Charlie, Stan, Tom, Joao, & oh yeah, Astrud, too

I first started paying attention to music after I received a transistor radio for Christmas in 1963-just in time for the British Invasion.  Like most kids my age, I listened to Top 40 radio and reserved my greatest attention for the Beatles, the Stones, the Animals and on and on.  One of the good things about Top 40 radio in the sixties, however, was that what made it on to the playlists wasn't just rock 'n roll or teen-oriented songs.  One song that caught my attention during the summer of 1964 that didn't fit the "yeah, yeah, yeah" formula was "The Girl From Ipanema," an example of a Brazilian style called Bossa Nova.  The beat was unusual and appealing, and the singer sang softly and (what, when I grew older, and understood these things, I would consider), seductively.  "The Girl From Ipanema" peaked at #5 and the album from which it came, Getz/Gilberto, made it to #2 on the album charts, bested only by the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night.  The song and album both won "best-of" Grammys in their respective categories and the album won Grammys in two other categories as well.  Although there was a Bossa Nova fad in the early-mid sixties, my interest was limited to the one song and only for the short time it was on the airwaves.  Fast forward about 25 years to when I decided to buy a copy of the Getz/Gilberto lp at a used record sale for a local NPR station.  When I put it on the turn table (yes, I had hung on to my turn table) I was blown away.  The music still sounded fresh and I was pleasantly surprised that the album contained a longer version of "Ipanema" than what had been played on the radio back in 1964.  I've had a bit of a thing for Bossa Nova ever since.



















So, enough rambles about my history with Bossa Nova.  What's the back story on Bossa Nova in the U.S. and how "Girl From Ipanema" came to be a hit?  Stan Getz, of the eponymous Getz/Gilberto album did not bring the Bossa Nova to the U.S., nor was this his first Bossa Nova album.  Guitarist, Charlie Byrd, is usually credited with being a major force for importing the music to the U.S. after he discovered it on a State Department-sponsored trip to South America in 1961.  By that time tenor man Getz, who had been around for some time and was considered one of the founders of the Cool School of jazz, was looking for something new and fresh.  Getz met Byrd while playing in Washington D.C.  Byrd played some tapes for Getz that he had brought back with him from his trip and told Getz that he couldn't find anyone to record this "new" music.  Well, Getz was his guy, and the duo recorded the album Jazz Samba.  Interestingly, because of the acoustics, this album was recorded at All Souls Unitarian Church in D.C.  To Getz' surprise, both the album and one of the singes, "Desafinado," became hits on the pop charts; "Desafinado" would also win a Grammy.






In March, 1963 Getz entered the studio to record what would become Getz/Gilberto, this time including two of the pioneers of the genre, pianist and composer, Antonio Carlos (Tom) Jobim and guitarist/vocalist Joao Gilberto.  Unlike the single played on the radio, the album version of "The Girl From Ipanema" begins with Joao Gilberto singing the lyrics in Portugese.  Gilberto, who was extremely shy, did not feel confident enough to sing the lyrics in English, so Getz prevailed upon his wife Astrud, who had never sung professionally, to sing the English lyrics to that song and on another song on the album, "Corcovado (Quiet Night of Quiet Stars)."   The album also contained a vocal version of "Desafinado," which is a nice parallel to the instrumental version of the Jazz Samba session.





Getz would make a total of seven Bossa Nova albums.  None would approach the commercial success of the first two, but they all contain some worthwhile music.  Getz and Astrud Gilberto would team up again on Getz au Go Go, recorded live at the Cafe Au Go Go in New York.  Featured below is "One Note Samba" from that session. 



The next selection is "Um abraco no Getz (a tribute to Getz)" from Jazz Samba Encore, which Getz recorded with guitarist Luiz Bonfa and Jobim.  The Penguin Guide deems both Jazz Samba albums as excellent, and claims that Getz/Gilberto remains peerless.

Although Charlie Byrd actually brought Bossa Nova to the U.S., it is no accident that Stan Getz is the American most associated with the Brazilian style. Both he and Jobim agree that Bossa Nova was influenced by the cool jazz of the late 1940s and '50s, of which Getz was a major figure. That he, in turn, should be influenced by Jobim and his collaborators is only logical: a 1960s musical NAFTA.

