On Nov. 16, 1984, singer-pianist Shirley Horn performed live with her bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams at Florida Memorial College in Miami. The concert was devoted to the wistful and pensive compositions of Curtis Lewis, who died in 1969. Fortunately, Nils Winther, owner of Denmark’s SteepleChase Records, and engineer David Glasser, had arranged to be there to record the concert.

Horn had been introduced to Lewis by her manager, John Levy, during her first recording session in 1960. She then frequently performed and recorded his yearning compositions. As a lyricist, Lewis had a wonderfully soulful way of spinning tales of romantic dilemmas. [Photo above of Shirley Horn]

At the time, Florida Memorial wasn’t exactly a hot spot for hosting concerts by celebrated jazz artists. The college was a religious institution, but that didn’t stop the campus director, Rev. Jefferson Rogers, from lobbying for the event. He was a champion of black culture and a Horn fan. The LP was released a year later, in 1985, by SteepleChase.

Now, the label has reissued the The Garden of the Blues: Shirley Horn Sings Curtis Lewis remastered and pressed on 180-gram vinyl. The result sounds fetching and intimate. What made this Horn performance and recording special was how she treated the material. The playlist is ordered so that each song is another chapter in the album’s ruminative concept, including a four-part suite. Horn segues from one song to the next by adding a little narration of her own to tie them together. [Photo above of Curtis Lewis]

The singer is at her peak here in the trio format—seven years before her triumphant 1992 album Here’s to Life, arranged by Johnny Mandel and recorded in 1991.

As you listen to The Garden of the Blues, you’ll be struck by how effortlessly Horn accompanies herself on piano as she sings the sophisticated Lewis songbook. Several times along the way, I forgot and wondered who was playing behind her. Nope, no accompanist. That was Horn, bringing her two creative sides together effortlessly in a single, elegant expression.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1918, Lewis grew up in Chicago and moved to New York in the 1940s. He was among the first black composer-lyricists who owned a music publishing company on Broadway in the early 1950s. His most recorded songs include All Night Long, He Never Mentioned Love and Today I Sing the Blues. He died in 1969.

The tracks:

• He’s Gone Again (Curtis Lewis/Curley Hamner/Gladys Hampton)

• Old Country (Curtis Lewis/Nat Adderley)

• Roaming Lover (Curtis Lewis)

• The Garden of the Blues Suite: Blue City (Curtis Lewis)

• The Garden of the Blues Suite: What Would a Woman Do? (Curtis Lewis)

• The Garden of the Blues Suite: He Never Mentioned Love (Curtis Lewis)

• The Garden of the Blues Suite: The Great City (Curtis Lewis)

For many, this album will be an introduction to the Curtis Lewis songbook. It’s also a prime example of Horn’s vocal sensitivity, singular talents and command of jazz, on both piano and voice.

Shirley Horn died in 2005 at age 71 from complications of diabetes.

To buy the new vinyl recording of Shirley Horn: The Garden of the Blues (SteepleChase), go here. Or you can buy the digital download at Amazon.

Here’s The Garden of the Blues: The Great City, using an intro tagging Benny Golson’s Killer Joe…

And here’s He’s Gone Again…

In 1978, Irish drummer John Wadham recorded his sole studio album as a leader—Drums and Friends. Captured at Pat Hayes Studio for the Livia label in Dublin, the LP featured several of Ireland’s giants of jazz in two different intimate groupings.

On three tracks, Wadham was joined by guitarist Louis Stewart; bassist Martin Walsh was added on one of the tracks. On four other tracks, the trio featured Wadham with flutist Brian Dunning and bassist Frank Hess. [Photo abov, from left, of Frank Hess, Brian Dunning and John Wadham courtesy of Livia Records]

Now, Livia has remastered and reissued the album for streaming and as a download and CD, with two bonus tracks tacked on.

