Hollywood arranger and conductor Henry Mancini released four albums in 1960—two soundtracks and two jazz instrumental LPs. The scores were for the film High Time and TV series Mr. Lucky. The jazz-flavored instrumentals were The Blues and the Beat and The Mancini Touch. In the case of all four, their cool swing, melodic jauntiness and instrumental textures were perfectly in sync with the minimalist space-age feel of the year and the palm-lined breeziness of Beverly Hills. Or did they invent the mood and everything else followed? [Photo above of Henry Mancini, courtesy of Ginny Mancini]
Here are 10 songs from the four albums that are quintessentially and undeniably Mancini in 1960 [photo above of Ginny and Henry Mancini, courtesy of Ginny Mancini]:
If you love cool-jazz pianist Lennie Tristano as much as I do, then you're likely familiar with Sal Mosca, a student of Tristano's who mastered his singular keyboard approach. And if you dig Mosca, you should be aware of pianist Larry Bluth, a little-known student of Mosca's who recently died on August 26 at age 79. [Photo above, from left, Larry Bluth, Don Messina and Bill Chittin in Yonkers, N.Y., in the 1990s by Joseph Squilante]
Bluth was an extraordinary player who made three excellent albums for Zinnia Records backed by two terrific musicians—bassist Don Messina and drummer Bill Chattin. The albums are Live at Orfeo (1991-'92), Four Concerts and a Landscape (1993-'95) and Formations (1996-'98). Of the three, my favorite for now is Formations, but it's a close call and could change at any time.
Bluth's playing is stellar in the Mosca style, andhis hands seem to be sliding around on the keys as if finger painting rather than playing. The song choices are wonderful—A Rhyme, There Will Never Be Another You, She's Funny That Way, I Never Knew, All of Me, Moonlight in Vermont, Formations, Shoals, Everything Happens to Me, For Sal and On Time.
Songs move backward, then forward, with a liberal use of block chords. Or they seem to roll around gently, like a ball of cotton, touching on a song's familiar melody before rushing off in other directions. Bluth's left and right hands are in constant conversation, playing off each other rather than functioning traditionally, when the left hand plays bass support to the right hand's lead. Meanwhile, Don's bass drives up the middle with muscular precision and Chattin works the breezy brushes. Rustling autumn leaves making music.
This week you're in luck. On Wednesday, Don Messina will be on the radio spinning recordings from these three albums plus other things. You can catch Don with show host Richard Willeche on WOMR in Provincetown, Mass., from 2:30 p.m. to 4 (EDT). Listen from anywhere in the world by going here and clicking "listen." Hey, tis autumn.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Larry Bluth, Don Messina and Bill Chattin's Formationshere.
JazzWax tracks: Here's There Will Never Be Another You...
What would Tower of Power sound like if we swapped out Lenny Williams for Femi Knight and added a teaspoon of the Jazz Crusaders? Obviously, we'll never know, but the San Gabriel 7's new album, Red Dress (Jrl Sgs), with singer-songwriter Femi Knight, gives us an idea.
The SG7 is based in the Los Angeles area, and Red Dress is the group's 10th album. The band features two distinct components—a funky rhythm section and a robust squad of horns. On varying tracks, the band features Chad Edwards (keyboards, organ), Matt Weisberg (keyboards), Chris Gordon (piano, background vocals), Steve Gregory (guitar), Jonathan Pintoff (bass), Randy Drake (drums) and Scott Breadman (percussion) with Mike McGuffey (tp), Jeff Jarvis (tp, flhn), Kyle Palmer (tp), Glen Berger (ts,as) and Jim Lewis (tb).
The songs are I'm Going Home Tonight, Give a Little, West Indian Brown (Red Dress), When a Woman's Had Enough, New Tomorrow, The Next Big Thing, Stranger, Never Make Your Move Too Soon and The Next Big Thing (radio edit).
Arrangements are by Dave Cushman, and all of the songs were written by Knight, except When a Woman's Had Enough and Never Make Your Move Too Soon.
Knight's songwriting is top notch. So are her vocals, both as lead and overdubbed harmony on backup. She pulls from '70s soul but keeps her lyrics and feel here and now. Cushman's arrangements are taut and punchy, also with a '70s sensibility. Back then, horn charts added zippy hipness in the all right places rather than flooding the zone. The rhythm section is solid, especially Gregory's guitar, which often plays off the horns.