Anita's Progeny, Pt. 2: Chris Connor

Just as Anita O'Day recommended June Christy as her replacement in the Stan Kenton Orchestra, Christy, after tiring of the road life with the Kenton band, heard Chris Connor sing with Jerry Wald on the radio and recommended her.  Connor had long had her sites on performing with the Kenton band, and she felt her succession of Christy and O'Day made musical sense, “My voice seemed to fit the band, with that low register like Anita’s and June’s."  Like her two predecessors, Connor also had a hit record with Kenton, "All About Ronnie."  Although her tenure with Kenton lasted only about ten months, prior engagements with Claude Thornhill and the previously-mentioned Wald meant that Connor had been on the road almost continuously for almost six years.  She was ready to go it alone when she left Kenton in 1953.





Upon leaving Kenton, Connor became one of the first jazz artists to sign with the independent label, Bethlehem.  The musicians with whom she recorded on that label included some significant figures from the period: Ellis Larkins, Herbie Mann, Kai Winding and J.J.Johnson.  While with Bethlehem, Connor recorded what critic Will Friedwald designated as the definitive female version of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life."





Connor's three successful recordings with Bethlehem caused some of the larger labels to take notice and helped Atlantic to stake their claim in the jazz world when she signed with that label in 1956;  she would record with that label until 1962.  The three Bethlehem albums and the 12 she recorded with Atlantic (2 per year is a pretty good pace) are considered to be the essential body of Connor's work. While with Atlantic Connor primarily recorded with three types of ensembles: a foursome, a larger ensemble (often a nonet), and a string orchestra.  Many of the larger orchestrations were arranged by conductor Ralph Burns, while pianist Ralph Sharon, who would go on to a long and successful collaboration with Tony Bennett, arranged much of the smaller ensemble work.  One album, Double Exposure,  that didn't fit these categories featured Connor singing in front of the big band of trumpet pyrotechnician, Maynard Ferguson.  Most, if not all, of the Atlantic catalog is available as individual CDs, plus Atlantic has compiled a "best of" collection, Chris Connor Warm Cool,  selected jointly by the singer and critic Will Friedwald.

Friedwald, in comparing Connor to O'Day, described her singing this way, "But mainly, when you think of O'Day, think spontaneity, when you think of Connor, think control.  Think also of an O'Day-ish voice whose shaping of lines and phrases owes more to Holiday, Sinatra, and Lee.  Think of understatement but not undersinging or "minimalism.""  Scott Yanow considered her, along with Christy and Lee, as symbolizing the cool jazz of the 1950s. He wrote, "Her straightforward, vibratoless delivery gives one the impression that she is both vulnerable and very guarded ..."

As teen-oriented music began to dominate the charts in the 1960s, Connor, like many other jazz singers, lost her contract with a major label.  Unfortunately for this blog, the Chris Connor who dominates You Tube is a British Elvis impersonator, and I can't find any videos from her Atlantic years to include.  What follows, however, are two videos of songs Connor recorded on minor labels in the mid-60s that still represent what Friedwald and Yanow wrote about.





Along with many other jazz artists, Connor spent time and gained popularity in Japan during the late '60s and '70s.  She did experience a resurgence in the '80s.  Here is "Sweet Happy Life" from 1987's Classic album.



On August 29, 2009, Chris Connor was the last of the vo-cool school of singers to depart this earth.  She was 81.

Anita's Progeny, Pt. 1: June Christy

I chose the title "Anita's Progeny" for this post and the one that will follow because I will be profiling two singers (June Christy & Chris Connor) who followed Anita O'Day as "girl singer" in the Stan Kenton Orchestra and who, at least early in their careers, sounded remarkably like O'Day.  Neither Connor nor Christy improvised like O'Day, but their tonal qualities and range were similar.  Interestingly, O'Day recommended Christy for the Kenton job and she in turn recommended Connor.

Christy (nee Shirley Luster) grew up in Decatur, Illinois, began performing professionally at 13, and  had taken her career to Chicago where, as the story goes, O'Day discovered the 19-year-old singer.  Itching to escape the confines of the Kenton orchestra, O'Day reportedly approached and asked her, "How would you like to become rich and famous?"  Regardless of the exact details, Christy did join Kenton in 1945 and would become rich and famous.  Her first recording with Kenton, the novelty song, "Tampico," became a million seller.  Not Christy at her best, but it's part of the story.  The sombrero doesn't do a lot for Kenton either.



Christy would record some other hits with Kenton, and while in his employ meet and marry Kenton's tenor player Bob Cooper, a marriage that would last for 44 years.  Christy stayed with Kenton until he temporarily disbanded the unit in 1948.  Between 1947 and 1950 she made a series of singles for Capitol.  In addition to meeting her husband of many years while with Kenton's orchestra, Christy established a professional relationship that would prove fruitful and lasting as well.  Pete Rugolo was a writer and arranger who significantly influenced the Kenton sound of the late 1940's.  He left Kenton in 1949 to become music director for Capitol records.  He would arrange and conduct half of Christy's post-Kenton albums as well as several of her singles.

