4-27-2016 Jazz Marathon edition
Charlie Mingus
Sonny Rollins & Thelonius Monk Jimmy Lunceford
Sarah Vaughan
Nat King Cole
Lou Donaldson
Octobop
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Okay,
I was all set for another edition of my British Blues series until I went down
to the station Thursday and realized our Jazz Marathon was this weekend. I always enjoy trying to set a mood for you
with some of my favorite Jazzmen (and occasionally even women), but it is a
genre that, in spite of how much I enjoy it, I don’t listen to that often. So, with less than a week to put it all
together, I didn’t go deeply into the artists’ outputs. Much of my Jazz music comes from multi-CD
sets and I kinda just went with the earliest quality tunes I came across. Oh well, just leaves more to choose from in
the future. Still, I think there is
plenty here for three hours of pleasure.
If you’ve been listening to my shows, you’re aware that it will be
mostly up-tempo, but for a change you might just hear a pretty song. Yuck!
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The
opening set of Charlie Mingus material
is from Proper Records’ 4CD set Young Rebel.
I particularly enjoy Proper’s reissues not only because they are
affordable but because their documentation is thorough, including extensive
biographical information. That said, it
is unfortunate I cannot locate the booklet for this artist so all I can say is
that is among the very earliest of bass player Mingus’ sessions, most before he
put together his own bands.
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The
set of Sonny Rollins and Thelonius Monk
is taken from an album I found at the library so I have no information on it,
but I do know they are among the highest regarded artists on their instruments,
Rollins on saxophone and Monk on piano.
Logically, the disc was titled Sonny Rollins with Thelonius Monk and my
computer lists it as released in 1953.
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Jimmie Lunceford was one of those guys who helped make the transition
from the big bands to smaller ensembles back in the days of the “territory
bands”. These tracks were taken from the
Quadraphenia 4CD set Life is Fine.
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I
figured I needed a lady Jazz singer for this show so I went to my Proper 4CD
box sets Billie Holiday? Dinah Washington? Ella Fitzgerald? Naw, I might have played them before. I think I’ll go with Sarah Vaughan this time. I
went through all 94 tracks spanning 1944-1950 in the Young Sassy set and was
getting pretty discouraged as I discarded so many songs I guess would be
categorized as torch songs, and that seemed to be almost all of them, but I
think the eleven songs chosen are a little bit livelier with a few slow ones
thrown in as pace changers.
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If you think Nat
“King” Cole was just a schmaltzy pop singer from the mid-40s to the late
60s, although that is true, then you would be sorely mistaken. In that function, Cole charted over 100
singles and two dozen albums in the pop field, second only to Frank Sinatra in
that span of time. Here we have music
taken from the first of a 10 disc set simply titled Nat King Cole. The set only includes track titles and
songwriters so I’m afraid I can’t even tell you when they were recorded. I was thinking between 1939 and 1941 but that
doesn’t jive with the online biography of AllMusic..
In July 1936 with his bassist older brother, Nat made
his recording debut with Eddie Cole’s Swingsters. The band then was hired for the black Broadway
musical Shuffle Along and, while the rest of the band moved on rather than go
on tour, Nat stayed because of dancer Nadine Robinson, whom he married in January
1937 when he was 17 years of age. The
tour closed in Los Angeles and the couple settled there as Cole set out to find
work.
In the summer of 1937 Cole was encouraged by a club
owner to put together a small combo, choosing bassist Wesley Prince and Nat’s decade
long accompanist, guitar player Oscar Moore.
For the first time applying his nickname to the group, the band
performed as the King Cole Swingsters and later just as the King Cole Trio.
Between 1938 and 1940 the band recorded for small
labels which led to radio work and extended their performances to gigs outside
of California. Late in 1940 the band was
signed to Decca Records and had a number one hit in 1941’s recording of the Cole
composition That Ain’t Right, reaching that pinnacle on Billboard’s R&B
chart in January 1943. Johnny Miller had
taken over on bass by the recording of the song and the Decca contract had run
out before it became a hit. Excelsior
recorded their next single, All for You, in October 1942 but Capitol bought the
rights from the small label and reissued it as the tune became their second
number one on the Harlem Hit Parade.
That led up to the trio signing with Capitol and the
band’s third release, Straighten Up and Fly Right, was #1 R&B for ten weeks
commencing April 10th 1944, spent six weeks atop the country chart
and climbed into the Top Ten pop chart. Following that, on October 21st Gee
Baby, Ain’t I Good to You made it to the highest spot on the black chart as
well as climbing into the popular rankings.
The trio placed four more singles in the R&B chart
in 1944 plus releasing their first album.
The album consisted of 4 78RPM discs with one song on each side, 5
instrumentals and 3 Cole vocals. The
album stayed for twelve weeks at the top of Billboard’s very first album chart initiated
on March 24th 1945. By this
time Swing was declining in popularity and many Jazz musicians were heading
into Be Bop. While the newer, more
spontaneous style of Jazz reached a more selective fan base, Cole’s music maintained
its audience, and this is where we will pause our story.
