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(Heading into Sunday Night on a mellow note)

I just realized I've been giving Jazz a short shrift this past week at The Roundtable. Being Sunday night, I can't think of a better excuse than to dive into this Blue Note side, My Old Flame cut on January 31, 1945 featuring the Benny Morton All Stars with Ben Webster, Barney Bigard and an amazing pianist who has been criminally neglected, Sammy Benskin.

A little session info:

Benny Morton's All Stars

Benny Morton (tb) Barney Bigard (cl) Ben Webster (ts) Sammy Benskin (p) Israel Crosby (b) Eddie Dougherty (d)

WOR Studios, NYC, January 31, 1945

BN219-0 My Old Flame Blue Note 47

All in all, a good way to end another insane week.

Two major distinguishing factors that make Eddie Harris an innovator had to do with his teacher at DuSable High School in Chicago, and his use of the Varitone Saxophone. It’s a pickup for saxophone. If you look closely at the video, you’ll see he’s got a line going from his instrument to a black box, and that he fiddles with it from time to time. This was a now defunct piece of technology invented by H & A Selmer, Inc., in an attempt to give the saxophone the same versatility as other electrified instruments.

His teacher was Walter Dyett was the kind of music teacher many serious musicians would love to have. Many of his students were successful professional musicians: Gene Ammons, Nat "King" Cole, Bo Diddley, Dorothy Donegan (and Dorothy Donegan again), Julian Priester.

Which old standards (players or pieces) have your ear?

Note: Our sister site Newstalgia has Backstage Weekend with Massive Attack - Live at the Phoenix Festival 1996.

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(Birdland on 52nd Street - A hotbed of Jazz activity in the 1950s)

A live set from July 3, 1952 featuring Arnett Cobb and his Orchestra and The George Shearing Quintet at Birdland on 52nd Street in New York.

NBC radio, throughout the 1940s and 50s did weekly live sets from Birdland, as did all the other networks from various clubs and ballrooms around the country. Live music on the radio was a nightly embarrassment of riches with bands, small groups, singers - just about everybody with a union card, getting their 15 to 90 minute musical messages across to millions of interested listeners.

And this was one of those nights.

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(James Brown - Fulfilling a fantasy)

Everyone knows the voice of James Brown; you can't forget it and you can't mistake it for anyone else - that's a given.

But James Brown the instrumentalist - that's another story. In 1964 he was finally able to fulfill a lifelong dream and was signed by Smash Records to do an instrumental album featuring Brown on keyboards, backed by some of the best Jazz/Blues musicians in the country. No vocals.

The results baffled the fans at first. The first track issued in 1965 from those sessions "Evil" didn't chart. But Smash persisted and this track, Try Me, an instrumental version of his hit on King Records some years earlier, was a follow up single and it was a pretty good sized hit.

Needless to say - it is another unforgettable side of James Brown.

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(Caravan - The Canterbury water system must've been amazing)

Shortly after my first exposure to the likes of Soft Machine, I was quick to realize there was a lot more where they came from. Seems the town of Canterbury was responsible for turning out a lot of talented bands with a lot of new and interesting ideas about music.

One of those bands was Caravan - a really interesting mixture of rock, jazz, fusion and noise, all in one big overwhelming dose. Like Soft Machine, they weren't a band you could dance to - nor would you really want to. They came along at a time bands stopped being listened at and started being listened to. It was the start of what came to be known as Prog-Rock. Not for everybody. In fact Prog-rock really never took off in the States. By the early 70's the audience was fitting in with the whole Eagles-Linda Ronstadt-Black Oak Arkansas thing. Which was fine, but some of us wanted more to chew on.

Bands like Caravan did just that.

This is off their 2nd album released in 1970 "If I Could Do I All Over Again I'd Do It All Over You" - the title track, no less.

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(The Dells - Doo-Wop, R&B, Soul and opening for Dinah Washington)

With the recent passing of John E. Carter (August 21), whose wonderful tenor made every Dells record a memorable experience, I thought I would put up one of their biggest hits, a track they originally recorded for Vee-Jay as a tribute. "Stay In My Corner" was an example of how versatile they were - running the spectrum from Doo-Wop in the mid-1950's over to R&B, Soul and Jazz. They were an amazingly talented group and Carter had the distinction of being inducted in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame twice - once for his earlier efforts with another memorable group, The Flamingos and later with The Dells.

RIP - you made some beautiful music and the world is better for it.

