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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
In 1961 The Stan Kenton Orchestra recorded a spectacular jazz album of music from West Side Story that rivaled even the soundtrack of the movie and the Broadway play. Kenton West Side Story was one of the first ‘mellophonium‘ albums, featuring the newly-developed trumpet/French horn hybrid instrument and won Stan his first Grammy Award in 1962 for Best sound track LP and Best large ensemble jazz LP. Here are three songs from that album:
Kenton’s beautifully mellow rendition of Maria is music from the album itself. Prologue [on the left] and Cool [on the right] are videos recorded during a live 1961 performance of the album material.
Drummer Art Blakey and the 1989 version of his Jazz Messengers (with trumpeter Brian Lynch, tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson, trombonist Frank Lacy, pianist Geoff Keezer and bassist Buster Williams) celebrated the leader’s 70th birthday by welcoming back several notable alumni: trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Terence Blanchard, altoists Jackie McLeanand Donald Harrison, tenors Wayne Shorter and Benny Golson, pianist Walter Davis Jr. and trombonist Curtis Fuller. The opening song of that all star performance was Two Of A Kind … and that set the tone for the next couple of hours.
The lower video features the original Jazz Messengers in 1961 with the slightly comedic Bobby Timmons tune Dat Dere … featuring Blakey on drums, the great Lee Morgan playing trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Bobby Timmons playing piano and Jymie Meritt on bass.
Many performances feature what they call All Stars but this 1994 Carnegie Hall Concert actually had the proof in the pudding … jazz legends one and all! Imagine J.J. Johnson, Roy Hargrove, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson, Kenny Burrell, Herbie Hancock, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Christian McBride, Kenny Washington, Betty Carter and Dee Dee Bridgewater all in the same place, at the same time, on the same stage! Charlie Parker’s Now’s The Time was the perfect vehicle to deliver standout moments like Betty Carter trading fours with J.J. Johnson, Roy Hargrove, Jackie McLean and Joe Henderson! Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. Here is the grand slam finale of that concert!
You can hear the concert in its entirety on YouTube at https://youtu.be/PTPuhLp8fWM
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