Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano was performed on the Johnny Carson Show in 1984, by Hubert Laws and Claude Bolling … with John Goldsby on bass and Jean Luc Dayan on drums.
Shades of Light is a Hubert Laws original, featuring Laws on flute, David Budway playing piano, Rob Mullins at the keyboards, John Leftwich on bass and Ralph Penland on drums.
Combine four of the top drummers in jazz: Louis Bellson, Philly Jo Jones, Shelly Manne, and Irv Cottler –– with the flying feet of the multi-talented Caterina Valente –– and you have the formula for a truly unique performance on 1964’s popular Hollywood Palace television show (top). Then (bottom), Caterina and Ella Fitzgerald are joined by (believe it or not) Perry Como, in a spirited scat version of Al Jolson’s 1920’s swinging hit Avalon. Vintage television!
Roy Hargrove was known as one of the premier players in jazz for the past quarter-century. As an incisive trumpeter, doubling on flugelhorn, Roy was discovered by Wynton Marsalis in the 1980s. He embodied the brightest promise of his jazz generation, both as a young steward of the hard bop tradition and a savvy bridge to both hip-hop and R&B. His assertive sound embodied a tone that could evoke either burnished steel or silk and satin. Here we have both.
The topmost video I’m Not So Sure, recorded in 2007 at the New Morning in Paris, features Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Justin Robinson on alto sax, Gerald Clayton playing piano, Danton Boller at the bass, and Montez Coleman on drums. It’s funky beat is guaranteed to treat your feet! Below that to the left, Top of My Head moves all your parts with some straight ahead bop and features Roy adding a bit of vocal. The performance was for a public radio gig … and along with Hargrove on trumpet and Robinson on alto, Tadataka Unno played piano, Ameen Saleem played bass, and Quincy Phillips was at the drums. Finally, at the lower right, silk and satin are served well as flugelhorn replaces trumpet and Chivas replaces cement in the very mellow What a Wonderful World, recorded by the quartet in 1999. Roy Hargrove takes up the flugel, Mulgrew Miller is on piano, Pierre Boussaguet plays bass, and Alvin Queen is at the drums.
I have only two words for you … Samara Joy. Samara is a marvelous young jazz singer from a musical family in the Bronx New York, who has an incredibly bright future and might even out-Ella Ella one of these days! Samara’s album “Linger Awhile,” was released in September 2022, winning the award for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and she also won Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
The first tune (top) is the Billy Strayhorn tune Lush life … one of my perennial favorites. Next (middle left) listen to her impeccable phrasing on Can’t Get Out of This Mood, followed by Lady Be Good (middle right) as she channels Ella and adds a few ear-popping twists of her own. Finally Samara’s poignant video of Guess Who I Saw Today (bottom), a song originally composed for the Broadway musical revue New Faces of 1952. She was a new face on the jazz scene in 2021, now at the tender age of 24, if she stays on the straight-and-narrow this chanteuse is going places! Currently, she is touring the globe.
Again, please forgive the long absence of new posts on our website. Other obligations have caused me to temporarily divert my time and resources to a different endeavor, but I intend to resume regular music posts in the spring, with occasional random postings before that whenever possible. Meanwhile, continuing in the spirit of the season, and with gratitude for your continuing interest in the Mark Of Jazz, I have brought Days of Auld Lang Syne forward from our Jazz Scene Podcast page … my way of wishing you a healthy and HAPPY NEW YEAR! May 2024 bring you all the peace, joy, and success you could wish for.
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