JAZZ SCENE USA

Thursday, February 21, 2013

JAZZ SCENE U.S.A. #17

~~ANITA O’DAY~~ - LOU RAWLS

I am in the process of moving my work on this platform to a new home that unites all of my jazz research under one roof. Thank you for looking at my work here at google blogger. I think you will find the new home more user friendly with links and tags to all of my research. This link will take you to this research at the new site where I have updated the links to Jazz Scene USA segments on YouTube.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1962

CBS TELEVISION CITY, LOS ANGELES, CA

Anita O’Day was scheduled to appear on Jazz Scene USA on the seventeenth show that was to be taped on October 15, 1962. Miss O’Day had signed a contract and everything was set to go including a fully developed script, jazz trio contracted to accompany her with a set list of songs to be performed.

But Anita O’Day was in New York recording an album for Norman Granz. The recording session encountered some difficulties requiring O’Day to remain in New York. The producers were put in a very difficult position and made the decision to substitute Lou Rawls who graciously agreed to assist and fill the slot left vacant by Miss O’Day. It was a fortunate turn of events for Lou Rawls who was a rising star in the music world.

Anita O'Day And The Three Sounds:

Roy Eldridge (tp-1) added, Gene Harris (p) Andy Simpkins (b) Bill Dowdy (d) Anita O'Day (vcl)

New York, October 12, 13, 14 & 15, 1962

62VK682 All too soon (aod vcl) Verve V-8514

62VK683 You and the night and the music (aod vcl,1)

62VK684 Let me off uptown (aod vcl?,1?)

62VK685 Fly me to the moon [In other words] (aod vcl)

62VK686 When the world was young (aod vcl)]

62VK687 My ship (aod vcl) Verve V-8514

62VK688 Whisper not (aod vcl)

Note: Verve V-8514(mono) = V6-8514(stereo), both titled "Anita O'Day and the Three Sounds"

Rawls was born on December 1, 1933 in Chicago and raised by his grandmother in the Ida B. Wells projects on the city's South Side. He began singing in the Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church choir at the age of seven and later sang with local groups through which he met future music stars Sam Cooke, who was nearly three years older than Rawls, and Curtis Mayfield.

After graduating from Chicago's Dunbar Vocational High School, he sang briefly with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a local gospel group, and then with the Holy Wonders. In 1951, Rawls replaced Cooke in the Highway QC's after Cooke departed to join The Soul Stirrers in Los Angeles. Rawls was soon recruited by the Chosen Gospel Singers and himself moved to Los Angeles, where he subsequently joined the Pilgrim Travelers.

In 1955, Rawls enlisted in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. He left the "All-Americans" three years later as a sergeant and rejoined the Pilgrim Travelers (then known as the Travelers). In 1958, while touring the South with the Travelers and Sam Cooke, Rawls was in a serious car crash. Rawls was pronounced dead before arriving at the hospital, where he stayed in a coma for five and a half days. It took him months to regain his memory, and a year to fully recuperate. Rawls considered the event to be life-changing.

Alongside Dick Clark as master of ceremonies, Rawls was recovered enough by 1959 to be able to perform at the Hollywood Bowl. He was signed to Capitol Records in 1962, the same year he sang the soulful background vocals on the Sam Cooke recording of "Bring It On Home to Me" and "That's Where It's At," both written by Cooke. Rawls' first Capitol solo release was Stormy Monday (a.k.a. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water), a jazz album, in 1962.

Biographical details from the Wikipedia entry for Lou Rawls.

Lou Rawls sings IN THE EVENING WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN, STORMY MONDAY, GOD BLESS THE CHILD and I’D RATHER DRINK MUDDY WATER accompanied by Dick Palombi (piano), Chuck Metcalf (bass) and Bill Richardson (drums). The jazz trio also performs SHERRILL or CHERYL.

Production credits: Host: Oscar Brown, Jr.

