Tag Archives: Jazz

For Singles Only

DVD_ForSinglesOnlyFor Singles Only is an unremarkable 1968 comedy (imagine the AIP beach party kids grown up and living in a singles-only apartment building) that’s worth seeking out for its unusual list of musical guests:

  • The Walter Wanderley Trio with Talya Ferro (poolside!)
  • The Cal Tjader Band (poolside at the body painting contest!)
  • Lewis & Clark Expedition (in fringed leathers and playing Vox guitars!)
  • The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (at the Sans Souci club dance!)
  • The Sunshine Company (in the credits but not in the film?)

The cast includes John Saxon, Mary Ann Mobley (two-time Elvis Presley co-star and Miss America 1959!) and the always delightful Chris Noel (playing the incredibly bitchy Lily), and the film was directed by Arthur Dreifuss, who’d helmed Riot on Sunset Strip and The Love-Ins the year before. The score was written and conducted by Fred Karger, who was apparently an object of affection to no less than Marilyn Monroe! This film turned up on GetTV last week, so keep an eye on their schedule for a repeat. You can also buy it on DVD.

Gene Rains: Far Away Lands – The Exotic Music of Gene Rains

GeneRains_FarAwayLandsAn exotica original finally gets his digital due

Like his exotica compatriot Arthur Lyman, Gene Rains was a vibraphonist with a jazz background. And like Lyman, and Lyman’s former band leader Martin Denny, Rains held a tenure at the Hawaiian Village Hotel’s famed Shell Bar. Unlike Lyman and Denny, however, Rains recording career was rather short – three original albums in all – and began a few years after Denny’s 1957 breakthrough with Les Baxter’s “Quiet Village” and Lyman’s return to exotica with 1958’s Taboo. Rains’ three albums for Decca didn’t gain the public renown that greeted Denny and Lyman’s releases, and until this eighteen-track sampler, his music remained available only on pricey, highly sought-after original releases.

Rains’ albums followed the same template as Denny’s and Lyman’s, combining Hawaiian folk melodies with standards, Broadway and film tunes and newly written island songs. Rains’ jazz quartet of vibes, piano, bass and world percussion were deft mixologists, and Decca’s engineers captured their sound in crisp, audiophile-quality recordings. The arrangements are alternately lush, romantic and dramatic, though even with vibraphone at their core, they don’t often swing as freely as Lyman’s work. Pianists Paul Conrad and Bryon Peterson add dramatic arpeggios and deep low notes, and bassist Archie Grant (who’d join Arthur Lyman’s group in the mid-60s) also adds flute, and several tunes are garnished with exotica’s requisite bird and animal calls.

Many of this compilation’s titles will be familiar to those who’ve collected Denny’s and Lyman’s albums, but Rains and his quartet put their own spin on the arrangements. Ernesto Lecuona’s “Jungle Drums,” which had been a hit for Artie Shaw in the late ’30s, opens with a dramatic introduction before leaning more heavily on the song’s Latin rhythm than Martin Denny’s vocal chorus arrangement. And “Caravan” (one of the three pillars of Exotica) is really more jazz than exotica, with the vibes, piano and bass each getting a solo spotlight. This is a superb collection, filled with lively playing and original nuances, and the song list includes exotica classics, jazz and popular standards, and a few inventive adaptations.

The collection’s 16-page booklet includes full-panel reproductions of all three original albums’ front and back covers, liner notes by Randy Poe, and a front-cover photo of noted mermaid, Marina; the disc is screened with a reproduction of Decca’s rainbow label. Due to a loss of the original masters, this set was sourced from vinyl, but the transfers, though not flawless, speak to the long-lived high fidelity of early ’60s pressings. It’s too bad that Real Gone didn’t go the full monty and reissue the three original albums in full; still, some Gene Rains is a whole lot better than no Gene Rains, and this disc belongs in the collection of every exotica lover. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

Matt Harlan: Raven Hotel

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MattHarlan_RavenHotelTexas singer-songwriter is a poet and storyteller

Matt Harlan is a singer-songwriter whose original folk tunes are leavened with country twang and dusted with Texas soul. He’s tramped the blue highways of the U.S. and Europe (and written this album’s “Raven Hotel” about the ravages of touring), played intimate stages, house concerts and festivals, was lauded as last year’s Texas Music Award singer-songwriter of the year, and was featured alongside Guy Clark and Lyle Lovett in the documentary For the Sake of the Song. After a sophomore effort recorded with a Danish backing band, he’s returned to Texas to lay down a dozen new originals with help from Bukka Allen, Mickey Raphael and other area luminaries.

