August News From Fantasy Jazz

Originally billed as the “black Woodstock," Wattstax was a seven-hour concert for the benefit of the Watts Summer Festival, held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, 1972. More than 100,000 people were in attendance; among the artists who performed were the Staple Singers, the Bar-Kays, Albert King, Rufus Thomas, and Isaac Hayes, all of whom were signed to Stax Records of Memphis, Tennessee.

Wattstax the film, first released in 1973, intersperses concert footage with ribald, down-to-earth commentary by Watts residents and, in dazzling form, the young Richard Pryor. It was directed by Mel Stuart, who also produced the film with Larry Shaw (Al Bell and David L. Wolper were executive producers).

Last summer, in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the Wattstax film's release, a newly remastered edition of Wattstax enjoyed a brief theatrical run in major American markets and made its film festival debut at Sundance. It also screened at film festivals throughout the year in Atlanta, London, Seattle, and Los Angeles. The 30th anniversary edition restored the film's original ending--Isaac Hayes's performance of “Shaft" and “Soulsville" (which had to be cut prior to the 1973 theatrical run because of a re-recording rights dispute)--and had a superb audio track completely remastered from the original concert 2-inch 16-track masters.

The DVD release of Wattstax--The Special Edition also contains audio and video commentary with Chuck D and Stax historian Rob Bowman; audio commentary by cast and crew, including Isaac Hayes, Mel Stuart, and Al Bell; the complete Albert King performance of “I'll Play the Blues for You"; and the original 1973 trailer as well as the 2003 Special Edition trailer.

The new CD contains full performances of virtually every song included in the original soundtrack, from the Dramatics' “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get" to Isaac Hayes's climactic “Theme from Shaft."

“Over 30 years after Wattstax: The Living Word was first released," writes Rob Bowman in his notes for the new CD, “the film remains one of the finest examples of social commentary involving music committed to celluloid, effectively dramatizing the reality of contemporary African-American life and the absolutely vital role that music plays within, and as a reflection of, the community. As such, in many ways it represents the apogee of the incredible saga of Stax Records."

Nine tracks of prime CHARLES EARLAND--four from his 1973 Charles III album, the rest previously unissued--are just out on the new Prestige CD Funk Fantastique.

The disc takes its name from an Earland composition, one of three unreleased 1972 cuts sporting the “Murderers Row" lineup, as annotator Tom Terrell terms it, of Lee Morgan, Virgil Jones, Billy Harper, Hubert Laws, and Billy Cobham. Houston Person, Maynard Parker, and trumpeter Gary Chandler are in the front line on a pair of “new" '71 recordings.

On the Charles III material, Terrell writes, “Earland and 12-piece band cover the waterfront: slinky jazz mambo ('Charles III'), high-stepping, Isaac Hayes-feeling jazz-funk ('Girl, You Need a Change of Mind'), motorvating uptown swing ('Auburn Delight' featuring Joe Lee Wilson's bossa-nova-esque vocalese), and avant-modal funk ('My Favorite Things' featuring a giddy Earland channeling Trane via B-3, Fender Rhodes, and soprano)."

“JOHNNY HOLIDAY somehow got lost in the jazz underground decades ago, despite having the sort of luminous voice and presence that should have made him a rival for Billy Eckstine or Arthur Prysock," writes Ron Wynn of Holiday's Contemporary CD Johnny Holiday Sings (Nashville City Paper, 6/18). “Instead, he never had a breakthrough record, spending many years toiling in the ancillary end of the music business while battling to achieve some degree of recognition."

But the Chicago native, two months shy of his 80th birthday, welcomes the attention now being paid to his music, old and new: the Contemporary CD contains a rare 1954 session first released on a Pacific Jazz subsidiary as well as a 1998 date, produced by Terry Gibbs and featuring Tom Ranier, Ron Eschete, Monty Budwig, and Joe LaBarbera.

“A release such as [JOHNNY HOLIDAY Sings] makes one believe again," declared disc jockey/reviewer Johnny Adams in the Monterey (CA) Post last month (6/24). “[It] displays the inner artistry that makes one come a-running. There have been other vocalists in the past that have emerged only to be sucked away in the spiraling funnel of rock and roll and so-called pop music. Holiday is an original talent, uniquely himself.

“Nowhere does he better surmount the invitation to imitation than on 'I'll Never Be the Same.' he transforms the song into a loose and personal vehicle. He is as much a 'jazz singer' as are many of his contemporaries who lay claim to the classification without nearly as much to offer as Holiday. . . . This is a beautiful album in every respect, completely stimulating in each second of its more than seventy-five minutes."

Just released: twofer CDs by pianist BILLY TAYLOR (Warming Up!) and saxophonist ERIC KLOSS (First Class!).

