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.