The new release is a revelation. On a broader level, we are given insight into the Dublin jazz movement of the 1970s—its direction and level of excellence. On a more micro level, we hear how a freer form of jazz was synthesized and interpreted by some of Dublin’s finest players. [Photo above of Louis Stewart courtesy of Livia]

By the 1970s, the jazz fusion movement had spread worldwide thanks to albums and touring American and British musicians. It’s most interesting to hear how these Dublin musicians interpreted that style, adding a poetic overlay and keeping the articulation lyrical and spare. By doing so, Wadham and his colleagues allow you to hear all of the music along with the precious quality of their graceful attack rather than the bombast on many fusion recordings. [Photo above of Martin Walsh courtesy of Livia]

Born in England in 1936, Wadham moved with his family to Dublin in 1953 when his father, a Royal Air Force vet, became manager of a leading insurance company. Self-taught, Wadham studied engineering but left college early in the late 1950s to play jazz. Versatile and able to deliver in both small groups and big bands, he eventually became a first-call drummer when American musicians toured in Ireland. He also played behind nearly every Irish jazz group. For an excellent and a more detailed Wadham biography, go here.

The tracks:

1. Clarence’s Place (Freddie Hubbard)

2. Floatin’ (Gerry Niewood)

3. Winter Song (John Surman)

4. Pompeiian (Bobby Hutcherson)

5. Improvisation for Guitar and Drums (Louis Stewart/John Wadham)

6. Lazy Afternoon (Jerome Moross/John La Touche)

7. Footprints (Wayne Shorter)

8. Seven Steps to Heaven (Miles Davis/Victor Feldman) (bonus track, with Dunning and Hess)

9. Naima (John Coltrane) (bonus track, with Wadham and Stewart)

Note: Tracks 1-4 feature Wadham with Dunning and Hess; tracks 5-6 with Louis Stewart; track 7 with Stewart and Walsh; track 8 with Dunning and Hess; and track 9 with Stewart.

Having given the album six continuous listens, I find it excellent on every level—from the sterling sonic quality of the remastering to the dialogues between musicians on their instruments. The music is cerebral, exciting and swings.

John Wadham died in 2003, Louis Stewart (an ardent JazzWax reader) in 2016, Brian Dunning in 2022 and Martin Walsh in 2018. I couldn’t find much on Frank Hess.

To listen and/or buy John Wadham: Drums and Friends, go here.

Here’s a promo…

Here’s Clarence’s Place, with Wadham, Dunning and Hess…

And here’s Footprints, with Wadham, Stewart and Walsh…

We began the work week with a post on arranger Gene Roland and we’re ending it that way, too. In May 1963, over two days, Roland recorded an album in New York for Brunswick with a slam-bang octet. It would be his sole jazz leadership release.

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Looking for an endearing album to kick off autumn in the Northern Hemisphere (or spring, for my readers in the Southern Hemisphere)? Ramiro Pinheiro and Rodrigo Balduino have just released Donateando: The Music of João Donato (Fresh Sound). The record is a Brazilian gem and a tribute to an artist who remains a marvel.

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Recording a great jazz interpretation of a Broadway musical score is tricky business. Most albums flop because they lack a certain level of sophistication and excitement. To be special, they need to take the score to another level through the arrangements and jazz interpretations. Playing the songs straight with just a little swing produces an anemic result. One of the finest examples of a jazz band getting a musical right is Herbie Mann Plays The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd.

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The only jazz ensemble size that’s better than an octet is a tentet. The reason for this brash statement is that only a masterful arranger with a strong sense of swing would dare write for a group of this tight size, and only top-notch musicians would be recruited to play them. [Photo above of Phil Norman]

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The alto saxophone is probably the only instrument that can be placed on a sound scale ranging from sour to sweet. On this sliding scale, top jazz musicians who played the horn can be lodged at different points, depending on their tone. For example, Ornette Coleman and Cannonball Adderley land in the sour range while Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter would be deep in the sweet zone.

Jackie McLean’s attack has always rested largely in the mildly sour region, though it has shifted around at different points during his career. For example, on the 1951 recording of Dig with Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, McLean had a relatively smooth sound with a slight edge. Moving forward, he leaned into a lively sour tone on his albums in the late 1950s and ‘60s.

McLean’s Vertigo shows off this shard-like sound and his deft, bluesy technique. One of the six tracks on the LP was recorded in 1959 while the other five were captured in 1963. The music remained unreleased on vinyl until 1980 and didn’t turn up on CD until 2000. The late Michael Cuscuna, the re-issue producer at the time, discovered these tracks as he mined Blue Note’s archives. Why was the album held up? He offered an explanation:

“Like so many other sessions, it is impossible to ascertain why the date was not issued in its time. But it is clear that the answer probably lies in Vertigo and what it foreshadowed. If Jackie was in the studio two months later recording One Step Beyond, that certainly made this session obsolete on an immediate level, even if its value is timeless in the long range scheme of things.”

