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Moonlighting With the Countsmen
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Count Basie was able to hold onto players for long periods of time because the band was fun, it had enormous global prestige and the experience was like being with family. But there were other factors. So long as the band wasn't in the studio or didn't have to play that day, his sidemen were free to record. This kept his best musicians from becoming frustrated and giving notice and it minimized requests for a raise. Basie knew that to ...
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12 Videos of Drummer Sonny Payne
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
By the time drummer Sonny Payne joined Count Basie in December 1954, he had played with bands led by Paul Bascomb, Hot Lips Page, Earl Bostic, Tiny Grimes and Erskine Hawkins. After he joined Basie, the band loved his novel approach to drumming—driving the swing with a steady beat while adding accents, polyrhythms and a rhythmic attitude to excite and motivate the players and audiences. He left Basie in December 1964 to lead a trio and tour with Illinois Jacquet ...
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Count Basie: Copenhagen, 1962
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
American jazz fans are often left wondering why Europeans, Scandinavians and the Japanese are so passionate about the music while listeners here don't seem to have much of an appetite for it. One reason is the vast amount of touring that American jazz musicians did in those parts of the world in the 1960s and beyond. For fans overseas, the music was a celebration of optimism and freedom after years of horror and hardship. One artist who toured regularly internationally ...
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Backgrounder: Barry Galbraith - Guitar and the Wind
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Barry Galbraith was one of New York's busiest session jazz guitarists in the 1940s, '50s and '60s. Between 1941 and the late 1970s, he was on 620 recording dates, a staggering total. How many albums did he record as a leader under his name? Just one—Guitar and the Wind, for Decca. What a shame.
His sole album is groovy and gorgeous. Galbraith could swing and his cord voicings and tasty improvised runs were unbeatable. My last post on Galbraith is ...
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Lola Albright Sings in 'Peter Gunn'
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the Peter Gunn TV series (1958-1961), Lola Albright played Edie Hart, the singing sultry girlfriend of Gunn, played by Craig Stevens. Lately, Youtubers have been uploading clips of her singing in the series. So while I'm away this weekend (no, I didn't impulsively split for Sicily), I'm leaving you with clips of Lola in action at Mother's, Gunn's hangout, with Victor Feldman on vibes throughout: Here's I Didn't Know What Time It Was... Here's How About You... Here's Too ...
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The Sound of Feeling, 1968
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In November 1968, Verve Records released what today may seem like an unusual album but back then was perfectly in sync with the youth-focused times. The LP was called Leonard Feather Presents... The Sound of Feeling and the Sound of Oliver Nelson. Recorded in 1966 (the Nelson big band tracks) and 1967 (the vocal tracks), and produced initially by Creed Taylor and then Jesse Kaye after Creed left for A&M to start CTI, The Sound of Feeling featured a Los ...
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Malo, the San Francisco Experience
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
San Francisco is most often associated with happenings, the Grateful Dead, LSD, the free speech movement, face painting, free love, the Summer of Love, underground newspapers and comics, Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, Bill Graham, the Fillmore Auditorium, Jefferson Airplane, the Matrix, Carlos Santana, Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, Timothy Leary, psychedelic art and concert posters, Steve Miller and City Lights Booksellers. But San Francisco had a much more diverse music scene in the late 1960s and ...
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Terry Gibbs and Sal Nistico
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1963, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs teamed with tenor saxophonist Sal Nistico to record a terrific little-known swinger for New York's Time Records known as Gibbs & Nistico. I say “known as" because the album cover, as you can see below, doesn't distinctly project a title. Produced by Bob Shad, the LP featured Sal Nistico (ts), Terry Gibbs (vib), Nat Pierce (org), Turk Van Lake (g), Charlie Andres (b) and Jake Hanna (d). At the time, Nistico and the rhythm section ...
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