

To buy the new set as three LPs or two CDs, go here.

Here’s Who Cares?

And here’s Hill’s Edge…

Before we cross the spring-summer threshold and pass into June, I have six beautiful new albums for you to consider:

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Hands down, one of the finest and strongest jazz pianists touring and recording today is Eliane Elias. In addition to being a spectacularly gifted player, she has enormous charm, is admirably sensitive and has a lovely singing voice. The added bonus is she’s Brazilian, so warmth and charisma come second nature when performing. She has won two Grammys and two Latin Grammys with more on the way, I’m sure.

Her new album, Ao Vivo (Live) (Candid Records), combines all of this in one neat package—playing, singing, bossa nova and an audience. It was recorded live in San Francisco, at the SFJAZZ Center, Miner Auditorium, on October 21, 2023.

By her side is Marc Johnson, the brilliant bassist and Bill Evans Trio member in the late 1970s. Backing them are Leandro Pellegrino on guitar and Rafael Barata on drums. Together, they routinely bring audiences to their feet at the end of club sets and theater concerts. Eliane feeds on adoration, which only transforms her encores into an even more powerful experience.

Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Eliane began piano lessons at 7. Within 10 years, she was performing with Brazilian singer-songwriter Toquinho and touring with lyricist Vinicius de Moraes. Also at 17, she was so impressive that she was invited to tour with singer-songwriter Antônio Carlos Jobim.

Eliane provided me with more detail on her experience with Jobim when I first interviewed her in 2017, for a Wall Street Journal column I was writing then called Playlist. Here’s what Eliane had to say:

When I was growing up in São Paulo, in the 1960s and ’70s, my entire world was music. From the time I was 7, I played piano and was enchanted by the singer Elis Regina. I used to watch her on TV until my mother moved me along to bed. At 13, I saw Elis sing “Waters of March,” and the song swept me away.

Antonio Carlos Jobim wrote “Waters of March” the year before, in 1972 when he was 45, as an uptempo response to feeling that his career might be over—which, of course, it wasn’t. March is when the heavy rains come to Brazil and wash away all the old debris.

Jobim’s lyric expresses this, equating the debris with aging and the natural passage of time. Here’s a lyric line in English: “A stick, a stone / It’s the end of the road / It’s the rest of a stump / It’s a little alone.”

In 1974, Regina and Jobim recorded the song together on the album “Elis & Tom.” When my mother first played the record at home, it felt so joyous and free, like the wind.

The recording opens with acoustic guitar, bass and Jobim’s piano all seeming to simulate a ticking clock and dripping water. Regina takes the first verse and is then joined by Jobim, at which point they switch off on the lyric lines. Their vocal was so playful.

I knew Jobim from the time I was 17. I worked in Brazil with his co-writer, Vinicius de Moraes. After I moved to New York in 1984, I visited Jobim at his Madison Avenue apartment.

We both sat at the piano and played lots of things together for fun. I took the left side while he handled the melody on the right.

At some point, we played “Waters of March.” His voice, by then, was a bit gravelly but warm, and his sound on the keyboard was like a fingerprint. The clarity of his notes and that delicate touch and time—it could only be him.

The experience was quite moving. To be shoulder-to-shoulder with Jobim again and to hear the simple beauty of his choices on the song—I wanted to cry.

Her new album was brilliantly recorded. The fidelity is so pure and clear that you’ll think Eliane and the group are in the room with you. Hats off to audio recording engineer Masanori Yura and audio mixing and mastering by Pete Karam.

The tracks:

• Brasil (Aquarela do Brasil) (Ary Barroso)

• Você (Roberto Menescal, Ray Gilbert, Ronaldo Bôscoli)

• Sambou Sambou (João Donato)

• Você e Eu (You and I) (Carlos Lyra/Vinicius de Moraes)

• Eu Sambo Mesmo (I Really Samba) (Janet de Almeida)

• Bahia Medley: Saudade da Bahia/Você Já Foi à Bahia (Dorival Caymmi)

• Esta Tarde Vi Llover (Armando Manzanero)

• At First Sight (Eliane Elias)

• A Felicidade (A.C. Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes)

• Só Danço Samba (A.C. Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes)

If Eliane is appearing near you, go. The music is spectacular and her personality is so endearing that you’ll feel you’re seeing a friend you’ve known for years. As for her new album, try to remember that the woman who is improvising so superbly is also the same woman singing as she plays. And it’s all done to make you as happy as she is to be there playing for you. I can’t wait to see her and the group again in New York in September.

To listen and/or buy, go here.

