“What’s It Gonna Take” by Doug Deming & the Jewel Tones (VizzTone) is a companion release to the recent CD by harmonica wizard, Dennis Gruenling. Like Deming was prominent on Gruenling’s recording, Gruenling is featured with Deming along the Jewel Tones Andrew Gohman on bass and Devin Neel on drums. This release was recorded in Florida and is a strong set of blues and roots music that is as easy on the ears as it is certainly to get the dancers up and on the floor.
7 of the 11 songs on What’s It Gonna Take are Deming originals starting with the title track with its Deming giving his heartfelt plea as to whether his heart is gonna break or what is it gonna take. As on Gruenling’s album, there is spectacular and well crafted harmonica and guitar. I really like Deming's uncluttered, crisp playing. As a vocalist, Doug Deming is an appealing singer and his guitar playing will delight fans of Duke Robillard, Bill Kirchen and similar players. Think Hard is built on a churning Chicago blues groove with some outstanding saxophone like harmonica behind Deming’s energetic vocal. One Good Reason is a number that evokes Bill Kirchen’s rendition of Hot Rod Lincoln, reflected by Deming’s guitar as well as by Gohman’s slapped upright bass. The group sound terrific on a fine cover of Willie Mabon’s Poison Ivy, with more dazzling harmonica. An Eye For An Eye is a Muddy Waters styled original benefiting from the spare backing as Gruenling again dazzles while Deming's simple driving playing is quite effective.
No Big Thrill is a fine original suggestive of Sonny Boy Williamson II’s Bring It On Back Home, with Anthony Smith playing the harp here. On a charming rendition of Buddy Johnson’s A Pretty Girl (A Cadillac and Some Money), Gruenling employs the bottom range of his chromatic harmonica while accompanying Deming’s vocal. Gruenling’s spirited, Bella’s Boogie, closes this CD on a dynamic note with lively guitar, a short drum break and dynamic harmonica. It is a performance that again showcases the tight, swinging groves of Deming and the Jewel Tones. What’s It Gonna Take is a marvelously performed recording that will delight fans of Chicago and jump blues.
I received my review copy from VizzTone. Here they are doing Buddy Johnson’s A Pretty Girl (A Cadillac and Some Money).
Barrelhouse Buck McFarland first recorded for the legendary Paramount label in 1929 and Decca had him wax sides in 1934-1935. Bob Koester was living in St. Louis when he located McFarland in 1957 with the help of Speckled Red and Charlie O’Brien. Koester then recorded him in 1961 shortly after Sam Charters had recorded McFarland for Folkways. I do not believe the selections on the new Delmark CD Alton Blues have previously been issued. In any event, is a delight to hear real barrelhouse piano, especially when played as solidly as here. He displays strong left hand bass and right hand chords while hammering out single notes as exhibited on Charlie’s Stomp, as well as on the more meditative accompaniment (still with hammered single note runs) onRailroad Blues. This number he sings in a very husky, straightforward fashion. Included are two takes of his signature song, I Got to Go Blues, which he waxed for Paramount, with a marvelous melancholic vocal as well as a strutting instrumental, Barrelhouse Buck. This is a marvelous session with variety in material, and includes some brief spoken tracks enhancing a wonderful album for anyone who loves blues piano. The above review appeared originally in the May-June 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 293) as part of a review of several Delmark releases. I have made some stylistic changes. I received my review copy from Delmark.
There are few singers in Chicago with roots in the classic blues style heard in the Windy City in the 1950s. Vocalist Willie Buck is one and with The Rockin’ Johnny Band has a new album on Delmark, Cell Phone Man. Buck’s sound is heavily shaped by that of Muddy Waters classic fifties band and he is ably supported by the Rockin’ Johnny Band with Johnny’s guitar, the guitar of Rick Kreher, the bass of John Sefner and the drums of Steve Bass. They are augmented by Barrelhouse Chuck on piano and the harmonicas of Martin Lang and Bharath Rjakumar.
In Scott Dirks liner notes, he observes Muddy Waters influence but also observes Buck has a style that is really more typical of the Chicago style of the fifties. Still when one has a recording that includes a number of songs associated with Waters like Two Trains Running (done acoustically), Going Down Main Street, Streamline Woman, Memphis Minnie’s What’s the Matter With the Mill (Can’t Get No Grinding), My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble, and Blow Wind Blow, the comparison is unavoidable. Willie certainly acquits himself in these performances.
Buck’s strong rendition of Muddy’s Strange Woman, employs the Help Me bass line and in addition to some outstanding guitar (suggestive of Jimmy Dawkins with Carey Bell), displays the considerable harmonica skills of Bharath Rjakumar’s harmonica playing. While credited to Buck, Two Women Talking, sounds like the song Big Moose John Walker recorded as Baby Talk four decades ago for Bluesway. It is a solid performance which fortunately lacks the amplified wah-wah saxophone which did detract from Big Moose’s earlier recording. The title track is a strong Muddy styled original as he asks his woman to let Willie be her cell phone man, she won’t have to worry about a thing with biting guitar and Bharath acoustic harp standing out.
In addition to the steady rhythm provided by the Rockin’ Johnny Band (and fine guitar work from Johnny and Kreher), Barrelhouse Chuck is consistently outstanding and the harmonica work of both Martin Lang and Bharath Rjakumar also is top notch. Willie Buck is not Muddy’s equal, but who alive is. His vocals exhibit some of the same expressive qualities and with the strong backing here (which at times suggests some of the outstanding Delmark albums of the late sixties and seventies) has produced a strong recording of real-deal Chicago blues.