Harlan’s both a storyteller and a poet, illustrating his stories with memorable similes, and realizing his images with narrative detail. His lyrics of hard times take on the weary tone of Chris Knight, but unlike Knight’s often unrelenting bleakness, Harlan’s troubles are redeemed by dreams of forgiveness and the possibility of progress. The wounds of “We Never Met” are addressed with a fatalism that points forward, and the haggard trucker’s regrets in the superbly drawn “Second Gear” are grounded in hard-worn pride. Social commentary and glances towards the exit are juxtaposed in “Rock & Roll,” with an electric backing and matter-of-fact vocal that echoes Dire Straits.

Harlan turns to jazz with “Burgandy and Blue,” and to blues with “Slow Moving Train”; the latter features Mickey Raphael’s unmistakable harmonica and a duet vocal from Harlan’s wife, Rachel Jones. Jones brings a delicate, whisper-edged lead vocal to the free-spirited “Riding with the Wind.” The album closes with its most overt declarations of hope and dreams in “The Optimist” and “Rearview Display,” though as is Harlan’s way, his protagonists are clear-eyed as they contemplate the burdens of both limitations and freedom. This is a deeply written collection, sung with a storyteller’s magnetism and a poet’s magic. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

Matt Harlan’s Home Page

NRBQ: Brass Tacks

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NRBQ_BrassTacksTerry Adams’ latter-day NRBQ keeps chugging along

The discussion no doubt rages on, as to whether founding member Terry Adams’ reconstituted lineup should be using the NRBQ name. Even Adams wasn’t so sure back in 1989. But with the band’s long-time lineup starting to fray in 1994, and an official hiatus ten years later, a number of interrelated projects took the group members in various directions. Adams, who turned out to have been dealing with throat cancer, returned to full-time music-making with the Terry Adams Rock & Roll Quartet in 2007, and four years later, with the rest of NRBQ still dispersed in other bands and projects, reapplied the NRBQ name to his quartet for the album Keep This Love Goin’.

Is it NRBQ? Many of the original band’s fans would probably say ‘no,’ but Adams, guitarist Scott Ligon, drummer Conrad Choucroun and bassist Casey McDonough, certainly carry on the NRBQ ethos of musical taste, deep knowledge and an irreverent sense of adventure. You need a pack full of hyphens to describe their mosaic of R&B, jazz, sunshine pop, country, folk and rockabilly, and their topics range from sweet (“Can’t Wait to Kiss You”) to loopy (“Greetings from Delaware”) to fantastical (“This Flat Tire”), and their music even stretches to a cover of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Getting to Know You” that’s more California sunshine than old Siam. Call them what you will, just make sure to call their music really good. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

NRBQ’s Home Page

Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Boy Named Charlie Brown

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VinceGuaraldi_ABoyNamedCharlieBrown2014 reissue adds bonuses to Guaraldi’s first Peanuts release

In animating the Peanuts comic strip for television, the music of Vince Guaraldi was as important a voice as that of the child actors who played the characters, as critical a story element as the plot and dialog, and as colorful a setting as the drawings themselves. The music of A Charlie Brown Christmas remains every bit as iconic as Charlie Brown’s zig-zag sweater and Linus’ blanket, and the soundtrack to that first-to-be-broadcast Peanuts special remains every bit as beloved as Peanuts itself. What many probably don’t know is that Guaraldi had first engaged with Charles Schulz, producer Lee Mendelson and the Peanuts gang a year earlier with this soundtrack for the documentary A Boy Named Charlie Brown (not to be confused with the 1969 film of the same name).

Not only did the original 60-minute program fail to find an outlet, but neither did the surviving 30-minute edit (which is available on DVD from the Charles M. Schulz Museum), which was not broadcast at the time. Unusually, Guaraldi’s record label, Fantasy, had him re-record the soundtrack material and went ahead with a lavish gatefold release, initially titling it Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown to echo Guaraldi’s earlier breakthrough with Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus. Across the album’s eleven tracks, Guaraldi and his trio (which included bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Colin Bailey) laid down both the template and many of the specifics that would blossom commercially in the following year’s Christmas special.

Guaraldi’s mastery of Latin rhythms underpins several tracks, but it was the mood of his earlier hit, “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” that originally grabbed Lee Mendelson’s ear. As Ralph Gleason’s original essay points out, Guaraldi created something both original and empathetic to another artist’s work. His playing is at turns sly, joyous, lyrical, confident, thoughtful and most of all, playful. Budwig provides a melodic foil with his bass, and Bailey swings his drums without ever intruding on Guaraldi’s own rhythmic phrasings. Among the specifics first released on this title are two of two of Guaraldi’s best-known compositions, “Charlie Brown Theme” and “Linus and Lucy.” The rest of the album isn’t as memorably tied to specific animated sequences, but the music is just as pleasurable and stands sturdily on its own. The 2014 reissue adds an alternate take of “Baseball Theme” to the previously included bonus track “Fly Me to the Moon.” [©2014 Hyperbolium]

