Hello Again Kats & Kittens, Friend & Fiend,
Social Distancing to the extreme….We think they’ll be alright…. unless they watch ROBERT EGGER’s THE LIGHTHOUSE in beautiful 1X1 B&W…
ONWARD!
JAZZDAY! We lurk in smoky basements, light up a ciggie, “two fingers neat Rye, thanks Dutch”… Sexy right?
Well sort of….some of the following has more light & breeze to it…. less damp basement…gotta get the smoke out somehow…
BRIAN AUGER’S OBLIVION EXPRESS is on top.. Keys whiz Mr. AUGER started rock band, 1965, THE STEAMPACKET with LONG JOHN BALDRY, JULIE DRISCOLL, VIC BRIGGS, & ROD STEWART…’70 shifted to Jazz/Rock Fusion….collab’d with JIMI HENDRIX, ERIC BURDON, SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON, JOHN MACLAUGHLIN, among the many….this Kat is wanted… not a couch potato, 32 albums…. At 80 he's still playing.
from the Instrospection Album, here’s “Happiness Is Just Around The Bend”.
Silky sounds with GROVER WASHINGTON JR… helped start what is now SMOOTH JAZZ in the ‘70’s….ooooh yeah… Buffalo raised, Mom Church Choir, Dad played Sax, collector of old Jazz records, music surrounded young GROVER…Army time, met Jazz skins-man BILLIE COBHAM, an “influencer”(not sure this is correct terminology) in the NYC scene, intro’d young GROVER to the Jazz crowd. Bounced in NYC clubs & sessions for most of the jazz heavies of the ‘70s…To PHILLY, then struck GOLD with 1974 release of Mister Magic….Fame arrived…..cash, touring, all that Jazz, then at 56 keeled over after a show….massive heart attack….. Mr. W. played three different saxes, but preferred a black-nickel plated soprano saxophone…hmm…Kool….
Here’s “Mister Magic” the title track. Well done Mr. WASHINGTON.
What happens when you mix one Austrian Keyboardist, an American Saxophonist, & a Czech Bass player? WEATHER REPORT happens….with a few more muso’s added in….70’s Jazz-funk mingles up with extended soloing, latin rhythms, improv’s, some rock too…
Off 1977’s Heavy Weather LP, their version of “Birdland”…. toes will tap…
MONK is up….it’s a tangled web for this Kool Kat…no straight line with THELONIOUS SPHERE MONK….piano extraordinare….pretty much invented Free-Form Jazz….wrote Jazz standard “‘Round Midnight” a biggy...he’s the 2nd most recorded Jazz artist, behind DUKE ELLINGTON….his music was challenging for some….. waaay out there…this could be attributed to Mr. MONK possibly having BiPolar Disorder or Schizophrenia that was never diagnosed…. he would go long stretches without talking….to anyone…...ALLEN GINSBERG was a friend, as was DR. LEARY, got MONK into psilocybin………. lived the last six years of his life hardly speaking…living at mega-patron (rich lady) PANNONICA De KOENIGSWARTER’s New Jersey estate, she & Monk’s wife NELLIE nursed MONK during his final isolated time.
From the Round Midnight album, “Epistrophy”.
MONK & MILES go together like hand & glove….both odd men out….capturing the whiz bang of the era…MILES DAVIS didn’t start out in a hole like a lot of is contemps, his was an affluent youth, near St. Louis, ARCH-state…Mom=music teacher, Dad=Dentist + family owned Pig Farm in Arkansas…Young man heads to Julliard NYC, loafs off joins Charlie Parker’s quintet…then The Birth of Cool album gets recorded….the rest is….you know….
Here’s “Freddie Freeloader” from 1959’s Kind of Blue LP….
We jump several decades ahead with SNARKY PUPPY, a Texas size band for jazz nerds…these Kats didn’t make jazz school so they made their own…. 10 piece band…with another 40 or so guesting in at times….known in their circle as “The Fam”…but don’t take these Kats as freeloading, do nothing, nothing makers…three Grammy awards says they’re not nothing…
from the 2016 Culcha Vulcha album…”Tarova”.
now to Nawl’ns with BIG SAM’S FUNKY NATION….Trombonist SAM WILLIAMS is BIG SAM…past member of DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND…the current lineup plays the South a lot, Bonnaroo, SXSW, VooDoo Fest…etc…BIG SAM has a soft heart though….proposed to his lady on stage New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest, 2014. She said yes….
”New Funk” from the Birth of a Nation album.
RICHARD DAVIS is 90 & has a bone to pick…maybe not…This bass man has sessions with just about everyone & had time to put out 27 albums….wondrous! Off the Black Fire! New Spirits! Radical & Revolutionary Jazz in the USA (1957-1982)….originally on the 1973 Dealin’ LP…..we have the title track “Dealin’”.
Brazil’s BANDA BLACK RIO is up for a party with the title track from the MARIA FUMAÇA, circa 1977…Rolling Stone ‘zine calls this LP one of the top LPs out of Brazil, ever….”Maria Fumaça”.
Ready to get DIZZY? Dr. DIZZY GILLESPIE thinks so….smoothness from Mr. G’s The Champ album….”Time On My Hands”. Lists upon lists here….helped start BeBop with PARKER, Grammy Lifetime, Kennedy Center, Polar Music Prize from Sweden,(hey they like jazz too), Doctorate from Berkeley School of Music….we could go on but shan’t, the Doctor has to play.
Saw this next Kat in ChiTown a few back…sooooooosmmoooooooth….guitarist KENNY BURRELL…jammed with the best, top of the top….BILLIE, DIZZY, LENA, BYRD, JONES, PETERSON, BENNETT, COLTRANE, EVANS, TURRENTINE, we could go on, but won’t. This DEEEtroit Kat got a start with DIZZY GILLESPIE’S SEXTET, while studenting at Wayne State. Later educates impressionables with curriculum “Ellingtonia”, all things DUKE in SoCal (UCLA)….this is one KOOOOOLKAT.
This next Kat was JACKIE GLEASON’s main man, BOBBY HACKETT did solo trumpet for the JACKIE GLEASON ORCHESTRA, ‘50s-’60s…even on TV….Swell sounds were sought…this Kat delivered….Started Providence, Island State…lips were good, played cornet, trumpet, BIX fan…MCA(biggly corp) says “why not make a deal with us?”…”OK, sure”…deal goes sour, MCA folds, Mr. HACKETT owes big time coinage….to work it off GLENN MILLER makes deal, things look better…lip goes bad though, dental surgery mishap, shifts to guitar…lip heals, sort of…MR. GLEASON enters & “AWAY WE GOOO!” (look it up, young’ns). BOBBY solos on six records, becomes band leader on seven….sell, sell, sell! Check out Mr. GLEASON’s Music For Lovers Only & Melancholy Serenade albums. FAAABBUUULUS!
Here’s “Stompin At The Savoy” off the Complete Capitol Bobby Hackett Solo Sessions…buy this record!
89 years young, still piping’ tenor sax…SONNY ROLLINS is a machine! An elegant & troubled machine…produced over 60 albums…mix that with armed robbery, heroine, things look bad for this Harlem kid…keeps playing through... gets clean in Medcenter, guinea pig for Methadone treatment study, it works, no more horse….collabs with MILES, PARKER, MONK, the list continues…Solo albums appear, 1956’s Saxophone Colossus LP hugely greeted by fans, considered his breakthrough. The lips still work, this Kats’ still playing, even got on The Simpsons a few back…
We end today’s journey with “Someday I’ll Find You” off 1958’s Freedom Suite..
Thanks for listening, until tomorrow.
Peace & Distance.