Bill I was provided a review copy from Delmark. Here is a video of Willie with Rockin' Johnny doing some Muddy Waters.
MVD Visual has made available a 1974 Cable TV broadcast of an afternoon performance by John Lee Hooker and the Coast to Coast Blues Band, Cook With The Hook: Live in 1974. from a city landfill in Gardner, Massachusetts as the King of the Boogie was appearing in the area. He was part of a concert with several other bands. In fact at the close of this performance, it is mentioned that he has to leave because he is appearing in Boston that night. Fortuitously, this performance was filmed and broadcast on local cable systems at a time when cable television was primarily to help with television reception and public access would be a decade away.
The performance is a typical Hooker performance of the era. The first performances are pretty solid including the brooding opening It Serves Me Right” to Suffer, and the uptempo Sweet Sweet Thing where he sings about having to find his woman. A spirited Boom Boom kicks up the boogie tempo and followed by churning groove of Whiskey Woman, where he sings about how they have just about wrecked his life. On these performances, the Coast to Coast Blues Band does a solid job with Hooker adding some bursts of guitar.
Then asking the crowd if they want to boogie and ‘cook with the hook,” he launches into a lengthy boogie, soon leaving his guitar down and standing while he chants about feeling good, urging everyone to boogie with him and rock, rock. Its an extended 17 odd minutes of boogie, followed by an encore in a similar mode that incorporates lyrics from Night Time Is the Right Time and other songs. This performance is typical of the period of Hooker’s career from after his collaboration with Canned Heat until the revival of his music after The Healer.
I am not sure what efforts were made to restore the original source film. The sound is fine while the video is of mixed quality. One of the cameras actually has pretty good quality, while the video from the other two cameras have a washed out quality perhaps reflecting the bright sun, so that the clarity of the performances and audience shots vary. The film does provide a balance of performance shots with the audience with the film centered on John Lee Hooker, and even those not enamored with the lengthy boogies at the end of his set here, still can appreciate his presence as a performer. I am not aware of videos of a full Hooker performance form this time period, so this release will be welcome on that basis, although it is hardly indispensable. I received a review copy from MVD Visual.
Northern Blues has treated us to the latest release by
the Cuban born, Canadian raised harmonica wizard Carlos
del Junco, Steady Movin’. Del Junco plays a ten note
diatonic harmonica chromatically employing the
“overblow” technique taught to him by the virtuoso Howard
Levy.
This set is produced by guitarist Kevin Breit (Norah
Jones, Cassandra Williams) and features him in the con-
text of a blues quintet on a genre transcending set of blues,
jazz, funk, folk and more. Obviously the selling point of
this album is his harmonica wizardry, but he isn’t that bad
a singer either. As suggested, this covers quite of range of
musical styles from the hot swinging jump harmonica
boogie Diddle It. that opens this with some driving saxophone like lines, followed by Kevin Breit’s Dull Blade, with its Ventures instrumental flavor with del Junco’s harp
adding a TV theme flavor. Dennis Keldie adds some nice organ on this track that
surprises with its twists and turns. Jersey Bounce, is a
jazzy instrumental that may have come from the Tiny
Bradshaw songbook on which del Junco displays his jazzy
side. Mashed Potatoes Canada, with John Dickie’s vocal
is a tribute to James Brown with a nice funk groove and
Carlos being a one-person funk horn section. It is followed
by a nice tribute to Rice Miller on Movin’ Down the River
Rhine, with him evoking Sonny Boy’s harmonica styling
and contributing an effective vocal. The intimate setting is followed by the Latin-jazz flavored Paradise, with another credible vocal and some
country-folk guitar in the backing. A lengthy solo version
of Amazing Grace, with his harp echoing bagpipes near
the end precedes the exotic The Simple Life, with echoes of
the music of the Indian subcontinent. Bailey’s Bounce, a tribute to pioneering harmonica master DeFord Bailey, is a marvelous harmonica evocation of a train such that Bailey himself had made famous. The album ends with Doodle It, with a banjo
prominent in the skittle band styled backing that opens at a slow tempo before the band kicks it into a peppier gear
with more swinging harp that closes this excellent album
on a very high note.
Del Junco is obviously rooted in the blues, but he goes
beyond his blues roots for a stunning recording that demonstrates why he among the most highly regarded harmonica players around. This is helped by the excellent
support he receives on this disc. Steady Movin’ is simply superb. This review originally appeared in the October 2008 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 309) although I made a few minor edits. I likely received this from the recording company or a publicist. Here is a clip of him performing Movin’ Down the River Rhine.
Word just came that Bob French passed away. This New Orleans legend was part of the studio crew at Cosimo's studios and played on countless classic New Orleans recordings. Later, he took over leadership of the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band from his father which he maintained for some time. His nephew Gerald now leads it.
Above he is seen at the 2007 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival where Marsalis Music celebrated its album of Bob. He was joined he was joined by friends and those he mentored including Harry Connick, Jr., Bradford Marsalis, Kid Chocolate and Trombone Shorty.
He also hosted a show on WWOZ for several years, championing New Orleans Music which he closed by saying that if you liked his show, tell all your friends and if you didn't like it, don't tell anybody. A character who was true to himself.
While not being released with the fanfare accorded a recent release of the recent Resonance release of Wes Montgomery Echoes of Indiana Avenue, Uptown Records has released a similar live recording of another legendary guitarist Grant Green, The Holy Barbarian/ St. Louis 1959. Like the Montgomery recording, this issues a live recording of Green from before he would receive national prominence. He is heard with an organ trio of organist Sam Lazar and Chauncey Williams augmented by the white tenor saxophonist Bob Graf at a short-lived coffee house that was pioneering in bringing together black and white musicians and audiences together at a time when the authorities frowned on such mingling (to say it mildly). Bob Blumenthal’s essay that is part of the accompanying booklet discusses the club and the harassment that led to its eventual closing not long after these recordings were made. There are some press clippings in the booklet describing the harassment that led to its close.
