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Miles: Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Known in English as Elevator to the Gallows, this 1958 French crime film is notable for three reasons: The movie, directed by Louis Malle, launched French new wave cinema. It stars Jeanne Moreau, one of France's finest actresses and a personal favorite. And best of all, Miles Davis improvises throughout. In a nutshell, the film is about two lovers who become involved in a murder plot and are foiled when an elevator's power is cut. The rest is too complicated ...
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Jazz 625: British Jazz
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Between April 1964 and August 1966, BBC2 in the U.K. aired an hour-long TV show called Jazz 625. It was broadcast on 625-lines UHF rather than the 405-lines VHF system then used by the other channels. This allowed for a better signal at home. What was particularly noteworthy about the show is that it began airing after a long-running dispute between the U.K. Musician's Union and the American Federation of Musicians was resolved. This allowed American musicians to perform in ...
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Britain Plays the Blues
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
How did all those British rock bands learn to play the blues in the 1960s and why were they so fascinated by the form? What was the unlikely impact of the Yardbirds, the Animals, the Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, John Mayall, Cream and other British bands introducing white audiences to the blues in the U.S.? Most people think their education came from blues records they got their hands on in the U.K. And that playing here was something of an ...
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Frech Doc: Bud Powell
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
To fully feel the beauty and grace of jazz at its highest level, you must appreciate the sadness that comes with the joy and the poetry that's baked into the music's history. They are one, like two sides of a coin. Virtually all of the exceptional jazz musicians had tragic sides, making one wonder whether greatness was even possible without the demons and deep sadness. Yesterday, Matt LeGrouix sent along a link to a stunning French documentary on Bud Powell ...
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Stan Getz: The Movies and TV
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
By the mid-1950s, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz had become a sensation as a soloist and started to be featured in films. A few years later, Getz's horn could be heard in European films and then American films upon his return to the U.S. in 1960. From the 1960s until his death in 1991, Getz was heard regularly on TV shows such as Ironside and The Courtship of Eddie's Father as well as in movies. Here are 13 clips of Getz ...
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Doc: Toronto Jazz (1963)
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1963, Toronto was a bustling jazz center akin to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The city's jazz establishments flourished after Ontario's Liquor Licensing Board changed its dining lounge rules in 1946 to permit live venues to sell alcohol. Toronto became a destination for Canadian musicians and for touring American artists. Clubs ranged from the posh Imperial Room at the Royal York Hotel to the House of Hambourg, George’s Spaghetti House, the Colonial and Bourbon Street, to name just ...
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Pete Rugolo and the Beaver
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
The death of Ken Osmond last week came as a shock to anyone who grew up watching TV's Leave It to Beaver in the early 1960s. The shock for me wasn't that Osmond had died but that he had been alive all this time. The word on the playground in the late 1960s and early '70s was that the guy who played Eddie Haskell had died in Vietnam. Everyone believed it, and why not? Obviously, that wasn't the case, but ...
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Documentary: Grant Green
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
At his peak in the early 1960s, Grant Green was one of the most soulful, swinging jazz guitarists recording. Unfortunately, many of his albums weren't released until after his death in 1979. The business reasoning remains puzzling but the decision by Blue Note clearly had nothing to do with his playing. Green appeared on many albums as a sideman, and I suppose the label didn't want to saturate the market. In addition, tastes were shifting to soul-jazz and boogaloo. In ...
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