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Portrait of a CD-Era Jazz Fan: Part 2

5/31/2022

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The Faine jazz CD collection.

​In part 1 of this blog series, I wrote about my collection of 440 jazz CDs I acquired from the mid-1980s to the present — the CD Era — noting that 124 of them consisted of multiple buys from 16 artists: 14 from trumpeter Miles Davis down to five each from saxophonists Cannonball Adderley, Ornette Colman, Chico Freeman, Charles Lloyd, and pianist Keith Jarett and Mal Waldron.

Starting here in part 2, I discuss in some detail personal favorites from the collection in no particular order.
​

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Ella Fitzgerald | Ella in Berlin/Mack The Knife | Verve
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​William F. Lee’s Jazz Singers Biographical Dictionary claims Fitzgerald was considered by many to be the finest female jazz singer of all time.

Taken at face value (ignoring those who considered her a pop singer) evidence for “the finest female jazz singer ever” can be found in her famous “Song Book” albums where she recorded definitive studio orchestra versions of the American Songbook composers Berlin, Gershwin, Arlen, Ellington, Kern, Mercer, Porter, and Rodgers and Hart. But even more important are the many concert/nightclub stage recordings where her highness is backed by a small jazz combo.

In this regard, one only has to look no further than the best of the lot, Grammy-winning Ella in Berlin backed by the Paul Smith Quartet. Ella’s assured sense of rhythm and close rapport with the musicians is evident throughout, on the slow ballads as well as the virtuoso scat numbers. The program is superbly varied.

Thirteen songs equally divided between slow, medium, and up-tempo numbers.

​Gershwin’s “Summertime” is sung straight with minimum vibrato, while his “Lorelie” is a slow tempo swinger.

On “Our Love Is Here to Stay” (Gershwin again) and personal favorite “Gone with the Wind” her instrumental phrasing comes to the fore, leaving little doubt that she is an ambrosial class singer; at times stuttering a word into three or four syllables, speeding up or slowing down a line, creating new interesting melodies while still paying homage to the source.

But it is “Mack the Knife” and “How High the Moon” that elevate this album to precious metal status, and likely entry into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry someday. Ella’s “Mack” surpasses both the Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin versions. Hard to believe because she forgets the lyrics at the outset but continues by making up her own whimsical lyrics as she goes along, picking them out of the air — wonderin’ what’s the next chorus to this song now, somethin’ ‘bout cash, trash, you won’t recognize it, it’s a surprise it — even mentioning the prior Darin and Armstrong recordings, scatting a delightful imitation of Satch.

This four-minute lighthearted musical improvisation, believe it or not, won best song by a female at the 1960 Grammy Award.

And to think, the next song, the last one in the concert, topped Ella’s rendition of “Mack.” Her take on “High the Moon” is a masterclass in scatting. Few jazz singers, male or female, have come this close to perfection, considering that the racehorse tempo of “Moon” is sustained over seven minutes.

The Paul Smith Quartet deserves high praise for the stellar support throughout, especially pianist Smith and drummer Gus Johnson.


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Keith Jarrett Trio | Somewhere | ECM
​

Keith Jarrett is one of the most widely admired jazz pianists on the planet — primarily known for his Koln Concert album, the best-selling solo album in jazz history.

The Koln did the trick for most, but for me, it was his Standards Trio albums with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette.

Beyond reproach are the trio’s renditions of songs from the Great American Songbook (like “Blame It On My Youth,” “Body and Soul,” and “I Thought About You”) and the jazz repertory (“Woody ‘n You,” “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” and “Oleo”).

Especially beyond reproach are the occasional compositions of their own, typically mesmerizing trance-inducing vamps that for me were always an album highlight (like “The Cure,” on the The Cure, “Sunprayer” on Tribute One, and “U Dance” on Tribute Two). Perhaps the best of these  appears on the 2013 album Somewhere.

​Jarrett’s reading of the Leonard Bernstein–Stephen Sondheim “Somewhere/Everywhere” theme appropriately begins gentle and sublime, then at the five-minute mark of the 19-minute extravaganza, it gets “reconstructed and reshaped . . . into the driving, hypnotic improvisational ostinato coda Jarrett calls ‘Everywhere,’ with breathtaking chord voicings, forceful middle-register bass flourishes, and awe-inspiring tom-tom and cymbal work by DeJohnette; the track’s conclusion is drenched in royal gospel and regal blues” that fades into the distance, a chance for the audience to catch its breath before erupting into a rush of explosive shouts and applause.

The stage mic captures a round of laughter from the trio, as if to say, “How the hell did we pull this one off!”


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Chico Freeman | Spirit Sensitive |
​India Navigation


On Spirit Sensitive saxophonist Chico Freeman lends his pure sound and articulate relatable improvisations to 10 memorable songs composed by the following:

Great American Song Book composers Vernon Duke “Autumn In New York,” and Rodgers and Hart “It Never Entered My Mind,” as well as seven jazz musician composers: Thad Jones “A Child Is Born,” pianists Duke Ellington “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and Horace Silver “Peace,” bassist Cecil McBee “Closer to You Alone,” guitarist Luis Bonfa “Carnival,” singer Patti Austin “You Don’t Have to Say You’re Sorry,” and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane “Lonnie’s Lament” and “Wise One.”

All the jazz songs (save for those by Coltrane) have lyrics and are a testimony if you will, to their euphoniousness.

Freeman plays tenor on all of the above, except for “You Don’t Have to Say.” Chico is sensitively supported by bassist Cecil McBee, pianist John Hicks, and drummer Billy Hart, although the drums appear to be improperly recorded, the only flaw on the album.