At the time of these performances, Green was on a cusp of his national career. His participation in after-hours jamming with members of Harry Edison’s band in St. Louis led him to make his first recordings with members of Edison’s band that appeared under Jimmy Forrest’s name for Delmark (All the Gin Is Gone and Black Forrest). Green was the best known of the artists but the others had interesting careers including Graf who was a veteran of Woody Herman’s Band and having returned to St. Louis was recorded by Bob Koester for an album issued on Delmar (which would become Delmark). Sam Lazar took up organ after hearing Jimmy Smith, and was signed to Chess’ Argo subsidiary where he recorded three albums between 1960 and 1962, the first of which included Green and Williams.
This live date was from Christmas, 1959 with the exception of one track from February, 1960, and is really nice album of straight-ahead organ jazz with Green and Graf shining. Graf’s playing illustrates why labels such as East Coast and West Coast sometimes are meaningless. Listening to the blues titled for this release as The Holy Barbarian Blues, I was struck by how much his playing reminded me of Dexter Gordon and Teddy Edwards while Green is sizzling with his driving single note runs. Lazar may have had limitations with his use of the bass pedal, but he really gets things greasy on this on which everyone takes a solo. This is a pretty hot blues performance that fades to an end.
Another bluesy performance taken at a medium tempo is Caramu (Blue Caribou), that Blumenthal speculates which gain opens with more bluesy tenor followed by Green who makes his initial statement and crafts his solo before Graf taking the lead out. Groovin‘ High, is one of the standards the group performed that night with Green displaying some of the musical imagination as well as chops that would lead to his greater recognition (By the end of 1960 he would begin his Blue Note association). Lazar’s Deep is another lengthy blues that is attacked by the group with considerable fervor. A driving rendition of Blue Train, includes some poetry from Pete Simpson who was also the MC that night which was included to illustrate the atmosphere of the club which presented poetry as well as music. Green is really strong here before Lazar takes the tempo down as Simpson delivers his poetry that Blumenthal observes“ is not likely to be included in any anthologies of twentieth-century verse.” Simpson is riffing on lines from lyrics in classic blues and American popular songs in his poetry, although few would disagree with Blumenthal's assessment of the poetry’s quality.
Blue Train concludes nearly 70 minutes of what was a strong performance of blues and hard-bop organ jazz. It is another one of Uptown Records Flashback Series that also included an excellent Dexter Gordon in Montreal CD. The sound is quite good given the source material and the accompanying booklet is superb. This terrific release will be essential to fans of Grant Green and certainly one that fans of hard bop will certainly want to give a listen to. I purchased this recording.
After a number of well-regarded discs for Bullseye Blues, Smokin’ Joe Kubek and B'nois King have a new disc, Roadhouse Research, on Blind Pig. The Texas pair combine Kubek’s muscular guitar playing with King’s soulful singing (suggestive of a cool Otis Rush) and slightly jazzier fretwork and tasteful rhythm playing. The contrast of Kubek’s in-your-face guitar and King’s vocals make for an appealing combination. The ten originals include some typical lyrical themes about hard times, women and the philosophical Better Be Getting It On, a hot shuffle whereKing tells us the while life may seem like a mystery, one better can move on while Kubek taking a strong, blistering solo. It perhaps is unsettling to hear King’s slightly distorted vocals on the opening Healthy Mama while Kubek’s soloing on Crying Shame would not have sounded out-of-place on some psychedelic recordings three decades ago. Kubek pulls all the stops on the slow blues, Runnin’ Blind, before King sings about having his woman running through his mind, but moving way too fast. Make It Right has a nice latin groove and a bit laid back feel for King’s plea that all he needs is his woman to make it right. Adding to the album’s variety is Kubek’s forceful slide playing on I Need More. Kubek is such a strong player that he can avoid the excesses that otherwise could make his tone and frenetic fretwork come off as overbearing. He also maintains an ear out while King sings so he never overwhelms the soulful singing. The result here is a varied and entertaining blues recording. This review originally appeared in the June 2003 DC Blues Calendar although I have made some minor changes from what originally appeared. Here is the pair with some roadhouse Texas blues.
Originally from Houston Texas, vocalist Teresa James makes her base in Los Angeles where she works with her band, The Rhythm Tramps who she has been working with for several years. James has performed live with such legendary artists as Levon Helm, Delbert McClinton, Bonnie Raitt, Kirk Whalum, Marcia Ball, Tommy Castro, Al Anderson, Asleep at the Wheel, and Lee Roy Parnell as well as having been a featured act on Delbert McClinton's Sandy Beaches Blues Cruise. James’s band, the Rhythm Tramps consists bassist Terry Wilson; guitarist Billy Watts; drummer Harman Matthews and percussionist Debra Dopkin. She has had a number of well-regarded albums, with the latest being Come On Home (Jesi-Lu Records).
Bassist Wilson produced this new recording as well as contributed to many of the original songs heard here. In addition to the members of the Rhythm Tramps there are some notable guests on this recordings including Jerry Peterson on saxophone; Lee Thornburg, who did the horn arrangements, on trumpet; the horn section from Mingo Fishtrap on one track; Jon Cleary on piano; Mike Finnigan on B-3 (and a vocal duet) David P. Jackson on accordion on one cut; Jim Christie and Tony Braunagel share the drum chair with Matthews on several selections and Leslie Smith adds his vocals. John Porter did the mixing. Quite a supporting cast that has been assembled here.