In 1954 the Christy-Rugolo collaboration created the album, Something Cool,  described by the authors of the Penguin Guide as a masterpiece "meticulously tailored to June's persona." Critic Will Friedwald included this album in his "Don't Show Up At a Desert Island Without 'Em" recommendations. The title song with it's unconventional structure and unconventional lyrics (Friedwald described the singer/narrator as "Blanche Dubois-like") is featured below.











Citing Christy's "perfect breath control and vibrato as well as her emotional colouring [sic]," The Penguin Guide describes several other songs from the album, including "Midnight Sun" as "near-definitive."



While still with the Kenton band, a disc jockey had taken to rhyming Christy with "misty."  To many this pairing seemed apt and it caught on.  Capitol would use it to title another outstanding Christy-Rugolo collaboration The Misty Miss Christy.  The Penguin Guide rates this album as almost as good as Something Cool and considers her version of "'Round Midnight" as one of the "great treatments of that overworked classic."














The Penguin Guide also raves about 1960's The Song is June.  The authors describe Rugolo's chart for "Remind Me" featured below as "astonishing," as good as any arrangement he ever made.




June Christy's "laid back and emotionally reserved" (Scott Yanow, 2008)  singing in the 1950's largely defined what "cool" jazz singing was all about.  By the time she was 40 in 1965, except for an occasional reunion with Kenton or other special occasion, Christy had essentially retired.  She died in 1990 after years of illness.

Cats who Scat

Although not all jazz vocalists are practitioners, no vocal style is more closely associated with jazz singing than scat.  Britannica Online defines scat as the use of "emotive, onomatopoeic, and nonsense syllables instead of words in solo improvisations on a melody."  Scat singing allows vocalists to perform improvisations equivalent to instrumentalists-voice as instrument.  At least one author, psychologist Jeff Pressing, has argued that scatting is more difficult than instrumental improvisation because it does not provide as much feedback for the performer to judge the quality of the output.

Although Louis Armstrong is often credited with inventing the style on his 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies," earlier examples of scatting were recorded.  The story (likely apocryphal) as told by Armstrong is that his his music fell off the stand during the recording session, and not knowing the lyrics, in the best "necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention" developed the style on the spot.



Ask people to identify a singer who sang scat and the name Ella Fitzgerald will appear on an awful lot of lists.  The next video is a 1969 performance of her rendition of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba."  Her performance exemplifies two other qualities often associated with scatting: humor and quotations from other songs. 



Ella began her career singing for the Chick Webb big band in the 1930's and many of her scat solos reflect the big band/swing influence.  Sarah Vaughan's scat solos, on the other hand, are said to be more reflective of the later be bop style.  Sarah's "Lullaby of Birdland" is from the great album she made with trumpeter Clifford Brown.  Although she sings the song pretty straight at first, she starts trading riffs with the instrumentalists at about the 2:30 mark.

















Scatting is usually an individual endeavor, but Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross turned it into a group effort. In case you somehow don't get the bop connection in the above video, you can't miss it in their rendition of Jon Henricks' "Everybody's Boppin'."  Hold on to your hat and fasten your seatbelt.

















Mel Torme was well-known for his scatting skills.  Here he is near the end of his career with "Pick Yourself Up" in which he pays homage to Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, as well as J.S. Bach.



Torme was not the first to make the connection between Bach's instrumentals and scat.  In the early 1960s Ward Swingle and his Swingle Singers recorded some vocal transcriptions of Bach's works, including one album titled Jazz Sebastian Bach.


















A few generations of children have probably been introduced to scat singing via Louis Prima's "I Wanna Be Like You" from Disney's Jungle Book.




 In case the Millennial Generation missed Louis Prima & The Jungle Book when they were kids they can still hear a little scat from their contemporary Amy Winehouse in her intro to "Stronger than Me" from her debut album, Frank.

Everybody Digs Bill Evans

Everybody Digs Bill Evans was the title of an album the pianist released in 1958.  The title is an apt summation of the career of a musician who is widely viewed as the most influential jazz pianist of the post-bop years.  Joel Simpson, in his biographical sketch of Evans at AllAboutJazz.com,  described Evans' "highly nuanced touch, the clarity of the feeling content of his music and his reform of the chord voicing system pianists used."  Miles Davis described Evans' playing as "quiet fire ... or sparkling water cascading down from some clear waterfall."  Davis dug Evans enough that he included him, along with John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, in the group that would record the immortal album Kind of Blue.  Evans, however, was much more than a sideman; as a leader he would record over 50 albums and receive 5 Grammy awards.


