Swift Jazz

by | Jul 21, 2024 | Big Band, Orchestral, Vocal

Veronica Swift (no relation to the popular diva) is an amazing 23-year-old jazz and bebop chanteuse, who has already appeared with some of the biggest names in the idiom.  From a family of musicians, she cut her first album, Veronica’s House of Jazz, at the age of 9 and her second at 13! She has a most amazing voice and exciting style … as evidenced by the topmost video with Chris Botti and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, There Will Never Be Another You.  Bottom left, she appears with the Steven Feifke Big Band, rehearsing an unusual treatment of On The Street Where You Live, while bottom right Veronica stretches out with the Feifke band on the time honored standard, Until the Real Thing Comes Along.

Shades of Mahogany

by | Jul 14, 2024 | Trio, Vocal

Since I Fell For You

by Kevin Mahogany | Double Rainbow

Kevin Mahogany became prominent in the 1990s and became particularly known for his scat singing. His singing style has sometimes been compared with that of Billy Eckstine, and Joe Williams, with many of his more mellow tones containing a touch of Johnny Hartman. Since I Fell For You (above) is from Kevin’s first album Double Rainbow in 1993, where his vocals were paired with the piano of Kenny Barron, sax of Ralph Moore, drums of Lewis Nash and bass from Ray Drummond.

[On] Green Dolphin Street features Kevin Mahogany with the vocal chores, Larry Fuller playing piano, Ray Brown on bass, and George Fludas on drums.

Like Green Dolphin Street, My Foolish Heart was recorded with The Ray Brown Trio at Internationale Jazzwoche Burghausen 2001 in Germany.

One If By Sax, Two If By Flute

by | Jul 7, 2024 | Big Band, Quartet/Quintet

More than a jazz saxophone and flute player, James Moody was something of a vocalist and composer as well. While playing predominantly in the bebop and hard bop styles, Moody took up the alto sax at the age of 16, eventually adding the flute and tenor to his tool bag, for its deeper resonance. He played with Dizzy Gillespie in 1964, where his colleagues in the Gillespie group––pianist Kenny Barron and guitarist Les Spann––would become important musical collaborators in the coming decades.

Mmm Hmm (top video) is a Moody original, with James playing flute, Christopher White on bass, Kenny Barron at the piano, and Rudy Collins on drums. It was recorded on the French Riviera in 1965.  Parker’s Mood (lower video) is from “Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall,” a 1996 live performance recorded for both record and video. Moody plays the sax on this one and the tune, of course, references ‘Bird’. Along with James Moody are Barry Harris on piano, Christian McBride on Bass, Kenny Washington playing drums, and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, plus strings under Lennie Niehaus..

Gettin’ Dizzy

by | Jun 30, 2024 | Big Band, Quartet/Quintet

John Birks Gillespie got the name “Dizzy” because of his offhand manner and outlandish antics. He got the unusual-looking bent-bell trumpet in 1953, when someone accidentally fell on his trumpet stand backstage. Gillespie liked the sound of the altered instrument so much that his trumpets were specially made in that configuration from then on. More than a jazz trumpet virtuoso, bandleader, composer, educator and singer, he was a civil rights advocate who participated in marches and protests … and even ran for president as a write-in candidate in 1964!

No More Blues (top) was taken from a 1966 BBC television show, and features Dizzy on trumpet, James Moody on alto, Kenny Barron at the piano, Chris White on bass, and Rudy Collins playing drums. In the (middle) we have Dizzy with the United Nations Orchestra playing Tin Tin Deo in 1989 at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Also included in the mix are such notables as trombonist Slide Hampton, saxophonists James Moody & Paquito D’Rivera, trumpet player Arturo Sandoval, and guitarist Ed Cherry. Finally (bottom) is a tune called Brother K. It was named by Gillespie in1968 as a response to the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy that year.

Dexter Gordon Takes Belgium

by | Jun 23, 2024 | Quartet/Quintet

Dexter Gordon filmed 3 concerts in 1964 while living in Europe … Holland, Switzerland and Belgium. Body and Soul is from the Belgium session, and particularly highlights his classic style and silky tone.

“Long tall Dexter” was an early influence on both John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins,  as well as many other greats.  As above, accompanying Dex on  Lady Bird are George Gruntz on piano, Guy Pedersen on bass, and Daniel Humair playing drums.

A Horn Named Shirley

by | Jun 15, 2024 | Orchestral, Quartet/Quintet, Trio

Shirley Horn was both a jazz singer and pianist.  She formed her first jazz trio at the age of 20, and collaborated with many legendary musicians, including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Toots Thielemans, Ron Carter, Carmen McRae, Wynton Marsalis, and others. She was most noted for her ability to accompany herself with near-incomparable musical independence on the piano as she sang.  This was an ability described by arranger Johnny Mandel as “like having two heads.”  Her rich, lush voice, a smoky contralto, was once described by noted producer and arranger Quincy Jones as “like clothing, as she seduces you with her voice.”

