Ella Fitzgerald The Lost Berlin Tapes

Ella Fitzgerald
The Lost Berlin Tapes
Verve

"The Lost Berlin Tapes" is a previously unissued Ella Fitzgerald recording that came from Verve Records founder Norman Granz's private collection. It was recorded at Berlin's Sportpalast on March 25, 1962, with Ella accompanied by the trio of pianist Paul Smith, Wilfred Middlebrooks on bass, and Stan Levey on drums. It was recorded a little over two years after the February 1960 concert that became one of her best-known and best-selling records, the Grammy Award winning "Mack The Knife: Ella in Berlin."

Ella is in good spirits here and with little duplication of the earlier Berlin show ("Summertime" and "Mack the Knife"). Things kick off with a spirited "Cheek to Cheek" with an appreciative audience evident throughout. She playfully incorporates the names of Sinatra, Eckstine, Belafonte, Perry Como, Count Basie, and others into the lyrics of "My Kind of Boy." The accompaniment is sublime as expected, and even a drum solo from Levey on "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!" There are songs associated with Julie London ( a dramatic "Cry Me a River"), Ray Charles (a playful "Hallelujah, I Love Him So"), and Billie Holiday ("Good Morning Heartache")."

Particular favorite selections include the ebullient "Jersey Bounce," with her scintillating scatting; the thoughtful "Someone to Watch Over Me," and "Taking a Chance on Love," where Smith's dazzling accompaniment matches her horn-like phrasing. Others will undoubtedly find other selections to be of equal or greater appeal. Let listeners be thankful that we have this marvelous new addition to Ella's discography.

I received a download to review from a publicist. Here is Mack the Knife" from this recording.

Bettye Lavette Blackbirds

Bettye Lavette
Blackbirds
Verve

"Blackbirds" is the latest recording from the great Bettye Lavette. This recording is Lavette's celebration of some iconic black women artists by performing songs associated with these women. It is produced by Steve Jordan, who produced Lavette's Grammy-nominated "Things Have Changed." Musically it has the clean, austere setting providing a backdrop for her sharp, at times, acidic delivery. The personnel includes guitarist Smokey Hormel, keyboardist Leon Pendarvis, drummer Steve Jordan, and bassist Tom Barney.

Her approach certainly is spot on for the opening Nina Simone's "I Don't Hold No Grudge," with her singing providing emphasis to the pain of the lyrics with a stinging closing guitar solo from Hormel. Sharon Robinson contributed a somber "One More Song," that Lavette pours her heart into singing about one more broken story line. Another gem is a spellbinding interpretation of Della Reese's torch song "Blues For the Weepers." She opens a stellar rendition of Ruth Brown's "Book of Lies" unaccompanied as she recalls the broken promises of her ex-lover who broke her heart.

Lavette's rendition of Lil Green's "In the Dark" (originally titled "Romance In the Dark") has a brooding sensuality to it with a sharp guitar solo. It is followed by a stark, reflective take on Dinah Washington's "Drinking Again." It says so much about Lavette's ability to make a song her own that the delivery of the harrowing imagery of "Strange Fruit" is almost as memorable as Billie Holiday's original recording. That is high praise of her interpretive powers. Buddy Johnson's "Save Your Love For Me" has been recorded by countless artists. One of the earliest versions was Nancy Wilson's with Cannonball Adderly, which is the inspiration of Lavette's pleading rendition of this modern classic.

With Hormel's spare guitar anchoring the backing, Lavette closes this recording with her interpretation of The Beatles' "Blackbird," again displaying how she can impart so much emotion in a song. One suspects that this outstanding release will garner Bettye LaVette more Grammy nominations. She is an American classic artist.

I received my review download from a publicist. Here is Bettye Lavette singing "Blackbird," in 2017.