Evans' "quiet fire" is on display from about the three-minute mark in the recording of "All Blues" as he plays behind solos from Davis, Adderley, and Coltrane, and then adds a spare, sparkling solo of his own.



Born in New Jersey in 1929, Evans began taking piano lessons at age six.  His parents didn't want him to be limited to just one instrument, so he also took violin and flute lessons.  He would later credit the flute with helping him play with tonal expressiveness.  Evans' mother was an amateur pianist herself, and she had amassed a large library of classical sheet music, which young Bill mastered rather than practicing scales.

After college and a stint in the army, Evans recorded his first album, New Jazz Conceptions as leader in 1956.  The album was a critical, but not a commercial success; it sold only 800 copies in a year.  In between stints with Miles Davis, Evans released his second album as leader in 1958, the above-mentioned Everybody Digs Bill Evans.  The video below is "Some Other Time" from that album.  Evans is joined by Miles' drummer, Philly Joe Jones and bassist Sam Jones (no relation).


Evans was especially fond of the trio format and by giving prominence to the contributions of the drummer and bassist took a more egalitarian approach to the ensemble than was common at the time.  Among the most acclaimed of Evans' trio recordings are the recordings of live performances at the Village Vanguard in 1961.  On these dates he was joined by long-time drummer Paul Motian and bassist Scott LaFaro. The authors of the Penguin Guide described this group as one of the "finest piano trios ever documented."  Evans' composition "Waltz for Debby" featured below, was first recorded on his 1956 debut and became one of the pianist's signature songs as well as the title of one of the Vanguard albums. Unfortunately these Village Vanguard albums would be the last from this trio as LaFaro died in a car accident ten days later.
















As the '60's progressed, so did Evans' career.  He pioneered the use of overdubbing (standard practice today) and won a Grammy for his Conversations with Myself.  He would also win a Grammy for his 1968 album of piano solos, Alone.  "Never Let Me Go" from that album is presented below.







During the same period that Evans was experiencing his greatest professional success, he also experienced devastating personal tragedy.  Like so many jazz musicians of the period, Evans developed a heroin addiction that would plague him for years.  His wife, Ellaine, also an addict, committed suicide by throwing herself under a train in 1970.  Although not immediately, Evans did enter a methadone treatment program and stayed away from heroin.  He married for the second time. Although the marriage didn't last long, the union did produce a son, Evan, for whom Evans senior composed "Letter to Evan," and who became a prominent musician in his own right.



Evans' productivity and artistry remained unabated during the 1970's.  The Bill Evans Album (1971) won two Grammies.  In 1975 and 1976 Evans teamed with Tony Bennett for The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album and Together Again. Presented below is the vocal version of "Waltz for Debby," which the authors of the Penguin Guide characterize as the definitive vocal presentation of that song.
















Although Evans had been off heroin for some time, by 1980 he started using the current drug du jour, cocaine, which he thought of as "safe."  This was to be his undoing and he died in Mt. Sinai hospital on the 15th of September of that year.  Evans' influence lives on and has probably even grown since his death.  Joel Simpson ranks him, along with Oscar Peterson, as "one of the major enduring forces in jazz piano."

Bodies and Souls

If "Stardust" is the most recorded song of all time, then surely "Body and Soul" is; Gary Giddins claims it has been recorded more than 3000 times.  Composed by Johnny Green in 1930, with three lyricists credited, the song almost didn't make it into the final production of the musical, Three's a Crowd, for which it was written.  In a 1980 essay, "Fifty Years of Body and Soul," Giddins described the song as "an unusually difficult example of the 32-bar AABA song, with three key changes in the chorus (and three more in the rarely performed verse), intricate major/minor circuitry, and a wide range ... Jazz musicians favor [it] ... because they like the tune."

Louis Armstrong recorded one of the memorable renditions of the song the year it was written.




What is probably the definitive jazz version of "Body and Soul" was recorded at the end of the '30s by tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.  Giddins described this version as "a gauntlet tossed at every other saxophonist in jazz."  Hawkins version, which was considered significant enough to be included in both the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz and Ken Burn's compilation from his Jazz video series, is almost pure improvisation.  Below are reproductions of the sheet music along with a transcription of Hawkins' solo.