From the opening title track to the rocking closing All I Want to Dance, James places her stamp on the songs here supported by The Rhythm Tramps and guests. For those who have not heard her think about a Janis Joplin influenced singer with a dose of Bonnie Raitt mixed in. She sings naturally, in an unforced and convincing fashion. Throughout, the band plays terrifically whether rocking or laying down a lazy groove. The title track sets the pace with the rock-solid groove as she displays a take no nonsense attitude about the man who should take his sorry ass, lazy bones home. Its followed by her duet with Finnigan, a nice cover of Etta James & Harvey Fuqua’s soulful If I Can’t Have You, where both invest so much into their singing. The swamp-country soul of My Baby Knows What I Want, celebrates her man who holds her tenderly and knows what good loving is all about. It is followed by the rock and roll of Tommy Kay’s Long Way From Texas, with Cleary adding rollicking piano. Wilson’s Forgetting You, is a fine southern soul styled ballad with nice use of horns to frame her heartfelt vocal. There is more R&B flavor on Still Got the Message, with echoes of the Hi Rhythm Section while She’s Got a Way With Men (which she co-wrote with Wilson), conjures up classic Motown. Voodoo Doll, with Jackson’s accordion, adds some New Orleans flavor. On Carry That Burden, James sings with considerable restraint. It speaks to how good a singer she is that her performance on this is as authoritative as when she belts out a rocker like I Can Do Better. Come On Home, is a first-class recording that makes clear why folks like Bonnie Raitt, Kirk Whalum and Delbert McClinton are admirers of Teresa James.
I received a review copy from a publicist for this release. Here is Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps in performance.
Stony Plain recently issued “Shivers,” the second collaboration of New Guitar Summit, comprised of guitarists Jay Geils, Duke Robillard and Gerry Beaudoin, Guitarist-vocalist Randy Bachman (of Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Guess Who fame) guests on two Mose Allison
songs included among the eleven selections.
While I have not heard the prior recording, my familiarity with Robillard led me to expect a swing-based session and obviously the earlier collaboration was successful enough to justify this sequel. And one can understand,
as all three obviously love the easy swinging groove
throughout this collection of jazzy blues, swing classics
(the title track is from Charlie Christian and Lionel Hampton), and the pair of Mose Allison numbers.
One hears echoes of Christian and Grant Green (listen to the opening of Beaudoin’s original Blue Sunset).
They take the old Thurston Harris R&B hit Little Bitty
Pretty One and turn it into a swing romp, followed by a
spiffy jam on Flying Home. They really rip into the
old swing romp, Broadway. Bachman’s low-key vocal
delivery really contributes to the mood of the two Mose
Allison numbers, Your Mind Is On Vacation, and
Everybody’s Crying Mercy and adds his distinctive guitar style on these selections. Honeysuckle Rose may be taken a bit too slow, but that is more a matter of
preference and the playing here is very lovely, as it is on the closing Mediterranean Nights. This album just brings some friends together for a
blues-tinged, swinging disc that will deservedly have wide
appeal. This review originally appeared in the October 2008 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 309), although I have made a few minor edits. I likely received a review copy from a publicist. Here is a performance clip of the New Guitar Summit.
I first heard of harmonica wizard Dennis Gruenling through an excellent Little Walter tribute album he put together a few years ago as well as a remarkable performance he gave at a Baltimore Blues Society event. He reminded me of the late Paul DeLay with harmonica playing rooted in the modern blues masters like Little Walter and George ‘Harmonica’ Smith, but one whose ears would incorporate other progressive sounds (such as saxophonists like Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet). He is a progressive virtuoso whose playing still is rooted in Chicago and jump blues.
He has a new release on Backbender Records, part of the VizzTone Group, Rockin’ All Day, where he is supported by Doug Deming and the Jewel Tones. This band is comprised of guitarist-vocalist Deming; bassists Andrew Gohman or Scot Hornick; and drummers Devin Neel or Tom Papadatos with Dave Gross playing piano on one selection. Material includes some originals (notably instrumentals) and covers of blues and jump numbers originally associated with Jimmy McCracklin, Louis Jordan, Shakey Jake and Muddy Waters.
Deming is an affable vocalist who handles all but one of the vocals. While not a deep blues singer, his relaxed singing is easy to listen. Gruenling and he cover vintage numbers like the Jimmy McCracklin title track, Louis Jordan on Saturday Night Fish Fry, Amos Milburn on One Scotch, One Bourbon One Beer, and Wyonnie Harris’ Bloodshot Eyes. His vocal also does justice on the rocking cover of Muddy Waters’ She’s So Pretty. The Jewel Tones provide a swinging backing behind his vocals while Gruenling’s provides some spectacular and imaginative playing with his full-tone. Deming’s fiery guitar gets showcased as well as on She’s So Pretty. Carl Perkins’ You Can Do No Wrong, is a rockabilly flavored performance where Gruenling lays down a saxophone sounding. Then there are several strong instrumentals like the groover, The Rev, that starts off like a harp-drum rendition of Tequila, before Gruenling takes off while Deming chords behind the dazzling harmonica. In contrast, 2:22 AM, is a slow instrumental in the vein of Little Walter’s Sad Hours. Gruenling’s fat tone and swooping lines convey a late night mood aided by Deming’s simple accompaniment. Gruenling takes the vocal on Melvin Smith’s It Went Down Easy, with harp overdubbed. Deming stands out with crisp, single note lines here. Listening to this one hopes that Gruenling will showcase his vocals more. Dennis Gruenling is among the most accomplished as well as interesting harmonica players around ably backed by Deming and the Jewel Tones. With the first-rate performances here, Rockin’ All Day makes for lively listening, and will be quite popular with dancers. I was provided a review copy from VizzTone. Here is Dennis Gruenling with Doug Deming performing The Rev.
