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Backgrounder: Frank Wess's 'Trombones & Flute'
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Frank Wess was a powerhouse big-band tenor saxophonist and flutist and a lyrical player in small groups, especially those he led. One of my favorite ensemble albums by Wess is Trombones & Flute, which he recorded for Savoy in July 1956. The personnel featured a chunk of Count Basie's band, for which Wess played at the time. The lineup included Jimmy Cleveland, Henry Coker, Benny Powell and Bill Hughes (tb), Frank Wess (fl), Ronnell Bright (p), Freddie Green (g), Eddie ...
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The David Allyn Big Band, March 1992
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Vocalist David Allyn led a superb big band in New York in the early 1990s. Which makes sense, given the bands he sang for starting in the 1940s. His career list includes bands led by Jack Teagarden, Boyd Raeburn, Lyle Griffin, Johnny Mandel, Bill Holman, Johnny Richards, Dave Terry and Bob Florence. Fortunately for us, Paul Cammarata, who produced David's big band gigs at New York's Red Blazer Too, videotaped or audiotaped Allyn and the band's appearance in March 1992. ...
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Bop Masters Pay Tribute to Bird
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In Westerns, they're cool-handed lawmen who get off the noon train to save the town with lightning-fast reflexes and not a flick of apprehension. The equivalent in the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee were these guys, who appeared on the U.K.'s BBC2's TV showcase Jazz 625 in October 1964: trombonist J.J. Johnson, alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt, trumpeter Howard McGhee with Walter Bishop Jr. on piano, Tommy Potter on bass and Kenny Clark. All six artists were major contributors to bop's initial success ...
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Classic Pop, Soul and Hip-Hop Boxes
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Today is Labor Day in the U.S., a national holiday that technically celebrates workers. But in truth, today is the unofficial last day of summer, the day that big sales on merchandise is offered and a day when many Americans kick back and grill. With the start of fall and you hanging around the house, I thought I'd let you in on six box sets that capture a lot of great music Miles Out to Sea: The Roots of British ...
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Backgrounder: Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster were a perfect pair. Hodges played with a smooth, bluesy sweetness while Webster offset that with his breathy, husky tone. Both recorded together in the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the 1930s and '40s, and they paired off again in the 1950s on small-group dates. My favorite sessions featuring them in tandem is the so-called Jazz Cellar session of November 1960. It was recorded at a San Francisco club without an audience. ...
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Video: Hank Mobley in Denmark, 1968
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Late last night, I heard from Bill Pauluh, who informed me that a video of Hank Mobley just went up on YouTube. The clip, from a Danish TV show called JazzBeat, was taped live on March 8 at the famed Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen, Denmark. This is big news, since so little video exists of the tenor saxophonist in action. The nearly nine-minute video features Mobely with Dexter Gordon's rhythm section at the time—Kenny Drew on piano, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen ...
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Backgrounder: Lionel Hampton, 'Bossa Nova Jazz'
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Bossa Nova Jazz: Lionel Hampton All Stars shouldn't work, but it does. Just looking at the album cover without hearing it leads you to assume that the bossa nova would be a stretch for a swinger and jump-blueser like Hampton. But its authenticity and sensuality exceeds expectations every time I put it on. It's really Bobby Plater's album. Recorded in September and October of 1963 for Hampton's own Glad Hamp label (and issued in Japan on Nippon Columbia), his all-stars ...
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Joe Bataan: Gypsy Woman
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Following my post yesterday on salsa and Joe Bataan's Ghetto Records, many readers emailed me about Joe Bataan and boogaloo. As I posted yesterday, boogaloo was a funky Latin-soul hybrid geared to expressive freestyle dancers. The boogaloo began in New York, primarily in the Latin dance clubs of Manhattan and the Bronx. Among the first boogaloo hits was Mongo Santamaria's recording of Watermelon Man in 1962. Over time, the music evolved from infectious rhythm-fueled riffs built on catchy pop phrases ...
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