Articles by Richard J Salvucci
His Name was Tommy Sims. He played Trumpet. Too Bad You Probably Never Heard Him
by Richard J Salvucci
Ok, this one is strictly for jazz nuts--and a specific subset known as trumpet players and aficionados. Not everyone who likes jazz necessarily digs trumpet players, and those who do rarely agree on what constitutes a good one. Believe me, the sectarian differences would make an Anabaptist tremble, because this isn't just music; it's a religion. To truly understand, you have to have had carnal relations with the “Brass Beast," preferably over many years and across four or ...
Continue ReadingDawn Lambeth: I Get Ideas
by Richard J Salvucci
Not everyone was fortunate enough--or long lived enough--to have been around for the glory days of Benny Goodman's 1937 band, with a young Martha Tilton singing songs she barely knew, and scared to death of Benny as well. But the Liltin' Miss Tilton was plenty talented, and she made a big impression soon enough. And if a listener just moved the dial a bit, Connee Boswell or Lee Wiley could be found too. They were spectacularly good singers: great phrasing, ...
Continue ReadingThe Only Radio Station in the World With a Real Bar: Philly Jazz, The Click, and Other Postwar Ephemera
by Richard J Salvucci
If you don't know the name Frank Palumbo, you are not a Philadelphian. If you never went to Palumbo's or to the CR Club, you are not a Philadelphian of a certain age. And if you remember the Click, much less went there, you've reached a stage in life when you look in the mirror and see your parents. Because for a few glorious moments in the late 1940s, Philadelphia was one of the jazz radio beacons in the country. ...
Continue ReadingRuss Lorenson: A Little Travelin' Music
by Richard J Salvucci
If a singer is going to run with the Frank Sinatras and Tony Bennetts of the world, it takes determination, not to say savoir-faire. Sinatra in particular had it all: swagger, technique and, in his prime, a legato style that was the envy of musicians everywhere. Russ Lorenson may not quite equal the ranks of his models, but he is a capable, talented and experienced crooner. Dedicated to his art and intent on perfecting it, here he brings a return ...
Continue ReadingEddie Palmieri: Vamonos Pa'l Monte
by Richard J Salvucci
A reader may come upon a poster entitled “Highlights of the Jazz Story in the USA." One is labelled the Peter von Bartkowski Edition and it dates from 1987. It is, so to speak, a family tree of jazz, with all the strengths and weaknesses of the genre. Still, to poke about is to get someone's version of the lay of the land. On first examination, it is not clear that Latin Jazz even shows up, but ...
Continue ReadingThat's Club Harlem in West Philly, NOT Club Harlem in Atlantic City
by Richard J Salvucci
History can be a funny thing. The established story--the received wisdom--can be difficult to contest. And yet, there are subtle indications that something is not quite right. The weight of prejudice, self-interest, and or sheer inertia may stand in the way of getting things right. And material circumstances change too, especially over a lengthy period of time. Such would seem to be the story of the Club Harlem in Philadelphia, a kind of footnote to the history of jazz in ...
Continue ReadingKathy Ingraham: Jazz Dreams
by Richard J Salvucci
Occasionally an album comes along that is different and original, but not contrived. It can be unusual, but somehow familiar. Jazz Dreams is that kind of recording, a blues treatment of several canonical rock tunes that evokes shades of Blossom Dearie and Nina Simone with a touch of Steve Winwood's Traffic. Kathy Ingraham--who has imagination, chops and pipes to spare--manages this alchemy, doubtlessly a big part of her talent. Putting players like Randy Brecker and Evan Christopher into the mix ...
Continue Reading1502 Ridge Avenue and Other Extinct Philly Jazz Temples
by Richard J Salvucci
So we give Cannonball Adderley the floor. It is late 1955, and Adderley was in Philadelphia at the legendary Blue Note Café--yes, there was a Blue Note in Philly, in Chicago, and in New York, no kin to each other. Adderley was making an initial tour in the North, this after his sensational debut in Café Bohemia in New York. It isn't entirely clear who Adderley had with him in Philadelphia: he called them his “Florida men." And they had ...
Continue ReadingTilman Günther, Dominik Schürmann: Poems
by Richard J Salvucci
The worst of times is often a fertile moment for literature and the arts. Pablo Picasso, Francisco Goya, Dmitri Shostakovich and Saint Augustine lived through calamity. Their work was often an expression, if not a reflection, of enveloping chaos, not to say frank destruction. When things fall apart, artists often strive to rediscover meaning, or to express pure existential dread. It is a paradox to think we are enriched by suffering and misery, but, alas, sometimes that is so. This ...
Continue ReadingBreath Without End: The Trumpeter Who Found Faith and Never Died
Concept by Richard J Salvucci | Written by
AI
For most of his life, Samuel Calder believed in only two things: breath and brass. Faith, eternity, and the unseen were abstractions best left to philosophers and preachers. What mattered was the pressure of air through the lungs, the resistance of metal against the lips, and the fleeting perfection of a note played exactly right. Samuel Calder was a trumpet player. He had been a good one, too--never famous, never forgotten. For four decades he played ...
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