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Why Otis Redding Matters
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In its heyday, soul music was powered by sheer romantic emotion that was animated by gritty riffs, a strong beat and an uninhibited determination to make audiences feel. Over time, soul evolved through artists' varied personal and regional experiences. For example, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin brought the church to soul. James Brown gave soul a funky urban attitude. And Otis Redding brought the rural South to soul through a crying voice and stage presence that was earthy, insistent and ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, part 3
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Today, it's part three of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, giving you an advance look at some of the noteworthy bands and musicians who will be playing in St. Louis during the next several months. Following the chronological progression established in those first two installments, the first video up above features the Chicago-based group Spektral Quartet, who will be coming to town to perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, March 5 at the 560 Music ...
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New Year's Day Recordings
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Want to know what New Year's Day sounded like over the years? The following are studio recordings made on January 1 Here's the Varsity Eight's TNT recorded on Jan. 1, 1926... Here are the Blue Mountaineers with Fit as a Fiddle and Taboo Taboo, both recorded in London on Jan. 1, 1933.... Here's Lizzie Miles recording Careless Love on Jan. 1, 1952... Here's Teddy Wilson with Milt Hinton (b) and Jo Jones recording If I Had You on Jan. ...
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Julie London: A Good Cry
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Julie London sang Cry Me A River several times on TV over the years after she made the song her own in 1956. Written by Arthur Hamilton in 1953 for Ella Fitzgerald to sing in the film Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), the song was dropped in 1954 during production. Cry Me a River was then offered to singer Peggy King, but Mitch Miller, Columbia's head of A&R at the time, didn't like the word “plebeian" in the lyric and nixed ...
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The Death of Hideo Shiraki
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Last week, I posted on Japanese drummer Hideo Shiraki, who died in 1972 at age 39. In 1962, Shiraki recorded two terrific albums, most notably Plays Horace Silver and Plays Bossa Nova. His other jazz albums are equally fabulous. Yet little is known about Shiraki in the States, since most information about him and his early death has appeared in Japan. In my post, I asked my Japanese readers for information on Shiraki. I received the following information: Paraphrased from ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, part 2
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Today's installment picks up the chronological thread in late January with Bonerama, who will be back in town to play on Friday, January 22 at Broadway Oyster Bar. In the first video up above, you can see an excerpt from their set at the 2015 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in which they perform the original tune “Mr. Okra" and their interpretation of the NOLA standard “Indian Red." After the jump, it's pianist Billy Childs, who will perform Saturday, ...
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The History of Christmas
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Christmas, as we know it, is a relatively modern holiday. How do we know this? The following documentary from the History Chanel does a good job of explaining. The only flaw is that it completely misses one of the most important factors in Christmas's spell over our culture—the rise of the holiday song through sheet music and parlor pianos in the late 1800s, the advent of recordings with the popularity of the phonograph and radio in the 1920s, and the ...
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Jimmy Wormworth's Camera
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Drummer Jimmy Wormworth recorded his first session in 1958 with the Jazz Modes, which featured Julius Watkins (fhr), Charlie Rouse (ts), Sahib Shihab (bar), Gildo Mahones (p), Martin Rivera (b) and Jimmy on drums. In the years that followed, Jimmy played with just about everyone and toured and recorded with Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. In the 1970s, '80s and '90s, he recorded with Al Haig, J.R. Monterose, Hod O'Brien and many others. He is still on the scene today playing ...
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