Billie Holiday took several vocal liberties with the melody in her 1940 recording.  The muted trumpet solo is Roy Eldridge.



Frank Sinatra recorded a "straight" version in 1947.  The trumpet solo here is Bobby Hackett, who would later be featured soloist on many of the "make out" albums recorded by the Jackie Gleason orchestra in the 1950s and '60s. An abbreviated version of Hackett soloing from Gleason's 1960 album Music for Lover's Only follows Sinatra.





Also in 1960, a very different, but still pretty straight ahead recording, was made by John Coltrane and his quartet.
 



In the 1970s Ella Fitzgerald put her unique take on the song on a Frank Sinatra TV show.



Finally, "Body and Soul" has lived on into another century.  The next video is bass and vocal prodigy, Esperanza Spalding live in Copenhagen.  It's time for another essay: "Eighty Years of Body and Soul."

Versatility!: Charlie Haden

There is probably no one in jazz, or even the whole wide world of music,  who has recorded a greater variety of music than bassist Charlie Haden.  Born into a musical family in Iowa, Haden began his musical career as a small child in his family's well-known country and western band.  In 1957 he moved to LA where he played with many of the up-and-comers for modern jazz.  Most notably, at 22 he became a member of Ornette Coleman's revolutionary free jazz quartet (probably about as far from his C & W roots as one could go).  From the mid-'60s through the mid-'70s, Haden was associated with another musical pioneer, Keith Jarrett.  In 1969 Haden founded the Liberation Music Orchestra, which blended experimental big band jazz with politically-themed music. During the 1970s Haden began a long, intermittent collaboration with guitarist Pat Metheny.  In 1996 the duo released Beyond the Missouri Sky, an album of "contemporary impressionistic Americana."  The Penguin Guide described this album as selling "like SnoCones in the desert," and included it in their Core Collection.



Backtracking chronologically a bit, from 1996's Missouri Sky, in 1986 Haden founded the ensemble Quartet West with whom he would work regularly for some time.  In contrast to the free jazz of his early career and the "new agey" collaborations with Metheny, Quartet West's recordings were more straight ahead jazz and often leaned toward the nostalgic.  In fact, two of their albums Haunted Heart (1986) and Always Say Goodbye (1993) are unashamedly so.  Both are inspired by and evocative of the noir novels and movies of the '40s and '50s.  They both also include dubbed in music from some of that era's singers and instrumentalists, e.g., Jo Stafford, Ray Nance with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.  The video that follows is Haunted Heart's "Dance of the Infidels," composed by Bud Powell and first recorded in 1949 .


















Although Haden has continued to work regularly with Quartet West, he has by no means limited his output to his collaborations with that ensemble.  He has also recorded duet albums with pianists Hank Jones and Denny Zeitlin.  One of my favorite CDs in my collection is Night and the City, an evocative live recording with just Haden and Kenny Barron.  Below is Barron's "Twilight Song," which is ten minutes long, but my ears think it's worth every second.






If you need further proof of Haden's versatility, in the early 2000s Haden won two consecutive Latin Grammys for Nocturne (1999), a collaborative effort based on Cuban ballads or boleros with Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Land of the Sun (2003), again featuring Rubalcaba, this time exploring Mexican folk music.

















In 2008 Haden came full circle in musical career when he released Charlie Haden Family and Friends: Rambling Boy. This album pairs songs associated with his youthful C & W career with the younger generation of the Haden family.  Joining in are some of the biggest names in today's country and bluegrass scene, e.g., Vince Gill, Roseanne Cash, Dan Tyminski, and Ricky Skaggs.

Lady in Autumn: Bill Holiday in the '50s

When I first heard recordings of Billie Holiday back when I was in college, I didn't quite know what to think, and frankly I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about.  As time passed, however, my tastes and opinions changed and Holiday became one of my favorite singers.  Her recording career spanned approximately 25 years and almost everything, including outtakes, is available on CD and/or mp3.  Although not to everyone's taste and musically probably Holiday's most controversial period, I am partial to many of the recordings she made at the tail end of her career in the 1950s.

Most of Holiday's 1950's recordings were for Norman Granz on either his Clef or Verve label.  Much of what attracts me to these recordings are the accompanists and arrangements.  These were typically small group sessions and included some of the top instrumentalists of the day.  The repertoire consisted mostly of standards and reworkings of songs the singer had recorded before.  Scott Yanow echoed the sentiments of many critics when he wrote that during this period Holiday was "sounding beaten down by life.  Her emotional intensity had grown but her voice was slipping."  Slipping voice or not, Billie Holiday could still do wonderful things to a song that no other singer could.  If you are interested in the Verve/Clef recordings you can take your pick of how much you want.  Available are a complete 10-cd set of everything Holiday recorded during the Verve years, a 6-cd set of master takes, and a 2-cd "Best Of" set (My apologies to Verve for using the title of the 2-disc set as my title for this post). Of course several individual discs are available as well.
