Three
sets with vocalists? That’s pretty much
unrepresentative of my jazz tastes!
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Lou Donaldson is a guy I came across when I picked up a couple of
his LPs at the flea market probably in the very early 70s. I mean, how could I pass up a 25-cent album
called Rough House Blues? Today’s
selections are culled from the first of another 4CD set, this one on Real Gone
Jazz, under the title Eight Classic Albums.
Caravan, That Good Old Feeling and Move It (as well as L.D. Blues if we
have time for it) were recorded January 27, 1957 for the LP Wailing with Lou,
while the other three tracks were laid down on June 9th that same
year and appeared on Swing and Soul.
Donaldson was on alto sax, Herman Foster on piano and Peck Morrison
played bass on both albums with Art Taylor’s drumming and Donald Byrd’s trumpet
can be heard on the first album, replaced by drummer Dave Bailey and the congas
of Ray Barretto as part of the second LP’s quintet. Lou is still one of my favorite Jazzmen and I
am happy to be able to hear him again since the acquisition of this CD set.
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The
closing set is essentially a tribute to Bill Hazzard who, for more than twenty
years, had the show that came immediately after mine. In fact Bill appreciated my warped sense of
humor when one year +I handed him a Christmas card saying he was my show’s longest
follower. Bill had a definite idea about
keeping a distinct difference between shows.
He would always start off with World music and then get into an hour
each of Classical and Jazz. I told him
it would be easier for me to do a transition to his show if he started with
Jazz, but he did not see that as a clear enough break. I remember twice in all the years he thought
that my closing tune was World-y, once with Screaming Jay Hawkins and again
when I closed with a tune where the Animals clapped percussively for about two
minutes. Not only did Bill do a diverse program but he also served as head of
the Jazz department and as station manager, or some similarly never-appreciated
official task.Bill was also a performing musician and it is from the ensemble with whom he played vibraphone for many years, Octobop, that I will leave you with today. This was the first of three discs Bill turned me on to, Night Lights from 2002, but not the first they released. While they were not quite as raucous or spontaneous as I prefer, both times I saw them I found them highly enjoyable.
I am very fortunate that the Razzberry allows me to go over a minute or two on what I consider to be too often, but Bill was a stickler for starting right on time and would fade out the last tune if it ran over at all, except for the occasions when I would end with Octobop. I found humor in that.
Okay, so in some ways I guess I’m a sloppy sentimentalist because I still send an email to Bill’s address before each Blues Marathon (June 24th to 26th this year, by the way) knowing full well I’ll receive the message that it was undeliverable. As long as I remember, I hope I will end all my Jazz Marathon pre-shows with Octobop until I run out of their music.
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Well, not as much information as usual but also not as
much prep time either. Tune in to the
Jazz Marathon beginning at 10am Friday and running all the way through Sunday
at midnight. That’s this weekend, April
29th through May 1st.
Enjoy.
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Since it is still relatively new, I thought I’d
mention that KKUP is now streaming on the internet and, while it is still in a
developing stage, we have been putting out the word. I’m not all of that good with high-tech
stuff, but it seems pretty easy to access.
If you go to our website at KKUP.org you will see on the home page a
strip of options immediately above the pictures of the musicians the next to
the last option being LISTEN ONLINE. By
clicking this, it brings up a choice of desktop or mobile. I can only speak for the desktop but after
maybe a minute I was receiving a crystal clear feed. As already mentioned, this is still a work in
progress and we are currently limited to a finite number of listeners at any
one time. I mention this so you will be
aware to turn off the application when you are not actually listening. (I put the player in my favorites bar for the
easiest of access.) Now we can reach our
listeners in Los Gatos and Palo Alto, even my family in Canada. Let your friends elsewhere know they can now
listen to your favorite station, and while they have the home page open they
can check out our schedule.
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Groovin’ HighDon’t Blame Me
Scrapple from the Apple
Cheryl
Salt Peanuts
Charlie Mingus
The Way You Look Tonight
WorkNutty
Sonny Rollins and Thelonius Monk
Oh Boy
Hittin’ the BottleBabs
Swanee River
Avalon
Jimmy Lunceford
Perdido September 1950
No Smokes Blues December
1941Summertime December 1949
Ain’t Misbehavin’ May 1950
East of Eden (and West of the Moon) Dec 1941
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child Oct ‘47
What a Difference a Day Makes December 1947
Mean to Me May 1945
I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and
Write Myself a Letter November 1947
I Cover the Waterfront July 1947
De Gas Pipe She Leakin’ Joe December 1950
Sarah Vaughan
Dixie Jamboree
Black Spider StompLet’s Get Happy
Sweet Lorraine
By the River Saint Marie
I Like to RiffNat King Cole
Caravan
L.D. Blues (time
permitting)That Good Old Feeling
Grits and Gravy
Move It
I Won’t Cry Anymore
Herman’s Mambo
Lou Donaldson
Walkin’ Shoes
Blue MistShort Stop
Octobop