Severn has just released a new CD by Sugar Ray and the Blue Tones, My Life, My Friends, My Music. It has Sugar Ray Norcia backed by his long-time associates, Michael ‘Mudcat’ Ward, Neil Gouvin and Anthony Geraci with guests Duke Robillard, Monster Mike Welch, Greg Piccolo, Doug James, Carl Querfurth, and Bob Enos. It gives him a chance to be heard in both a jump blues vein (after all he was Roomful of Blues’ vocalist for several years), a fifties Chicago blues vein and in some more intimate settings as well. Norcia has established himself as a solid, strong vocalist and this recording is no exception although his covers of Oh, Babe, and I Like My Baby’s Pudding pale compared to Wyonnie Harris’ definitive renditions. An amusing original, Little Green Talking Frog, is in a similar musical vein and Norcia is not afraid to handle a New Orleans ballad, I Want To be With Her, as well as the Andy Kirk (Pha Terrell on vocal) classic, Until the Real Thing Comes Along, although overshadowed by fifties renditions by Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Witherspoon (Spoon’s rendition recently made available on a superb Mosaic Selects reissue). A certain imagination in backing is present on Money Taking Mama, with spare accompaniment led by Geraci’s strong piano which evokes Tampa Red and Big Maceo. It is followed by a nice reading of Rice Miller’s stop-time I Don’t Know. An original gospel tune, No Sorrow No More, has a Piedmont, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee flavor, while Do You Remember has him nicely handling a Big Maceo song, styling his vocal after the piano blues giant with Monster Mike Welch adding some nice acoustic guitar fills. Its another engaging release from Sugar Ray and his friends, imaginatively programmed and with his originals mixed in with songs that have not been recorded to death. Not an essential release, but one that certainly will entertain many. This review originally appeared in the July-August 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 295). I likely received my review copy from a publicist. He is a performance by Sugar Ray & the Blue Tones from around the time this album was released.
FOOTPRINTS: THE LIFE AND
WORK OF WAYNE SHORTER by Michelle Mercer JEREMY P. TARCHER/PENGUIN
At the Hollywood Bowl not too long before he passed,
Miles Davis told Wayne Shorter, “You know, you need to
be more exposed.” A rather intriguing comment about
Shorter who certainly has had a most distinguished career in jazz as a musician, a composer and a person.
Shorter was a central figure in the bands of Art Blakey &
the Jazz Messengers and the second great Miles Davis
Quintet, before forming Weather Report with Joe Zawinul,
and then having the fruitful partnership with Brazilian
singer, Milton Nascimento, and in more recent years lea ing his own highly regarded group. Throughout this tenure, he has enriched the jazz corpus with such classic
compositions as Africaine, Native Dancer, Lester Left
Town, Footprints, Delores, E.S.P., Infant Eyes, Neferiti,
Mysterious Traveler, Super Nova, and Speak No Evil, to
list a few. At the same time, Shorter’s playing, which fortunately is fairly well documented, shows him to be one
of the great saxophonists of the past few decades and
certainly one who may have shown influence from John
Coltrane, but certainly developed his own approach.
Michelle Mercer was fortunate enough to get Wayne’s
cooperation in writing her biography and overview of his
music, Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter.
Not only was she able to interview and spend time around
Shorter, but this also enabled many of Shorter’s associates to cooperate with her. Shorter is not the simplest
interviewee, and as Herbie Hancock notes Shorter does
not simply answer questions, he reacts. “Reactions, not
just answers, that are chock-full of wisdom. In his jovial
way, and with an innately uncanny sense. Wayne says
what a person needs to hear in order to expand himself.” As Ms. Mercer notes in her introduction, getting to
write this biography involved more than simply charting
the events of Wayne’s life, which she does. It involved
being around him and realizing his still evolving life and
career. Growing up in Newark, Wayne was fortunate to have
a mother that nurtured his creative whims which included
an early display of artistic talent and allowed his imagination to flourish., as well as be critical of social norms
and institutions, and in their neighborhood where some
of the immigrant families were less fortunate than the
Shorters, his parents pointed this out “to discourage racial stereotyping and encourage self-reliance.” Then he went to Arts High whose alumni include Sarah Vaughan,
Melba Moore, Connie Francis and Woody Shaw where his
artistic bent was encouraged and while there discovered
music, namely bebop, which led him to develop an interest in playing music at the age of 15.
Perhaps a late beginner, nevertheless Shorter quickly
picked up the technical aspects of music, including reading quickly, and started playing in local bands and going
to New York University as a music education major while
still playing and starting to compose, and playing the Palladium on a bill with Tito Puente who recalled to Wayne
years later how Wayne’s band from Newark had kicked
his band’s ass. He met and started working with Horace Silver, and
later met John Coltrane, with whom he would practice
together, and then begin a friendship with Joe Zawinul.
While with Maynard Ferguson, he was recruited by Art
Blakey to replace Hank Mobley, where his talent a saxophonist and composer blossomed. It was one of the great
editions of Blakey’s Band with Lee Morgan on trumpet.