The first video is Lady singing "Autumn in New York, which was recorded in her first sessions for Granz in 1952.  She was accompanied by Oscar Peterson (p), Barney Kessel (g), Ra Brown (b), & Alvin Stoller (d). This rendition was featured in Ken Burn's Jazz series with critic Gerald Early declaring that it was the most beautiful version of the song he had ever heard in his life.  I wouldn't argue.



Also included in these 1952 sessions was "Tenderly" with Holiday accompanied by the same rhythm section, plus Charlie Shavers on Trumpet and Flip Phillips on tenor.



Both of these recordings as well as several other gems are available on the Verve single-disc release Solitude.












The next video of "I Didn't Know What Time it Was" is from another of the single Verve discs that gets high marks from the critics, Songs for Distingue' Lovers, which the authors of the Penguin Guide described as "front-rank."
On this album Holiday was again accompanied by another set of heavy-weight instrumentalists: Ben Webster (tenor saxophone);
Harry "Sweets" Edison (trumpet);
Jimmie Rowles (piano);
Barney Kessel (guitar);
Red Mitchell (bass);
Larry Bunker, Alvin Stoller (drums)




Finally, here is a wonderful, mellow version of "Embraceable You."  I'm not totally sure of the lineup of instrumentalist, but I think it is the same as "I Didn't Know What Time it Was."  Her chops might not have been the same in the '50s as they were earlier, but with the right accompanists and arrangements, Billie could still bring it.

Lost: Chet Baker

Although two well-known profiles of Chet Baker take their titles from romantic ballads prominent in the Baker repertoire: James Gavin's book, Deep in a Dream, and Bruce Weber's film, Let's Get Lost, these titles can have another meaning as well.   As can be seen from the photos above showing Chet early and then late in his career-about 30-35 years apart, time was not good to the trumpeter/singer.   In addition to the natural aging process, some portion of Baker's physical transfiguration was the result of the fact that he was lost in the dreamland of heroin addiction a significant percentage of time.  After reading Gavin's biography, I think that any profile of Baker could also borrow the title of Dan Brown's thriller, Angels & Demons.  Early in his career, many considered his appearance angelic and throughout his career, even at times when he was deep in his addiction, Baker could create almost angelic music.  On the other hand,  Baker had demons aplenty to deal with and his behavior was often much more demonic than angelic.  Featured to the right are
Gavin's biography and a companion cd compilation of Baker's music.










Baker first achieved fame when he became part of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and this group made a series of sides in 1952-53.  Baker is best known for his rendition of what at the time was a little known ballad, "My Funny Valentine."  Baker would go on to record this song many times both as an instrumentalist and as a vocalist and some would say that he came to "own" it.



Although the Mulligan quartet would come to regarded as one of the great exemplars of West Coast/Cool jazz, it would not survive Mulligan's arrest for drug possession and the clash of personalities of the two principles.  The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings includes the output of this short-lived ensemble in its "Core Collection."  A 2-cd, 42-track set with all the quartet's recordings is available, as is a "Best Of" compilation that includes 15 songs.














Baker would continue to record with many of the prominent West Coast jazz artists throughout the rest of the 1950's.  He developed an understated trumpet style comparable to Miles Davis, and which many derided as derivative of Davis.  Baker first recorded vocals were on Chet Baker Sings.  With a repertoire limited to ballads and medium tempo numbers, his singing was also laid-back and understated. While some were dismissive of his vocal efforts, others found them to be seductive.  Biographer Gavin argued that with his matinee-idol looks and distinctive style, Baker attracted both women and a strong following of gay men





By the 1960s Baker had progressed from pot head to heroin junkie.  Throughout the remainder of his career and life he would be constantly on the move searching out his next fix and often trying to stay one step ahead of the law.  In 1966 he was so severely beaten in a drug-related incident that he lost his front teeth and had to relearn to play the trumpet.  It was in this period that he also began to play the flugelhorn. Baker was much more popular in Europe than in the U.S. and he spent much of his last 25 years on that continent.  He was so rootless that he didn't even want a bank account and demanded that all payments for recordings and performances be in cash.  As would be expected his recordings from this period are wildly uneven, but even in the depth of his addiction, he could produce some highly regarded music.  In 1985, along with pianist Paul Bley, Baker released Diane, an album consisting mostly of ballads.  With just two instrumentalists, there was no place to hide your errors.  The video below demonstrates that Baker could still produce some beautiful music.
















