Tag Archives: Jazz

Frank Sinatra: Christmas with Frank Sinatra and Friends

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FrankSinatra_ChristmasWithFrankSinatraAndFriendsSampling of Sinatra’s post-Capitol Christmas recordings

This 2009 collection combines eight post-Capitol Sinatra tracks with selected performances by Rosemary Clooney, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett & Bill Evans, and Ray Charles & Betty Carter. This is a new compilation of existing material, rather than a collection put together by Sinatra during his lifetime. Sinatra is in good voice throughout, supported by full orchestrations and arrangements from Nelson Riddle and Don Costa. He sings Christmas classics and lesser known songs, such as “Christmas Memories” and “An Old Fashioned Christmas,” written by his friends Don Costa, Alan & Marilyn Bergman, and Sammy Cahn & Jimmy Van Heusen; his original “Mistletoe and Holly” is also included.

Sinatra’s singing friends were invited to the party through the magic of archival compilation, rather than a personal summons from the Chairman. Still, the disc’s producer has done a terrific job of programming, and the re-mastering smoothly weaves together material from multiple studios and thirty-plus years of recording. Tony Bennett sings to the solo piano of Bill Evans, and Ray Charles sings a famous duet with Betty Carter (a track that also appears on the recent reissue of Charles’ The Spirit of Christmas). Mel Torme sings his own “The Christmas Song,” and Rosemary Clooney provides a warm, if somewhat wavery reprise of the Irving Berlin classic “White Christmas” from her 1996 album White Christmas.

The set’s most notable tracks for collectors are a pair taken from his 1957 holiday television special Happy Holidays with Bing & Frank, the aforementioned “Mistletoe and Holly” as well as “Santa Clause is Coming to Town.” Those looking for original Sinatra holiday albums should check out 1957’s A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra or 1968’s The Sinatra Family With You a Merry Christmas. You can also find a compilation of his late-40s Christmas recordings for Columbia on Christmas Songs by Sinatra (and a deeper helping of his Reprise-era work on The Christmas Collection). These are traditional and classy rather than ring-a-ding-ding, which itself can be found on Christmas With the Rat Pack. All are worth hearing, but this short collection (37 minutes) provides a nice alternative, particularly for its inclusion of related artists and two rarities. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Ray Charles: The Spirit of Christmas

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RayCharles_TheSpiritOfChristmasThe genius of soul’s Christmas album back in print!

Surprisingly, this 1985 album is Ray Charles’ only Christmas album. Recorded with a sizzling band and guests that include trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, saxophonist Rudy Johnson, guitarist Jeff Pevar, and the Raeletts, this is (despite the wintery cover photo) a warm and soulful album of Christmas and holiday songs. Charles and his co-arrangers (James Polk, Larry Muhoberac and Bill McElhiney) stretch out across soul balladry, jazz, horn-lined swing, choral harmony, and blue country. There’s a lot of style packed into this album’s ten tracks. Concord’s reissue (the first in twelve years) adds the Ray Charles/Betty Carter duet “Baby it’s Cold Outside” to the original album, extending the running time to 47 minutes. This is a solid shot of rhythm and soul for your holiday party. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Ray Charles: The Genius Hits the Road

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RayCharles_TheGeniusHitsThe RoadFresh remaster of Ray Charles’ 1960 ABC-Paramount debut

When Ray Charles left Atlantic for ABC-Paramount, he also sought to expand his stardom on the pop carts, solidifying the crossover success he’d begun with the single “What’d I Say” and the album The Genius of Ray Charles. The first outing for his new label was this 12-song release, whose travel- and place-related theme was sufficiently broad to leave Charles room to roam. The song list was compiled from numbers familiar to Charles and others pitched by his new producer Sid Feller. The titles include tin pan alley classics, Dixieland standards, trad jazz and pop numbers and even the nineteenth century minstrel tune, sung here as gospel with the Raeletts, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny.”