Executive Producer: Steve Allen

Producer: Jimmie Baker

Director: Steve Binder

Associate Producer: Penny Stewart

Associate Director: George Turpin

Technical Director: Jim Brady

Lighting Director: Leard Davis

Audio: Larry Eaton

Art Director: Robert Tyler Lee

Jazz Consultant: John Tynan

Title Films: Grant Velie

Cameras: Bob Dunn, Ed Chaney, Gorman Erickson, Pat Kenny

Sunday, February 10, 2013

JAZZ SCENE U.S.A. #16

PHINEAS NEWBORN, JR.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1962

CBS TELEVISION CITY, LOS ANGELES, CA

The appearance of Phineas Newborn, Jr. on the sixteenth program in Steve Allen’s Jazz Scene USA series was fortuitous as Newborn had recently signed with Les Koenig’s Contemporary label where he would record a string of albums that securely placed him among the most gifted jazz pianists to emerge mid century. The following entry from Wikipedia traces the essential biographical details. A link has also been provided to the excellent profiles of Phineas Newborn, Jr. at Steve Cerra’s JAZZ PROFILES. Readers are urged to view the entire program, currently available on YouTube before it is taken down and not available. If you miss seeing it or want to have it in your permanent collection it is available on DVD and VHS. The camera coverage of Phineas' keyboard work, Al McKibbon's bass artistry and Kenny Dennis' tasteful drumming are a joy to watch.

Phineas Newborn, Jr. (December 14, 1931 in Whiteville, Tennessee – May 26, 1989 in Memphis, Tennessee) was an American jazz pianist, whose principal influences were Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson and Bud Powell. Newborn came from a musical family with his father, Phineas Newborn, Sr., being a blues musician and his younger brother, Calvin, a jazz guitarist. Phineas studied piano as well as trumpet, and tenor and baritone saxophone.

Before moving on to work with Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, and others, Newborn first played in an R&B band led by his father on drums, Tuff Green on bass and his brother Calvin on guitar. The group also included future Hi Records star Willie Mitchell, and Ben Branch. The group was the house band in West Memphis, Arkansas, from 1947 to 1951 at the now famous Plantation Inn Club. The group recorded as B. B. King's band on his first recordings in 1949 and also the Sun Records sessions in 1950. The group would leave West Memphis in 1951 to tour with Jackie Brenston as the "Delta Cats" in support of the record "Rocket 88". Rocket 88 is considered by many to be the first rock & roll record ever recorded (recorded by Sam Phillips) and was the first Billboard No. 1 record for Chess Records.

Among his earliest recordings, from the early 1950s, are those for Sun Records with blues harmonica player Big Walter Horton, We Three (a trio date led by drummer Roy Haynes along with bassist Paul Chambers), and his debut as a solo artist on RCA Victor, Phineas' Rainbow.

From 1956 he began to perform in New York City, making his first album as a leader in that year. His trios and quartets at that time included Oscar Pettiford, Kenny Clarke, George Joyner and Philly Joe Jones. He created enough interest internationally to work as a single in Stockholm in 1958 and in Rome the following year.

Subsequently moving to Los Angeles around 1960, he recorded a sequence of piano trio albums for the Contemporary label. However, some critics found his playing style rather facile, and Newborn developed emotional problems as a result, necessitating his admission to the Camarillo State Mental Hospital for some periods. He also suffered a hand injury which hindered his playing.

Newborn’s later career was intermittent due to ongoing health problems. This is most true of the period from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s when he faded from view, underappreciated and underrecorded. He made a partial comeback in the late 1970s and early 1980s, although this return apparently failed to benefit his financial situation. He died in 1989 after the discovery of a growth on his lungs and was buried in Memphis National Cemetery.

According to jazz historian Nat Hentoff, Newborn's plight spurred the 1989 founding of the Jazz Foundation of America, a group dedicated to helping with the medical bills and other financial needs of retired jazz greats. Despite his setbacks, many of his records, such as The Great Jazz Piano of Phineas Newborn, Jr and Phineas' Rainbow, remain highly regarded. Jazz commentator Scott Yanow even referred to Newborn as "one of the most technically skilled and brilliant pianists in jazz." Evidence of his technical prowess can be heard on tracks such as "Sometimes I'm Happy" on Look Out - Phineas is Back! where Newborn performs extended, complex, and brisk solos with both hands in unison. Leonard Feather once said of him "In his prime, he was one of the three greatest jazz pianists of all time."

STEVE CERRA: JAZZ PROFILES - PHINEAS NEWBORN, JR.

http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/search?q=Phineas+Newborn%2C+Jr.

JAZZ SCENE USA - PHINEAS NEWBORN, JR.

Phineas Newborn, Jr., piano; Al McKibbon, bass; Kenny Dennis, drums.

Production credits: Host: Oscar Brown, Jr.

