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

SCJME Meets The NY Voices

by | May 12, 2024 | Big Band, Vocal Group

The South Carolina Jazz Masterworks Ensemble is a powerful 18 piece orchestra, comprised of the most outstanding jazz musicians, soloists, arrangers, and bandleaders from across the Carolinas. The group was created to perform the original American art form at the highest artistic level … and they consistently succeed in their mission, concert after amazing concert!  A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of attending yet another in their regular series of performances, as they were joined by the New York Voices.   Although the quality is marginal, having been recorded from the audience with my iPhone, I couldn’t help but share a few bits and pieces of that musical evening here at The Mark of Jazz. It was much too enjoyable to simply leave the echoes hanging in the air over row ‘G’ seat 15!

The top video is the 1936 Louis Prima tune, Sing, Sing, Sing, followed by 3 audio segments, including a SC Jazz Masterworks Ensemble instrumental of a 1959 Frank Foster original, from the Count Basie album Chairman Of The Board.  The bottom video features everyone––including the audience––and closed the concert with the mildly raucous, Smack Dab in the Middle.

Avalon

by NY Voices | SCJME

Who Me?

by SCJME | Instrumental

Save Your Love for Me

by NY Voices | SCJME

Billy Taylor – America’s Jazz Ambassador

by | May 5, 2024 | Quartet/Quintet, Stuff

Musician, composer, teacher and all around jazz ambassador, Dr. Billy Taylor’s musical career is legendary. More than just an avid spokesman for “America’s Classical Music”, he fought for the recognition of Black musicians as key contributors to the American music scene … promoting jazz as a commentary against racial prejudice. Despite being one of the most remarkable jazz pianists of all time, the recipient of honors and awards worldwide, through it all, Billy always managed to remain a true gentleman of honor and humility.

The top video is The Way You Look Tonight, at a 1997 Anniversary Concert with Dr. Taylor accompanied by his trio, plus Stanley Turrentine and Gary Burton. In the center is my updated 1989 interview with Billy, brought forward from our Jazz Scene Podcast Page. Finally, bottom most is a light Bossa-Nova rendition of Here’s That Rainy Day … recorded in 2001 with Billy Taylor (p), Chip Jackson (b), and Winard Harper (d), joined by jazz violinist John Blake, Jr.

Time Out With Billy Taylor

by Fred Masey | Podcast #007

Mary Lou Williams

by | Apr 29, 2024 | Solo/Duo, Trio

One of the greatest jazz pianists, composers, and arrangers of all time, Mary Lou Williams was a swing and bebop icon with few equals. A musical prodigy, at the age of two she was able to pick out simple tunes, and by the age of three she was given piano lessons by her mother.  Mary Lou Williams played piano out of necessity at a very young age … when only six, she supported her ten half-brothers and sisters by playing at neighborhood parties. She began performing publicly at the age of seven, when she became known admiringly in Pittsburgh as “The Little Piano Girl” of East Liberty. She became a professional musician at the age of 15, and recorded more that one-hundred records (78s,45s, and 33-1/3 LPs) throughout her lifetime. She was a friend, mentor, and teacher to many of the greats, including the likes of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Above is a performance of an original Williams composition, Medition II, recorded for a popular 1974 television program.  It features Sy Oliver on trumpet, Milton Suggs on bass, and Walter Perkins playing drums. Below left, she partners with Stan Getz in 1978 with the familiar My Blue Heaven … and below right Mary Lou ‘noodles’ Some Blues.  The video quality is poor but her brief solo was so classically blues, I had to include it!

Below is a track from her landmark 1975 album, “Live at the Cookery.”  It’s Mary Lou Williams rendition of the Miles Davis tune, All Blues, with bassist Brian Torff.  The album is a series of duets, essentially taking listeners on a trip through the history of jazz … from hymns and blues to stride, swing, and bop (including “All Blues”).

All Blues

by Mary Lou Williams | Live at the Cookery

Big Boss Tenor – Houston Person

by | Apr 19, 2024 | Quartet/Quintet, Solo/Duo, Trio

In Texas they have a town they call “Houston.”  New York has a street named “Houston” but they pronounce it “Howstin.”  In jazz, there’s a particularly noteworthy Person, and no matter how you say Houston, he’s been playing his big boss tenor both hot and cool for more than half-a-century!  Houston Person’s musical role seems to be as a show stopper and spotlight stealer, no matter who he plays with … he can touch you and growl at you, equally well, during the same electrifying passage.  I have described his style as silk and cement, and you’ll find examples of both––and everything inbetween––in the three videos below.

Topmost is a 1998 performance of Blues Up and Down with David “Fathead” Newman and the Rein deGraaff Trio.  Below that is a tune who’s name is not listed, and which I can’t seem to identify, but Houston’s duo with John Clayton is comfortably energetic nonetheless.  Finally, At Last is a tune with Emmet Cohen (p), Kyle Poole (d), and Russell Hall (b) that has just enough silk and just enough cement to prove my point.

Recorded live in June of 2023 at the Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY.  Person and Clayton … a unique duo with a combined swinging sound will find a place in the heart of any jazz fan.

Recorded in 2021 at Emmet’s Place, in Harlem, NYC. The weekly performances are by invitation only … and they entertain only around 8 guests per show.

Symphony In Black – Duke Ellington

by | Apr 5, 2024 | Big Band, Video

In September 1935, Paramount Pictures released a nine-minute movie that was particularly remarkable for the times … Symphony In Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life.  It was one of the earliest cinematic explorations of African-American culture made for a mass audience.  It features Duke Ellington and his orchestra performing ‘The Duke’s’ first extended composition, “A Rhapsody of Negro Life”.   Just as noteworthy, it stars Billie Holiday in her first filmed performance.

The film represents a landmark in musical, cultural, and entertainment history and is a member of the first generation of non-classically arranged orchestral scores.   Perhaps most significantly, Symphony In Black is one of the first films written by an African-American, describing African-American life, to achieve wide distribution.