For Eliane’s tour schedule, go here.

Here’s Bahia Medley: Saudade da Bahia / Você Já Foi à Bahia…

And here’s what greatness looks like—Eliane, Marc, Leandro and Rafael playing Sambou Sambou at SFJAZZ in San Francisco in 2023. Dig the energy, the synergy among the musicians, Eliane’s extraordinary jazz improvisation (and how she slyly slips in salsa chords), the strength of her attack and how the music is meant to enliven everyone in the audience. Trust me, my hand has been in hers; she’s very strong. Dig Marc here—his time and improvisation are tremendous. And Leandro on guitar Rafael on drums are alive and kicking. Breathtaking music. There’s only one Eliane Elias…

Bonus: How marvelous is Eliane? Here she is with Chick Corea playing a duet on There Will Never Be Another You at Yamaha Artist Services in Manhattan in 2018. My jaw drops every time I listen to it…

I’m going to start off your holiday weekend on a bright note. Marcos Valle is a powerhouse second-generation bossa-nova singer-songwriter. His music is astonishing for its lyrical beauty and sensuality. You are probably most familiar with his song Samba de Verão (Summer Samba), also known as So Nice.

The song became a massive standard in the 1960s. The …

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In the late 1950s, Jack Gelber wrote a play called The Connection, which dramatized the desperate enticement of narcotics and the perils of addiction. The play was produced at New York’s Living Theatre, on the second floor of the former Hecht’s department store on Sixth Ave. at 14th St. [Photo above of Dexter Gordon in the early 1960s by Francis Wolff © Blue Note Records]

Initially, jazz musicians were just going to improvise on stage to provide incidental music for the actors. But when pianist Freddie Redd finished the score, he convinced Gelber to use it in the production and to feature himself, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, bassist Michael Mattos and drummer Larry Ritchie during the play’s run.

Its raw realism and incorporation of live jazz received praise from the New York press, and so Gelber launched a West Coast production in 1961. For the Los Angeles version, Dexter Gordon composed music and performed.

While there was no official soundtrack recorded for the West Coast production, Gordon recorded three of the songs on his second Blue Note LP, Deter Calling…, recorded in May 1961 and released in January 1962. It was the Blue Note followup to his groundbreaking Doin’ Allright.

Now, Blue Note’s Tone Poet series has released the album on a 180-gram vinyl LP with mastering by Kevin Gray. All of the players—Dexter Gordon (ts), Kenny Drew (p), Paul Chambers (b) and Philly Joe Jones (d)—are given a chance to solo, and the results are beautiful.

The tracks:

• Soul Sister (Dexter Gordon)

• Modal Mood (Kenny Drew)

• I Want More (Dexter Gordon)

• The End of a Love Affair (Edward Redding)

• Clear the Dex (Kenny Drew)

• Ernie’s Tune (Dexter Gordon)

• Smile (Charlie Chaplin)

Soul Sister is a walking gospel blues (Gordon’s answer to Freddie Redd’s Sister Salvation), with solos by Gordon, Drew and Chambers, that opens and closes in waltz time; Modal Mood picks up the pace with a superb, brisk solo by a wailing Gordon, and close-out turns by Drew and Jones; Gordon’s I Want More (an addict’s lament) is a fast-paced, billowy and lyrical track, providing a taste of Gordon’s bop ferocity plus a Drew solo.

On side 2, End of a Love Affair opens with Gordon laying down down the standard’s melody in the lower register. He then moves up to the middle for his bop solo and a sterling turn by Drew; Clear the Dex is a swinging bop burner, featuring Gordon’s seamless ribbons of lines and Chambers playing with a bow, followed by Drew. Dig how Jones hits the snare throughout.

The album’s high point is Gordon’s mournful ballad, Ernie’s Tune, written for the Ernie character in The Connection. Where Redd saw optimism for Ernie, with his flag-waver Music Forever, Gordon doesn’t have high hopes, delivering a solo akin to a memorial. And finally, there’s a short take on Chaplin’s Smile, which Gordon wisely plays at a brisk pace, avoiding the sticky sentimentality of most versions.

The big difference between Freddie Redd’s and Dexter Gordon’s moods for The Connection is that Redd avoided heroin whereas Gordon had been an addict. His addiction began in the late 1940s, and he spent critical periods in the 1950s imprisoned. He was incarcerated from 1953 to 1955, and again in the late 1950s. As a result, his pieces have the sound of experience while Redd’s has enormous hope. Both are stunning.

By the fall of 1962, Gordon had relocated to Paris and then Copenhagen, where he began a new life and career. He kicked his habit in 1960. Though he visited the U.S. periodically, he didn’t move back until 1976.