The productions are backed by brassy orchestrations, lush strings and chorused vocals, leaving only short spaces for piano and sax solos. The upbeat numbers are sizzling, swinging supper club jazz, and the ballads, especially Charles’ tour de force interpretation of Hoagy Charmichael’s “Georgia on My Mind,” are deeply soulful. A few of the songs play like novelties today (and perhaps did so in 1960), but Charles gives each his complete his attention and has fun on lighter numbers such as the boastful “New York’s My Home” and the gleeful “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.” Still, even Charles’ effort can’t save a jokey call-and-response version of “Deep in the Heart of Texas.”

By this point in his career, Charles was marketing himself more as a vocalist than a pianist, but his mastery of the keys can be heard in the rolling notes of “Basin Street Blues” and the dreamy flights of “Moonlight in Vermont.” The seven bonus tracks on this reissue duplicate the first four appended to Rhino’s 1997 version, including the chart-topping “Hit the Road Jack” and a swinging soul take on Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” Newly added are a romantic version of “The Long and Winding Road,” the country-soul original “I Was On Georgia Time,” and a ham-and-cheesy cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Rhino’s bonus picks of “I’m Movin’ On” and “Lonely Avenue” were more solid outings.

These tracks aren’t the gutty jazz and soul of Charles’ Atlantic period, nor the groundbreaking interpretational work he’d unleash on 1962’s Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. They’re a way-point, a transition between Charles’ roots as a jazz player and his future as a pop crooner. The material is a mix of novelties and well-selected chestnuts, and though the orchestrations can get a bit strong, Charles holds down the center with a voice that makes it all worth hearing. As his first top-10 pop album, and hosting his first chart-topping pop single (“Georgia on My Mind”), there are enough winning cuts, particularly the ballads, to merit adding this to your collection. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

The Mumlers: Don’t Throw Me Away

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Mumlers_Don'tThrowMeAwayMesmerizing old-timey soul music with a mysterious touch

The Mumlers’ music seems to float from a Victrola wedged into a dark corner of a mysterious antique shop. Will Sprott sings like a megaphoned apparition, and the group’s horn arrangements have the languor of a New Orleans funeral parade that accidentally marched into a morning-after session at Stax. Even when the band adds a psychedelic organ groove, such as on “Coffin Factory,” the vibe still draws one to the beyond. This is surprising, given the Mumlers home base of San Jose, California, the population anchor at the south end of the San Francisco Bay that’s christened itself the Capital of Silicon Valley. You don’t know the way to this San Jose.

The group’s second album stretches even further than their debut (Thickets & Snitches), including the trad jazz and blues of “Tangled Up With You” and slinky second-line of “St. James Street.” The latter echoes the standard “St. James Infirmary,” but is actually a straight-up description of Sprott’s urban San Jose neighborhood. The group connects to loungecore with a slowly careening instrumental cleverly entitled “The Instrumental.” The band drifts between jazzy melodies for movie scores, circus music and the swinging-60s vibe of Bob Crewe’s “Music to Watch Girls By.” The genre mash-ups are terrifically organic, and in addition to guitars, stand-up bass, drums, keyboards, and horns, the Mumlers include euphonium, clarinet, French horn and pedal steel.

“Fugitive and Vagabond” features piano, harmonica, cymbal crashes and a whistled solo that seems to have been skimmed from aspaghetti western, and the set closes with the soulfully crooned “Don’t Throw Me Away,” an original that should have graced many a 1950s school dance. The Mumlers’ unusual influences and free-wheeling approach result in the sort of shape-shifting one would expect from a group named after a nineteenth century charlatan who made a living selling photos of ghosts to bereaved families. The Mumlers are the real deal, however, and their second album is one of the year’s most eclectic spins. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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Robben Ford: Soul on Ten

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RobbenFord_SoulOnTenBlues, rock and jazz guitarist captured live

It’s hard to believe, but guitarist Robben Ford is marking his 40th year as a working musician, having moved to San Francisco to form his first band in 1969. Stints with Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Tom Scott’s L.A. Express eventually led to the founding of the Yellowjackets and a solo career. Ford’s early work in the blues gave way to jazz sets with Miles Davis and the forging of a progressive sound that melds blues, jazz and rock. This latest release features eight tracks taped live at San Francisco’s Independent, and two more recorded live in the studio.

