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Brazilian Vocalist: Dóris Monteiro (1934-2023)
Dóris Monteiro was a Brazilian radio and recording vocalist and actress who became a national star before the bossa nova emerged on LPs in 1957. Once the pop craze took hold, Monteiro switched to the genre and had many hit albums and television appearances. What I love about her voice is her relaxed, lyrical approach and ...
Backgrounder: Art Farmer and Hal McKusick, 1956-58
Two of the prettiest and most sophisticated players in the 1950s were trumpeter Art Farmer and alto saxophonist Hal McKusick. They recorded often throughout the decade in big bands and ensembles but they only recorded 19 tracks in the quintet format—two albums in all. In the years before Hal died, in 2012, we spoke often by ...
The Return of Pablo Records
In the early 1970s, I worked for a few months at Sam Goody's in Manhattan on Third Ave. and 43rd St. The store manager wanted me in the rock section, but I kept drifting down to the jazz department to talk with Harry Lim. Harry was quiet and looked unassuming to the average record-buyer, but I ...
10 Albums to Cure Midwinter Blahs
The real-feel temperature in New York yesterday was 21F, with fluorescent-gray skies and a stiff, frosty wind coming out of the Northeast. Midwinter had officially arrived, and so did the blahs. Rather than trick myself out of this time of year with upbeat music, I like to feed into the hushed, introspective mood. Here are 10 ...
Backgrounder: Mundell Lowe - Satan in High Heels
Back in the early 1960s, if you opened a tabloid newspaper in New York like the Post or Daily News, you often saw small ads for risque films that were strictly for adults. These were the pre-ratings years, when kids were only allowed in to see Disney films and similar fare. The films I'm referring to ...
Perfection: Ted McNabb & Co.: Mountain Greenery
Who was Ted McNabb? And what company did he keep, as the album cover above intimates? You won't believe the story behind this 1959 album or the album's superb arrangements and musicians. I came across this LP by accident in 2012. Back then, few jazz fans even knew it existed. The record was arranged and conducted ...
How Bud Shank Invented Surf Music
In 1966, just before the country went psychedelic and the place to be was off the grid and deep in the woods, there was the beach. The passing this week of Mike Hynson—star of that year's cult surf film The Endless Summer, produced and directed by Bruce Brown—took me back to my childhood. When I was ...
Backgrounder: Hank Mobley Quartet (1955)
Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley began recording in New York in 1953 as part of the Max Roach Sextette. The session was for Debut, a label founded a year earlier by Roach, bassist Charles Mingus and Mingus's then wife Celia. Mobley's first recording session for Blue Note came a year later as a sideman on The Horace ...
YouTubers Dig Bill Evans (Guitarists)
I love watching videos of musicians covering songs made famous by jazz legends. I've posted quite a few of these as part of my YouTubers Dig series. Today, I thought I'd share 10 clips with you of guitarists covering songs recorded by Bill Evans: Here's Waltz for Debby... Here's Two Lonely People... Here's Time Remembered... Here's ...
Documentary: Melvin Sparks
Melvin Sparks was one of the finest and most important guitarists during the jazz-funk movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. For the Prestige label, Sparks recorded with Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer Jr., Johnny Hammond Smith, Caesar Frazier and many others. He was known for his Houston shuffle rhythm guitar and funky jazz ...