While with Blakey, some called him a Coltrane clone but
Sonny Rollins noted that while Wayne liked Trane and
himself, he was innovative himself and it came out in how
he constructed his solos, “He was an honest boy and a
real player.” With Blakey he introduced such songs as Lester Left
Town and Africaine. With Blakey, he toured Europe for
the first time and the closing concert in Paris featured
several expatriates including Bud Powell who sat in with
the Messengers. Afterwards Powell, Blakey and others socialized, but
Wayne went back to his room, drinking some wine and
work on some tunes. At 3 A.M., there was a knock on the
door, and opening it he was surprised to see Bud Powell,
not Lee Morgan or Walter Davis, who came in and asked
Wayne to play something. Wayne launched into Dance of
the Infidels, after which Bud thanked him and left, an event
that stuck in Wayne’s mind like other encounters he had
with famous jazz legends. The time with Blakey was the first major exposure of
Shorter’s talents and contemporaneous with his first recordings as a leader on Vee-Jay, which have been followed over the past few decades by his tenure with Miles
Davis in Davis’ Second Quintet, and contemporaneous
with his Blue Note releases like Speak No Evil, and Super Nova. Then with long-time friend Joe Zawinul he was an
integral part of perhaps the greatest fusion band, Weather
Report, where he focused on soprano sax in order to be heard.
Then there was the V.S.O.P reunion at the 1976 Newport
in New York Jazz Festival and the accompanying tour,
and after a number of years he recorded his first solo
album in years and introduced the United States to the
remarkable Milton Nascimento, and on to later gigs with
Joni Mitchell and a tour with Carlos Santana, to his present
band. Mercer chronicles the life as well as the personal evolution of Shorter as he adapted and became committed
to Buddhism attempting to balance the religion’s demands
to the conflicting demands of a musician’s life, his marriage to Ana Maria, his ailing first child Isak whose brain
damage may have been as a result of a vaccination and the devotion of the family to the child, sheltering Tina
Turner through the worst of her times with Ike at the point
where she finally broke away and went on her own, and
when Ana Maria changed flights to meet him in Europe
and boarded the tragically fated Flight 800 in 1995.
This rather sterile description of the book fails to convey the richness of the narrative. Footprints doesn’t describe Wayne’s compositions in technical detail but conveys a sense of the recordings and his playing. More importantly it conveys the complexity of his person and his
relationships. The book opens and repeats with the narrative Wayne
going backstage to meet Miles Davis at one of Miles’ last,
if not the last, performances, and after others were sent
out, being told he needed to be exposed. Shorter has never
had a flamboyant personality and while sometimes shy,
he has always been thoughtful and caring and has known
when to say things. Fortunately he continues to expose himself as he
plays and bring us his magic in performance and on
record. Footprints includes 19 pages listing Wayne’s compositions and the first recordings (if they were recorded)
of the composition. One wishes there had been a discography of Wayne’s
recordings, but that probably would have been a book in
itself. Footprints was a fascinating and enlightening read
that will be hard to stop reading at times, and like I often
do after being engaged with the book has led me to reexamine Wayne’s musical legacy. This review originally appeared in the July-August 2007 jazz & Blues Report (Issue 295). I do not remember if I purchased this or received a review copy. I close this review with this 2003 video of Wayne Shorter performing Footprints.
Roundtrip (Barking Cat) by the Alex Terrier NY Quartet, is the second CD by the Parisian-born and Brooklyn based saxophonist. Originally classically trained as a pianist, he turned to jazz when first exposed to it, with Parker, Miles, and Coltrane being initial inspirations, and later he crossed the Atlantic to study at Berklee. He has established a reputation as a saxophonist, composer and band leader on both sides of the ocean.The NY Quartet is comprised of Roy Assaf on piano, François Moutin on bass, and Steve Davis on drums with guitarists Akira Ishiguro and Edouard Brenneisen each appearing on two of the 11 tracks.
The publicity for the disc suggest that the music here has the energy of the New York scene meeting the melodic poetry of European jazz. The diverse The opening Roundtrip is a burner, inspired by a Wayne Shorter piece, features his alto but gives space to all of the quartet to display their talents. The Spirit Will Not Descend Without a Song, has him on soprano and is an original inspired by reading Leroy Jones’ Blues People, and has some dreamy sections with Ishiguro adding some color with his single note runs often against Assaf’s melodic lines. E.S.B. and Ecstasy, is a multi-sectional composition in the mode of some of the Dave Holland Quintet with Terrier’s soprano (sounds occasionally overdubbed as two sopranos) snaking around Moutin’s bass line. The ballad Song for Keli, shows how effective Terrier and his group is in this vein, while Le Miroir Des Anges Deguises (The Mirror of The Disguised Angels), is a poetical evocation of a famous Paris bookstore and its mirror where people leave messages for others to read as the band with shifting moods and some really intense alto and some impressionistic piano on a performance that fans of the Blue Note Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter should appreciate. Ton Coeur De Petite Fille Est Mort, is a reflective performance featuring his soprano that captures the sentiment of the title, which roughly translated is“Your Little Girl’s Heart Has Died.” A walk around the Village, with an artist friend, inspired the joyfully playful Tompkins Square with Terrier’s playing shifting from a serene melodicism to an energized ecstasy, animated in part by Brenneisen’s guitar.
The closing The Dark Side of Democracy is an Ornette Coleman inspired number with Terrier on tenor, going from a whisper to an ecstatic shout, as the band display the same interplay between each other that is one of the hallmarks of this impressive contemporary jazz recording. Terrier is as impressive here as his reputation would suggest. His music is muscular and cerebral at the same time and his NY Quartet provides the foundation for some remarkable performances. This review originally appeared in the January 15-March 1, 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 323). I received a review copy from a publicist. Here is Alex Terrier performing Roundtrip at Smalls in new York City.
