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Sorting Out the Tijuana Sound
Did you watch The Queen's Gambit, the Netflix mini-series about the female chess champ, starring Anya Taylor-Joy? Whether you did or didn't, there's a scene in episode 4 ("Middle Game") where lead character Beth Harmon and her step-mom fly down to Mexico City to a tournament. In the background was the brilliant use of Mexican Highway ...
New Video: Bill Evans, 1975
Two weeks ago, the following video went up at YouTube of Bill Evans and Eddie Gomez performing a 30-minute set in July 1975 at the Antibes/Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival on the French Riviera. As you'll hear, Evans and Gomez sounded fantastic—clear, spry, poetic and with a swinging snap. What's more, the set was Nardis-free! The songs were ...
Documentary: Pittsburgh Jazz
Erroll Garner, George Benson, Earl “Fatha" Hines, Ray Brown, Kenny Clarke, Stanley Turrentine, Billy Eckstine, Billy Strayhorn, Ahmad Jamal, Joe Negri, {{Johnny Costa and Mary Lou Williams all had one thing in common—Pittsburgh, PA. They all grew up there along with other jazz greats. How did Pittsburgh come to be such a flourishing jazz center? And ...
Dick Grove: Big, Bad & Beautiful
Dick Grove wore two hats. There was Grove the educator, who moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and taught at the Westlake School of Music. In 1973, he started the Dick Grove School of Music, enlisting Henry Mancini, Bill Conti and Lalo Schifrin as teachers. How did he manage to pull that off? That brings us ...
Joe Castro: Passion Flower
Joe Castro was a captivating figure. A multi-talented West Coast bop pianist in the early 1950s and beyond, Castro also was a tasteful recording-session leader and soloist. He had the sturdy keyboard command of Dave Brubeck, the bounce of Hampton Hawes and styling of Dodo Marmarosa. And like Brubeck and Armstrong, he also had one of ...
Basie and Ella Docs
There are dozens of documentaries on jazz but precious few about the private lives of great jazz musicians. Eagle Vision recently released two—Count Basie: Through His Own Eyes and Ella Fitzgerald: Just One Of Those Things. In both cases, the use of footage, still images and interview subjects are compelling and the music is rich. While ...
Attila Zoller and Don Friedman
Attila Zoller is another guitarist who's fame has unfairly faded with time among jazz fans. Like guitarist Gabor Szabo, Zoller was a Hungarian refugee who escaped Soviet invasion. He found his way to Austria in 1948 and moved to the U.S. in 1959 to perform, record and teach. He also had enormous influence over the jazz ...
Man Who Came to Dinner
One of my favorite Thanksgiving movies is The Man Who Came to Dinner, with Monty Woolley and Bette Davis. The plot, in a nutshell: A cranky, world-renowned author (Woolley) injures his back and must spend the holidays with his cosmopolitan assistant (Davis) confined to a house in small-town Ohio, ordering people around and causing trouble for ...
Once Upon a Summertime
One of the most difficult songs to sing well is Once Upon Summertime. Written in 1954 by Michel Legrand, French music producer Eddie Barclay and French songwriter Eddy Marnay, the slow waltz originally was entitled La Valse des Lilas (or The Lilac Waltz). In the late 1950s, the song was given English lyrics by Johnny Mercer ...
Irene Kral: Live in 1977
In 1975 and '78, singer Irene Kral released what were arguably her finest small-group albums—Where Is Love and Gentle Rain, respectively, for the Choice label. She was accompanied only by pianist Alan Broadbent. [Photo above of Irene Kral with daughters Jodi, left and Melissa, from Being Irene Kral's Daughter by Jodi Burnett] A month after the ...
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