Remarkably just a few weeks before his death, and at a time when he was in terrible health, Baker presented a concert in Germany that would produce a two-volume recording billed as The Last Great Recording.  This concert showcased Baker in a variety of ensembles ranging from quartet to big band to full orchestra and largely lived up to its billing.



Not long after this concert, Baker's body was found on an Amsterdam sidewalk outside the hotel where he was staying.  Many unanswered questions remain regarding Baker's death and it has even become the subject of a mystery novel, Looking for Chet Baker, by Bill Moody.

The Greatest Voice You've Probably Never Heard: Johnny Hartman

Despite winning accolades from folks who should know, like Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Hartman never came close to becoming a household name.  In the extensive liner notes to The Johnny Hartman Collection 1947-1972, well-respected critic Will Friedwald characterized Hartman, with his "deep and sensual" baritone as "one of the greatest interpreters of love songs that ever lived." 

Raised in Chicago, Hartman began his professional career at 17 with the Earl "Fatha" Hines big band after winning an amateur contest that offered a $25 prize and a week's engagement with Hines.  "Fatha" was impressed enough that Hartman continued with him for a year. Early in his career, Hartman also sang with Errol Garner and Dizzy Gillespie.  Known throughout his career primarily as a ballad singer, the pairing with Gillespie resulted in some "interesting" juxtapositions between singer and instrumentalists.

Hartman made his first recordings under his own name in 1947, but it would be another decade before he realized much success at all.  Two related stumbling blocks seem to have confused record company executives and interfered with his popularity.  First there was the issue of whether Hartman was a "jazz" or "pop" singer and what kind of material to have him record.  Record producers also had a hard time figuring out how to arrange and orchestrate to best showcase Hartman.  In his book, Jazz Singing (1992), Friedwald argued convincingly that Hartman needed a trio plus one master soloist to "challenge him, inspire him, and keep him on the level."  It was not until 1956 that Bethlehem presented him in this context on Songs from the Heart.  The rhythm section consisted of Ralph Sharon (who would later collaborate for many years with Tony Bennett), Jay Cave (b) and Christy Febbo (d) while Howard McGhee provided the solos on trumpet. 



The peak of Hartman's career came with the 1963 album that critic Scott Yanow claimed made Hartman immortal, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman on Impulse.  Not only is this the album for which Hartman is best know, I believe it also marks the only time that Coltrane recorded with a vocalist.  The two featured performers are joined by Coltrane's standout rhythm section: McCoy Tyner (p), Jimmy Garrison (b), Elvin Jones (d).  Although all the songs on this album are outstanding, Scott Yanow considers the renditions of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" and "My One and Only Love" as "definitive."




Bob Thiele produced the Coltrane collaboration and would then go on to produce four more Hartman albums: I Just Dropped by to Say Hello (1963), The Voice that Is (1964), Unforgettable Songs by Johnny Hartman and I Love Everybody (both 1966).  Presented below is "Stairway to the Stars" from the Hello album.  The tenor soloist here is Illinois Jacquet. Will Friedwald called the five albums produced by Thiele, the "most consistently excellent body of work in Hartman's career."



Despite the excellence of Hartman's mid-60s output, this was the era of the British Invasion and Rock 'n Roll was king.  Like so many other singers of standards, Hartman found recording contracts harder and harder to come by.  Also like many standard singers, Hartman spent much of his time overseas in the late '60s and the '70s.  He was in the process of making something of a comeback in the early '80s when he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was forced to quit performing.  He died in 1983 at the age of 60.

Although Hartman himself didn't live long enough to succeed with a comeback, his music received a  boost 15 years after his death when Clint Eastwood featured several Hartman numbers in the soundtrack to The Bridges of Madison County.  More recently,  jazz singer Kurt Elling released a live "re-imagining" of the Hartman-Coltrane collaboration, Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman.  For this effort Elling won the 2010 Grammy for Best Vocal Jazz Album, the first male to do so since 1993.

Round and Round About Midnight

The history of jazz is filled with unique individuals. Possibly no one was more unique than Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917-1982).  His personality and his music were like no other.  According to his biography on allaboutjazz.com, "With the arrival of Thelonious Sphere Monk, modern music-let alone modern culture-simply hasn't been the same."  Monk was a contemporary of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and along with them, was often credited as a founder of be-bop.  Monk's style, however, was quite different from Parker's and Gillespie's.  Where they blew fast and furious, Monk's style was spare and economical.  He utilized syncopation even more than most jazz musicians; one reviewer described his playing as angular.  Monk has also been considered one of the great jazz composers.  Although many of his songs have become jazz standards, his "'Round Midnight" is probably the most recorded jazz composition ever.