An upbeat, warm album that ushers in autumn and a reminder of good past times and good times to come once this blasted virus is history.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find San Gabriel 7's Red Dress (Jrl Sgs), with singer-songwriter Femi Knight, here.
JazzWax clips:Here'sI'm Going Home Tonight, with Femi Knight on vocal...
Here'sWest Indian Brown (Red Dress), which has a What Is Hip flavor...
In The Wall Street Journal this week, my "Anatomy of a Song" column was on Come On Eileen, a #1 Billboard hit in 1983 by Britains Dexys Midnight Runners (go here). A fascinating song on so many levels. For one, the only electric instrument played on the song is the bass. Everything else is acoustic. For another, the introduction, verses and chorus are all in different keys. And third, there's even a purposeful speed-up on the bridge. An earworm, to be sure. A song that directly benefited from MTV, which in its early years was akin to Beatlemania.
Here's the video, directed by Julien Temple. It was released in 1982 and helped push the single to the top of the Billboard pop chart, knocking Michael Jackson's Billie Jean out of the #1 spot for a week.
Also in the WSJ, I interviewed actor Rainn Wilson (above) for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Rainn most famously played Dwight Schrute on TV's The Office. He talked about going to Nicaragua at age 4 and why he became interested in acting in high school rather than the chess club.
And here's an original by Dave called Interlude...
Stéphane Grappelli. Following my post a couple of weeks ago on jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, I received the following from Danilo Morandi:
Hi Marc, thank you for the delightful Stéphane Grappelli BBC documentary. Here's a video of The Hot Club of France playing J'attendrai, from a popular Italian tune of the day, Tornerai. Here, it's amazing to see Django playing with two fingers...
In the '70s, Grappelli's playing became sharper, losing some of the "prettiness" of the '50s and '60s. He loved to play with young musicians. One of the best examples is the beautifully recorded album entitled, Young Django, a favorite of mine, with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass, Larry Coryell on guitar and Philip Catherine on guitar.
This is the most energetic Swing Guitars, that really cooks, without undue nostalgia for the original. At the end, an awed Coryell, says. "That was beautiful!" Stéphane's modest reply is, "Maybe it's good, I don't know."
Here's Grappelli playing piano after soloing on violin...
Grappelli became something of an icon in Europe, playing duos with the best. Here he is with Duke Ellington, playing Solitude, Don't Get Around Much Anymore/I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart and It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)...
Brian Bromberg—Bromberg Plays Hendrix(Artistry Music). In 2012, jazz bassist Brian Bromberg took a hard-rock break with this album, which was just updated with a remix and remastering. On the album, Bromberg fires up fretless and piccolo basses to create a throaty, thrashing Hendrix tribute. The only musician backing Bromberg here is eight-armed drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. All the Hendrix biggies are here, including The Wind Cries Mary, Hey Joe, Purple Haze and Fire. As close as it gets in music to mounting a Harley-Davidson and riding off. Go here for download, here for CD.
Steve Miller. On September 18, 1970, the day Hendrix died, Steve Miller was performing at the Pepperland Ballroom in San Rafael, Calif. He played his band's Peppa Sauce in tribute to the guitarist. Go here...
John Coltrane radio. Next Wednesday, September 23, WKCR-FM in New York will feature its John Coltrane Birthday Broadcast for 24 hours, starting at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday night (EDT). To listen from anywhere in the world, go here.
I'm still surprised when people ask me what Stax was all about. They know Motown's story and hits, but somehow Stax seems to draw a blank. The Memphis label was founded as Satellite Records in 1957. Four years later, it became Stax when the last names of co-owners Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton were combined. Stax was responsible for recording Southern soul found in the region surrounding Memphis in the 1960s.
It's really a two-part story—from the label's inception to the death of Otis Redding, and from Redding's passing to the funky music that was recorded after.
To fill in the Stax story, here's a terrific documentary on the label, Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story...
JazzWax note:You can buy the documentary as a DVD here.