Darrell Nulisch, as some may know, was featured vocalist with Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets prior to Sam Myers, and many will be aware of his own recent recordings for Severn that were quite well received as Nulisch showed himself comfortable and convincing in a more urban blues vein. On his latest Severn disc, Goin’ Back to Dallas, he has returned with ‘a straight-out blues CD.’ On this, he is backed by a solid quartet of guitarist Jon Moeller, keyboardist Kevin Anker, bassist Steve Gomes and drummer Robb Stupka on a set of interpretations of classic blues and idiomatic originals in the vein of the originals. This might be likened to some of the early Fabulous Thunderbirds in terms of the feel and making a strong personal statement in this vein. There are a couple of solid covers of Sonny Boy ‘Rice Miller’ Williamson’s She’s My Baby and Too Young to Die, both sporting some nice harp in Miller’s style; along with Oscar Boyd’s Too Much, which is suggestive of Jerry McCain’s She’s Tuff Enuff; James ‘Thunderbird’ Davis’ Blue Monday, a nice modern minor key blues that was a hit for Z.Z. Hill; Jimmy Reed’s Shame, Shame, Shame; Freddie King’s Play It Cool; as well as Muddy Waters-styled original like That’s a Problem, or the title track which is an original in the vein of Rice Miller. Nulisch delivers his vocals cleanly and soulfully, and plays some terrific harp in various styles, showing a bit of Little Walter on the last named number, while the band is really tight. Guitarist Moeller is especially noteworthy here with his crisp and responsive playing throughout, but the band is terrific as well. Certainly a release that should appeal to blues fans everywhere as Nulisch certainly has produced a marvelous release that perhaps breaks new ground but delivers plenty of solid, entertaining blues. This review originally appeared in the July-August 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 295). I received a review copy from wither the label or a publicist. Here is a video of Darrell from 2007 performing a Sonny boy Williamson number.
Delta Moon is a blues-rooted Atlanta based band built around the twin slide guitars of Tom Gray (also a notable songwriter who wrote for Cyndi Lauper (Money Changes Everything), Carlene Carter and others) and Mark Johnson. They are a blues-rooted band with echoes blues, country, folk and rock blended to produce a strong roots stew. One can hear echoes of Bob Dylan, Fred McDowell, Blind Willie Johnson, Johnny Cash, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tony Joe White, and Lonesome Sundown. Bassist and backup vocalist Franher Joseph and drummer Marlon Patton fill out the band’s line-up.
On their new album Black Cat Oil (Red Parlor), Gray contributed 10 of 11 songs heard here (some in collaboration with Johnson and other band members. This writer is familiar with Delta Moon from a prior album, Hellbound Train. In reviewing that I was “struck by a certain Dylan-esque quality to some of the performances in terms of the song imagery and the strong blues feel of the performances.” That observation continues to apply to Gray’s gravelly vocals and the overcall cast of the performances such as Neon Jesus, where Gray sings that he wants it to shine on him and people talk about what they think things used to be.
The crisp rocking Down and Dirty, opens this up as Gray sings about about losing his job and his woman won’t stick by you so just let her go. Up next is Blues In a Bottle, a lament about wishing one could lock the blues up with nice trebly guitar adding atmosphere. The title track is an atmospheric performance about some mythical remedy with the restraint in the biting guitar adding embellishments. Jukin’ is a bluesy-rocker about a place where folks can go and stomp and screaming all around. It is taken at a nice medium tempo, displays how steady the band is and how they do not rush the tempo but play at the right pace.
A rocking rendition of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s Write Me A Few Of Your Lines, is the last track here and on which they adapt for a strong interpretation. It ends an exceptional blues-laced recording.
I received a review copy from a publicist. Here is a video of them performing Mississippi Fred McDowell’s Write Me A Few Of Your Lines.
The last few years have seen a spate of books centered around a record album, telling the story about the artists and how the specific album came about and its impact. For example, Ashley Kahn has provided wonderful volumes devoted to Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme. John Fass Morton’s new book, Backstory in Blue: Ellington at Newport ‘56 (Rutgers University Press), on one level is the story of the classic live recording by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, but it goes even deeper into social history to examine not simply how the recording happened but also discuss the impact of the Festival performance.
The performance at Newport is recognized as helping revive Ellington’s prominence in the American music scene and Morton provides a valuable and concise sketch of Ellington’s career including his emergence in New York during the twenties, the prominent part he played in the Swing era, and how he was affected by the decline of the big bands and shift in the direction of popular music and the recording career including Ellington’s aspirations which related to the writing and performance/recording of longer compositions, yet no longer enjoying the financial success allowing him to maintain the same level of a band. By 1955, Ellington had to accept a six week stint at the Aquacades in Flushing Meadows, site of the 1939 World’s Fair which also led to him having to replace several band members lacking a local union card. At the same time Ellington was frustrated with the record companies. While Columbia, which was popularizing the new lp form, enabled Ellington to record extended works including the now highly regarded Masterpieces, and Ellington Uptown, they were not commercial successes. and frustrated with the two major labels, Victor and Columbia, he signed with Capital but again met little success. Ellington was an emcee at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival, foreshadowing his performance the next year and by then had resigned with Columbia where he was reunited with George Avakian who had produced Masterpieces and had also produced successful recordings by Dave Brubeck and Louis Armstrong, and was behind the recording of Ellington and others in 1956.
