Cute / Willow Weep for Me – Mel Lewis

by | Apr 11, 2025 | Big Band, Quartet/Quintet

Mel Lewis was an American jazz drummer, session musician, professor, and author, who received fourteen Grammy Award nominations. He did it all! Lewis’s cymbal work, in particular, was considered unique among many musicians … drummer Buddy Rich once remarked, “Mel Lewis doesn’t sound like anybody else. He sounds like himself.” In 1966 Mel teamed up with composer, arranger, trumpeter/cornetist Thad Jones to form the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra.

Topmost, At the 1984 Swiss “Jazz-In”, Mel Lewis teams up with Horst Jankowski at the piano, ‘Toots’ Thielemans playing harmonica, Mads Vinding on bass, and Pierre Cavalli on guitar to perform the bright and breezy Cute. Below that, Is rather non-standard arrangement of the standard Willow Weep for Me, typical of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big band, which played primarily at the Village Vanguard in New York for the next twenty-four years.

Jazz Italian Style

by | Apr 6, 2025 | Big Band, Quartet/Quintet, Vocal

Funny, but she sounds awfully American! Roberta Gambarini came to America in 1998 from Turin, Italy, and took the jazz world by storm. Roberta has toured and sung with the greatest in the business … from Dizzy Gillespie to Jimmy Heath, from Clark Terry to Paquito D’Rivera.  I’ll be seeing her perform live for the first time next Saturday, with the South Carolina Jazz Masterworks Ensemble. Keep you posted. (Above) Gambarini is reflective with a heartfelt rendition of Every Time We Say Goodbye. She was recorded live in 2009 at Jazz A Vienne (France) with the Roy Hargrove Big Band. (Below) Roberta steps up the tempo with Joe Lovano (ts), Cyrus Chestnut (p), James Genus (b), and Antonio Sanchez (d) in 2021, singing When Lights Are Low at the 10th annual celebration of International Jazz Day, featuring top musicians from all over the world.

Haruka Kikuchi – Girl with a Horn

by | Mar 29, 2025 | Quartet/Quintet, Vocal

Jazz may be “America’s Classical Music” but it has a strong, worldwide appeal. Trombonist Haruka Kikuchi is a native of Tokyo, Japan, who always had a knack and a love for music, listening to as much of it as she could at a young age, as well as picking up instruments like piano and violin. It wasn’t until she heard an old recording of the Original Dixieland Jass Band that she decided to pick up a trombone, a decision that would inspire her to move the 7,000 miles to New Orleans in 2014, where she has been “making her bones” ever since. You first heard Haruka –– also known as Queen of Tailgate because she continues the tailgate style trombone, which is a tradition of New Orleans Jazz –– on Mark of Jazz a few weeks ago performing with The Preservation Hall Jazz Band. I was floored by her playing and felt compelled to feature her this week.

The tune (above) is Wabash Blues, presented live in 2020 from the studios of WWOZ, with Haruka Kikuchi on trombone, Z2 at the piano, Nobu Ozaki on bass, Mishi playing trumpet and Gerald French on drums. (Left upper) they cut loose on Hold That Tiger … in 2015, also live from WWOZ in New Orleans. (Left bottom) is the old favorite Margie, recorded at the Jazz and Heritage Center in 2023, with a Satchmo style vocal by the drummer.

Maynard Ferguson with Sid Mark

by | Mar 22, 2025 | Audio, Big Band, Vocal

What’s in a name?  Well, The Mark Of Jazz is more than just a name it was an actual, living person.  It was also an upbeat song and a highly successful 1950’s radio show.  Specifically, the person’s name is Sid Mark and the song, written as a tribute to him, just happens to be called The Mark Of Jazz.  You can hear some of the Slide Hampton arrangement, performed by the Maynard Ferguson orchestra, in the podcast below. The (top) video offers a bit of banter between Mark and Ferguson before launching into I Can’t Get Started, with Maynard actually attempting a vocal!

Sid’s long running Mark of Jazz radio show was heard locally in Philadelphia, where he established himself as a popular disc jockey, before coming into widespread prominence with his nationally syndicated Sounds of Sinatra … a program which has run for more than half a century! He developed a close friendship with both Frank and Maynard that spanned nearly half-a-century. This website is intended as a salute, not only to jazz music, but to the man … The Mark Of Jazz..

Thanks to Sid Mark, the music of Francis Albert Sinatra has become an integral part of our lives.  I believe he is the only disc jockey with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  A button on his studio wall pretty much said it all: “It’s Sinatra’s world.  We just live in it”. But the videos above are pure Maynard Ferguson.  On The (left) is a nearly signature Ferguson song––the theme from Rocky––Gonna Fly Now. To me, Maynard owns the definitive version of it. On the (right) the big band cuts lose on a tune called Got It … and below I’ve brought my Whydat Podcast forward from our Podcast Page, to explain why we named our website as we did, and what my own connection was to the man and the legend.

Whydat?

by Fred Masey | Podcast #002

N’Orleans Jazz with the PHJB

by | Mar 15, 2025 | Orchestral, Quartet/Quintet, Septet/Octet

Preservation Hall Jazz Band has held the torch of New Orleans music aloft for more than 50 years, keeping the history they were founded to preserve alive and well. This ageless ensemble has toured the world displaying the unbreakable spirit of New Orleans and sharing the joy of its very special style of jazz. The band consists of Ben Jaffe (one of the original founders), Branden Lewis, Charlie Gabriel, Walter Harris, Kyle Roussel, Ronell Johnson, and Clint Maedgen. The PHJB‘s name and mission are directly tied to Preservation Hall, a venue in the French Quarter that serves as a hub for traditional New Orleans jazz. In 2006, The Band was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence. (Above) they perform Bourbon Street Parade together with the Cincinatti Pops Orchestra in a PBS special “Take Me to the River.”