Monk first wrote the song in the late 1930s or early '40s.  In 1944 Cootie Williams and his orchestra recorded a somewhat modified version of the song.  How much Williams modified the song is anybody's guess, but he was given a share of the copyright.  A few years later Bernie Hanighen added lyrics and his name is also listed as co-composer.  Although given no official credit, Dizzy Gillespie added an introduction and cadenza in 1947 and these have been included in most subsequent recordings.

Monk would record 'Round Midnight numerous times over the years.  The first video that follows is an early version, a 1947 small-group recording for Riverside.  The second video is solo Monk recorded in 1969. The video quality is not the best, but the audio allows you to experience some pure Monk piano.  So many Monk recordings are available that it hard to know where to start.  This recording of his early work with Blue Note is probably as good a place as any.





I first became aware of the song when I purchased the lp, Miles Davis' Greatest Hits, while I was in high school.  This version, based on Gillespie's variation, and showcasing John Coltrane as well as Davis, remains one of the standard versions.  Personally, Davis' muted trumpet intro and Coltrane's solo never get old.
















Two strikingly different vocal versions of 'Round Midnight appear in the next two videos.  The first is Julie London with full orchestration from 1960.  Ella Fitzgerald then appears in a live recording with the Oscar Peterson Trio in 1961.






"Round Midnight hasn't gone out of fashion.  In the 1980's Linda Ronstadt used it as the title song in one of the three albums of standards that she made with Nelson Riddle.



Also during that decade a movie named after the song was released to critical acclaim.  One of the stars of the movie was tenor man, Dexter Gordon, whose version appeared in the movie and on the soundtrack album.














Last, and maybe least, in my opinion anyway, is a recent version by Amy Winehouse, British bad girl and neo-soul singer.

Stardust Melodies

With more than 1500 recordings, Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" is one of the most recorded songs in the history of recorded music.  Inspired by Bix Beiderbecke, Carmichael wrote the song as a medium-to-up tempo instrumental, and he first recorded "Star Dust," as the title was written then, in 1927.  Mills Music published the music as "Stardust," in January, 1929.  The publishing house subsequently contracted Mitchell Parish to add lyrics and published this version later that year.

The first commercially-successful recording of "Stardust," that of Louis Armstrong in 1931, remains one of the most well-known and popular.  Ken Burns featured this recording prominently in his documentary, Jazz, and Armstrong biographer, James Lincoln Collier described it as "... the epitome of pop songs in a great age of pop songs."




"Stardust" was frequently recorded during the big band era.  I am aware of two versions by the Benny Goodman orchestra, one up-tempo along with a slower version.  The flip side of the 1936 Goodman version presented below is a Tommy Dorsey version of the same song. Goodman also recorded it in a small group session featuring electric guitar pioneer, Charlie Christian.  Arguably the definitive big band recording is the one that Artie Shaw made in 1940.





"Stardust" continued to be a popular choice for the "crooners," both male and female, of the '50s & '60s.  Nat King Cole made a hit recording in 1956, and Frank Sinatra recorded a remarkable version in 1961.  Sinatra's version is unusual because the introduction supplies few hints of the song's melody and he sings only the verse of the song and omits the chorus altogether.





The lyrics of "Stardust" include the phrase "leaving me a song that will not die."  It's doubtful that Mitchell Parish realized that those words would come to characterize his lyrics and the music for which he wrote them.  Although composed over 80 years ago, "Stardust" continues to be recorded by artists from all sorts of genres as well as artists who weren't even gleams in their grandfather's eyes when the song was written. 

Although usually considered a pop or jazz song, Willie Nelson countrified "Stardust" up a bit in the late '70s. The final video is crooner reincarnate, Michael Buble'.  





If you wish to learn more about Hoagy Carmichael and all the other wonderful songs he wrote, check out the fine Hoagy Carmichael biography, Stardust Melody, by Richard Sudhalter.
In the early '90s the Indiana Historical Society in collaboration with the Smithsonian released The Classic Hoagy Carmichael, a 3-CD set with booklet of recordings of many of Carmichael's songs recorded over the years by various artists.  Although currently out of print, used copies can be found easily enough.  The 3 CDs contain six versions of "Stardust."