Happy Reunion – Duke Ellington & Paul Gonsalves

by | May 29, 2020 | Solo/Duo

Happy Reunion was a frequent concert feature for Gonsalves in the Ellington band’s later years.  Here, Paul was at the end of his career and no longer anywhere near his prime.  Still, if you take into account the close, enduring friendship between these men, and the fact that they even died only 4 months apart, this rare collaboration with just the two of them, makes for a tender and most memorable moment.

The story behind this performance seems to be that Paul Gonsalves, who had a long history of alcohol and drug abuse, had been under the weather and was late for a rehearsal with the full band. The usual Ellington strategy with a wayward musician was to call upon him for one solo after another. This video was recorded the next afternoon as the legendary tenor man again shows up late and is greeted by Ellington with, “Stinky, you juiced again?” At the end of the classic duo’s number, Gonsalves requests four kisses … an Ellington specialty. It’s a happy reunion and everything is forgiven, as always.

The Fabulous Baker Boys

by | Dec 6, 2019 | Solo/Duo, Vocal

The Fabulous Baker Boys is a movie about two guys and a girl, that play against one incredible jazz-based soundtrack!  Toss in some sibling rivalry and you have a motion picture that feels good no matter how many times you see it.

Michelle Pfeiffer does all of her own singing … and is quite a nice surprise, considering we previously only knew her as a most enjoyable actress.   Jeff and Beau Bridges play some of their own piano, although Dave Grusin does most of the keyboard work with the Bridges brothers very convincingly miming it.

Music flows from one end of the story to the other and the plot is a sound one, especially if you happen to have grown up with an obverse brother or sister … or just had a really close best friend.  Here’s a small sample.

Like Someone In Love / Red Suede Shoes – Chuck Loeb

by | Nov 29, 2019 | Quartet/Quintet, Solo/Duo

Like Someone In Love is a jazz standard.  Chuck Loeb was a guitarist with one foot anchored in traditional jazz and the other tap dancing its way around the [so called] smooth jazz genre. John Patitucci is an award winning bassist and composer, who was inspired by the likes of Ray Brown and Ron Carter … but who frequently likes to dance to the beat of his own drummer.  Put all three together and you have a couple of old friends just noodling on a familiar tune that makes everyone within earshot feel like “dis must be da place!”

As a sort of bonus, I’m including Red Suede Shoes as a sample of Chuck’s smooth jazz virtuosity.  Notice the orchestration reaches beyond the usual “death by saxophone” or “death by guitar” sound that seems to dominate the genre.

Red Suede Shoes

by Chuck Loeb | Plain 'n Simple

Mary Lou Williams – Pianist’s Pianist

by | Aug 16, 2019 | Solo/Duo, Trio

Mary Lou Williams was one of the few female jazz pianists to achieve fame during the middle of the 20th Century.  She was also a much sought after composer, arranger and mentor. Mary Lou wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions). Williams wrote and arranged for such bandleaders as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. Three of her compositions were scored for a Carnegie Hall concert played by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1946!

The top video, Willow Weep For Me, is a popular 1932 standard from The Mary Lou Williams Collection 1927-59 and features her trio. The bottom two offerings, The Man I Love (1978) on the left and Mary Lou Plays Some Blues (1980) on the right are live solo performances recorded toward the end of her fabulous career..

Squatty Roo / Five O’Clock Whistle – Ray Brown

by | Jun 28, 2019 | Solo/Duo, Trio

Squatty Roo was recorded in 2002 at the Bern Jazz Festival by the Ray Brown Trio.  It’s a kicky little tune written by Johnny Hodges, with Ray of course on bass, Larry Fuller at the piano and Karriem Riggins playing drums.

Five O’Clock Whistle is an exercise in “lyrical bassism” (My term, not theirs).  John Clayton joins Ray Brown in a duo setting that will have you wide-eyed and keen-eared from beginning to end.   This is something you just never hear … but here it is!

My Favorite Things – Joey Alexander, Encore!

by | Nov 21, 2018 | Solo/Duo

Do you realize there is no Thanksgiving jazz?  The only Thanksgiving song I could  even think of was “Over The River and Through the Woods” but I couldn’t find a jazz rendition.  The closest I could come was “My Favorite Things” but what a find it was, holiday or not.  None other than Joey Alexander, that kid prodigy from Indonesia, once again dazzles us with his piano prowess.

To have reached this level of technical proficiency and have such a sophisticated harmonic understanding at the tender age of 12 is nothing short of astonishing!  I couldn’t decide which of these performances to share and the contrast between the two is most outstanding when heard side-by-side.  So here are both … and Happy Thanksgiving.  What is going on inside this young man’s head is enough to make many established jazz pianists blush!.

Joey Alexander performs the title track from his debut album “My Favorite Things” in studio, along with the intricate bass work of Larry Grenadier.  

Joey plays jazz piano like old timer, but he’s only 11-years-old for this solo performance.  They say he started playing at six … then “got serious” at seven.  

Parker’s Mood – James Moody

by | May 11, 2018 | Orchestral, Solo/Duo

James Moody was a jazz saxophonist and flutist from Newark, New Jersey, celebrated for his virtuosity, his versatility and his onstage ebullience. This is a gentle solo with strings, from Eastwood After Hours, recorded at Carnegie Hall in NYC on October 17, 1996.

Cry Me A River – Julie London

by | Feb 2, 2018 | Solo/Duo, Vocal

Sexy is, as the commercials say, “often imitated but never duplicated.”  It’s not baring lots of skin or exhibiting a particular sort of behavior but, rather, it is a natural quality that shines even through a high-button housecoat.  In other words, you either have it or you don’t.  Julie London oozed it!  Cry Me A River pretty much became her signature song and nobody ever did it better … it’s amazing how Julie’s simple but sexy rendition so completely outclasses modern ‘Divas’ with all their vocal gymnastics and glory notes!  This cut is from the May 1964 laser disc The Julie London Show with the Bobby Troup Quintet.

Satin Doll / Windsong – Mundell Lowe

by | Jan 5, 2018 | Orchestral, Solo/Duo

Mundell Lowe and Louis Stewart perform Satin Doll together with a string quartet.  It’s a unique treatment of the Ellington / Strayhorn classic, with the tender touch of one of jazz’s guitar icons.

Wind Song is a rhythmic, medium-up tempo tune featuring Mundell Lowe and Louis Stewart on guitars, Jim Doherty piano, Dave Gausden bass, Peter Ainscough on drums, augmented by a classical string quartet just to keep things interesting.