Soulful Jazz Part 1: Lou Rawls

Although he might be better known for his more pop-oriented hits like “Natural Man” and “You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine,”  Lou Rawls was a truly versatile performer.  He came from the gospel tradition, recorded with Sam Cooke, and released some fine straight-up jazz records.  He crossed over and back and forth across most music associated with the African American tradition.  He is even credited by some with helping to pave the way for rap.

A Chicago native, Rawls, like his good friend Cooke, was a member of a significant gospel group and achieved early success in that genre.  Serving in the military for two years in the mid-'50's, Rawls embarked on a tour with Cooke after his discharge in 1958.  En route from St. Louis to Memphis their car was involved in a serious wreck.  Cooke was relatively uninjured, but Rawls was almost killed and would be out of commission for almost a year.  Upon his recovery, Rawls moved to L.A. where he played almost any type of gig he could find.  Capitol producer Nick Venet discovered Rawls at a coffee shop in 1962.  His first album, Stormy Monday (also released under the title I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water) paired him with the Les McCann trio and became what Will Friedwald considered a "first-inning home run."  Besides the two alternate title numbers, the album also featured several other jazz and blues standards, for instance, "God Bless the Child," "Tain't Nobody's Business," "Willow Weep for Me."  Although I couldn't find the versions of any of the songs from Stormy Monday Youtube, I am posting a clip of "Willow Weep for Me" from a TV show that features the same instrumentation.  Despite the difference in accompanists, you can get a good idea of the vocal treatment of the singer who Frank Sinatra credited with having "the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game" and whose voice another critic described as "sweet as sugar, soft as velvet, strong as steel, and smooth as butter."  More steel than butter or sugar is evident in "Tobacco Road," which became a 1963 hit for Rawls.




















Rawls achieved his first gold record with the album Live, released in 1966.  One feature of this album that would contribute to his future success, and would later cause some to credit him as a precursor of rap, was the use of monologues to introduce some of his songs.  Presented below is "Dead End Street," which won Rawls a Grammy in 1967.



Throughout the late sixties and on through the seventies Rawls achieved his greatest commercial success with such hits as "Love is a Hurtin' Thing," "Natural Man," "Lady Love," and "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine."  Beginning in 1982, however, he signed with Blue Note and recorded some albums that would take him away from the "disco-ish" style of "You'll Never Find," and back in the direction of the music recorded earlier in his career.  One of these, At Last, included two duets with Dianne Reeves, the title tune and "Fine Brown Frame," both of which are presented below.
















Although Lou Rawls was most closely associated with music from the African American tradition, he also had a strong affinity for the Great American Songbook in general, and Frank Sinatra in particular.  It was perhaps fitting that Rawls final album would be Rawls Sings Sinatra, which he recorded three years before his death in 2006 from cancer.  Presented below is the lightly swinging "The Second Time Around" from that final album.

An American Musician at a Danish club named for a Paris landmark: Stan Getz at the Cafe' Montmartre

Few musicians had longer professional careers, or were more prolific than Stan Getz.  Beginning his professional career at 15 in 1943 with Jack Teagarden, he helped usher in the California cool sound in the '50s, and in the early '60s, along with Charlie Byrd, introduced Brazilian Bossa Nova to U.S. audiences.  He continued to play and record until shortly before his death in 1991.  Known for his emotional, beautiful sound, Getz recorded some of his most compelling music in the last few years of his life.

Largely because of problems with the IRS, Getz was among the many American jazz musicians  who relocated to Europe in the 1950s.  Denmark was the locale he chose, and he was a regular at Copenhagen's  Cafe' Montmartre until his return to the states in the early sixties.  Getz, along with a quartet consisting of Rufs Reid (b), Victor Lewis (d), and Kenny Barron (p), returned to Copenhagen and a relocated Cafe' Montmartre in 1987.  This one night stand was taped for broadcast on Danish radio, but when Getz heard the tapes some time later he was so impressed with both the playing and the recording quality that he arranged to have the performance released as two albums.  The first, Anniversary, was released in 1989 and was nominated for a Grammy, and the second, Serenity, in March 1991.  The authors of the Penguin Guide give each of these albums four stars and describe them as "Pristine examples of his art..." and credit Getz with creating a sound of "breathtaking beauty."  Although I couldn't find any Youtube videos from these recordings, I am posting "On Green Dolphin Street" (Serenity) from a live performance by three of the quartet members recorded in 1989, and a live recording of Billy Strayhorn's haunting "Blood Count" (Anniversary) featuring Getz and Barron with a slightly larger combo from 1990. 





