The video below is bit of a mystery. The group is called The Preservation Hall Jazz Quartet … although they perform at Preservation Hall, I cannot find any information affirming or denying a connection to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The quartet consists of Kevin Louis on trumpet, Lars Edegran at the piano, Haruka Kikuchi playing trombone, and Joe Lastie on drums. The tune is a mystery as well. I don’t recognize it, nor can I find reference to a name anywhere, but one thing is for certain … the sound is pure N’Orleans!

Straight Ahead with the MJQ

by | Mar 7, 2025 | Quartet/Quintet

Continuing with the most well known members of with the Modern Jazz Quartet, once again we have John Lewis at the piano, Milt Jackson on vibes, Percy Heath playing bass and Connie Kay on drums. They were all pioneer bop musicians who early on pursued separate careers; except for Percy Heath, they had played together in the 1948 Dizzy Gillespie big band. In 1952, Heath was added and the Modern Jazz Quartet was born.

These videos serve-up a bit more standard MJQ fare than our feature last week. (Above) is a 1961 rendition of John Lewis’ Bags Groove … written as a tip of the cap to Milt Jackson. “Bags” was a nickname given to Milt by a Detroit bass player, and referred to the bags under his eyes. The name stuck! (Below) is a Milt Jackson original, True Blues, recorded in 1982 at the Alexandra Palace (Capital Radio Jazz Festival) in London.

Fiddlin’ Around with the MJQ

by | Mar 1, 2025 | Orchestral, Quartet/Quintet

The Modern Jazz Quartet began in 1952, performing music influenced by classical, cool jazz, blues, and bebop. They carved out their own special niche playing elegant, restrained music, that utilized sophisticated counterpoint, while retaining a strong blues feel. They performed and recorded jazz, off and on, for some 45 years between 1952 and 1997.  As with any group of musicians there were occasional personnel changes but the core group remained for most of that time.  The personnel probably most frequently identified with MJQ are John Lewis at the piano, Milt Jackson on vibes, Percy Heath playing bass and Connie Kay on drums.

A Day in Dubrovnik (top) is a John Lewis composition, and adds strings to The Quartet for a slightly classical, European flavor. Meanwhile (below) Itzhak Perlman lends his talented ‘fiddle’ to the MJQ mix in a most delightful arrangement of Summertime that would capture even George Gershwin’s attention … recorded at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel in 1987.

Clark Terry Plus 3

by | Feb 20, 2025 | Quartet/Quintet, Solo/Duo

Clark Terry was one of the most influential swing and bebop trumpeters of our time, not to mention a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz.  He was also a composer, educator, and mentor whose career in jazz spanned more than 70 years, during which he became one of the most prolific of all jazz musicians, appearing on over 900 recordings! Born and raised in St. Louis, he blended the St. Louis sound upon which he ‘cut his teeth’ (as a youth he made a makeshift trumpet by attaching a funnel to a garden hose and using a lead pipe as a mouthpiece) with more contemporary music styles. Terry played with some of the greatest of the big bands, but his years with Basie and Ellington (who secretly recruited Clark away from Basie) in the late 1940s and 1950s established his lasting prominence.

The uppermost video is Mack The Knife, an earlier version of Terry recorded with the Oscar Peterson Trio in Finland during 1965. It features Clark on flugelhorn, Ed Thigpen on drums, Ray Brown at the bass, and of course Peterson playing piano.

To the left is a rare duo between Clark Terry on both flugelhorn and trumpet (watch carefully) and Red Mitchell on bass, with a most unusual rendition of Take The A Train. At the bottom the Ellington/Strayhorn mood continues with Satin Doll, recorded in Copenhagen during 1985 by the Clark Terry Quartet … comprised of Terry on trumpet, Duke Jordan playing piano, Jimmy Woode on bass, and Svend Norregaard drums.

Bill Evans – Three for One

by | Feb 13, 2025 | Trio

Legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans was one of those people who, tragically, left us all too soon … but left behind a body of work that has become a benchmark for future generations of young pianists. When you say the word “piano” you might as well just say “Bill Evans” because they are synonymous. The only criticism I’ve heard of Bill is that he didn’t have “chops” … obviously uttered by someone who may have heard him play, but didn’t really listen.  Forming the trio on Miles Davis’ Nardis (top), as well as on How My Heart Sings (middle), and Gershwin’s classic Summertime (bottom) is Bill Evans playing piano, Larry Bunker on drums and Chuck Israels on bass.

The Double Six of Paris

by | Jan 31, 2025 | Sextet, Vocal Group

Early Autumn

by Double Six of Paris | Les Double Six

The Double Six of Paris (also known as Les Double Six) was a French vocal jazz group established in 1959 by Mimi Perrin. The group established an international reputation in the early 1960s. The name of the group was an allusion to the fact that the sextet used double-tracking techniques to enhance and “fatten” their sound, very much like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys did in the recording studio. The six members would all sing once to a recording track, then sing the exact duplicate performance again to a second track, “doubling” each individual vocal part.  Singing in French, they performed jazz standards, favoring songs by Quincy Jones and Dizzy Gillespie, recording four albums between 1959 and 1964. The membership was fluid, with many different personnel on various recordings.

The group was not long-lasting. Because of Perrin’s continuing health problems (she had contracted tuberculosis in 1949); The Double Six dissolved in 1966. Several members of the group went on to join the Swingle Singers, which notably reproduced the works of Bach in the jazz vocal style. Here are a few rare recorded performances of Double Six from around 1965. Top video is Bobby Timmons’ Moanin’ … below that a pair of tunes beginning with Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ Boplicity, which then moves into something unidentified, very uptempo, and well worth the listen even if you don’t speak French!