Ford and his backing trio of bass, drums and B-3 organ work through severa; catalog favorites, including the roaring guitar instrumental “Indianola” on which Toss Panos’ drums drive as Ford brilliantly intertwines rock and blues leads with jazz chordings. Ford’s guitar shows plenty of muscle on Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful,” and the straight blues medley of Elmore James’ “Please Set a Date” and Jimmy Reed’s “You Don’t Have to Go” give both Ford and organist Neal Evans a chance to show off their licks.

Ford revisits “Nothing to Nobody” here for a third time; originally released on 1999’s Supernatural, and played live on 2004’s Center Stage, this eleven-minute take makes room for some funky solos by Ford, Evans and bassist Travis Carlton. Ford recalls the rock-soul sounds of San Francisco’s ballrooms with wah-wah pedal workouts on “Supernatural” and “There’ll Never Be Another You.” The two studio tracks that close the CD sound out of place, and could have better been replaced by more tracks from the gig. As it is, the titles only reach back to 1999, though the blues covers give a feel for Ford’s earlier roots. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Dave Brubek Quartet: Time Out

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DaveBrubek_TimeOutSuperb 50th anniversary expansion of landmark jazz album

Though jazz was the popular music of the US for many decades, there are few post-40s jazz albums – modern jazz albums – that go down easily with non-jazz listeners. There have been pop-jazz crossovers that caught the public’s ear and even climbed the charts, but true jazz albums that can keep a pop listener’s attention are few and far between. The Dave Brubek Quartet’s 1959 release contains two tunes, the opening “Blue Rondo a la Turk” and the iconic “Take Five,” that surprised even the group’s own label with their popular acclaim. The album peaked at #2 on the pop chart, and “Take Five” was a hit single in both the US and UK. Much like Vince Guaraldi’s compositions for A Charlie Brown Christmas, listeners took to the melodies and performances without drawing genre lines around them.

The quartet’s approach wove Brubek’s blocky piano chords, Paul Desmond’s warm alto saxophone, and the gentle swing of bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello into a most inviting sound. One can’t compliment the rhythm section enough, as it’s their steady work that keeps one’s toe tapping through Brubek and Desmond’s melodic explorations, and its their rhythm that guides listeners through this album’s unusual time signatures. Morello’s introduction to “Take Five,” followed by Brubek’s vamping, have you tapping your foot in 5/4 time even before Desmond insinuates his sax with the theme. It has the rise and fall of a waltz, but when you count it out, the measures go to five instead of three. Amazingly, it feels completely organic. Morello’s spare, mid-tune solo provides a brilliant example of drumming dynamics.

The album opens with the 9/8 time of “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” with a 2/2/2/3 pattern that’s hard to count even with the numbers in front of you. The music swings in a frantic way that suggests rush hour in New York City until it transitions to a relaxed 4/4 (with 9/8 inserts) for the piano and sax solos. The fluidity with which the band shifts between the two time signatures would be even more breathtaking if it didn’t flow so naturally. Other tunes are played in waltz (3/4) and double waltz time, but you won’t notice until you count them out loud. Eugene Wright’s bass provides the steady pulse around which Brubek and Desmond swing, and the contrast between Brubek’s percussive piano and Desmond’s smooth sax gives the quartet its signature balance.

1959 was a banner year for jazz, seeing the releases of Giant Steps, the soundtrack to Anatomy of a Murder, Mingus Ah Um, Kind of Blue and many other milestones. But Time Out was the only album to break wide of jazz audiences, to seed itself in the broader public’s consciousness. And it did so on its own terms, rather than by pandering to the pop sounds of the mainstream. It foreshadowed the lightness and optimism that would mark the transition between the Eisenhower and Kennedy eras, and its tone obviously caught the mood of the times. Ted Maceo’s production paints an excellent stereo soundstage, which adds to the recording’s excitement.