Drum issue aside, this is one of the most beautifully realized albums. It starts with quality material and proceeds with masterful interpretations.

Perhaps I am overly biased in my opinion here, largely because (truth be told) my absolute favorite song is Patti Austin’s “You Don’t Have to Say You're Sorry,” and my favorite instrumental version is by Chico Freeman.

I first took notice of Austin in 1976 upon the release of her first album, End of the Rainbow, with the self-composed “You don’t have to say you’re sorry / but I sure do wish you would.”

​I have played the song numerous times over the years and bought the album for friends. Chico plays it on soprano saxophone with minimal but perfectly placed jazz flourishes.

​Tearfully gorgeous. Ms. Austin, I’m certain, would agree.                 


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Darcy James Argue | Infernal Machines |
​New Amsterdam


Spring 2009 saw the release of Infernal Machines by Darcy James Argue, composer/conductor of an 18-person swing-size big band called Secret Society (five winds, five trumpets/fluegelhorns, four trombones and four rhythm — drums along with acoustic and electric piano, guitar and bass.)

​But Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey it was not, nor was it ’50s Stan Kenton, ’60s Don Ellis, or even ’90s Maria Schneider. But what was it?

No ordinary big band album, that’s for sure. But critics loved it, though some struggled a bit to describe it.

To me, Machines offered a cornucopia of sounds, some familiar, some not, some loud, some soft, floating above shifting rhythms with an overall steady pulse.

Karl Ackerman (All About Jazz) said it more succinctly: “The sound is both complex and nuanced at the same time.” He also said, “Each influence blends seamlessly into the next without disrupting the content of the piece” — in effect, “a blending of new classical, indie rock and jazz.”

Larry Blumenthal (Wall Street Journal) described the band as “elegant in its combination of disparate influences from distorted electric guitar to magisterial wind instrument arrangements to minimalist rhythms.”

I concluded that Argue’s writing reflected the whole of contemporary music, as he sees it, into big band music for today.

Machines is art music created by an exceptionally talented composer/arranger executed by extraordinary competent musicians that remains as fresh and revolutionary today as when it was recorded. Argue’s debut album therefore belongs in every jazz fan's collection.

​It telleth the future.

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Portrait of a CD-Era Jazz Fan: Part 1

4/25/2022

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Adobe Stock/.shock
I profiled my collection of 640 jazz LPs in my blog “Portrait of an LP-Era Jazz Fan: Part 1.”

Below is my collection of 440 CDs (early 2022). 

​As with my LP collection, I fell in love with the music of an eclectic mix of jazz musicians. Similarly, I purchased multiple albums by my jazz favorites as shown below: 
Frank Sinatra
16
Miles Davis
14
Duke Ellington
13
Charles Mingus
12
Henry Threadgill
8
Steve Lacy
7
Thelonious Monk
7
Andrew Hill
6
Abdullah Ibrahim
6
Modern Jazz Quartet
6
Cannonball Adderley
5
Ornette Coleman
5
Chico Freeman
5
Keith Jarrett
5
Charles Lloyd
5
Mal Waldron
5
Interestingly, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Henry Threadgill, Andrew Hill, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Chico Freeman also ranked highly on the LP album list. Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington CDs got an additional boost in support of books I authored, namely Duke Ellington at the White House, 1969, and The Best Gig In Town: Jazz Artists at the White House, 1969–1974.
​
Twenty-eight percent of my CD collection consists of multiple buys from the 16 artists above.

The remaining 72 percent consists of four, three, or fewer CDs per artist and include a number of singular, transcendent, one-of-a- kind albums, some of which I’ll examine in detail in my next blog.
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FaineBooks Blogs 2015–2023

3/31/2022

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​Since June of 2015, I have posted 80 blogs on all manner of musical topics jazz, pop, and R&B. There are book reviews, record reviews,  festival reviews, TV and film reviews, and music industry reviews covering a wide range of artists, including Ethel Ennis, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Charlie Christian, Carmen de Lavallade, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Dave Brubeck, Wayne Shorter, Tom Waits, Ronnie Roulette, and many, many others. 

In the list below, segregated by year, I list the title to facilitate a quick and easy search to discover, for example, whether I ever covered a certain event, or book, or TV show or artist, or what in fact I was blogging about in the first place. A click on the March 2022 blog and a quick scan of the monthly titles will point you in the right direction.
  
As for me, I'll just keep on blogging.

2015
​​June  Book Review: Herbie Hancock Possibilities
July  Top 10 Jazz Albums: Eric Byrd
August  Nixon and Khrushchev Agree on Jazz
September Top 10 Jazz Albums John McLean
September Singer Ethel Ennis in the Inaugural Spotlight
October  Top 10 Jazz Albums: Roy Suter
November Review: HBO Sinatra Special
December  That Anniversary Year 2015: Part 1
December  That Anniversary Year 2015: Part 2

2016
January  Into the Stockpile with Duke Ellington
February  Landing the Greatest Gig: Jazz at the White House
March  Top 10 Jazz Albums: Andrew White
March Ellington on his White House Tribute
April The State of Jazz: The Upside
May  The State of Jazz: The Downside
June Miles and Me at the Modern Jazz Club
July  Book Review: Duke Ellington as Pianist: Part 1
August  Book Review: Duke Ellington as Pianist: Part 2
September Duke Ellington: The Accidental Songwriter: Part 1
October Duke Ellington: The Accidental Songwriter: Part 2
December  Looking Back 50 Years: Notable Jazz Albums
December That Anniversary Year 2016: 50 Years Ago
December That Anniversary Year: Celebrating Charlie Christian