Terry Waldo: The Soul of Ragtime

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TerryWaldo_TheSoulOfRagtimeThe soul of Ragtime found in rags, marches, opera and more

Though Ragtime’s syncopation and polyrhythmic marches often conjure turn-of-the-twentieth-century nostalgia, it’s shown itself to be a terrifically hearty music. Jazz musicians revived the Ragtime canon in the 1940s, and many of the British Invasion’s brightest lights started out in Trad Jazz bands that played Ragtime selections. Even more strikingly, the 1970s saw Scott Joplin’s profile elevated by records, awards, and in 1974 (nearly sixty years after his passing) a Top 5 chart hit for “The Entertainer.” The latter achievement also pigeonholed Ragtime in the public consciousness as old-timey music, and obscured the breadth of its offerings in two-steps and fox trots in both instrumental and vocal forms.

Terry Waldo began his exploration of Dixieland and Ragtime in the 1960s and his radio serial This is Ragtime, and a book of the same title, were centerpieces of the 1970s revival. He’s continued to champion the music’s history and promote its on-going vitality with new compositions and recordings, live performances (both solo and with his Gotham City Jazz Band), and as a teacher. His latest album combines newly composed tunes with classics of the repertoire and songs brought to Ragtime by Waldo’s deft ears and fingers. Waldo draws material from gospel, Broadway, early jazz, marches, and perhaps most surprising, nineteenth-century opera. The latter, from Wagner’s Tannhäuser, is a somber piece whose relationship to Ragtime is revealed in its lighter final minute.

Waldo shines on the album’s wide range of rags, including the original “Turkish Rondo Rag” and “Ragtime Ralph,” but the album’s biggest surprises are in tunes not famously known as piano rags. John Phillip Sousa’s “Stars & Stripes Forever” wears Waldo’s syncopation with a glee that befits the song’s joyous patriotism, and the jaunty flourishes added to “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” enliven a song typically played as a funeral dirge. Waldo reads “I’m Just Wild About Harry” in the romantic vein of its composer, Eubie Blake, rather than the upbeat band arrangements of the ’20s and ’30s, and his rendition of “The Pearls” retains the character of Jelly Roll Morton’s solo arrangement. If you think Ragtime is nothing more than a nostalgic, almost corny soundtrack for The Sting, Waldo’s deep scholarship and vital artistry will set you straight. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

Terry Waldo’s Home Page

Steve Dawson: Rattlesnake Cage

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SteveDawson_RattlesnakeCageOutstanding blues, folk and jazz solo acoustic guitar

Canadian guitarist Steve Dawson has often treated his concert audiences to solo acoustic performances, but his albums have always supported his picking with a full band. On his latest album, Dawson gives listeners an opportunity to hear a conversation between his imagination, fingers and guitars (including 6- and 12-strings, traditional wood bodies and a National tricone), unadorned by other instruments or even vocals. Listeners will quickly realize how easily the rich particulars of a guitar’s sound are subsumed by other instruments, and that freed from the competition of a band, each guitar sings with a unique and detailed voice.

In these eleven performances, Dawson keeps meticulous time, but the tempos and changes flow from each song’s internal rhythms. Dawson is a well-rounded player who weaves together blues, folk, country and jazz, finger-picking ragtime on “The Medicine Shows Comes to Avalon,” playing slide on “Flophouse Oratory,” and adding lovely rolling lines on “Butterfly Stunt.” His originals range from contemplative to up-tempo, ending the album with the 12-string “The Alter at Center Raven.” Fans of Fahey, Kottke and Cooder will recognize Dawson as a kindred soul. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

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Steve Dawson’s Home Page

Chet Baker: Plays the Best of Lerner & Loewe

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ChetBaker_PlaysTheBestOfLernerAndLoeweChet Baker chills out on Broadway

This 1959 recording, the last of trumpeter Chet Baker’s albums for Riverside, was also on the leading edge of jazz artists exploring material from Broadway musicals. Shelly Manne’s My Fair Lady had made a tremendous splash in 1956, and Baker’s own Chet included tunes from Rogers & Hart and Kurt Weill. Backed here by Herbie Mann, Zoot Sims, Pepper Adams, Bill Evans and a rhythm section of Earl May and Clifford Jarvis, the interpretations are lyrical, and as you’d expect from Baker, cool. Half of the eight tracks are from My Fair Lady, and the contrasts with Manne’s interpretations are many. “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” is more forlorn than delicate with its loss. “I Could Have Danced All Night” is turned from a Latin rhythm and Andre Previn’s quick fingers to the lighter mood of Mann’s woodwinds and Baker’s trumpet. “On the Street Where You Live” features the interplay of Baker’s trumpet and Adams’ baritone, and “Show Me” finds the band heating things up a bit, with Mann and Sims offering compelling solos.