In other words, too much of a good thing. Marney, Dusty Foot, Vertigo, Cheers and Yams were recorded in February 1963 and featured Donald Byrd (tp), Jackie McLean (as), Herbie Hancock (p), Butch Warren (b) and Tony Williams (d).

Formidable was recorded in May 1959 and featured Byrd (tp), McLean (as), Walter Davis Jr. (p), Paul Chambers (b) and Pete La Roca (d).

Donald Byrd wrote Marney and Dusty Foot, and Formidable was by Davis Jr., followed by Vertigo and Cheers by McLean. The last song, Yams, was by Hancock.

Byrd and McLean loved recording together. They produced a marvelous textured contrast to Byrd’s warm, fluid trumpet and McLean’s anxious alto saxophone. They began recording together on Live! at the Cafe Bohemia: The George Wallington Quintet in 1955, followed by seven albums for Prestige between 1956 and ‘57.

What’s remarkable about Vertigo are the first five compositions, which are sophisticated and sound difficult to play perfectly. Yet McLean and Byrd pull them off with ease and grace. The final track on the LP, Yams, is a walking blues.

Vertigo has just been released on a gatefold LP by Blue Note as part of its Tone Poet series, cut directly from the album’s analog tapes, remastered by Kevin Gray and stamped on 180-gram vinyl. The sound is big and distinct, and McLean’s vinegary tone is rich.

You can buy Jackie McLean’s Vertigo by going here.

Jackie McLean died in 2006 at age 74 after a long illness.

Here’s Cheers…

“Little” Jimmy Scott was an R&B vocalist with a high contralto voice who specialized in deeply sensitive ballads. Kallmann syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, held his height at 4 feet 11 inches until he was 37, when he grew by 8 inches. The syndrome prevented him from reaching classic puberty, leaving him with a high voice and unusual timbre, which he put to good use. Now the Modern Harmonic label has re-issued 24-bit remastering of Doesn’t Love Mean More? for a digital download and vinyl release. It’s a tender, touching work that is a must-listen.

The album was recorded in 1990 and self-released by Scott on his J’s Way Records. He was backed by the Jazz Expressions: Kenichi Shimazu (p), Alvin Flythe Jr. (ts), Hilliard Greene (b) and Brian Kirk (d). Scott and the quartet are superb.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1925, Scott learned to sing at his mother’s side when she played piano and then sang at his family church’s choir. Then his mother was killed by a drunk driver when he was 13, leaving him orphaned.

Scott sang professionally locally until and was hired by Lionel Hampton in the late 1940s, landing an R&B hit in 1949 with Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool. As Scott’s visibility grew with bands and labels, he was cheated out of credit and royalties, and exploited by Herman Lubinsky, the founder of Savoy Records. Albums recorded were shelved and left unreleased for decades.

When his career bottomed in the 1960s, Scott returned to Cleveland and worked as a hospital orderly, shipping clerk, and elevator operator. Singing at the funeral of songwriter Doc Pomus in 1991 led immediately to singing Sycamore Trees in the final episode of TV’s Twin Peaks. Lou Reed had him sing backup on the song Power and Glory.

Scott has been praised by a long list of singers who admired his sensitivity and all-in singing style as well as his unusual phrasing. These artists include Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Nancy Wilson, Madonna, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.

On Doesn’t Love Mean More?, Scott sings originals and obscure ballads with a top-notch jazz quartet. His tenderness and passion on songs are both startling and addictive. As Nancy Wilson told me during my interview with her in 2010:

JW: How did you learn to sing?

NW: I listened to the radio a great deal and heard a lot of male singers. My dad listened quite a bit to records by singers like "Little" Jimmy Scott, Billy Eckstine and Nat Cole.

JW: Which pop singer taught you the most about phrasing?

NW: “Little” Jimmy Scott. I used to love how he made one word sound like three, just bending the notes. I heard him when I was 10, when he was with Lionel Hampton’s band. Jimmy is from Cleveland, and my father owned Scott’s early records, like The Show Must Go On and Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool.