2017
January Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite Revisited
February To Duke from Mathew Shipp
March Nixon White House: The Record Library and Willis Conover
April Nixon White House: A President’s Taste in Music
May  Sinatra’s Two-Song Serenade for JFK and Nixon
June  The Ellington Tribute Jam Session: Military Band
July  Jazz Is Dead Redux
August  Ellington Standards: Most Widely Performed
September  JFK: The Lost Inaugural Gala
October  Kennedy Centers Honoree Carmen de Lavallade
November  Guest Post: Book Review of Serendipity Doo-Dah Book One
December  Looking Back 50 Years: Part 1
December Looking Back 50 Years Part 2
December Looking Back 50 Years Part 3
December Looking Back 50 Years: Notable Jazz albums of 1967
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2018
January  Book Review: Dizzy, Duke, Brother Ray and Friends
February  Blue Rose: The Clooney/Ellington Collaboration
March  Duke Ellington: America’s Premier Composer?
April Book Review: Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington
May  Guest Post: Business Advice From Miles Davis
June  Bennett and Brubeck: Still Great After All These Years
July  Nixon and Ellington Medal of Freedom
August  Faine Favorites: Top 10 Alto Sax Albums
September The Story of the Music Industry
October Phillip Glass Tribute: Music In Twelve Parts
November  Native Dancer: Tribute to 2018 Kennedy Center Honoree Wayne Shorter
December  Notable Jazz  Albums of 1968 
December That Anniversary Year: Celebrating Four Jazz Centenarians

2019
January  When Did the Popular Singer-Songwriter Era begin?
February  Book Review: The 50 Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time
March  Armstrong and Ellington: Two Masters of Modernism
April  50th Anniversary of the Ellington Birthday Tribute
May Royalty Thieves
June  Book Review: Help (Duke Ellington) by Thomas Brothers
July One from the Heart: An Underappreciated Movie Soundtrack: Part 1
August  One from the Heart: An Underappreciated Movie Soundtrack: Part 2  
September  Foundation Funding for Jazz
October Portrait of an LP-Era Jazz Fan: Part 1
November Portrait of an LP-Era Jazz Fan: Part 2
December That Anniversary Year 2019: Celebrating Four Jazz Centenarians
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2020
January  Newport All-Stars: Lost and Found
February  Peggy Lee: “Is That All There Is?”
March  President Carter’s White House Jazz Festival
April  Jazz and the Summer of Love
May 1958: The Best Year In Jazz, Part 1
June 1958: The Best Year In Jazz, Part 2
July 1958: The Best Year In Jazz, Part 3
August 1958: The Best Year In Jazz, Part 4
September 1958: The Best Year In Jazz, Part 5
October 1958: The Best Year In Jazz, Part 6
November 1958: The Best Year In Jazz, Part 7

**COVID BREAK**

​2021
September  Another Happy Musical Accident from John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
October  The Sinatra-Bowie Connection
November  The Best “Where Songs Come From” Story
December  Jazz Events at the LBJ White House

2022
January Tribute to  Ronnie and her Relatives, aka the Ronettes
February All Jazz Roads Should Lead to the Birchmere
March FaineBooks Blog 2015–2022
April  Portrait of a CD Era Jazz Fan: Part 1
May  Portrait of a CD Era Jazz Fan: Part 2
June  Portrait of a CD Era Jazz Fan: Part 3
July  Portrait of a CD Era Jazz Fan: Part 4
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August ​Midnight Cowboy: “Everybody’s Talkin’ ”
September The Kinks: “You Really Got Me”
October ​Jazz Book Collection
November Ella Fitzgerald: The Accidental Singer
December The Doobie Brothers’ First Hit

​2023
January From Whence Came Philip Glass?
February Brubeck Takes the “A” Train to Moscow

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​All Jazz Roads Should Lead to the Birchmere

2/28/2022

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Birchmere, 2006. Photo: Rudi Riet from Washington, DC.
The Birchmere nightclub in Alexandria, Virginia, is one of the most famous musical spaces in America. Birthed some 50 years ago, the club has occupied three locations, all in Alexandria. Its current spot on Mount Vernon Avenue has 100 tables that seat 500 people, each with clear sightlines to the stage, set with menus and signs on the tables to remind people to keep quiet during the performance.

Ticket prices are reasonable, and there is ample free parking. Artists are likewise treated with respect in a comfy greenroom: a separate dressing room with a washer and dryer.

The Birchmere premiered as a bluegrass music club, and its history evolved into diverse entertainment, which is an understatement: can you believe bluegrass, country, western, folk (both European and American), rock, blues, R&B, gospel, funk, Celtic, zydeco, pop, and jazz (the focus of this blog)?

The Birchmere presents one or two artists just about every night of the week to mostly sold-out crowds. In sum, an iconic room with an excellent sound system that facilitates the connection between artists and the audience.

In their book, All Roads Lead to the Birchmere: America’s Legendary Music Hall, authors Gary Oelze (original and current owner) and Stephen Moore (musician, writer) devote a chapter to jazz that they call “Jazz Hands.”

​The chapter profiles the 12 artists listed below. Biographical information is provided, along with a photograph taken at the club, an anecdote or two about their experience, and audience reaction. Another list is provided (names only) of artists who have appeared at the hall over the years.