Brian Newman Showboat

Brian Newman
Showboat
Verve

A Cleveland native, singer and trumpeter Brian Newman debut recording is this Verve release. Before coming to New York, he studied trumpet at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. In New York he started playing around while bartending, eventually leading his quintet playing several nights a week which developed its tight sound. He made a name for himself as a consummate entertainer on the NYC club circuit in recent years with extended engagements at The Oak Room, Birdland, The McKittrick Hotel and The Rose Bar. A friend of Lady Gaga who he met while bartending, he sometimes plays on her shows, and she appears on one selection. Newman's quintet backs him here and is comprised of Steve Kortya (Saxophone, Flute), Alex Smith (Piano, Keyboards), Joe Peri (Drums), Daniel Foose (Bass), and Paul Francis (Drums, Percussion). Some originals are mixed in with American Songbook classics on this disc which was produced by Dae Bennett, Tony Bennett's son, and record producer.

Newman is quite a capable trumpeter with a swinging, bright tone while saxophonist Kortya is  quite impressive as on the opening "San Pedro." This is a driving number that displays how good the rhythm section is as the horns trade fours with drummer Francis. His singing is decent but not as strong as his melodious trumpet as can be heard on the catching original, "Tropicalia." "Dancing In The Moonlight" has a funky reggae-flavored groove along with hot and appealing playing by Newman and Kortya. "Sunday in New York" is a lively tribute to his current home city with a credible vocal and more spirited playing.

Lady Gaga is, of course, a celebrated popular vocalist who has established herself as a singer of standards with her duets with Tony Bennett. She takes the spotlight on "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," with her personality exhibited here with strong trumpet accompaniment. The old pop instrumental "Spooky" is revived with a melodic rendition with Smith on the organ. Newman sings poignantly on "You Don't Know What Love Is," with some touching trumpet and Smith adding an engaging solo. Then there is the effervescent, swinging 'Pennies From Heaven," with choice piano and strong tenor sax. Bassist Foose is solid throughout, but especially vigorous here where he also solos.

With a lively Afro-Cuban big band feel, Tom Waits' "Jockey Full of Bourbon," closes this recording with a capable vocal and vivacious playing. With the strongly played and engaging music on "Showboat," Brian Newman and his Quintet display the reasons for the considerable appeal of their music.

I received this as a download from a publicist. This review originally appeared in the March-April 2019 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 383), although I have made some edits to that published review for clarity. Here is the audio to "Spooky."

Charlie Watts Meets The Danish Radio Big Band

Charlie Watts
Charlie Watts Meets The Danish Radio Big Band
Impulse!/Verve

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts always has a love of jazz and his Tentet's live recording at the famed London club, Ronnie Scott's is just one instance of this. In 2010 he spent several days with the Danish Radio Big Band and presented a concert at the then newly opened Concert Hall of Denmark in Copenhagen that was broadcast on Danish National Radio and now has been made available on CD. The promotional materials I received do not include personnel or identify the various instrumentalists besides Watts and bassist Dave Green.

The performance with "Elvin Suite" that Watts cowrote with Jim Keltner, This two-part tribute to Elvin Jones," opens with a lush, lovely initial part with marvelous arranging of the horns around a deliberately played and paced guitar solo and some marvelous harmonies surrounding short trumpet and trombone leads and a bass solo leads into some growling trombone. The second part picks up the groove as Watts evokes Jones with percussion support before some robust tenor saxophone over percussion before the full band joins in to add to the heat.

Watts leads with a funk-bossa nova groove for "Faction," his reworking of the Stones' signature tune "Satisfaction," with marvelous trumpet with the guitar accompanying with short bursts and chords. It is fascinating how Watts added to the original melody here while keeping its basic structure. There is also another fervent tenor sax solo and husky baritone sax with the very imaginative scoring of the other horns. It is one of three Stones numbers heard here. The Stones original "You Can't Always Get What You Want" had an orchestral and choral setting, so it is not surprising it is transformed into a big band setting with a bit of funk in the groove and greasy organ (with a horn riff in the arrangement that evokes Cannonball Adderly's recording of "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.") with strong trumpet and a swirling soprano sax solo. "Paint It Black" becomes a jazz ballad with the guitarist setting for the song, evoking the lyrics as the horns provide varying colors as he snakes his playing through this.

