Joe Williams and Count Basie Together

by | Feb 11, 2022 | Big Band, Vocal

On March 20, 1981 the great Joe Williams joined the Count Basie Orchestra for a star-studded concert in New York at Carnegie Hall, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Basie’s illustrious career.  Also on board were Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett and George Benson.  The concert later became a television special and eventually a performance DVD … Going To Chicago Blues is one of three songs Joe contributed to the performance that evening.  Posting the audio cut of Smack Dab In The Middle from his album The Greatest – Count Basie Plays, Joe Williams Sings Standards, was irresistible.  I double dog dare you to keep your feet still!

Smack Dab In The Middle

by Joe Williams & Count Basie | The Greatest

C-Jam Blues – Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington

by | Jan 14, 2022 | Big Band, Vocal

Sometimes referred to as “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century.  She first met Duke Ellington in the mid-1930’s, while she was performing at Harlem’s legendary Savoy Ballroom with Chick Webb and His Orchestra. The two would remain friends and collaborators for the rest of their lives.  Here, Duke and Ella team up to perform Ellington’s C-Jam Blues (also known as “Duke’s Place”) during their 1966 European tour.

A Tony Bennett Christmas

by | Dec 17, 2021 | Big Band, Orchestral, Vocal

After Tony Bennett’s recent retirement form a stellar career spanning more than half-a-century, here are two Christmas-themed performances I’d like to share with you from one of his three or four ‘primes’ … as well as an interview with Tony from my Jazz Scene Podcast page.  In 1989 I had the pleasure of peeling back a couple of outer layers and speaking with him about more than just his music.

The first video is a typically smooth Bennett blend of I Love The Winter Weather and I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm from A Family Christmas.  Then Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, together with the Count Basie Orchestra, from A Swingin’ Christmas, moves us just a bit closer to the big day when the jolly old elf himself makes his rounds.

Talkin' With Tony

by Fred Masey | JS Podcast

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

by | Dec 10, 2021 | Big Band, Vocal

Big name?  No.      Big sound? It’s the Marines!    This is The Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band with,    It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.

The Muppets probably aren’t found in any jazz lexicon but they are as full of Christmas joy and spirit as Old St. Nick himself! They undeniably help make this The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

Locksley Wellington ‘Slide’ Hampton

by | Oct 30, 2021 | Big Band, Orchestral, Septet/Octet

If some of the video images look as though they were reversed, they weren’t.  It’s only that Slide Hampton has the trombone slung over his right shoulder instead of his left.  As a child, he acquired a trombone set up for left handed musicians and continued to play it for the rest of his life … even though he was right handed!  In 1971, Slide was invited to Italy by Franco Cerri, one of the greatest Italian jazz guitarists of the time.  He was featured on an episode of the Italian TV variety show “No Network” and the result was the topmost video Night Never Come, which also appeared on his 1975 album Jazz From Italy with the Slide Hampton Quartet.

The Lower video is Side’s Blues.  It’s part of an 85th birthday celebration for Slide on April 22, 2017 at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.  It’s a Slide Hampton Original featuring Slide Hampton (trombone) with: Sam Dillon (tenor saxophone); Frank Basile (baritone saxophone); Marshall Gilkes & Ryan Keberle (trombones); Tony Kadleck & Fabien Mary (trumpets); David Wong (bass) and Charles Ruggiero (drums).

The two audio cuts below are both from Hampton’s album “Something Sanctified” recorded in 1960. His Octet was comprised of Slide Hampton (tb, b-horn, arr), Charles Greenlee (tb, b-horn), Richard Williams & Hobart Dotson (tp), George Coleman (ts), Jay Cameron (bs,b-cl), Larry Ridley (b) and Pete La Roca (ds).  In 1962 a revised ensemble, maintaining the same full-throated sound, toured the U.S. and Europe featuring the horns of Booker Little, George Coleman and Freddie Hubbard.

On The Street Where You Live

by Slide Hampton Octet | Somethin' Sanctified

Milestones

by Slide Hampton Octet | Somethin' Sanctified

John Pizzarelli Live!

by | Oct 7, 2021 | Big Band, Quartet/Quintet

Like so many great musicians, John Pizzarelli is a New Jersey Guy.  The son of swing guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, John was born in Paterson, began playing guitar at the age of six and has been performing ever since.  The topmost video, If I Had You, was recorded in 1992 during the Montreal Jazz Festival at the Club Soda Concert Hall and Music Venue in Canada, as was the lower-right video All Of Me.  Pizzarelli’s consistent excellence through the years is obvious as you listen to the lower-left video of Baby All The Time recorded in 2007 at the Festival Internacional de Jazz San Javier in Spain.  On Baby, he is joined by Larry Fuller at the piano, Martin Pizzarelli on bass, Tony Tedesco playing drums and Harry Allen on tenor sax.

The Fifties Ferguson

by | May 21, 2021 | Big Band

Maynard Ferguson went through several musical transitions during his more than 40 years on the jazz scene but one of my favorite periods was during the 1950s when he was first introduced to the general public.  Newly arrived from Canada, while he was only 22 years old and playing with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Maynard’s introductory appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show established him as one of the premier trumpet players of the era.  He was fearless during those years.  The video below is from that appearance.  A year later, in 1951, he recorded What’s New … not only one of my favorite tunes but one that truly demonstrates his ability to play notes which, theoretically, can’t be played on a trumpet.

What's New

by Maynard Ferguson | Band Ain't Draggin'

2021 Jazz Masters Virtual Concert

by | Apr 25, 2021 | Big Band, Quartet/Quintet, Vocal

On April 22, 2021, the National Endowment for the Arts, in collaboration with SFJAZZ, presented a virtual tribute concert celebrating the 2021 NEA Jazz Masters. Topsy, originally written for the Country Basie Orchestra is performed in the top video. It featured Wynton Marsalis on trumpet, Dan Nimmer playing piano, Vince Giordano on both guitar and bass, and Jason Marsalis playing drums.  For more background and the complete concert, click the link above.

Below is the Irving Berlin standard Cheek To Cheek, swung by Dee Dee Bridgewater, backed by the SFJAZZ High School All Stars Big Band. Yes, High School!

The Incomparable Joe Williams

by | Apr 17, 2021 | Big Band, Vocal

Above, Joe Williams sings Alright, Okay, You Win, an old chestnut from his Count Basie days at the Ella Awards in December of 1990.  Then, at the end of the evening in a wonderful mayhem, all the singers plus honoree Frank Sinatra join in a reprise of the tune … more fun than anyone ought to be allowed to have.  It sure must have been a blast to be in that room, that night!  Below, simply some down and dirty blues as Count Basie’s “number one son” Joe Williams [here in his prime] sings Five O’Clock In The Morning on television’s Judy Garland Show.

Steppin’ Out With My Baby – Fred Astaire

by | Apr 4, 2021 | Big Band, Holiday, Soundtrack

Here’s a scene from the 1948 movie Easter Parade that is guaranteed to please any Fred Astaire fan and make a fan out of anyone who isn’t already!  Astaire was unquestionably one of the greatest entertainers of all time, but as you watch him perform you realize that, as a dancer, he also had to be an extremely well conditioned athlete. Along with Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies and marshmallow Peeps … Easter Parade, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland are musts for your Easter Holiday basket.  Though loosely defined as jazz, this bit of cinema magic demands that we toss away the dictionary, at least for one day every year!