JW: You two share an artistic closeness, don’t you?

NW: Oh, yes. We are very much soulmates as far as the lyric and delivering them is concerned. In 1966, I recorded a song that I had never heard Jimmy sing. It was I Wish I Didn’t Love You So. When I finally heard his 1962 version some years later, I realized that our intros and first 15 bars were identical. We had approached the song the exact same way. We feel the same way about songs.

JW: And you both have that deep passion.

NW: Oh yes.

The beauty of Jimmy Scott was that he could squeeze every last tear out of a song and gave new meaning and intimacy to ballads through his solid understanding of jazz. If you let him in, he’ll change your life.

Jimmy Scott died in his sleep in 2014. He was 88.

To listen to and download “Little” Jimmy Scott’s Doesn’t Love Mean More?, go here. To buy the album on vinyl, go here.

To read my complete interview with Nancy Wilson, go here.

Here’s I’ll Love You Just the Same from the album Doesn’t Love Mean More?…

Here’s Scott with Lionel Hampton singing Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool in 1950…

Here’s Scott in 1955 singing When Did You Leave Heaven? backed by Budd Johnson (ts), Howard Biggs (p,arr), Mundell Lowe (g), Charles Mingus (b) and Rudy Nichols (d)…

From the same session, here’s Scott singing Everybody Needs Somebody…

Here’s Scott singing Address Unknown in 1958…

Here’s Scott singing Our Day Will Come from his 1970 album The Source…

Here he is live in Japan; watch what he does to the audience there…

Here’s Scott in Umbria, Italy, in 2001…

Here he is in 2013 with actor Joe Pesci while making the 2016 documentary I Go Back Home…

Here’s the documentary’s trailer. It is currently unavailable to stream, rent or buy on any major online platforms. The tracks were released as an album…

A number of the George Shearing Quintet’s Capitol albums recorded in the 1950s and early ‘60s were in the easy-listening groove. These LPs were given suitable titles, like Latin Velvet Satin With Even More Satin. Just kidding, of course, but you get the drift.

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In the early 1960s, there was no shortage of spectacular hard-bop trumpeters recording for Blue Note. So what set Blue Mitchell apart from, say, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd and Kenny Dorham? Unlike his peers, Mitchell’s tone had less heat and sizzle. Instead, he played in a clear, round, breezy style that was fluid and warm. A perfect example of his approach can be heard on The Thing to Do, a perfect album that has just been reissued as part of Blue Note’s Audiophile Vinyl series. The sound is sterling.

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In June 1954, Thelonious Monk traveled to Paris for the first time. He was there to perform leading a trio at the Salle Pleyel concert hall on the 1st and 3rd as part of the Paris Jazz Festival. Then on the 4th, he recorded on piano without bass and drums for the first time. The solo recording sessions took place at Club d’Essai, at 37 rue de l’Université, on the city’s Left Bank. The club doubled as a studio. Now, Sam Records in Paris has re-issued the 10-inch 33-1/3 LP remastered from the original tapes. [Photo above of Thelonious Monk in Paris in 1954]

During the studio taping for radio broadcast, Monk played Manganese (We See), Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Portrait of an Ermite (Reflections), Off Minor, Eronel, Round Midnight, Evidence (Reflections), Well You Needn’t and Hackensack.

What we hear is a doe-like Monk in the glade, all by himself, taking each song in a measured tempo with a light touch on the keyboard. All of these are exceptional, gentle renditions featuring abstraction and tenderness. It’s an ideal entry point for Monk, since you hear him in the raw, fascinated by his own interpretations.

Sam Records is a non-profit independent jazz label founded in Paris in 2011 by Fred Thomas. Sam is devoted to reissuing jazz records recorded and produced in France during the 1950s and ‘60s. The Monk re-issue was cut by Kevin Gray and pressed by Optimal in Germany. It also features the original front and rear jacket covers.

The Monk album was released in 1954 on the Swing and Vogue labels as a partnership. Swing was founded in 1937 by Hugues Panassié and Charles Delaunay through the activities of the Hot Club de France. Vogue was founded in Paris in 1947 by Léon Cabat and Delaunay.

To buy the album, go here.

