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Georgie Auld in the Late '40s
Georgie Auld should be better known today, but he isn't. In his prime, he was a furiously swinging tenor saxophonist and leader of some pretty hip bop bands of the '40s. Today, the late reedman is probably best known for appearing in Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977) as bandleader Frankie Harte, working as a ...
Wanna Buy a Record?
Last week, Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine sent along a fabulous YouTube clip of Wanna Buy a Record? The rare 35-minute film was made by Capitol Records in 1951 to explain how records were made and why they cost what they did (85 cents at the time). The film was for promotional purposes only and featured ...
Los Angeles Jazz Institute
West Coast jazz to me is the sound of slow California sunsets, nifty cars and the Pacific surf. It's feverishly contrapuntal, optimistic and catchy. It's not better or worse than East Coast jazz, just different music for another mood. Having spent weeks in California on the beaches south of Los Angeles listening to West Coast jazz ...
Alex Steinweiss (1917-2011)
For those who grew up in the LP era, the jazz album cover had special meaning. Back when record stores dotted the urban and suburban landscape, you could spend hours flipping through the cardboard squares admiring the cover artwork before flipping them over to read the liner notes. The cover was always the big thrill, the ...
Interview: Gerald Wilson
In today's Wall Street Journal (go here), I write about the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra and a fabulous new box set from Mosaic Records: The Complete Jimmie Lunceford Decca Sessions, featuring material recorded between 1934 and 1945. What makes this box special is that you get to hear swing's ascension before Benny Goodman gave it a mass-market ...
Giacomo Gates Sings Scott-Heron
Last Friday in the Wall Street Journal I reviewed jazz singer Giacomo Gates' new CD, The Revolution Will Be Jazz: The Songs of Gil Scott-Heron (go here). It's one of the most exciting and intelligent vocal albums I've heard in some time. Giacomo doesn't try to cute-up Scott-Heron nor does he over-hip the songs. Instead, he plays ...
Interview: Mary Vonnie
Back in May, I posted about a 15-minute documentary made by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker in 1964 called Audition at RCA. It featured producer George Avakian accompanying Dave Lambert and his new group of vocalese singers while they auditioned new material for RCA that Lambert had written and hoped to record. For whatever reason, RCA suits passed. ...
How Steely Dan Got Wayne Shorter
Steely Dan's Aja is one of the finest albums of the 1970s and easily one of the group's most exotic and captivating works. The title track has always been particularly special, since it features an extended robust solo by tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter [pictured]. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker specifically wanted Shorter, but he almost wasn't ...
Pepper Adams in Hollywood
Fifty-four years ago this month, baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams was in a Hollywood studio for Mode Records. The date featured Adams, Stu Williamson on trumpet and valve trombone, Carl Perkins on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Mel Lewis on drums. West Coast baritone saxophonist Bob Gordon had died two years earlier in a car crash ...
The Ravens on National
Back in 1947, while Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were pioneering bebop, another jazz group was developing a different style of music that would have a lasting impact on American music in the three decades that followed. The group was comprised of four black vocalists, and as The Ravens they recorded singles that wound up inspiring ...
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