Any jazz fan scanning the lists of artists below would likely conclude “pretty damn good, especially for a club that’s not a jazz club per se”:
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Joe Sample (Keyboards)
Tuck and Patti (Guitar and Singer)
Chick Corea (Keyboards) [3]
McCoy Tyner (Keyboards)
Ottmar Liebert (Guitar) [20]
Herb Albert (Trumpet) [5]
Ramsey Lewis (Keyboards)
Herbie Hancock (Keyboards)
George Duke (Keyboards)
Dweezil Zappa (Guitar) [4]
Jean Luc Ponty (Violin) [2]
Candy Dulfer (Saxophone) [6]

Note: [  ] number of times at Birchmere

Other jazz artists who appeared at the Hall over the years include Gato Barberie (saxophone), Hugh Masekala (trumpet), Blue Note 75 All-Stars (tribute band), Jeff Lorber (keyboards), Kenny G. (saxophone), Najee (saxophone), Pieces of a Dream (jazz fusion), Preservation Hall Jazz Band (DixielandDixieland), Rachel Ferrell (singer), Robbin Ford (guitar) among many others.*

While jazz was not the dominant musical genre played at the Birchmere by any means, it was fairly represented. A decent mix of known stars and up-and-comers could count on their performances being well advertised on the club marquee, in well-placed newspaper ads, on the radio, and in recent years on the internet to followers numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

The result: well-attended shows and an uptick in name recognition. The latter is not to be overlooked. Birchmere attendees are known to be a mite more open-minded than most fans—they will attend an event outside their genre comfort zones simply because if it’s at the Birchmere, it has to be good. Not bad for a music hall not necessarily known as a jazz club.

A gig at the Birchmere is a resume-topper second only to Madison Square Garden and a few other performances spaces. In an era when jazz is not as popular as it once was—dropping from 13 percent in recorded music sales in 1960 to 1 percent today—thank goodness, the road to America’s Legendary Music Hall is still open and well-paved.

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I highly recommend the referenced book below. No matter your specific musical preferences, you’ll come across numerous artists and songs that helped define your life one way or another. Moreover, I guarantee you’ll learn interesting facts about artists and songs you never knew before.                                                                              ​

​*Gary Oelze and Stephen Moore, All Roads Lead to the Birchmere: America’s Legendary Music Hall (St. Petersburg, Florida: Booklocker.com Inc., 2021), 395–403.

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Tribute to Ronnie and Her Relatives, aka the Ronettes

1/25/2022

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The Ronettes in 1966: Nedra Talley, Veronica Bennett (Ronnie Spector) and Estelle Bennett.

Sometimes, all it takes is one lucky break to make a hit record or launch an unknown singing group. Other times, it takes more than one. Case in point: the Ronettes — lead singer Ronnie, older sister Estelle, and cousin Nedra.

The trio had been singing together for over a decade at Manhattan churches and bar mitzvahs, but had yet to break out. No radio gigs or club or theater dates, and certainly no recordings, perhaps to be expected due to their rather youngish ages.

In 1961, the girls — Nedra (15), Ronnie (18), and Estelle (20) — decided to check out the Peppermint Lounge, the hottest nightclub in New York City, ground zero for the twist dance craze (based on Chubby Checker’s 1960 hit “The Twist.”)

The trio waited in line to enter, even though Nedra and Ronnie were underage (still in high school). To look older, they stuffed Kleenex in their bras, dressed in the same outfits, and held cigarettes in their hands.

When the club manager came out, he spotted the group and shouted, “Girls, you’re late. Get in here.” He thought they were the dancers he hired to do the twist.

Estelle piped up, “No, wait, we’re not the — ."

Ronnie elbowed her in the ribs before she could finish, and they followed the manager inside, where he told the girls to dance behind the house band and sing. Of course, they could do both, so they sang Ray Charles’s “What’d I Say” and were hired on the spot.

In no time, the girls loved what they were doing and so did the nightclub audiences. They acquired a manager and started making records as Ronnie and the Relatives (cute name). None of the sides charted, but gigs picked up all over New York City. Still no hit records or concerts in theaters.

They would need something else to reach the next level.

The owners of the Peppermint Lounge opened another Peppermint in Miami, and the Ronettes opened there as well. Popular New York disc jockey Murray “the K” Kaufman happened to be on vacation and attended a Ronettes performance.

At the close, “the K” told them, “I wish I had some girls like you who lived in New York.”

Ronnie replied, “What, are you crazy? We live in New York.”

That’s all it took. Gigs on his radio show and stints on his rock ’n’ roll revues at the Brooklyn Fox Theater soon followed. The trio worked with popular Motown standouts the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, the Marvelettes, and Little Eva.

By 1963 the Ronettes were the only act on Murray’s shows that didn’t have a hit record. They would need another something for that.

The girls decided it was time for a new producer and label. They first thought of Phil Spector, having seen his name all over a slew of records as co-writer and producer. Plus, he had his own label, Philles, and was around their age, 21. But how could they reach him?

Ronnie and Estelle decided to cold-call him — considered a no-no in the business — at his office. Estelle had the more polished grown-up voice and convinced the secretary to put her through to Spector. She spoke to Phil for a couple of minutes, and miracle of miracles, he wanted to see them at Mirasound Studio the very next night.

A half a year later, the singing trio hit gold, real gold — Gold Star Recording Studios in Los Angeles, where they recorded “Be My Baby” for Phil Spector on his Philles label, their first hit record!