Also released by Sam is Des femmes disparaissent, the 10-inch soundtrack album for the French film of the same name by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Recorded in Paris in 1958, it was originally released on the French Fontana label and featured Art Blakey (d,ldr), Lee Morgan (tp), Benny Golson (ts), Bobby Timmons (p) and Jymie Merritt (b).

To buy the Blakey record, go here.

Let’s listen to the solo tracks by Monk in Paris in 1954 that are on the new vinyl release…

Here’s ‘Round About Midnight…

Here’s Reflections…

Here’s Smoke Gets in Your Eyes…

Here’s Well You Needn’t…

Here’s Portrait of an Ermite…

Here’s Maganese (We See)…

Here’s Eronel…

And here’s Off Minor…

And here are tracks that didn’t make it onto the 1954 LP…

Here’s Evidence (Reflections)…

And here’s Hackensack…

As summer winds down, I have six terrific new albums for you by musicians pushing the envelope and exploring fresh ways to present their music. Jazz is definitely evolving:

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As many readers know, I have a soft spot for swinging, hard-charging big bands. And I prefer them arranged with plenty of punch. Bill Kirchner has long known this and recently sent along an album by a band that checks off all the boxes: Introducing Roger Neumann’s Rather Large Band.

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Yesterday, I posted about an exemplary quintet fronted by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk that recorded bebop at its peak in 1950. Ten years later, another superlative quintet, this time led by trumpeter Lee Morgan, recorded a hard-bop masterpiece: Lee-Way (Blue Note). It’s one of my favorite records by Morgan and recently was remastered on 180-gram vinyl as part of Blue Note’s Classic Vinyl series.

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In June 1950, producer Norman Granz brought together an astonishing quintet to record for his Clef label. The band’s members were Dizzy Gillespie (tp), Charlie Parker (as), Thelonious Monk (p), Curley Russell (b) and Buddy Rich (d). The session remains fascinating, thanks largely to Monk.

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One of jazz’s most perplexing mysteries is how so many brothers wound up as exceptional jazz musicians. The list includes Wes, Monk and Buddy Montgomery; Cannonball and Nat Adderley; Ronnie and Hubert Laws; Conte and Pete Candoli; Jimmy, Percy and Tootie Heath; Wayne and Alan Shorter; Nat and Freddie Cole; Art and Addison Farmer; Stanley and Tommy Turrentine; Michael and Randy Brecker; and Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis. I’m sure there are others I missed.

Perhaps the most celebrated fraternal jazz artists are Thad, Hank and Elvin Jones. Hank Jones was a prolific bebop pianist who recorded as a leader and sideman; Elvin Jones was an influential, revolutionary post-bop drummer who was most famously a member of the John Coltrane Quartet.

And Thad Jones may have been the most accomplished of the three. The cornetist and trumpeter was a composer, arranger and leader, a long-time member of the Count Basie Band and co-founder of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band.

Now Nils Winther’s Steeplechase label in Denmark has remastered and re-issued one of Jones’s most interesting LPs from the 1980s—Three and One. Recorded in Copenhagen in October 1984, it features the cornetist two years before his passing, and he sounds superb.

The ensemble included Thad Jones (cornet), Ole Kock Hansen (piano), Jesper Lundgaard (bass) and Ed Thigpen (drums). What made Jones’s playing special was the personality of his horn. He could express notes in a forthright style, with a sense of humor when bending them and with an intimate swing. Whichever approach he chose, he added plenty of heat.

The album’s two sides feature six songs in all—Instant Blues Disinstant (Thad Jones), My One and Only Love (Wood-Mellin), But Not for Me (George Gershwin), Night Mist Blues (Ahmad Jamal), My Romance (Richard Rodgers) and Three and One (Thad Jones).

Born in Pontiac, Mich., in 1923, Jones was a middle child, with Hank being the oldest and Elvin the youngest. A self-taught musician, he began his professional career at age 16. During World War II, from 1943 to 1946, he served in U.S. Army bands. Jones joined Count Basie’s New Testament Band in 1954 and was featured on April in Paris, Corner Pocket and Shiny Stockings. He also wrote nearly two dozen arrangements for the band.

During this period, he recorded as a leader for Prestige. In 1963, he left Basie and eventually formed the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band in 1966, an orchestra that remained intact for 12 years. He taught at William Paterson College in New Jersey starting in 1972, becoming one of the earliest prominent jazz musicians to hold a full-time professorship. A year later he began serving as the founding director of the school’s jazz studies program.