In 1969, my family moved out of Manhattan for the northern reaches of Westchester County. I wasn't happy about being there, but it was still better than dealing with the city's overcrowded classrooms and the threat of muggings in school stairways. The good news was that by age 15, two years later, I could access New York by taking the train. So on Saturdays, I began traveling alone to the city to spend hours at large record stores, returning with four or five jazz albums paid for with lawn-mowing money. Jazz was my refuge and, in the rural suburbs, my own private music genre no one else knew about. That's how albums were then. You discovered music you loved that no one else was familiar with and that corner of the world became your best friend. [Photo above of Albert King]
By '71, many of my rock-loving friends in Westchester had grown weary of British blues-rock guitarists. Solos weren't long enough or sufficiently soulful. They were looking for the real thing and were eager to hear more by the names they saw in music-magazine articles. Unfortunately, records by Albert King, Freddie King and other electric blues players weren't available at our local mall. My friends had never been to New York and didn't plan to go. They were frightened of making the trip and the dangers they'd heard about on the news. [Photo above of Magic Sam]
So they cut a deal with me. If I bought them albums by these blues guitarists while I was in the city, they'd pay for two of my jazz albums. I took them up on their offer. Even though I had given up on rock (a little too druggy and long-winded for me), I became intrigued by the blues players and the originality of their sound. Their albums made it onto my shopping list as well. [Photo above of Freddie King]
Here are five blues guitarists who caught my ear nearly 50 years ago and still do now:
Here's Albert King at the Fillmore East in 1970...
On Thanksgiving Day in 1973, filmmaker David Hoffman brought B.B. King, Joan Baez and other artists to New York's Sing Sing Prison to perform. By then, the penitentiary was known as the Ossining Correctional Facility. Hoffman was given permission to film them performing. To read my WSJ interview with B.B. in 2011, go here.
Born in Liège, Belgium, guitarist René Thomas moved to Paris in the early 1950s and became part of the active jazz scene there. Paris back then was similar to 52nd Street in New York, where musicians could find steady gigs with leading musicians from Europe and Americans on tour. What most of the European jazz musicians in Paris had in common was a pronounced sense of melody, swing and beauty, something they all picked up from each other. In the case of Thomas, he had a marvelous way of picking that instantly engaged the ear. [Photo above of René Thomas]
All of Thomas's qualities are on display in Fresh Sound's recently released Remembering René Thomas: Rare and Unreleased Performances by the Legendary Jazz Guitarist. The two-CD set features a wide range of live and studio tracks recorded between 1955 and 1962. Some were recorded in Brussels, some in Montreal and the rest in France. All are tasty and hip. A majority of the recordings were made with French or Belgian musicians. Just one track, Blues, features Jimmy Smith on organ and Donald Bailey on drums.
A 1955 session includes alto saxophonist Jack Pelzer, whose cool-school approach shows he had early exposure to the recordings of Lee Konitz. Other standouts include groups in 1961 and '62 with Bobby Jaspar on flute and others with Jaspar on tenor saxophone. Thomas's main influence was guitarist Jimmy Raney, who spent part of 1954 in Paris.
Among the off-beat tracks is a cover of John Coltrane's Blue Train, Miles Davis's Milestones (the one Davis recorded with Charlie Parker in 1947), two different takes of Jimmy Raney's Motion (which Raney first recorded on Jimmy Raney Plays with Stan Getz in 1953), Red Garland's All Mornin' Long, Thomas's I Remember Sonny, a terrific chord-heavy Our Delight, a jaunty version of Moonlight in Vermont and a skippy rendition of Stardust. [Photo above of Jimmy Raney]
Thomas is among my top-five guitarists, along with Wes Montgomery, Raney, Grant Green and Billy Bauer. If you dig him, too, this new album thoroughly satisfies. The set is worthwhile alone for Jordi Pujol's excellent liner notes, which run 20 pages.
René Thomas died in 1975 at age 47.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Remembering René Thomas (Fresh Sound) here.
JazzWax clips:Here's Thomas playing Jimmy Raney's Motion...
In 1987, Neil Swainson wanted to record six original compositions he had been performing at Toronto clubs. At the time, the bassist was playing with Canadian drummer Jerry Fuller and pianist Gary Williamson. When Woody Shaw came to town earlier that year, the trio backed him, as they had with many other touring American headliners. Swainson also played with Shaw a couple of years earlier and recorded on Shaw's Solid album in 1986 and on Shaw's In My Own Sweet Way in February '87. [Photo above of Neil Swainson]
Swainson mentioned his album idea to his business-minded friend, Kate Roach. When she asked who else he envisioned on the date, Swainson said Shaw and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson. So Roach, who was well-networked in jazz circles, reached out to both artists, negotiated the deal and brought them on board.