The video above is Nice and Easy, recorded in concert at the 1990 International Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland … and, as the title indicates, it swings comfortably.  Below [left] Shirley  performs an uptempo Just In Time, at the 1992 Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island … while below [right] she eases back with a haunting rendition of How Insensitive.

Finally, [bottom-most] Shirley Horn reaches for your heartstrings and tugs a bit with a quiet look at life, as she performs Here’s to Life at the 1994 North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands.  She is backed by the Metropole Orchestra and a sea of lush strings.

The Sweet and Swingin’ Sonny Stitt

by | Jun 9, 2024 | Quartet/Quintet, Sextet

Sunny Stitt is often compared with the great Charlie Parker. No wonder … he speaks “Bird!” Everything Happens to Me was recorded in Tivoli, in 1971, with Art Blakey on drums and Al McKibbon on bass.

During a 1964 memorial tribute to Parker in Berlin, Sonny Stitt, J.J. Johnson (tb), Howard McGhee (t), Walter Bishop Jr. (p), Tommy Potter (b), and Kenny Clarke (d), play his composition My Little Suede Shoes.

Lover Man [Oh Where Can You Be] has become a standard … laid back and mellow. Sonny is joined once again by Walter Bishop, Tommy Potter, and Kenny Clarke. More Sonny Stitt … March 15,2019. Compare his Lover Man solos.

Billie’s Blues

by | Jun 1, 2024 | Big Band, Vocal

The perfect musical storm descended upon at CBS Studio 58 in New York City, on December 8, 1957. The chemistry among the musicians––between each other and with the vocalist––radiated a rare magic that occurs only when the stars are in utopian alignment. And the incredible Billie Holiday was at her bluesy best!

She was backed by a band featuring such legends as Doc Cheatham, Roy Eldridge, and Joe Newman on trumpets; Bob Brookmeyer on trombone; Jimmy Giuffre playing clarinet; Earle Warren on alto; Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Lester Young playing tenors; Gerry Mulligan was on baritone; Freddie Green and Jim Hall played guitars; Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Nat Pierce, and Mal Waldron played pianos for the session; Milt Hinton, was on bass; Papa Jo Jones and Osie Johnson alternated on drums.

Billie Holiday was Fine and Mellow (My Man Don’t Love Me).

The Old and The New – Lionel Hampton

by | May 25, 2024 | Big Band, Orchestral

Lionel Leo Hampton was an iconic jazz musician and bandleader, known for the rhythmic vitality of his playing and his showmanship as a performer. Best known for his work on the vibraphone, Hampton was also a skilled drummer (his original instrument), pianist, and singer.  During a recording session in 1930, while accompanying Louis Armstrong, Satchmo asked Lionel to play a vibraphone that had been fortuitously left in the studio. The results were “Memories of You” and “Shine,” the first jazz recordings to feature improvised vibraphone solos. From that point on, the vibes became Hampton’s main instrument.  Above, you’ll hear an excitingly different treatment of In The Mood, –– like Glenn Miller never played it –– featuring the St. Petersburg State Orchestra and Lionel Hampton, still at his finest in 1994.

Midnight Sun was originally an instrumental composed by Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke in 1947; it is now considered a jazz standard. This performance was around 1948.

This Kennedy Center performance of Air Mail Special is from a 1982 tribute to Benny Goodman.  You’ll probably recognize several well-known dignitaries in the audience.

Jammin’ with Cozy Cole

by | May 17, 2024 | Audio, Quartet/Quintet, Video

Cozy Cole was a free-wheeling drummer who made his mark in the world of jazz with some of the top bands of the 1930s and 40s. He continued to perform into the 70s in a variety of settings, alongside names like Jonah Jones, Stuff Smith, and Cab Calloway.  Because of his aggressive style, Cole is often cited as an influence by many of our contemporary rock drummers.

In my “What About Dat” page here at Mark of Jazz, I talk about one music genre crossing over to another. There is probably no better example than Cozy Cole’s 1958 hit recordings of Topsy Part 1 that made it to #27 on the Billboard Hot 100, and Topsy Part 2 that made it all the way to #3 … #1 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues Chart, staying atop the latter for six weeks!  The original version of both tunes can be heard below, with a wonderfully laid back after hours jam session inbetween.  It begins with some simple blues, culminating with Coleman Hawkins joining Cole and the quartet for a captivating rendition of Lover Man (Where Can You Be).  The players are Cozy Cole (d), Coleman Hawkins (ts), Johnny Guarnieri (p), Barry Galbraith (g), and Milt Hinton (b).

 

Topsy Part 1

by Cozy Cole | Cozy Cole Hits

Topsy Part 2

by Cozy Cole | Cozy Cole Hits