Executive Producer: Steve Allen

Producer: Jimmie Baker

Director: Steve Binder

Associate Producer: Penny Stewart

Associate Director: George Turpin

Technical Director: Jim Brady

Lighting Director: Leard Davis

Audio: Larry Eaton

Art Director: Robert Tyler Lee

Jazz Consultant: Leonard Feather

Title Films: Grant Velie

Cameras: Bob Dunn, Ed Chaney, Gorman Erickson, Pat Kenny

Thursday, January 31, 2013

JAZZ SCENE U.S.A. #15

CAL TJADER QUINTET

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1962

CBS TELEVISION CITY, LOS ANGELES, CA

Cal Tjader appeared with his current quintet on the 15th program taped for Steve Allen’s JAZZ SCENE USA series. As noted on the production script, the group performed as a quartet doing straight ahead jazz numbers and was joined by the conga player for tunes with a Latin beat making it a quintet. Tjader’s quintet for the show included: Cal Tjader, vibes; Lonnie Hewitt, piano; Freddie Schrieber, bass; John Rae, drums and Bill Fitch, conga.

Cal Tjader began his jazz career as the drummer in Dave Brubeck’s Trio with two releases on the Coronet label. The Trio would release three 10” LPs on the Fantasy label and during the course of Tjader’s association with the Dave Brubeck Trio he demonstrated his adept facility on bongos and the vibes as recalled in the Dave Brubeck interview that follows:

Ted Panken Interview with Dave Brubeck, July 23, 2007

http://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/an-interview-with-dave-brubeck-july-23-2007/

For instance, Ellington wrote with the voices of his musicians in mind. Were you writing with Paul Desmond’s voice in mind? Or was Desmond or anyone you’re playing with supposed to play your vision? How did it work?

Well, with Cal Tjader, he started playing vibes with my trio. I didn’t even know he could play vibes. As soon as he started playing vibes, then Armando Peraza was stranded because Slim Gaillard abandoned him after bringing him from Cuba, and he was working this club in San Francisco where we were playing. The owner said, “I keep him here because Slim has just left him, and I feed him and let him sleep here in the club,” and he swept up and did odd jobs. He said, “He’s a helluva bongo player; why don’t you let him sit in with you.” So I did it, just because the guy was abandoned. And boy, he broke the place up. So Cal started playing bongos because of that, and Paul bought a pair of bongos. So we had three guys up there on the stage playing bongos.

But Peraza knew what he was doing.

Oh, yeah. Then Cal became so intrigued with it, and then he became a big star in Caribbean music. But I’m not answering your question. Things happen, and you move. Like, I didn’t know he could play vibes. I didn’t know he would be a great bongo player. You just use where somebody is great, and you incorporate it into things. With the trio, it was easier to answer that question. The quartet was the trio with Paul Desmond playing solos on the same arrangements. That’s the way it had to start, because we didn’t have time to organize or rehearse. We just had a job, and I thought it was well enough to play. I was so bad off that they had to go into a blackout so I could stand. I had to pull myself up on the piano bench and just stand there for a while. I shouldn’t have been playing, but I had to play. There was no way out. But with Paul, I started thinking in terms more of counterpoint, because he and I naturally played counterpoint together. So what does somebody bring into the group?

When Cal Tjader exited the Dave Brubeck Trio he recorded a few sessions for the Weiss brother’s Galaxy label before spending some time with the George Shearing group that also included Armando Peraza. The Galaxy sessions included John Marabuto on piano and Jack Weeks on bass. Weeks had played bass on the Dave Brubeck Octet sessions that included Cal Tjader on drums. Vince Guaraldi replaced Marabuto on some of the Galaxy sessions and would team up with Tjader later on some of the Tjader jazz sessions for Fantasy. Tjader’s solo album for Savoy, CAL TJADER-VIBIST (MG 9036), included a combo with Armando Peraza who would continue to appear on several recordings that Cal Tjader cut for Fantasy Records as he fine tuned his Latin groups.

Oscar Brown, Jr. featured Tjader’s recent Verve album celebrating the music of Mexico and Brazil and pointed out the influence that the music from Marcel Camus’ BLACK ORPHEUS by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá in the current Bossa Nova craze. The Tjader Quintet then performed CARNIVAL from the film.

Here is the trailer from the movie:

MARCEL CAMUS - BLACK ORPHEUS