Shaw and Henderson made perfect sense. They recorded together on Horace Silver's The Cape Verdean Blues (1965), Larry Young's Unity (1965), Henderson's Jazz Patterns (1970), Henderson's If You're Not Part of the Solution, You're Part of the Problem (1970), Shaw's Rosewood (1977) and the Paris Reunion Band's For Klook (1986).
Roach also raised the money needed for the recording, and Pat Coleman agreed to produce the sessions. Days before the May '87 recording dates, Shaw came to Toronto alone. By then, he was blind, a result of retinitis pigmentosa. Swainson took him through each of the songs on his piano at home until Shaw had the material locked in. But when Swainson, Shaw, Fuller and Williamson arrived at Toronto's Studio 306 to record on May 2, Henderson didn't show. So just the quartet recorded Port of Spain, On the Lam and Labyrinth. [Photo above of Woody Shaw]
The following day, Henderson arrived (there had been a scheduling mix-up on his end) and the quintet recorded 49th Parallel, Southern Exposure, Don't Hurt Yourself (with Shaw out) and Homestretch, a Henderson original first recorded on his album Page One, in 1963. [Photo above, from left, of Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw]
The session tapes were played for Concord Records in 1988. Concord bought them and released the album in the U.S. later that year as Neil Swainson Quintet. In recent years, the significant album has become scarce, which led saxophonist and club owner Cory Weeds to co-executive produce a reissue with Kate Roach entitled Neil Swainson Quintet: 49th Parallel on his Real to Reel label. Labyrinth appears on this new release for the first time.
The music recorded on both dates is top notch. There's a special energy and strength to Henderson's and Shaw's playing. Swainson's originals are earthy and powerful, and the trio feeds the heat like a bellows. Shaw would record two more studio albums before his death in 1989—his Imagination, for Muse in June 1987, and on Carlos Ward's Lito in July 1988, on the U.K.'s Leo label. There were a few live Shaw recordings as well during this final period.
Kudos to Cory Weeds, Kate Roach and Neil Swainson for reissuing the album, a hard-bop masterpiece that has been difficult to find at a reasonable price until now. Essential listening.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Neil Swainson's 49th Parallel (Real to Reel) here.
For more information about Cory Weeds, go here. For more information about his Cellar and Real to Reel labels, go here.
JazzWax clips:You can hear the album at YouTube here...
In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Cynthia Nixon for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Cynthia, of course, played Miranda on Sex and the City, the wildly popular comedy-drama series on HBO. Now she's in a new series, Ratched (Netflix), based on the fictitious and despicable life of Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. [Photo above of Cynthia Nixon courtesy of Netflix]
Cynthia's mother coached contestants on TV's To Tell the Truth game show in the '70s so they'd seem like the person who had the accomplishment and not the actual anonymous guest. As Cynthia notes, her mom was both supportive and loving and functioned as her acting coach from an early age. By the time she reached college at Barnard, she was in two Broadway shows simultaneously, both directed by Mike Nichols. [Photo above of Cynthia Nixon, center, on the game show To Tell the Truth, courtesy of Cynthia Nixon]
And here's Cynthia as Eleanor Roosevelt in the trailer for Warm Springs (2005), a terrific and moving film...
Virtual studio pros. If you're a professional singer, musician or songwriter and you're looking for a backup band, lyricist or other musicians to jam with online, check out AirGigs.com, a site I came acorss last week. It provides you with access to professional musicians, producers and studio technicians who can help you continue to develop and record without leaving home during the pandemic. Go here.
Dick Bank,a California jazz producer who supervised the recording of 28 Fresh Sound releases and the announcer who broke protocol during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when he spotted a surge by the American runner who won, died in February. Here's an obit by the Associated Press. And here, Fresh Sound producer Jordi Pujol remembers his friend in the U.K.'s Jazz Journal. [Photo above of Dick Bank]
Here's Bank jumping in with enthusiasm at the end of the 10,000-meter race as American runner Billy Mills surges to win the race. Bank was fired by NBC for expressing his excitement back when announcers were expected to call Olympic races with the same passion as landscapers mowing a lawn. The main announcer was Bud Palmer. Bank's decision to jump in was a result of Palmer missing Mills's rapid advancement, most likely because Palmer was calling the race from a TV monitor, which didn't show Mills coming on strong...
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of a Song" (Grove) and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax is a three-time winner of the Jazz Journalists Association's best blog award.