Columbia Legacy’s 2-CD/1-DVD reissue augments the album’s seven tracks with a CD of live performances from the ’61, ’63 and ’64 Newport festivals that include the album’s hits and six additional titles. The basic roles of the players remain from their live-to-tape studio albums, but the concert performances are driven by fresh group interplay and more audacious soloing, and stoked by the audiences’ enthusiastic responses. “Pennies From Heaven” winds up with a forceful piano solo, and the original “Koto Song” provides a good example of Brubek’s interest in world sounds. “Take Five” is played at a hurried tempo that diminishes the song’s swing, but stretched to seven minutes it provides more space for soloing, including a longer spot for drummer Joe Morrello’s crackling snare and punchy tom-toms. All eight live tracks are recorded in stereo.

The bonus DVD offers a 2003 interview with Brubek, intercut with historical television and concert footage, and a few then-contemporary sequences of Brubek at his trusty Baldwin. Brubek discusses the album tracks and the dynamics of the band, and shows immense pride in both. An additional bonus provides a 4-angle piano lesson from Brubek as he plays through “Kathy’s Waltz.” The 3-disc package is presented in a quad-fold digipack with a 28-page booklet that includes detailed liner notes by Ted Gioia and fine archival photos. If you don’t have a digital copy of the album, this is the one to get; if you already have a much loved copy, this is well worth the upgrade. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Leslie and the Badgers: Roomful of Smoke

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LeslieAndTheBadgers_RoomfulOfSmokeVersatile mix of folk, country, country-rock, soul and hot-jazz

It’s hard to pinpoint this Los Angeles quintet, as they range through acoustic folk, country, horn-tinged soul, and hot jazz. If you had to pick one to represent the bulk of the group’s second album, it’d be country (or country-rock or Americana), but there are whole tracks that take you somewhere else before returning you to two-steps, waltzes, twanging guitars, bass and drums. Leslie Stevens’ singing brings to mind the high voices of folksinger Joan Baez, Americana vocalist Julie Miller and country star Deana Carter. But Stevens sings with more of a lilt than Baez, less girlishness than Miller, and when the group ventures to country-rock, it’s without Carter’s southern ‘70s overtones.

The finger-picked guitar and songbird vocal that open “Los Angeles” spell stool-perched, singer-songwriter folk, but harmonium and choral harmonies thicken the song into a hymnal. Stevens’ high notes fit equally well into Lucinda Williams-styled Americana, cutting through the twangy low strings and baritone guitar, and pushed along by driving bass and drums. The Badgers’ range is impressive, tumbling along to a “Gentle on My Mind” shuffle, hotting things up with tight jazz licks, adding soul with Stax-styled horns, and laying down waltzing fiddle ballads, country-rock and the spooky “If I Was Linen.” The latter’s off-kilter piano and musical saw spookily echo the main theme of The Elephant Man.

Stevens’ sings country songs spanning the relationship lifecycle of blossom, maturity, lethargy and dissolution. The first is powerfully drawn by the budding relationship of “Old Timers,” rooted in tangible images of childhood’s emotional urgency. The latter provides a grey coat to the loneliness of Ben Reddell’s “Winter Fugue.” In between are irresistible romantic smoothies, longed-for and abandoned lovers, and finally realized kiss-offs. The full cycle comes together in the physical and mental escape of “Salvation,” with Stevens realizing “when I pull off the road / to get a better view / now I can see the start of us / and the end to me and you.”

The classically-tinged “What Fall Promised” sounds like a good outtake from Sam Phillip’s Martinis and Bikinis, and the closing “It’s Okay to Trip” provides sing-along old-timey country-blues. One might complain that the Badgers can’t quite decide what kind of music they want to play, as they’re capable of a range of sounds rooted in country, rock and folk without staying shackled to any one. The variety’s laudable, but it leaves it to Stevens’ conviction and vulnerable warble to provide an emotional through-line to the album. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Red Stick Ramblers: My Suitcase is Always Packed

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redstickramblers_mysuitcase-copyTasty southern mash of Cajun, country, jazz and swing

The Ramblers fifth album, their second for Sugar Hill, continues to masterfully mix fiddle-led country and blues, Hot Club-styled jazz and galloping western swing. As the band’s evolved from imitation to influence, so too have they moved from albums stocked with covers to nearly all original material. Aside from a pair of Cajun classics, the Touchet Family’s “Old Fashioned Two Step” and Eddie Shuler’s “La Valse De Meche,” the band members have written their own country weepers, bluesy jazz and all manner of dance tunes. Actually, the entire album, as with most of the group’s repertoire, is filled with dance tunes – slow, fast and in between, this is music meant to get listeners moving.