"I Should Care," is a lovely, almost dreamy performance with some wonderful mid-range trumpet and trombone while the closing "Molasses" is a rollicking, high stepping blues in the vein of "Night Train" and similar instrumentals with more sinewy tenor sax (like Jimmy Forrest playing with the 70s Basie Band), growling trombone, and organ trading riffs with the horns with the intensity building before the horns cool things to close out this very striking recording that shows that the Stones' drummer is much more than a rocker.

I received a download to review from a publicist. Here is a short video of Charlie Watts with The Danish Radio Big Band.

Diana Krall Turn Up The Quiet

Diana Krall
Turn Up The Quiet
Verve Records

The latest recording by the acclaimed and honored pianist and singer Diana Krall presents her on a program of mostly standards (and love songs) from the American Songbook. Co-produced by her with the legendary producer Tommy LiPuma (this may be the last album LiPuma was involved with), she also chose the repertoire, conceived the ensemble arrangements and gathered three distinct bands for these sessions. First there is the trio of Diana, bassist, Christian McBride and guitarist, Russell Malone. Then there is a quintet of Krall, Karriem Riggins on drums, Tony Garnier on bass, the fiddle of Stuart Duncan and the guitar of Marc Ribot. The final ensemble is guitarist, Anthony Wilson, bassist, John Clayton Jr. and drummer, Jeff Hamilton (with Stefon Harris on one selection). Several tracks also have a full string section whose orchestrations are by Alan Broadbent who also conducted them.

With the marvelous personnel, Krall plays and sings with her usual elegance. The title is quite apt with her soft, almost whispered, singing on "Like Someone In Love," that opens with with just McBride's melodic bass before her piano and Malone's guitar joins in, with Krall, Malone and then McBride taking solos. It is followed by an interpretation of "Isn't It Romantic," taken almost at a crawl's pace with lovely guitar from Anthony Wilson with Stefon Harris' vibes and Jeff Hamilton's brushwork accenting her own piano with strings coloring Wilson's precious single-note guitar on a performance imbued with romance. Without Harris, this group returns for "L-O-V-E," gently supporting her solo here, as well as on the immortal Cole Porter "Night and Day," with strings and perhaps a slight Brazilian tinge from Wilson's chorded guitar accompaniment.

"I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)," features the quintet with Karriem Riggins on drums, Tony Garnier on bass, the fiddle of Stuart Duncan and the guitar of Marc Ribot, with Duncan's fiddle lending a gypsy quality while Ribot has a neat single note solo after his chorded accompaniment. Ribot's use of tremolo helps set the atmosphere for the exquisite rendition of "Moonglow," with Riggins' deft brushes matching Krall's own soft-spoken vocal, and followed by Ribot's lyrical phasing and tone in his solo. There is a delicate quality to Krall's vocal on "Blue Skies," with Malone and McBride. The Clayton quartet adds light latin backing to "Sway," with the strings adding to the performance's romantic quality. "No Moon at All" is a duet with Clayton who is sublime in his accompaniment here.

The Krall-Malone-McBride trio with sting session provides the setting for the alluring rendition of "Dream," with some special playing from Malone, before the easy swing, and delightful vocal and piano, of "I'll See You In My Dreams," with a gypsy jazz flavor imbued by Ribot's guitar and Duncan's fiddle that closes a marvelous album that may turn up the quiet but also turns up the romance in good measure.

I received my review copy from a publicist. This review originally appeared in the May-June 2017 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 372). Here is the audio for "Night and Day," from "Turn Up The Quiet."

Joe Louis Walker JLW

Joe Louis Walker
JLW
Verve

Joe Louis Walker’s new Verve release may be his breakthrough album with respect to reaching beyond the core blues audience. The material and the production may a bit more accessible without losing the music’s edge.

Perhaps the rhythm is recorded a little heavier, and Rain on My Mind sounds similar to some Stones’ tune. Those not familiar with the blues world of today may think it is Bonnie Raitt, not Angela Strelhi, on the soulful duet, Hold On. Besides Strelhi, guest appearances are made by the Tower of Power Horns on a couple tracks, Branford Marsalis on the nice soulful Inner City Man, and James Cotton on an acoustic Going to Canada - bassist Henry Oden’s take on the Dust My Broom riff.