In 1979, Jones left his position to move to Copenhagen where he married. He returned to the U.S. in 1985 to take over the Basie band following the Count’s death. Ill with cancer, he returned to Copenhagen in 1986 and died in August of that year. He was 63.

Among his small-group leadership albums in the 1950s are The Fabulous Thad Jones (Debut, 1954), Detroit–New York Junction (Blue Note, 1956), The Magnificent Thad Jones (Blue Note, 1956), Mad Thad (Period, 1957), The Jones Boys (Period, 1957), Olio (Prestige, 1957), After Hours (Prestige, 1957), Keepin’ Up with the Joneses (MetroJazz, 1958) and Motor City Scene (United Artists, 1959).

You’ll find Thad Jones’s Three and One (Steeplechase) in the U.S. at Dusty Groove here. The remastered album is also available on CD.

Here’s Instant Blues Disinstant…

And here’s But Not for Me…

Between his recordings for Prestige and New Jazz, a Prestige subsidiary (nine albums in all, from 1956 to 1957), and Blue Note (21 LPs between 1959 and 1967), alto saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded one album for Jubilee, a label that in the 1950s typically specialized in R&B.

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Paula Castle’s Lost Love was originally recorded for Bethlehem in 1955 for a 10-inch LP. Castle’s voice was leather-glove warm and elegantly sensuous—with hip phrasing reminiscent of Sarah Vaughan. The album was and is a superb recording. Songs dwell, thematically, on fleeting love.

But there’s a story behind the music. This was Castle’s first LP—and her last, according to Lord’s Jazz Discography. Little is known about why Castle abandoned the studio or what became of her after this record was released—though we may have a clue.

The band here is equally mysterious. Beyond flutist Sam Most, the rest of the quartet’s members aren’t household jazz names. Bassist Chet Amsterdam would have a lengthy career as a sideman, but Lost Love was the last known recording for pianist Ronnie Selbey and drummer Herbie Wasserman, who became journeymen players.

Returning to Castle, she began her recording career in February 1949 with bassist Chubby Jackson. The New Yorker called her rendition of All Wrong (recorded that month with Jackson) “a slow ballad with a foolish lyric” but “interestingly worked out by the musicians and well-sung by Paula Castle.” [Photo above of Paula Castle in the 1970s courtesy of YouTube]

In early August 1949, Billboard reported that Castle had signed a personal management contract with Larry Newton. The magazine also mentioned that she had signed a four-year record deal with Newton’s Derby label. But in 1953, Newton ran out of cash and formed Central Records with Lee Magid. The new venture didn’t work out again either for Newton, who had to file for bankruptcy in 1954.

His Derby masters were sold to RCA, where Newton became an executive. But whatever Newton lacked on the entrepreneurial side he more than made up for in the corporate setting. In 1956 he joined ABC-Paramount as a sales manager and three years later he was vice president of sales. In 1965, he became the label’s president.

But back to Castle. By mid-August 1949, Newton arranged for Castle to travel down South for a 10-day tour to plug her first Derby release. That single had been recorded in July. She had gone into the studio to record four sides but only two—Henri VIII and Free of Charge—were issued. The songs were recorded with the Joe Roland Quintet, featuring Ray Turner (ts), Joe Roland (vib), Red Mitchell (p), Joe Puma (g), Paul Sziglay (b) and Harold Granowsky, only on Henri VIII. [Photo above of Paula Castle c. 1960s or ‘70s]

In January 1950, Roland wound up at Savoy Records, and Castle recorded one track with him—Love Is Just a Plaything. By then Roland was billed as “Joltin’ Joe” Roland and his Symphonette/Bopping Strings. The band featured Joe Roland (vib), Joe Puma (g), Gus Oberstein, Jules Modlin and Sidney Kasmit (strings), Ismael Ugarte (b) and Harold Granowsky (d), with Paula Castle (vcl).

Under contract to Derby, Castle wouldn’t appear in a recording studio again until 1955, when she recorded Lost Love. By then, she was managed by Mort Hillman, who also handled Herbie Mann, another Bethlehem artist. Creed Taylor was the label’s producer then, so I gave him a call. “The name is familiar but I can’t recall the session,” he said. “She was one of several vocalists I had at Bethlehem—including Chris Connor and Carmen McRae.”