The Taylor disc, on Milestone, pairs the 1960 Riverside trio date Warming Up!, with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Ray Mosca, a collection of a dozen brief tracks conceived as a project for a radio-transcription firm, with the Prestige/Moodsville album Interlude, recorded the following year with Mosca and bassist Doug Watkins.

The Kloss album is drawn from three 1966-67 sessions originally released on the Prestige LPs Grits & Gravy and First Class Kloss! Then 17 years old, Kloss led a quartet with Jaki Byard, Richard Davis, and Alan Dawson, and a quintet with Dawson, trumpeter Jimmy Owens, Cedar Walton, and Leroy Vinnegar.

We'll Play the Blues for You, a compilation of blues tracks by Stax artists such as ALBERT KING, LITTLE MILTON, JOHNNIE TAYLOR, and OTIS REDDING, has just been released.

“Stax Records of Memphis, Tennessee, had been essentially a soul company with little interest in recording blues," writes Lee Hildebrand in his booklet notes, “until cofounder Estelle Axton persuaded her brother Jim Stewart to sign the singing guitarist [Albert King] in 1966. King, working in the studio with Booker T. & the MGs and the Memphis Horns, proceeded to modernize the blues, giving it a double shot of soul, a vibrant new power that revitalized the idiom and has continued to inform it even after the blues titan's 1992 death."

The new disc is a companion of sorts to the spring '04 Stax set Windy City Blues, which was also produced by Fantasy's Kirk Roberts and annotated by Hildebrand.

Ten new Super Audio Compact Discs (SA-CDs) are due out this month (8/17), bringing to 35 the total number of titles issued since Fantasy's maiden SA-CD release in October 2003.

Included are two albums from the Fantasy catalog (JERRY GARCIA/MERL SAUNDERS, Live at Keystone, vol. 1; VINCE GUARALDI TRIO, A Boy Named Charlie Brown) . . .

. . . one from Prestige (THE MODERN JAZZ QUARTET, Django). . .

. . . six from Riverside (SONNY ROLLINS, The Sound of Sonny; THELONIOUS MONK, Monk's Music; CHET BAKER, In New York; CANNONBALL ADDERLEY/MILT JACKSON, Things Are Getting Better; The WES MONTGOMERY Trio; BILL EVANS, Explorations . . .

. . . and one from Stax (The ISAAC HAYES Movement).

HANK CRAWFORD's engagement at Birdland last month was “a stark and dramatic depiction of the later days of a great bluesman." So wrote Will Friedwald in his review (7/2) for the New York Sun.

Crawford, who suffered a stroke several years ago, moved from New York back to his native Memphis in late 2001 to be closer to his family during his recovery. The 69-year-old alto saxophonist returned to the stage in November of last year, appearing at the Berlin Jazz Festival; he also worked at Ronnie Scott's in London in April (with Dr. Lonnie Smith). The Birdland shows were his first in New York since he resumed performing.

“Even if Mr. Crawford's instrumental technique isn't what it used to be," writes Friedwald, “he plays with so much vitality and enthusiasm that he still can more than deliver the goods. . . . Since [his] stroke, his intonation has suffered and his command of the horn is less sure; he often takes a few measures to warm up. He is more than capable of playing the blues with energy and conviction, however, and in all manner of tempos and moods. And his composing and arranging brain is still active, as evidenced by an imaginative, thoroughly recomposed treatment of Sam Cooke's 'You Send Me' and an 'In a Mellotone' that not only romped and stomped but cleverly employed 'On the Trail' as an introduction. . . .

“In spite of his condition, Mr. Crawford's energy never ran down, a smile never left his face, and rather than taking it easy, the four men [Danny Mixon, Wayne Boyd, Jesse Hameen] played exemplary soul jazz for nearly 90 minutes."

Hank Crawford is part of the lineup for Joe Segal's Jazz Cruise out of Miami this fall (10/23-30).

Tenor saxophonist DAVE ELLIS, whose Milestone CD State of Mind was named Outstanding Jazz Album in the California Music Awards in June, appears Sunday (8/8) at the 15th Annual Comcast San Jose Jazz Festival with his quintet, featuring trumpeter Mark Wright. The Ellis quintet will also be seen 8/13 at the Jazzschool in Berkeley and 8/19 at Kuumbwa Jazz in Santa Cruz; the Ellis Ensemble, with a four-horn frontline, performs at Filoli in Woodside 8/15. That show is sold out but will be broadcast on KCSM at a later date.

Dave, sans quintet, is set to play the National Anthem 8/27 and 9/10 at the Oakland A's/Baltimore Orioles game, at the Oakland Coliseum. (Go A's!)