And what a hit record it was, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Pop Chart, and with the fullness of time, ranked number 22 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2020 edition). How to explain all of this? Talent will out, of course, but not without a happy musical accident or two or three.[1]

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With a big hit under their collective belts, the Ronettes performed at several stateside concerts before they toured the UK in early 1964. Because their records sold so well there, they were now concert headliners and — dig this — the Rolling Stones (Mick, Keith, and the boys) opened their shows.

The trio also met and hung out with the Beatles (Paul, John, George, and Ringo) before their first American tour. Ronnie told the soon-to-be Fab Four that they had to go to the Peppermint Lounge when they visited the States.

When the Beatles arrived in America on February 7, they went directly to the Peppermint hours after their Pan Am Jet touched down. Whether they danced the Twist and sang a song for the manager is not known.[2]

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The “Be My Baby” session was primarily known for the Ronettes singing, but in some circles, it was equally known for the producer’s Wall of Sound. Spector employed 14 musicians to create a lush, echo-laden sound that was the Rosetta Stone for pioneer studio producers George Martin of the Beatles (Sgt. Pepper) and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys (Pet Sounds).

The session was also known for the irregular, infectious Latin sounding beat instituted by drummer Hal Blaine when he dropped his stick by accident on the 4 beat and just played the 2 throughout. On a usual rock and roll song, the snare drum is hit on the 2 and 4. In this case, no 4. [3]

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Sadly, Ronnie died on January 12, 2022. RIP.


NOTES


  1. Marc Myers, Rock Concert: An Oral History as Told by the Artists, Backstage Insiders, And Fans Who Were There (Grove Press, New York, 2021), 76–79.
  2. Ibid., 80.
  3. Edward Alan Faine, Serendipity Doo-Dah: True Stories of Happy Musical Accidents, Book One  (Takoma Park, IM Press, 2017), 79–81.
​
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Jazz Events at the LBJ White House

12/22/2021

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Duke Ellington at his first East Room appearance on March 27, 1968. Photo credit: LBJ Presidential Library, Robert Knudsen.
​​John F. Kennedy was the first president in modern White House history to sponsor jazz events. The first was a concert featuring the Newport Jazz All-Stars, Dave Brubeck Quartet, and the Tony Bennett Trio assembled on the Washington Monument grounds (Sylvan Theater) on August 28, 1962; and the second, a concert by the Paul Winter Sextet in the East Room on November 19, 1962.[1]

The jazz ice was broken. America’s musical poor sister was finally recognized. 

It was up to the successor president, Lyndon B. Johnson, to act on the jazz precedent set by JFK. And did he ever!

As if to make up for the long oversight, the Johnson administration hosted 16 jazz events during its 62-month run. Jazz had finally received its just due by a president and first lady whose musical tastes would not be described as refined but who believed it their duty to showcase the widest possible range of artistic expression at the nation’s showroom.

LBJ invited such notable jazz luminaries as Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Byrd, and Dave Brubeck. See more details below:
​
JAZZ EVENTS AT THE JOHNSON WHITE HOUSE
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​LBJ made up for the decades of official neglect of America’s premier jazz composer by inviting Ellington and his orchestra to give the final performance at the White House Festival of the Arts on June 14, 1965. 

On an erected stage on the South Lawn, Duke presented sections of what would become his Far East Suite, followed by selections from his tone statement on the African American plight in America — Black, Brown and Beige (1943), featuring the lovely hymn “Come Sunday.” 
​
He closed out the concert with an Ellington 12-hit-song medley that included “Solitude,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “I’m Beginning to See the Light,” and “Caravan.”
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​Duke Ellington at President Johnson’s Festival of the Arts on June 14, 1965. Members of the orchestra: Duke Ellington (p), Rufus Jones (dms), John Lamb (b), Cat Anderson (tp), Ray Nance (tp), Cootie Williams (tp), Lawrence Brown (tb), Buster Cooper (tb), Chuck Connors (tb), Paul Gonsalves (ts), Jimmy Hamilton (cl), Johnny Hodges (as), Russell Procope (as), and Harry Carney (bs). Photo credit: LBJ Presidential Library, Robert Knudsen. Photo credit: LBJ Presidential Library, Robert Knudsen.
From the sound recording available at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, here is a transcript of the event:

Opening Remarks by Dancer Gene Kelly
Historians tell us jazz began in New Orleans, and some historians tell us it began at a certain spot called Congo Square, a dusty lot down there. That may be so, I really don’t know, but I know it’s a long road from Congo Square to Carnegie Hall, and a longer musical way still.

But jazz made it, riding on the well-tailored coattails of Duke Ellington some twenty-two years ago. He and the great artists of his ensemble took Lady Jazz out of her off-the-racks cotton dress and put her in a long velvet gown.

​Ladies and Gentlemen, if there had never been a Duke Ellington, jazz would have had to invent him. So it’s with pride I present the Duke.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra
“Take the ‘A’ Train” 
[Applause follows.]

Duke Ellington Introduction
Thank you very much, Ladies and Gentlemen. That’s a warm welcome. Our first selection we would like to do is a result of our visit to the Far East a year and a half ago; we went to the Far East for the State Department on a cultural exchange program. And, of course, it was a tremendous inspiration to us all on being exposed to the beauty and enchantment of the Orient.

​And so as a result, we wrote a suite of numbers. We would like to play some of them now. We would like to say this is being done also in gratitude for the great people of the State Department Foreign Service office, who guided us so magnificently through the tour. It is called “Impressions of the Far East”:

The Duke Ellington Orchestra
“Amad” feature for Lawrence Brown (tb)
“Agra” ballad feature for Harry Carney (bs)
“Bluebird of Delhi” feature for Jimmy Hamilton (cl)
[Applause follows.]