Except for a cryptic remark by an Amazon reviewer in 2011 who claimed that Castle was alive and well in Queens, N.Y., the trail goes cold in 1955. Which somehow makes this album all the more intriguing.

You’ll find Paula Castle’s Lost Love (Bethlehem) newly remastered on Spotify.

Let’s listen to clips:

You can hear Castle sing Tenderly at 9:09 on the time bar with the Chubby Jackson Orchestra and Darling, You Wear Love So Well at 36:45—or listen to the full live recording and hear one of the greatest bop bands of the late 1940s…

Here’s Paula Castle singing Love Is Just a Plaything with Joe Roland in 1950...

The following clip features Paula Castle singing Why Can’t I? from Lost Love. The Bethlehem album was recorded in early 1955 and released that June. The song was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart for Spring Is Here, a 1929 Broadway musical…

The album was recorded in early 1955 and released in June. One wonders if Castle’s recording was passed along to EmArcy producer Bob Shad or to Vaughan herself as a song to consider for In the Land of Hi-Fi. Here’s her masterful rendition on In Land of Hi-Fi, which was recorded in October 1955...

In 2010, the following clip was uploaded to YouTube by a friend of Paula Castle. The YouTube comments indicate she died in 2013. A shame they didn’t ask her about her sole album...

My guess is her voice was too close to Vaughan’s and, as a result, was passed over by producers mid-decade. Or she suffered from stage fright and didn’t want to do TV to promote albums. Or she might have decided that being in a relationship was more important, so she simply performed locally on New York’s Long Island. Whatever the reasons, she made one superb album, and thanks to Creed Taylor, her 1950s voice was captured for posterity.

After two years recording as a sideman for Prestige, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane finally convinced label-founder Bob Weinstock to let him record as a leader. Part of the delay was Coltrane’s integral participation in the Miles Davis Quintet, starting in 1955. The other two factors were waiting until Coltrane had kicked his heroin habit and holding off until his reputation had grown.

Much of the credit for raising Coltrane’s visibility with jazz fans belongs to liner-notes writer Ira Gitler, who regularly extolled the saxophonist’s soulful prowess and commanding technique on the back of Prestige albums. Now, Craft Recordings has re-issued Coltrane remastered and reissued on 180-gram vinyl.

Coltrane was recorded in May 1957, with John Coltrane (ts), Johnnie Splawn (tp on Bakai, Straight Street, While My Lady Sleeps and Chronic Blues), Sahib Shihab (bs on Bakai, Straight Street and Chronic Blues); Red Garland (p on Bakai, Violets for Your Furs and Time Was) and Mal Waldron (p on Straight Street, While My Lady Sleeps and Chronic Blues); Paul Chambers (b) and Albert “Tootie” Heath (d).

Cal Massey’s Bakai is meaty, with other horns added; the standards Violets for Your Furs, a walking ballad, and Time Was, a medium-tempo walking ballad, date back to the 1940s.

Coltrane’s Straight Street is a gorgeous piece with horns and the album’s high point; Chronic Blues is a minor-key work by Coltrane that features strong playing by Shihab and Coltrane. While My Lady Steeps by Gus Kahn and Bronislaw Kaper, was written for the film The Chocolate Soldier and sung by Nelson Eddy. It’s perhaps the piece that most foreshadows Coltrane’s sound and sensitivity.

As Ira wrote in the notes:

“John Coltrane is, in a sense, a new star but has not arrived through high-pressure press agentry. He has been building on more solid ground…. Trane has steadily increased his accomplishments on his instrument and has gained new admirers for his playing among fellow musicians and the serious listening public.”

Also reissued on vinyl by Craft Recordings is Cookin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet. The CDs and downloads have undergone a 24-bit/192kHz HD process.

You’ll find these albums on vinyl here and here.

Here’s Straight Street…

Steve Allen is an interesting figure. Back when the entertainment industry was known as “show business” and Broadway was still the Runyonesque realm of serious actors, Allen seemed omnipresent, uniting jazz and all manner of live performance. In return, many of his songs were arranged and recorded by others who devoted albums to his melodies and lyrics.

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