The album’s four remaining titles were drawn from Brigadoon, Gigi and Paint Your Wagon. “Heather on the Hill” is more reserved than the Broadway score, losing the expectation of the original’s lyric to a drowsy backing with contemplative trumpet and flute leads. A breezy reading of “Almost Like Being in Love” reflects the lyric’s unbridled joy, and Baker’s lead on “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” is more introspective than Maurice Chevaliar’s trademark performance. There’s nothing particularly revelatory about these interpretations – neither about the musicians or the music. But in a sense, that’s the album’s proposition: Frederick Loewe’s melodies are fetching, Alan Jay Lerner’s lyrics give story to the instrumental leads, and the musicians play true to their usual excellent form. The 2013 reissue of this title features a 24-bit Joe Tarantino remaster of the original eight tracks, Orin Keepnews’ original liners and new notes by James Rozzi. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Wes Montgomery: SO Much Guitar!

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WesMontgomery_SoMuchGuitarExpanded reissue of classic 1961 Montgomery LP

Montgomery’s fourth album for the Riverside label, recorded in 1961, finds the inimitable guitarist leading a quintet of Hank Jones, Ron Carter, Lex Humphries and Ray Barretto on a set that mixes originals (“Twisted Blues” and “Something Like Bags”) with well-selected standards. The group comes out charging hard with Montgomery picking firm and fast as the rhythm section swings with all due speed. Carter’s bass provides both rhythm and a melodic foil for the guitar, and Jones’ fleet fingers prove a good match for Montgomery’s thumb. The ballads show another fully-formed side of Montgomery’s playing, with the highly-charged percussive picking giving way to more fluid and introspective lines, such as on the unaccompanied “While We’re Young.” The mid-tempo “I’m a Lucky So and So” allows the band to swing as Montgomery explores the song’s melodic theme in his lead, finally giving way to Jones for a bluesy 32-bars. The album closes with a truly sublime reading of “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)” whose drowsy tempo takes the place of Johnny Mercer’s late-night lyrics.

The album’s original eight studio tracks are augmented on the 2013 reissue by eight live recordings made with the Montgomery Brothers (Wes, Buddy and Monk) and drummer Paul Humphrey. Recorded in a Vancouver club in 1961, the sound is actually crisper than the studio tracks, and the leads are shared between Wes’ guitar and Monk’s vibraphone. These live tracks have been previously released on the compilation Groove Brothers, but they make a nice complement to this album, filling out the disc to 79 minutes. The new 10-page booklet includes Orrin Keepnews’ original liners, new notes by Marc Myers and original front- and back-cover art. As with other recent Concord reissues of the Riverside catalog, this disc features a new 24-bit remaster by Joe Tarantino. The new CD is substantially louder than the 1987 reissue, which may be why the high end sounds better articulated (which, thankfully, doesn’t make the loudest piano notes any more of a problem than on the previous CD). Whether or not the sonic changes provide an upgrade, the added live tracks are a worthwhile get. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Cannonball Adderley with Milt Jackson: Things Are Getting Better

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CannonballAdderley_ThingsAreGettingBetterTwo jazz masters meet with a dynamite rhythm section

This 1958 session finds alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley in session with Modern Jazz Quartet vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and a three-piece rhythm section of Wynton Kelly (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Jazz Messengers leader, Art Blakey (drums). Jackson’s playing makes both a brilliantly smooth tonal partner for Adderley’s sax, and a rhythmic complement to Heath and Blakey’s beats. The opening “Blues Oriental” provides a blue mix of piano, vibes and sax, backed by Blakey’s moody tom-toms and Heath’s superb bass line. Kelly and Jackson tip off a lighter, more optimistic mood for Adderley’s title cut, with the saxophonist swinging happily as he trades solos with Jackson and Kelly. The quintet simmers on “Serves Me Right,” with the rhythm section providing drowsy, late-night backing to Adderley and Jackson. And so the set runs, moving between Dizzy Gillespie’s mid-tempo “Groovin’ High” and Eubie Blake’s “The Sidewalks of New York,” Adderley’s relaxed “Sounds for Sid” and an upbeat reading of Cole Porter’s “Just One Those Things.” The rhythm section proves both solid and flexible, adding a kick to the mid-tempo numbers and providing laid back atmosphere for the ballads. The 2013 reissue of this title was remastered in 24-bits by Joe Tarantino, and includes three bonus tracks. The first of the three is a little less than a minute of studio chatter, while the latter two provide alternate takes of “Serves Me Right” and “The Sidewalks of New York.” This is a terrific showcase for Adderley and Jackson, and a good example of how alto and vibraphone play together. [©2013 Hyperbolium]