Case Files: 0799-2

Case File: The Charts That Wouldn't Turn Up

Question

Cool Vic,

I have given up trying to locate the recordings AND sheet music to a couple of tunes entitled: "Malaga" by I have no clue and "Taboo" by a woman with last name Enesco. I hope you can help. I really would like to either listen to or perform these original versions.

Desperate Again... Sam J

Answer

Desperate Sammy,

If you're my friend Mr. Jackson, I remind you yet again that you still need to return to me my brandy snifter. It's the favorite of a particular friend of mine and she greatly prefers it when I'm entertaining her. So if ya don't mind...

"Malaga" is a splendid composition and arrangement chart by Bill Holman during his stint with Stan Kenton whose availability remains questionable at best. It has been released on Stan Kenton: Live at Brigham Young University on Kenton's Creative World label (1039) as a CD. But no one I've asked has told me they've ever seen it—not even my hapless stooge Louie. Louie did mention (before hightailing it down a back alley with sirens blaring in the distance) that you may try to find your charts at either Sheet Music Online or Sheetmusicdirect. Or both.

As far as "Taboo" is concerned, Louie allowed, after some of my special "encouragement," that he knew of not one single version performed by a woman with the surname "Enesco." He did, however, reveal that the aforementioned Mr. Kenton, whose name kept bouncing up like a bad check, released an album titled New Concepts in Artistry and Rhythm (Capitol 386), which features the very fine Anita O'Day singing, while another release, Masterpieces, Volume 20 (EMP Musique 159183) features the similarly delicious June Christy. These might be worth checking out. For several reasons.

Ciao, Baby.

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Case File: Poppin' in the Blue Note Vault

Question

Vic,

Would you happen to know where I might find the LP Poppin' by Hank Mobley on Blue Note?

Peace, Jazz Fan (Calvin Roberts)

Answer

Calvin,

"The Middle-Weight Tenor of the World." That Leonard Feather was some card callin' Hank that. What's funnier, is that Blue Note has a warehouse full of unreleased Mobley material. (I should know, I slipped through their shoddy security and into their vaults a few months back while investigating another case—had to do with Flip Phillips and a recording he did with Fred "Mister" Rogers.) Mosaic Records advertised their Mobley Box Set: The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Fifties Sessions by rightly stating that "There wouldn't be hard bop without Hank Mobley." This 6-CD collection is sure to be your best source of "Poppin'" for now. I suspect that if you wait long enough, this disc will resurface under the Blue Note name—much in the same way that Sonny Clark's and Herbie Nichols' Mosaic material has (after the Mosaic limited quantity material ran out).

No matter what, this is some of the sweetest sounds of hard bop ever made. Mobley is tremendously underrated.

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Case File: The Sultry Summer Breeze

Question

Hello Veek,

I heard a female-sung jazz version of Seals & Crofts pop hit, "Summer Breeze." Do you know who did it?

—Spencer Kelly

Answer

Doctor Kelly,

Sure do.

Would you like me to tell you?

Lulu ran a trace by title and almost immediately the red light and bells on the cryotonic defibrillator went off—the power went out for six city blocks and I caught a full load from the Governor, who called to find out what the hell was going on. We learned that the soulful, lovely and mildly Rubenesque Patti Austin ("Baby, Come To Me" indeed) recorded "Summer Breeze" on a Concord Jazz album released in 1998, In and Out of Love (1776). The Isley Brothers also do a version of "Summer Breeze" that's so sultry it'll make your teeth sweat. You are most likely searching for the Austin.

Anyway, I can handle the Governor. Happy listening.

That's A Wrap

Well, my faithful legions, it's that time of the month—the time for ol' Vic to get a haircut. I'm gonna have Sal the Barber give me one of his special summer cuts with extra dippity doo. Anyway, we hope you all enjoyed our letters. Till next month, keep the spirit.

Got a case that won't stay buried? Send it me.