Editor’s Note: Get Happy

An easy way to start your day right and avoid being disgruntled

Nobody likes missing out on stuff they love. Missing out leads to deprivation, misery, grouchiness and regrets. If you’re enjoying JazzWax and you’re a free subscriber, you’re receiving just two out of six posts per week. That means you’re missing out on four posts a week, 16 posts a month and 192 per year! [Photo above of the former General Motors Building (1968) and images below by Marc Myers]

What’s more, if you’re a free reader, you don’t have access to more than 3,000 posts about albums, song histories, artists, interviews with jazz legends and much more dating back to the blog’s founding in 2007 as well as the past year’s posts at Substack.

Please consider upgrading to paid. It’s just $10 per month—or save $20 a year by getting two months free by paying a flat fee of $100. I work very hard each day to bring you the very best jazz albums and provide a jazz education in my posts. For 18 years, JazzWax was free until I had to move the blog to Substack.

Don’t deprive yourself. If you love jazz, you’ll be much happier and less grouchy with JazzWax six days a week plus unlimited access. I hear JazzWax goes great with the morning coffee and toast.

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Don’t miss out. Start the day right and stay happy.

Streamed and loved: Mobland S2 (2026/Paramount+)

9/11 films. Last week, many readers asked me for my favorite documentaries and filmed dramatizations of the 9/11 terrorist attack and the aftermath. I don’t know which ones are available online or not; you’ll have to do a Google search.

Here they are:

• 9/11: One Day in America (2022/Hulu)

• 9/11: The Falling Man (2006)

• 9/11: The Miracle of Stairway B (2006)

• World Trade Center (2006), with Nicolas Cage

• 102 Minutes That Changed America (2008)

• Man in Red Bandana (2017)

• Inside the President’s War Room (2021)

• Man on Wire (2008). This isn’t a documentary on the 9/11 attacks but on Philippe Petit’s wire walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. It will give you lots of up-close views of the beloved towers.

Pat Senatore (1935-2026), a jazz bassist who toured with Stan Kenton in the early 1960s before finding fame recording and performing with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and then returned to jazz, died on September 8 at age 91.

Born in Newark, N.J., Pat attended high school with saxophonist Wayne Shorter. In high school, Pat began playing baritone horn before switching to trombone and then to bass in his senior year. After he graduated, he studied at the Juilliard School of Music for a period before leaving because the conservatory lacked a jazz program.

To read my interview with Pat, go here.

Here’s Pat with his electric bass keeping time with his hand as he and the Tijuana Brass listen back to their recording of Lollipops and Roses in 1966. Dig Pat’s killer bass line throughout…

Fresh Sound recorded three jazz albums with Pat—two in Los Angeles and one in Rome. Go here.

Spain loves Shorty Rogers. Last week I heard from Fresh Sound’s Jordi Pujol, who shared with me a video of the Púlsar Big Band in Barcelona rehearsing arrangements by Shorty Rogers. For those festival and club bookers who might be interested, email the Púlsar Big Band’s drummer, Enrique, at enriqueherediadrummer@gmail.com

Gene Bertoncini. Last week, I heard from jazz vocalist, songwriter and painter Meredith d’Ambrosio about the late guitarist:

“Hi Marc. I loved this whole piece about Gene Bertoncini! Gene was my good friend. So sorry to say goodbye to one of the sweetest gentlemen in the world. When he played on my Silent Passion album, he was wonderful and a pleasure to work with. Every chord he played made great jazz sense. I was fortunate to have him with me on that album! Thanks so much for writing such beautiful words about him.”

Here’s I Got Lost in His Arms by Meredith in 1996 from her Silent Passion album with Meredith on piano and Gene on guitar…

And here they are on The Shining Sea…

The original, the cover and the hit. Here’s Midnight Plane to Houston in 1972 by composer Jim Weatherly; it failed to chart…

Here’s Cissy Houston’s Midnight Train to Georgia in early 1973, after a few word changes; it failed to chart…

And here are Gladys Knight and the Pips singing Midnight Train to Georgia, released in August 1973. It spent two weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100…

Snaps from last week: From top to bottom, Steinway Tower (2022), 200 Central Park South (1963), former AT&T Building (1984) and the Crown Building (1922)…