Getz and Barron would return as a duo to Copenhagen for a four-night engagement in March, 1991.  By this time Getz was in the final stages of the cancer that would take his life three months later.  Each night's performance was recorded and a 2-CD album, People Time, was released in 1992.  Kenny Barron wrote the liner notes to People Time and he asserted that Getz "played exceptionally well, giving each solo his all," but he also observed that the horn player was out of breath after his solos.  The authors of Penguin Guide commented that "Some of the butter has run out of his tone..." but they still rated the album ***(*) out of five and lauded Barron for some of the best improvising of his career.  Perhaps as much for the poignancy of the occasion as for the music, the album has become something of a classic.  The original 2-CD album is available, and Sunny Side has recently released a 7-CD box set, People Time: The Complete Recordings.  In 2002 Universal released Cafe' Montmartre, a single CD containing selections from all three of the albums recorded at that venue.  Even if Getz had lost a step or two by the time the People Time recordings were made, the Getz-Barron duo still produced some very beautiful music.  Featured below are the title tune and Charlie Haden's "First Song (For Ruth)."

Everybody's Boppin': Lamber, Hendricks, & Ross

Although they were only together a few years and their recorded output was limited, Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross were and remain one of the most influential jazz vocal groups of all time.  The fact that they recorded together at all involved just a little serendipity.

Dave Lambert, along with Buddy Stewart, recorded what many consider to be the first bebop vocal, "What's This," with Gene Krupa's big band in 1945.  Known primarily as a vocal arranger in the intervening years, in 1953 Lambert met Jon Hendricks who was developing a reputation as a lyricist.  The two made a few recordings in the early and mid 1950s, but attracted little attention.  By 1957 they had conceived of an album of vocalized Basie songs.  Some of these already had lyrics, but Hendricks tinkered with them further and wrote lyrics for the instrumentals.  The original conception was for the album to be recorded by a choir of twelve voices.  Annie Ross was hired as coach for the six male and six female voices.  There was only one problem; the singers they had hired couldn't swing.  As quoted in Friedwald (1992), Hendricks later complained, "... these people couldn't swing if you hung them."  By the time they had figured all this out, Lambert and Hendricks had blown their recording budget and were in a bind.  Some one suggested to them that they record with overdubbing.  Deciding they liked what they had heard of Annie Ross, they decided to use this technique to turn their three voices into twelve.  The result was Sing a Song of Basie and the vocal group Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross was born.  Although not the version from the album, the following video demonstrates their take on "Every Day I Have the Blues."  The album was successful enough that the Count and his orchestra soon joined them to record Sing Along with Basie.

















Having started out at MGM, the trio recorded the first "pure" L, H, & R album, The Swingers, on World Pacific in March, 1959.  Later that year they signed with Columbia and subsequently recorded three lps on that label: The Hottest Group in Jazz; Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross Sing Ellington; and High Flying.  These Columbia recordings feature several songs that would become their greatest hits and most enduring work.  Arguably one of their songs most recognized today was one that Ross originally recorded solo in 1952, a vocal treatment of a sax solo by Wardell Gray, "Twisted."  Although readers/listeners may not be familiar with the L, H, & R version, this song has been covered over and over.



Two from the Ellington set: "In a Mellow Tone", which already had lyrics, and "Cottontail," which didn't. (You might want to close your eyes and just listen to these two.)





Although I featured it in my post "Cats Who Scat," Hendricks' "Everybody's Boppin'" is worth another listen.



Finally, Hendricks' lyrics applied to Bobby Timmons' "Moanin'", an instrumental hit for the Jazz Messengers.



Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, the trio, came to an end in 1962 when Annie Ross wearied of touring and left the group.  Lambert and Hendricks then teamed up Yolande Bavan, and later Anne Marie Moss, but these teams didn't last long.  Dave Lambert died in 1966, but Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross, who are still living, went on to great success on their own.  Hendricks continued to sing and pen lyrics, while Ross opened her own night club and acted in several films.

Depending on how much Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross you want you can still buy their individual albums, or if "greatest hits" collections are more to your taste, The Hottest New Group in Jazz is a two-cd compilation, while Everybody's Boppin contains 15 songs on one cd.