Flying Home – Lionel Hampton

by | Nov 2, 2018 | Big Band

Lionel Hampton was in the Benny Goodman Band and a gig in 1939 required them to fly from Los Angeles to Atlantic City New Jersey.  It was the first time Hampton had been on a plane. He began whistling a tune while waiting for the plane to taxi and Goodman asked him what it was.  Lionel simply said, “I don’t know. We can call it Flying Home, I guess.” (Hampton later confessed that the tune was a way for him to keep his mind off of the upcoming flight.)  They played it for the first time with the Goodman Quartet that night and later that year Goodman recorded the first version of the song. This rendition was filmed in 1965 and features a baritone sax solo that would have made Gerry Mulligan blush!

The Lady Is A Tramp – Frank Sinatra & Ella Fitzgerald

by | Oct 26, 2018 | Vocal

Sinatra said Ella Fitzgerald was the best singer he ever heard and the only one who made him nervous to sing with, because he had to be up to her standards. “The best way to start any musical evening is with this girl. It don’t get better than this,” Frank said about performing with Ella.  Beyond that, there isn’t much to say about two of the greatest singers of all time.   You just sit back and listen!

Double Play – Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga

by | Oct 12, 2018 | Vocal

But Beautiful features the unlikely pairing of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.  It’s from their DVD “Cheek To Cheek – Live” and is, in fact, a beautiful stylistic blending of the old and the new into the traditional!

It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) is a lively performance of the classic Duke Ellington tune, also from the Cheek To Cheek video, featuring Tony Bennett and highlighting Lady Gaga’s surprising jazz virtuosity.

Take The ‘A’ Train – Billy Taylor & Dave Brubeck

by | Oct 7, 2018 | Quartet/Quintet

This rare performance of A-Train is from the Legends of Jazz, Piano Masters series with Ramsey Lewis hosting. For the first time in more than forty years, a American national network, PBS, aired a weekly program devoted to jazz.  The series aired in 2006 and lasted only 13 weeks, but has become available on both DVD and CD for continuing enjoyment by jazz buffs everywhere.

Swingin’ Day In The Neighborhood

by | Sep 28, 2018 | Quartet/Quintet

It’s always a beautiful day in this neighborhood when Wynton Marsalis is in town.  A young Wynton lends his trumpet to the mix as he joins the great jazz pianist Johnny Costa, guitarist Joe Negri and drummer Bobby Rawsthone for a memorable rendition of a Mister Rogers classic tune, “Its You I Like,” plus a straight ahead trumpet rendition of “Blue Monk”.  Few people realize that Fred Rogers was a hard core jazz buff, composer and actually played the drums quite well!

Have You Met Mr. Jones?

by | Sep 21, 2018 | Quartet/Quintet

Henry Jones Jr.(You probably know him as Hank) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer. He has been described by critics and musicians alike as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. Hank recorded more than 60 albums under his own name and countless others as a sideman. Few realize that he was the pianist on May 19, 1962 who played as actress Marilyn Monroe sang her famous “Happy Birthday, Mr. President“ song to President John F. Kennedy.

At the Tokyo Jazz Festival in 2006, he featured fantastic live performances of both old and new stars, including Sadao Watanabe, Chick Corea, Hiromi Uehara, and Austin Peralta, who joined Hank’s trio in a ‘perfect storm’ of past, present and potential future legends of jazz.

On Some Day My Prince Will Come, The Hank Jones Trio consists of John Patitucci on bass and Omar Hakim on drums, with Hank, of course, coaxing the warmth of the piano’s tones from the keyboard.

The addition of Hiromi Uehara, Austin Peralta, Chick Corea and Sadao Watanabe provides a new dimension to Blue Monk, one of Thelonious Monk’s most popular and enduring tunes.

A Dynamic Duo from Charles Mingus

by | Sep 14, 2018 | Big Band, Quartet/Quintet

Charles Mingus was an American jazz double bassist, pianist, composer and bandleader, and truly one of the most creative musicians in the business, right down to the titles of his tunes!  Who else could have come up with names like “Don’t Be Afraid, The Clown’s Afraid Too” or “The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers”?  The latter composition is featured in this post.  A major proponent of collective improvisation, Mingus was a man ahead of his time.  Whether big band or small, one listen to his orchestrations and arrangements is all the proof anyone needs.

Celia is a Mingus original from his quintet’s live 1972 performance in Berlin.  It features Charles Mingus on bass, Joe Gardner on trumpet, Hamiet Bluiett playing barry, John Foster at the piano, and Roy Brooks on drums.

The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers

by Charles Mingus | Let My Children Hear Music

Sweet Georgia Brown – Gene Harris

by | Sep 7, 2018 | Quartet/Quintet

Pianist Gene Harris (Remember The Three Sounds?) delivers a slightly different treatment of the jazz classic, “Sweet Georgia Brown”.  Along with guitarist Jim Mullen, bassist Andrew Clayndert and drummer Martin Drew, Gene infuses a touch of his early boogie-woogie background into the music at the 1998 Berne Jazz Festival resulting in a very crowd pleasing effect.

A Count Basie Trilogy

by | Aug 31, 2018 | Big Band

This trilogy is from the Show Of The Week T.V. series, recorded in London.  The Count Basie Orchestra for this session consists of Sonny Cohn, Al Aarons, Wallace Davenport, Phil Guilbeau, trumpet; Al Grey, Henderson Chambers, Grover Mitchell, trombone; Bill Hughes, bass trombone; Marshall Royal, Bobby Plater, Eric Dixon, reeds; Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, tenor sax; Charlie Fowlkes, baritone sax; Count Basie, piano; Freddie Green, guitar; Norman Keenan, acoustic double bass; Rufus ‘Speedy’ Jones, drums.

April In Paris

Count Basie and His Orchestra in a live 1965 performance of this classic tune.  It’s exciting to hear his signature arrangement one more once, just as he recorded it on Verve in 1955.

 

Li’l Darlin’

Here’s a jazz standard written by Neal Hefti for The Count Basie Orchestra.  Introduced as an instrumental by The Basie Band in 1957, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross added lyrics a year later.

Jumpin’ At The Woodside

Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis delivers an outrageous solo in this 1965 live performance … also featuring Rufus Jones on drums, Freddie Green on guitar and the rest of the Basie Band in its prime!