Listen carefully to “Li’l Darlin'” both by the Count Basie Orchestra, and by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross with Joe Williams. The first thing that struck me when I heard these two versions of the song, is that you almost have to listen twice to tell which is the instrumental and which is the vocal. That’s how precise LH&R’s style and phrasing was! Here they are side-by-side. What do you think?
Here are three classic musical performances by Lady Day and Satchmo Armstrong from the 1947 motion picture “New Orleans”. The film is a tribute to the birth of jazz, and also features Woody Herman along with some of music’s greatest legends. The video at the top is The Blues Are Brewin’ with Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans at the lower left and Dixie Music Man on the lower right.
Recorded 1971 in Tivoli by The Jazz Giants: Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet; Thelonius Monk, piano; Kai Winding, trombone; Sonny Stitt, alto and tenor saxes; Al McKibbon, bass and Art Blakey, drums. It just doesn’t get better than that!
Chris Connor didn’t just sing a song, she owned it! Born in Kansas City to a musical family, she was originally trained on the clarinet but made her first on stage appearance as a singer … and a singer she remained forever more. Her easy going manner and distinctive ability to get ‘inside’ a lyric became her trademark. Although she performed with big name big bands, including the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Chris preferred smaller groups and established her lasting reputation touring internationally as a solo performer leading her own trio. She was one of only a handful of white vocalists considered to be, incontestably, pure jazz singers.
Frank Wess, Jon Faddis and The Barcelona Jazz Orquestra play John Birks Gillespie’s classic composition. “Birks Works” has been recorded by many of the greatest in jazz … and “Birks”? Well, that refers to Dizzy’s middle name! Jazz At Lincoln Center, 11/2012.
In Jazzcast #003 I pointed out the symbiotic relationship between jazz and other forms of music. On Lush Life, the second in a trilogy of 1980s jazz albums with Linda Ronstadt and Nelson Riddle, Linda temporarily abandons her pop/rock stardom in favor of more traditional fare. Her excellence in any genre becomes immediately apparent from the first few bars, with the album going Triple Platinum registering sales of over 3 million copies in the United States alone.
The Modern Jazz Quartet began in 1952, performing music influenced by classical, cool jazz, blues, and bebop. They carved out their own special niche playing elegant, restrained music, that utilized sophisticated counterpoint, while retaining a strong blues feel.
Here are some low down blues from 1973 … featuring Illinois Jacquet (ts), Wild Bill Davis (org) and Al Bartee (d). Although pure jazz, Illinois is credited with introducing a sound later recognized as the first R&B sax solo ever recorded. He was also one of the few jazz musicians to play bassoon.
To celebrate the arrival of summer, here are not one but two unique treatments of the Gershwin classic. Summertime was originally an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin. Through the years, the song has became a truly solid jazz standard.
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