Duke Ellington Introduction
Thank you. And now we would like to go from “Impressions of the Far East” to “Black, Brown and Beige,” which of course was done originally in 1943, and hasn’t really been done until this year in our concert appearances. This is our tone parallel to the history of the Negro in America. 
Tonight, we should like to do a suggestion of the work song theme and the spiritual theme, and a development of the two into a sort of montage. “Black, Brown and Beige”:

The Duke Ellington Orchestra
Work theme
Spiritual “Come Sunday” theme feature for Ray Nance (v) and Johnny Hodges (as)
Work and spiritual theme montage for trumpet, Harry Carney (bs), and Lawrence Brown (tb)

Lady Bird Johnson Wrap-Up
May I thank all the artists who have made this a rich, full, varied day for us all. It’s been wonderful. And now I’d like to have you all go to the tents for a bit of refreshment. I expect some of you need a hot cup of coffee. Perhaps you’d like to view the art in the garden and the east corridor. Thank you all. 
[Applause follows.] 

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​Lady Bird Johnson thanked Ellington and his orchestra at the close of their formal set following the daylong celebratory Festival of the Arts on June 14, 1965. After the First Lady departed, Duke addressed the crowd remaining on the South Lawn: “We have a request for several of the things we have written and we’d like to play some of them for you.” With that, Duke and the band offered a medley of Ellington song hits. Photo credit: USIA World (newspaper).
Duke Ellington Encore Introduction
I hate to impose on you like this, Ladies and Gentlemen, but we have a request for several of the things we have written and we’d like to play some of them for you that have become popular here. 

The Duke Ellington Orchestra
​
“Solitude”
“I’ve Got It Bad” feature for Johnny Hodges (as)
“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” feature for Duke (p)
“In the Mood”
“I’m Beginning to See the Light” (uptempo)
“Sophisticated Lady” feature for Harry Carney (bs)
“Caravan” (uptempo)
“The Opener” (uptempo feature for Paul Gonsalves [ts], Buster Cooper [tb], and Cat Anderson [tp])
“Things Ain’t What They Used to Be”

Total time: 44:44 minutes.

NOTES

  1. This and subsequent text is excerpted from Edward Allan Faine, Ellington at the White House, 1969 (Takoma Park, MD: IM Press, 2013), 24, 25, 32, and 211–214.
​
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The Best “Where Songs Come From” Story

11/23/2021

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In the conclusion to my first book on happy musical accidents, I gathered statements by 20 songwriters about where their songs came from. To a person, they claimed they didn’t write their songs, but rather, someone or something else did: smoke, the ancients, spirits, ghosts, God, nightmares, whatever.

Some examples:

Carole King: “The song was written by something outside myself, through me.”

Hank Williams: “People don’t write music. It comes to you. You sit there and wait and it comes to you.”[1]

Then along comes Reverend Gary Davis, who adds to this consensus view in, well, the funniest of all such stories, courtesy of Dave Van Ronk in his memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street.

Reverend Davis, a blues and gospel singer proficient on guitar from Durham, North Carolina, settled in New York City in the late 1940s and influenced numerous musicians in the Greenwich Village “folk” crowd in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Up-and-coming folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, with ties to Greenwich Village, had selected one of Gary’s tunes “Samson and Delilah (If I Had My Way)” for their first Warner Brothers album Peter, Paul, and Mary (1962). 

To get his rights in order, Gary had to sign a contract with the Warner-associated publisher Harms-Whitmark, which decided to turn the signing into a media event. They invited reporters from all the trade papers, along with a handful of old-time songwriters on their roster.

They were all seated around this long table, and Rev. Davis was seated in the center, and the ceremonial signing was about to happen. The flash bulbs were popping and . . . just as they were about to hand Gary the golden pen to sign the contract, someone asked the formal question “Reverend Davis, are you the author of this song?”

​Gary paused a dramatic pause, and in his preacher’s voice announced: “No, I did not write that song.” No one knew what to do. The reporters were scribbling madly, elderly executives were popping nitro pills all around the table. And then Gary spoke again: “It was revealed to me in a dream!”[2]
​
CODA
Paul McCartney for one would understand exactly where Reverend Davis was coming from. The former Beatle woke up one morning with a fully formed song in his head. It was so good, he hawked it around to all his friends, asking what it was: “Do you know this? It’s a good little tune, but I couldn’t have written it because I dreamt it.”

​BBC Radio named “Yesterday” the best song of the 20th century.

NOTES

  1. Edward Allan Faine, Serendipity Doo-Dah: True Stories of Happy Musical Accidents, Book One (Takoma Park, MD: IM Press, 2017), 133–7.
  2. Dave Van Ronk with Elijah Wald, The Mayor of MacDougal Street (Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press, 2013), 139.​​

​Photo credit: Adobe Stock / Yevhen
​
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The Sinatra-Bowie Connection

10/25/2021

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​At dinner one night in 1968, singer-songwriter Paul Anka heard his pal Frank Sinatra announce, “I’m getting out of the business. I’m sick of it. I’m getting the hell out.”

​Sinatra’s inestimable biographer James Kaplan continues the story:
​
​A couple years earlier on vacation . . . Anka had heard a French pop song called “Comme d’habitude” (As usual) . . . Now he thought he could turn the melody into a Sinatra song:

​I started metaphorically, “And now the end is near.” I read a lot of periodicals, and I noticed everything was “my this” and “my that” . . . And Frank became the guy for me to use to say that. I used words I never use. “I ate it up and spit it out.” But that’s the way he talked.