The group’s lead vocalist (and one of its two fiddlers) Linzay Young says cheekily, “Who knew all these years of poverty, heart break, substance abuse, self-exploration and transient life-style would result in something worth-while!” Of those experiences, heartache tops the list, bending an elbow in “Drinkin’ to You,” dampening eyes on the fiddle waltz “Bloodshot,” singing the lonesome blues “Doggone My Time,” and unconvincingly giving bad times a kiss-off with “Goodbye to the Blues.” But the romantic problems aren’t all past-due as the songs find happiness in a less-then-perfect relationship, beg for another chance, navigate parental interference, and in the sly “My Suitcase is Always Packed,” avoid entanglement with an ever-ready escape plan.

The album closes with an original call-and-response jump blues “The Barnyard Bachelor” that provides a microcosm of the band’s nostalgic influences, musical chops, sweet humor and undeniable danceability. This band gets better with each release, more confident in their writing, more thorough in the absorption of their influences, and both tighter and more relaxed in their vocal harmonies and instrumental interplay. With guest helpings of accordion, steel and piano the Ramblers match suit-and-tie style to sleeves-rolled-up workmanship. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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Country All Stars: Jazz From the Hills

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countryallstars_jazzfromthehillsAll star country string-jazz session

This CD reproduces the 1954 RCA ten-inch String Dustin’, featuring country legends Chet Atkins, Homer Haynes, Jethro Burns and Jerry Byrd, and adds sides from 1956 that augment the all star lineup with jazz guitarist George Barnes. In retrospect, it’s easy to think of Atkins picking jazz, but at the time it was still unusual for country artists to cross over. Those who know Homer & Jethro from their comedy records may be surprised by their top-notch guitar and mandolin playing. The material is a mix of pop and jazz, and the group (which included a changing line-up of session bassists, drummers and pianists, as well as fiddle player Dale Potter) gives most of these tunes a hillbilly twist. Haynes, Burns and Byrd each sing a few, but the real charm of these sessions is the high-spirited instrumental interplay. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Ray Charles: Genius- The Ultimate Ray Charles Collection

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raycharles_geniusSingle-disc sampler of Charles on Atlantic and ABC

Songwriter, pianist and vocalist Ray Charles may be one of the most anthologized pop artists in history, with several hundred collections and repackagings issued on LP and CD. But even with so many facets of his career having been explored, there remain essential sides that have yet to see official digital reissue. Concord is kicking off an extensive redevelopment of Charles’ post-1960 catalogs on the ABC-Paramount and Tangerine labels with this 63-minute 21-track disc of career highlights, including ten R&B chart toppers and three pop #1s.

The set includes four tracks from Charles’ time on Atlantic, reaching back as early as 1955 for “I’ve Got a Woman.” The bulk of the set is drawn from 1960 through 1967, starting with Charles’ first pop chart topper, 1960’s “Georgia on My Mind,” and winding along to 1967’s “Here We Go Again” and “Yesterday.” The disc closes with Charles’ last single for ABC, 1976’s “America the Beautiful.” Throughout the twenty-one selections you can hear Charles’ develop his seminal brand of soul from roots in gospel, blues, R&B, and jazz. ABC freed Charles to explore more broadly than had Atlantic, bringing in Latin rhythms, singing the works of country and tin-pan alley songwriters, adding strings, and alternating between the sassy call-and-response of the Raelettes and a smooth backing chorus.

Concord’s digital remastering is crisp (mono for the Atlantic tracks 2, 6, 9, 17), and the non-chronological song sequence provides an excellent flow. The CD includes a 20-page booklet with liner and song notes by Don Heckman, photos, release and chart data, and an embossed cardboard wrapper. Few artists can boast as powerful a catalog as Charles, and though it’s overstatement to label any single disc an ultimate collection (there’s many times more essential sides missing than would fit), this is a welcome overture to the coming symphony of ABC/Tangerine reissues. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]