What is unusual about this album is that Walker did not pen most of the songs.. There’s the intense version of the oldie Need Your Lovin’ Every Day, and the excellent rendition of Otis Blackwell’s On That Powerline that Walker had been recorded for the Otis Blackwell tribute album on Shanachie that also appears here. Walker himself is the source of the best material. 12-Step Lovin’ (co-written with Laurie Basson) has a clever lyric analogizing love as an addiction with the 12-step treatments for addiction, while Alone is a nice jazzy, soulful blues. Walker throughout sings and plays with the conviction and imagination that has always characterized his recordings and performances.

While it may not be as varied or jazz-inflected as his previous Blues Survivor, JLW is still typical of a Joe Louis Walker recording. It is first rate.

This review originally appeared in the October 1994 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 295). I likely received a review copy from the record company but may have purchased it. Here from over a decade after JLW, Walker is with Billy Branch doiig a Robert Johnson-Elmore James classic. 
 

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown The Man

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown

The Man

Verve

One of the founding fathers of modern blues, Gatemouth came from a musical family and grew up playing cajun and country as well as blues. He was discovered at Don Robey’s Peacock Club in Houston, where he took the stage filling for an ailing T-Bone Walker. Initially recording for Aladdin Records, he became a mainstay of Robey’s Peacock label. Only B.B. King exerts a comparable influence on modern blues guitar. Gatemouth’s dirtier, more emphatic attack (based on T-Bone’s jazzy approach) was the direct influence on such Gulf Coast, West Coast and Texas guitarists as Guitar Slim, Johnny Copeland, Earl King, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan. 

His new album, The Man, has the eclecticism of his ‘80s sets on Rounder Records - opening with Bill Doggett’s Honky Tonk, including explorations in blues and jazz with a funky remaking of Louis Jordan’s calypso blues, Early in the Morning,and hitting nice late-night blues grooves with You Can Disagree and Someday My Luck Will Change. Cajun accordionist Joel Sonnier joins for an instrumental version of Big Mamou (with Gatemouth on viola), and Jambalaya, while Gatemouth sings a straightforward country lament, You Can Disagree while closing with a country breakdown, Up Jumped the Devil. 

Gatemouth’s slightly crusty vocals are delivered in a relaxed fashion without any artifice, and his guitar and viola and fiddle are played with considerable skill and occasional sense of drama as on his melodramatic instrumental reading of Unchained Melody, with his very deliberate phrasing and changes in tempo. His regular band is augmented by rhythm guitar and a larger horn section, which do occasionally come across as a bit heavy handed. To use a term Gatemouth Brown himself prefers, The Man is a solidly constructed album of “Texas Swing”.


This review originally appeared in the March 1995 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 199). I received my review copy from a publicist, the record company or the publication. The CD may be out of print but may not be hard to find used or as a download. Here Gatemouth performs "Up Jumped the Devil."

  

Wes Montgomery Kept Movin'

The great Wes Montgomery is celebrated in a new box set, Movin’: The Complete Verve Recordings, from Verve through the Hip-O-Select, which like Verve is part of the Universal Music Group. Like other recent Hip-O-Select box sets, this comes in the form of a hard cover book which contains substantial annotations from Wall Street music journalist Marc Myers (who also does the excellent jazzwax.com blog) along with five CDs that contain all of the substantial musical legacy that Montgomery produced for Verve, after his important, innovative and influential Riverside recordings. My only quibble with the packaging is that the pages used to contain the CDs (which contain session information) hold the CDs in a manner that makes it slightly difficult to extract and return to the sleeves the CDs without getting one’s fingerprints on the shiny side of the CD.

Myers essay is entitled Birth of the Mod, and gives and overview of Montgomery’s career with a focus on the Verve recordings. While comfortable in his hometown Indianapolis, he nevertheless became a major jazz performer through his association with the Riverside label. The death of Riverside’s Bill Grauer was eventually followed by bankruptcy. Without a record label, Montgomery signed with Verve and Creed Taylor who was one of its primary jazz producers who had been working with Jimmy Smith, Stan Getz and others. Myers details the recording of the eight albums by Montgomery on Verve which marked some of Taylor’s earliest jazz-pop experimentations and which turned the guitarist into a jazz-pop avatar to quote Myers.