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(Boyd Raeburn - One of the greater unknowns of Jazz)

Mellow, as promised. This one features Boyd Raeburn and His Orchestra from 1944. The track is Bobby Sox, although it bears a striking resemblance to a Gerry Mulligan composition Bernie's Tune.

Raeburn was one of those musicians, like his contemporary Claude Thornhill, in whose ranks were some of the greats of the Jazz world. Case in point - this track is rumored to feature a young Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet solo. Raeburn was experimental and, like Thornhill, was a master at shading and color in his arrangements and he was never afraid to try new things. He came along at a time when the whole Jazz idiom was about to undergo a great change.

He was there to help point it in the right direction.

What a lineup! John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman and Elvin Jones in 1961 in Germany crushing through 'Trane's modal masterpiece "Impressions". What more could you ask for?

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(Alan Price - From Animal to Lucky Man)

A jump into the mellower parts of the late 70s tonight. A set from Alan Price, recorded by the BBC from the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester in 1979.

I have always enjoyed Alan Price, going back to his days with Eric Burdon and The Animals. His music has gone through a lot of transformation over the years, from Blues to Funk to Pop to Jazz to Soundtracks - all of it well crafted and most of it pretty memorable, even after three decades since this concert was recorded.

I think it's safe to say he is probably not very well known to the music listening public of the past ten or so years. But that's not to say it's not worth the 55+ minutes to dig around and immerse yourself in something you're not familiar with. Right?

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(Charlie Ventura - Ever So Thoughtful)

Tonight begins a regular music series strictly off discs and from the record collection. A little change of pace and, as usual for this site, running the full musical spectrum.

So we're kicking the series off with one of my favorite discs, a 78 from Savoy records with Charlie Ventura on sax, Arnold Ross on piano, John Levy on Bass and Specs Powell on drums. "Ever So Thoughtful", recorded on August 28, 1945.

Enjoy.

Bumping the 50 State Strategy until tomorrow night to pay respects to Kenny Rankin.

AP:

Kenny Rankin, a brilliant pop vocalist and highly regarded musician-songwriter whose stylings ranged from jazz to pop to the world music influences he picked up as a child in New York, has died of complications related to lung cancer, his record company announced Monday. He was 69.

Rankin died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Mack Avenue Records spokesman Don Lucoff said.

UPDATE:

John Amato:

I just found out about his death a little while ago and I'm stunned. I met Kenny about 12 years ago and he was a really nice guy. He had an angelic voice that seemed almost impossible for a man of his size to produce. I saw him play at the Catalina a few weeks after we met and he was incredible. I never had the honor of playing with him, but one time about four years ago he asked me to bring my flute to sit in with him (after he heard me play with some friends) at the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles and I couldn't make it. What a treat it would have been for me to jam with just him and his guitar. And it's a loss I can never make up.

We'll miss you Kenny. You brought a lot of joy to the world with your incredible voice and heart. RIP...

I was in the mood for the smoking guitar of Robben Ford. He has an incredible sound that is all his own. Nothin' but the blues tonight.

"Worried Life Blues"

Check out his site too...

From one Hammond Organ player to these compatriots, a lil' "off the beaten path" jazz vid...pretty cool.

From Jazz on the Tube

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(The inimitable Mr. B and associates)

Somebody asked me who I thought my favorite Jazz singer was. I admit that was a really tough question because there are so many - the list is pretty endless. And to be honest, I would have to declare a six or seven way tie because, for my money to leave out Billy Eckstine would mean leaving out Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday and Johnny Hartman and Anita O'Day and Chris Connor - the list just doesn't stop.

But I remembered one of my favorite versions of "In The Still Of The Night" with Eckstine when he led an orchestra that was probably the single most amazing grouping of musicians ever assembled just post World War 2. But then I remembered the pairing of Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane. See my problem?

And then there's Bud Powell. You just can't have one single favorite when it comes to music - certainly Jazz where an artists individual point of view is probably more critical than other musical forms, because it is possible to hear the same song a thousand different ways and they all sound different. That's probably why I've never been bored with Jazz.

I ran across this live club date featuring a double bill of Bud Powell on the first half and Billy Eckstine with a small group on the second half. It all comes from the Birdland on 52nd Street in New York one July night in 1953.

Very nice stuff and a nice way to mellow out the weekend.

(Bud Powell in 1953)

Eclipse from their album "Classified"

Yes, that Brubeck...Dave's sons Dan (drums) and Chris (bass and trombone) have been performing with guitarist Mike DiMicco and pianist Chuck Lamb and carrying their dad's heritage admirably.