Morton weaves together Avakian’s biography along with that of the members of the 1956 Ellington Band, the most interesting of which was tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves (of Cape Verdean descent), the birth and early history of the Newport Jazz Festivals and Elaine Anderson, the blonde lady whose dance during Paul Gonsalves legendary tenor solo that was part of the legend of that July 1956 evening. It is fascinating to learn that Elaine Lorillard, wife of an heir of a tobacco fortune, helped establish the festival in the most unlikely setting, a high society community. Then she helped sustain the festival against local opposition until riots in the mid-sixties suspended the Newport Festivals (which had grown to include Folk as well as Jazz. This is where George Wein first started producing festivals, and there were a number of interesting tidbits in the story including the fact that Wein created what we know as the photographer’s pit for the first Newport Jazz Festival, something many working press at festivals take for granted.
We get to the magic evening and the performance of Ellington and others on the bill that night. Ellington’s long-extended original work, Newport Jazz Festival Suite had received lukewarm applause, and recognizing this he launched into Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue, with an interval where he would play piano before calling forth Gonsalves who launched into one of the most celebrated tenor saxophone blues solos of all time, which launched the audience as the band was spurred on by Jo Jones of a rolled newspaper to push them on. All the while the audience's enthusiasm kept growing. Elaine Anderson had started dancing in the aisle near the stage while Gonsalves kept preaching the blues. Her dance was captured by the photographers in the photo pit and were included in coverage of the event as well as on the album cover when the album Ellington at Newport ‘56 was issued. At the time her identity was not known, but Morton was able to uncover her story of a one-time Hollywood hopeful starlet who had settled into the somewhat frustrating live of a wife and mother. And while all this is going on, Avakian and others are dealing with the fact Gonsalves is not playing directly into the mike being used to record his performance (but fortunately into a microphone used by Voice of America for foreign broadcast and the recording of which years later would be used in some later reissues of the album). Morton then tells about the performances aftermath, including the release of the live recording, the impact of its release and press coverage of Ellington’s Newport performance that led to the revitalization of his big band. He then tells what happened subsequently to the participants.
Given the rich historical tapestry, there are places one might feel bogged down in detail, but one be hard-pressed to find anything material to be excised. Reading this the story seems to take over and the reader settles in for the ride. Washington post book critic Jonathan Yardley authored the book’s introduction and he notes that “I have been blessed in many ways, probably more than I deserve, with a richly rewarding private life and a small but gratifying public one, but that night in Newport stands alone and apart.” It is to Morton’s credit that he is able to convey some sense of what made that night so unique and memorable. This book will make those having the album, listen to it a new, and for others hopefully lead them to discover that one magical evening in Newport, Rhode Island. I was provided an advance copy of the book from a publicist. My review originally appeared in the April 2009 jazz & Blues Report (Issue 315) to which I have made some stylistic edits.
James Morrison is a virtuoso in the true sense of the word. He not only plays trumpet, but also trombone, euphonium, flugel horn, tuba, saxophones, double bass and piano. He has played with countless musical legends including Dizzy Gillespie, Cab Calloway, Woody Shaw, Red Rodney, George Benson, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Ray Brown and Wynton Marsalis. His musical career is a fairly varied one that goes beyond the usual jazz gigs. He recorded Jazz Meets the Symphony with The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lalo Schifrin, performed concerts at the Royal Albert hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for Princess Anne. He was also the artistic advisor to the Sydney Symphony’s Kaleidoscope series, which has included performances by Chick Corea, Dianne Reeves, Gary Burton and Kristjan Jarvi.
In 1990, James Morrison recorded Snappy Doo, an album that featured Morrison along with three legendary artists (Ray Brown, Herb Ellis, and Jeff Hamilton) creating a seventeen-piece big band sound through the use of overdubbing. Ray Brown and Herb Ellis have passed on, but Morrison has recorded its sequel, Snappy Too (Aleph Records). For this album he did not replace Brown or Ellis, so he had to pull out his acoustic bass and brush up on guitar, in addition to playing trumpet, trombone, sax, and piano as he did for the first album. This was recorded mostly in his Sydney studio before moving to Los Angeles where Hamilton added the drum parts and Morrison added some improvised solos.
This writer has not heard the earlier recording, but if one listened to Snappy Too without knowing how it was recorded, one would be knocked out by this big band recording, although it opens up sounding like a slightly scratchy Dixieland recording of All of Me that segues into the tight big band setting for Morrison to take a crisp, bright trumpet solo initially against just a bass accompaniment before the full big band backing resurfaces. Morrison’s own The Master Plan is a nice slow groover that hints at A Night In Tunisia mixed with the (Theme From) The Pink Panther. with some cool West Coast styled tenor (think of Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn). Then he turns to trombone as the lead instrument on Getting Sentimental Over You. His playing on trombone like tenor sax and trumpet has a crispness and an appealing lyricism in the solos while the big band arrangements and accompaniments are lush but not syrupy.
The original The Call, is a Basie styled-blues with a loping beat with marvelous ensemble work. I particularly lie the brass riffs that accent his trumpet solo that has him hitting quite a few high notes here. No Regrets has a pensive quality with Morrison featured on alto saxophone and trumpet and followed by him on trumpet on the lively big band bop-flavored Zog’s Jog.
Sad Blues moves from the big Band setting to that of a traditional New Orleans jazz band with idiomatic tailgate-flavored trombone and trumpet set against a crisp parade-like rhythm. Another non-big band performance is Someday My Prince Will Come taken as intimate trombone - guitar duet. Morrison’s gospel-inflected Going Home, is in two-parts with the first part being somewhat more sober with a stride-inflected piano interlude leading into a more exhilarating mood. Its a spirit-raising close to a remarkable recording. Snappy Too is an astonishing technical achievement, but more importantly the music heard is wonderful.
I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is a promotional video for this recording.
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