With Verve, Taylor mixed recordings of jazz standards, popular numbers and show numbers often with big bands that still had Montgomery’s guitar in front. From the first moments of his initial Movin’ Wes to the collaborations with Jimmy Smith, Montgomery’s brilliant fretwork was on display. While some of his recordings like the rendition of People on the Johnny Pate arranged first album employed fadeouts like pop 45s others like his rendition of the Duke Ellington classic “Caravan” were front and center burners. And it wasn’t simply Johnny Pate. Taylor also employed Don Sebesky, Claus Ogerman and Oliver Nelson for other big band sessions.

Not to be forgotten among these big band sessions are the sessions with the Wynton Kelly Trio that included some live recordings. Jimmy Cobb, the trio’s drummer, recalls that Montgomery was somewhat uncomfortable with the commercial material, and felt the material was beneath what Montgomery was capable of. Myers explains how Montgomery, despite initially resisting such material became more comfortable with it employing the example of Going Out of My Head. After first resting the simplicity of the material, Montgomery would make a Grammy winning recording, working out stuff with Grady Tate before the recording.

Yet as the recordings with Wynton Kelly and later the collaborations with Jimmy Smith make most evident, Montgomery had matured but remained the brilliant improvisor mixing single notes chords and octaves and the best of the orchestrations simply add punch to this brilliance, but even when simply embellishing a melody as on Going Out Of My Head, his tone and note placement produced magic. When Montgomery and Smith collaborate on Down By the Riverside or Milestones with terrific Oliver Nelson charts the sparks fire. Then there are the small group sides by Smith and Montgomery with just Grady Tate and Ray Barretto on King of the Road and Baby Its Cold Outside that makes one wish these two had recorded more.

It is almost impossible to find any recording on this that doesn’t possess at least some musical magic, even the tracks with some imperfections that remained unissued at the time of recording. Of course, some of the alternates and other tracks have been subsequently reissued. Unless one has an extensive collection of the source CDs, this is a must for fans of Wes Montgomery and/or jazz guitar.

This was a purchase and I believe it would make a terrific gift for the jazz lover or guitar music lover on your gift list.

Bukka White's Classic Rediscovery Blues

Back three decades ago, Samuel Charters produced a series of blues lps for the Swedish Sonet label, The Legacy of the Blues, along with some other blues recordings. Charters is known as both a blues author (The Country Blues, The Poetry of the Blues, Bluesmen) as well as a producer of blues recordings, including the classic Chicago, The Blues Today! and albums by Junior Wells and Buddy Guy to name a few of the artists he recorded. Universal Music, through its Verve imprint has just issued seven of the seven Sonet lps for reissue in a series, The Sonet Blues Story. Six of these are from The Legacy of the Blues series. This is the third in a series of posts of my reviews from this series that originally appeared in the June 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 283).

Some of the albums in The Legacy of the Blues were from other producers. In fact, the volume by Bukka White reissues the Takoma LP that captured the 1963 Memphis session that Ed Denson and John Fahey taped after White had been located. White was one of the great Delta singers who first recorded in the 1930s. He had seen Charlie Patton and was influenced by this pioneering artist. White played a driving slide style that complimented his rough, shouted vocals. One of the blues most imaginative lyricists, he could weave a lyric story out of the sky as he would do for Arhoolie.


The recordings, many remakes of tunes he waxed for Columbia, are strong, focused performances whether the reworking of Aberdeen, Mississippi Blues, the train blues, New Orleans Streamline and The Atlanta Special, where his playing echoed the train traveling through the countryside, the gospel message of I Am the Heavenly Way or the country boogie Shake ‘Em on Down, these performances remain as vital as when he recorded them over forty years ago. If you have the Takoma album, you do not need this. Otherwise this is one of the best Delta blues recordings of the past half-century.

It should be noted that on these Sonet reissues, the playing time is somewhat short. Even those with extra tracks do not exceed 45 minutes. Still there is some good to exceptional music to be heard on these. This CD may be out-of-print but is available from various sellers and is available as mp3 files. I received my review copy from the publication.