​At least it was the way he talked when he was trying to sound tough . . . Anka thinking the new lyric was “all him,” phoned Frank: “I’ve got something really special for you.”

Sinatra had misgivings. The song “really had nothing to do with my life whatsoever,” he would later say . . . “Every time I get up to sing that song I grit my teeth, because I hate boastfulness in others. I hate immodesty, and that’s how I feel every time I sing the song.”

Still, his inner circle convinced him it could make a good single, and [on December 30, 1967], with Bill Miller conducting a forty-piece orchestra, Frank recorded “My Way” in one take.[1]
​
​Meanwhile, across the pond in England, another singer-songwriter several years away from superstardom was putting songs together for his next album Hunky Dory. Ken Pitt, his manager at the time, asked young David Bowie to write English lyrics to—you guessed it—“Comme d’habitude” by Claude Francois and Jacques Revaux. 

Bowie did as he was told and he titled it “Even a Fool Learns to Love,” but he was stopped dead in his tracks when Paul Anka’s English-language version by Frank Sinatra hit the airwaves.

As Bowie’s drummer Woody Woodmansey later recalled:
​
​This had pissed David off, so he decided to write his own version, not ripping it off but using similar chord sequences. He said [his song] was about a young girl’s view of the modern world and how confusing it was. In the song she’s watching a film and unable to relate to either reality or the film. The film tells her there’s a better life somewhere—but she doesn’t have access to it.[2]
​
​Bowie titled his version “Life on Mars” and it became side A, track 4, on Hunky Dory released in December 1971. Supported by the single “Changes”—the memorable “ch-ch-ch-changes”—the album sold reasonably well on its initial release, without being a major success. 

Six months later, after the commercial breakthrough of Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust persona, the Hunky Dory album became a hit, climbing to number three in the UK. 

Moreover, the belatedly released June 1973 “Life on Mars” single shot to number three on the UK chart and stayed there 13 weeks. No matter how the “Life on Mars” single was thought of at the time, both public and critical opinion today is through the proverbial rock ’n’ roll roof, with some critics placing the song on all-time top 100 great lists. 

Since it’s the Sinatra angle here that is of the most interest to me, one can only lament the missed opportunity by someone to have arranged a joint appearance of the two singers on a national TV show. Saturday Night Live? The Tonight Show? 

Ziggy Stardust could have sung “My Way” and Ol’ Blue Eyes “Life on Mars.” Now that would have been something.


NOTES

  1. James Kaplan, Sinatra: The Chairman (New York: Anchor Books, 2015), 779.
  2. Woody Woodmansey with Joel Mciver, Spider from Mars: My Life With Bowie (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017), 101–102. ​

​Photo credits: Frank Sinatra, 1957, Capitol Records; David Bowie, 1974, ABC Television.
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Another Happy Musical Accident from John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

9/16/2021

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​On the basis of the John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman album (Impulse!, 1963), music historian Will Friedwald concluded:
​
Hartman is a great singer, beloved of fans, critics, and, perhaps, more importantly, entire generations of singers, most of whom have never heard more than six tracks by him [from the Coltrane& Hartman masterpiece album].[1]
​
In Serendipity Doo-Dah Book One, I discussed how the “My One and Only Love” track from the above album came about as an accidental lapse by Hartman on the first run-through. The singer was so transfixed by Coltrane’s tenor sax solo that he completely forgot to come back in for his vocal at the close of the recording, which necessitated a do-over, resulting in the classic performance now known by everyone.[2]

​Another happy accident took place on that date as well. On the ride out from Manhattan to Rudy Van Gelder’s studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, to record the six planned selections, the driver turned the car radio on, and there was the voice of Nat King Cole singing Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life.” 

Upon hearing the song, Hartman exclaimed, “Man! This is one of the great tunes of all time.”

Coltrane responded, “Do you know it?”

He did. 

“Lush Life” was the second tune recorded that day, and not surprisingly, it was a classic, an archetypical reading that used the Cole version as a template in terms of tempo and overall format.[3]

John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman became the one recording that exposed the most people to Strayhorn’s lovely song, all because the car radio was tuned to the right station.

CODA
Coltrane certainly knew “Lush Life”—he had recorded an instrumental version for Prestige in January, 1958, released on his album Lush Life three years later.
​

NOTES

  1. Will Frieidwald, The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), 163.
  2. Edward Allan Faine, Serendipity Doo-Dah: True Stories of Happy Musical Accidents (Takoma Park, MD: IM Press, 2017), 75–6.
  3. Will Friedwald, The Great Albums, 166–7.
​​
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1958: The Best Year in Jazz, Part 7

11/30/2020

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JAZZ SCORES BIG
Ever since the 1930s, jazz has been a staple of the silver screen, spotlighted in countless nightclub scenes, musicals, and film biographies. However, jazz was not used to score feature films until the early 1950s. Two notable examples are Clash by Night (1952) and The Wild Ones (1954). In 1958, more feature films had integral jazz scores than ever.

Not surprisingly, West Coast jazz dominated such film soundtracks, as in 
Hot-Car Girl (Cal Tjader), I Want to Live (Gerry Mulligan), Kings Go Forth (Pete Condoli), Sweet Smell of Success (Chico Hamilton), T-Bird Gang (Shelly Manne), and Touch of Evil (Henry Mancini). 