Dexter Gordon died in 1990 at age 67 of kidney failure and smoking-related cancer of the larynx.

To buy, go here.

To read my interview with Maxine Gordon, Dexter’s wife, go here.

Here’s Dexter Gordon’s Dexter Calling…, track by track…

Gene Ammons was a jazz blues master. The tenor saxophonist had a breathtaking ability to improvise lyrical blues melodies, and his playing style was confident, smokey and soulful. He also gave songbook standards a fresh groove. [Publicity still above of Gene Ammons]

Ammons also was a consummate take-charge leader of recording sessions in the late 1940s a…

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If you’re unfamiliar with tenor saxophonist John Coltrane or equate his music with the heady free jazz he embraced in the 1960s, I have just the gateway album for you. Coltrane’s Sound was one of my first Coltrane albums and I recognized immediately what made him special.

The LP not only helped me acclimate to his wilder recordings on Impulse that follow…

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Today is the 97th anniversary of Creed Taylor’s birth. I interviewed the record producer for JazzWax about 30 times, starting in 2009. Nineteen of those interviews were biographical. After Creed died on August 22, 2022, I combined all 19 parts into a tribute post here.

Creed began his career at Bethlehem Records in 1954, moved on to ABC Paramount in 1956, started the Impulse label at ABC in 1960, became head of A&R at Verve in 1961 and joined A&M in 1967. When Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss moved A&M to Los Angeles, Creed stayed in New York and worked out a deal with Alpert and Moss to transform his A&M imprint— CTI—into a stand-alone company. CTI and its subsidiaries Kudu and Salvation would wind up being among the best-known jazz labels of the 1970s. [Photo above of Creed Taylor in the 1960s]

One of the last albums Creed produced for A&M under his CTI banner before going out on his own was Milton Nascimento’s Courage. Recorded on Dec 19, 1968 and February 26 and 27, 1969, the LP was arranged by Eumir Deodato and featured a massive orchestra. In many respects, it’s among Deodato’s masterpiece recordings. Courage was Nascimento’s first album recorded in the U.S., and his second LP overall.

Nascimento, 83, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has recorded 32 studio albums and has won five Grammy Awards. Born in 1942 in Rio de Janeiro, Nascimento never knew his mother. A single mom and a maid, she raised him until she died of tuberculosis when he was 2.

His maternal grandmother took in Nascimento, who was soon adopted by the relatives of his grandmother’s former employers. His stepfather was a bank employee, math teacher and electronic technician; his step-mother was a music teacher and choir singer. Nascimento grew up in the city of Três Pontas, a municipality in the country’s southern Minas Gerais state, and was attracted to music at a young age.

At 4, he was given an accordion and began to sing. At 13, he sang for the group Continental de Duilio Tiso Cougo. Nascimento was also an occasional DJ on a radio station that his stepfather once ran. As an adult, he moved to Rio.

His songs include Nada Será Como Antes (Nothing Will Be As It Was), Maria, Maria, Canção da América (Unencounter), Bailes da Vida and Coração de Estudante (Student's Heart).

Courage has a rich, textured feel that’s peppered with percussion and softened with flutes. Despite the many musicians on the recording, the music has a breezy, elegant and wide sound. Nascimento’s singing style is distinct, featuring a forceful, emotive baritone that could swing high for a falsetto.

The tracks:

• Bridges

• Vera Cruz

• Tres pontas

• Outubro

• Courage

• Rio Vermelho

• Gira Girou

• Morro velho Catavento

• Cancao do sol

Though Creed signed Nascimento to a three-album deal, Courage is the only one they completed. My guess is that Creed’s sudden move to establish CTI combined with Nascimento’s desire to return home to Brazil nullified his contract.

Back in Rio, Nascimento recorded in earnest, returning to the U.S. periodically to work with Wayne Shorter and other jazz and pop stars. These gems include Milton (1976), with Shorter; A Barca dos Amantes, with Shorter (1986); Yauaretê, with Shorter and Herbie Hancock (1987); Miltons, with Hancock (1989); Angelus, with Shorter, Hancock, James Taylor and Jon Anderson (1994); and Under Tokyo Skies, with Hancock (2010). And, of course, Shorter’s Native Dancer (1975). Nascimento’s most recent album is Milton + Esperanza, with Esperanza Spalding (2024).

Today, Nascimento lives with family in Brazil , where they announced last year he had been diagnosed with dementia.

To listen to all of Courage, go here.

Here’s Bridges…