Two films produced and distributed in France in 1958 not only broke new ground but set the standard for jazz-scored feature films for years to come. And Miles Davis was the talent behind one of them, Elevator to the Gallows (known in the US as Frantic).

Miles and his small group improvised the score to 
Gallows while watching shots of the film, one of the few times in western cinema history since the silent era this had been done for a feature film. This was also the first time Miles recorded modal (or near-modal) music; the 10 musical segments produced were based neither on written themes nor harmonic patterns.
​
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The other groundbreaking French film of 1958, No Sun in Venice (US title), contained an exquisite jazz score written by John Lewis and played by the Modern Jazz Quartet. Each tune, memorable in its own right, perfectly mirrored the screen visual, making it one of the finest motion picture jazz scores ever written.

Although the film was not widely seen in the US, the soundtrack album received five stars in 
DownBeat and sold well. The Venice tunes became a constant in the MJQ concert repertoire for the next three decades.


The following year West Coast jazzmen provided the score for the 12th remake of Tarzan, removing once and for all any doubt that jazz was suitable background music for feature films.

Finally, 1958 was the only year that the long-running Newport Jazz Festival was ever featured in a documentary, Jazz on a Hot Summer’s Day.
​


JAZZ HITS TV WITH A BANG
Of all media in the 1950s, television with its various biases was the least likely to present jazz. True, variety and game shows featured jazz-like show bands, and jazz players appeared occasionally on the Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen shows or, perhaps, on Sunday morning, but that was about it. The TV picture began to change in 1958.

In the summer of that year, a national trial run was given to the West Coast-produced TV show Stars of Jazz, which headlined both West Coast (Stan Kenton) and East Coast (Billy Taylor) musicians.

That autumn, a big breakthrough came in the form of 
Peter Gunn, a jazz-fan detective who hung around a jazz club called Mother’s. Scored by Henry Mancini and played by West Coast musicians, Gunn was the first TV series in which jazz was fully integrated with the dramatic action. 


The Peter Gunn theme even became a hit single! Not surprisingly (and fortunately for jazz fans) the show spawned imitations. Count Basie rushed into the studio to record a jazz theme for M-Squad, and a year later Duke Ellington did the same for Asphalt Jungle, another big-city crime TV series.

JAZZ ON THE ROAD . . . AND CAMPUS
This was the year of the Dharma Bums and the beatniks, the year Jack Kerouac eulogized the “raw wild joy” of jazz in On the Road. Thousands of teenagers sported sunglasses, wore black, toted bongos, and bought jazz albums for the first time.

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Coffeehouses sprouted next to college campuses, where students sipped espresso and listened to poetry readings accompanied by jazz. The beatnik movement briefly legitimized the marriage between poetry and jazz. Chicago deejay Ken Nordine captured the passing fad on the best-selling LP Word Jazz for MCA (three stars, DownBeat).

For the first time since the 1920s (the flapper era) and the 1930s/1940s (the big band era), jazz was once again the music of a popular youth rebellion.


For all the above reasons, jazz was big business for the first time since the 1930s. More jazz records were sold than ever, club dates and concert tours were on the upswing, and jazz was on radio and TV and at the movies.

​The stage was set for a general jazz revival in the early 1960s. Jazz had recovered from its late 1940s/early 1950s doldrums and survived the initial shock of rock and roll.


By any measure, 1958 was quite a year for jazz, one of its finest ever.
​


1958 CLASSIC RECORD ALBUMS 
​
Relaxin’
Miles Ahead
Something else
Milestones
Soultrane
Brilliant Corners
Monk’s Music
Something Else!
You Get More Bounce
Way Out West
Meets the Rhythm Section
For Real!
Grooveyard
All Morning Long
Six Pieces of Silver
Sonny’s Crib
Blue Lights
K. Burrell with J. Coltrane
Freedom Suite
Sermon
Getz/Johnson-Operahouse
Roy, Dizzy and Sweets
My Fair Lady
West Side Story
Such Sweet Thunder
The Atomic Mr. Basie
Sing a Song of Basie
Come Fly with Me
Duke Ellington Songbook
Lady in Satin
Brubeck in Europe
Concert by the Sea
Muted Jazz
Burnished Brass
But Not for Me
I Want to Live
No Sun in Venice
Peter Gunn!
Word Jazz
Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Cannonball Adderley
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Ornette Coleman
Curtis Counce
Sonny Rollins
Art Pepper
Hampton Hawes
Harold Land
Red Garland
Horace Silver
Sonny Clark
Kenny Burrell
Kenny Burrell
Sonny Rollins
Jimmy Smith
Stan Getz/J. J. Johnson 
Eldridge/Gillespie/Edison
Andre Previn/S. Manne
Manny Albam
Duke Ellington
Count Basie
Lambert-Hendricks-Ross
Frank Sinatra
Ella Fitzgerald
Billie Holiday
Dave Brubeck
Erroll Garner
Jonah Jones
George Shearing
Ahmad Jamal
Johnny Mandel
Modern Jazz Quartet
Henry Mancini
Ken Nordine
​Prestige
Columbia
Blue Note
Columbia
Prestige
Riverside
Riverside
Contemporary
Contemporary
Contemporary
Contemporary
Contemporary
Contemporary
Prestige
Blue Note
Blue Note
Blue Note
Prestige
Riverside
Blue Note
Verve
Verve
Contemporary
Coral
Columbia
Roulette
ABC-Paramount
Capitol
Verve
Capitol
Columbia
Columbia
Capitol
Capitol
Argo
United Artists
Atlantic
RCA
MCA
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