After offering a “Christmas mix, not for Mother” last year, I feel obliged to make amends to your Mom by creating a mix she might like. Yes, it’s all gloriously retro this year. The youngest of the songs, as far as I can tell, is Jim Nabor’s version of Sleigh Ride from 1968; the oldest, Eddie Duchin’s (Don’t Wait Till) The Night Before Christmas, is 30 years older. Most of the songs here come from the 1940s and ’50s. A hurriedly put-together front and back CD cover is included, and as always the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, which might sort out the Christmas prezzie for some relatives. If this mix is popular enough, I’ll do a second volume. Let me know what you think in the comments section (you do know that bloggers really like to receive comments, so don’t be shy).

Fans of The Originals series will appreciate the first version of I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by Jimmy Boyd, then 13, which was released in 1952. Boyd died in Mach this year at the age of 70.

TRACKLISTING
1. Sammy Davis, Jr - Christmas Time All Over The World
2. Burl Ives – A Holly Jolly Christmas
3. Billy May - Do You Believe In Santa Claus
4. Dean Martin - Rudolph, The Red-nosed Reindeer
5. Lena Horne - Santa Claus Is Comin To Town
6. Nat ‘King’ Cole – Mrs. Santa Claus
7. Gene Autry – Here Comes Santa Claus
8. Andrews Sisters - Winter Wonderland
9. Connee Boswell - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
10. Dinah Washington – Ole Santa
11. Fontane Sisters – Nuttin’ For Christmas
12. Frank Sinatra – Jingle Bells
13. Brenda Lee - Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
14. Ernest Tubb – Blue Christmas
15. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Santa’s On His Way
16. Jogi Jorgensen – I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas
17. DeCastro Sisters - Snowbound For Christmas
18. Jim Nabors – Sleigh Ride
19. Perry Como – Silver Bells
20. Bing Crosby – Frosty The Snowman
21. Jimmy Boyd – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
22. Louis Armstrong – Zat You, Santa Claus?
23. Lionel Hampton & his Orchestra – Boogie Woogie Santa Claus
24. Judy Garland – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
25. Ella Fitzgerald – The Secret Of Christmas
26. Eddy Duchin Orchestra – (Don’t Wait Till) The Night Before Christmas
27. Gordon Jenkins Orchestra – White Christmas
28. Les Brown Orchestra feat Doris Day – The Christmas Song
29. Red Foley – Put Christ Back Into Christmas
30. Rosemary Clooney – Happy Christmas, Little Friend

DOWNLOAD

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Christmas Mix, Not For Mother
Any Major Christmas Mix Vol. 2 (2008)
More mixes

Various artists. The Best of Christmas. Capitol STBB 2979, 1968(?). (on vinyl, from a thrift store)

I couldn’t resist the boldness of the title. The best of Christmas? And I thought Christmas as I knew it was already wonderful! … Heavy sigh. This album is probably the worst Christmas music I have ever heard outside of a department store. It’s an impressive slew of famous musicians, sucking. It’s not all crap – two or three out of the twenty tracks are listenable, and there’s a Nat King Cole track – but most of it is. Just bad, half-assed musicianship. 3/10 (Bad).

Thanks to Chris Cochran for alerting me to an interesting NYTimes article about a new set of rare Ella Fitzgerald recordings being released: “

Yet Verve has just released “Twelve Nights in Hollywood,” a four-CD boxed set of Ella Fitzgerald singing 76 songs at the Crescendo, a small jazz club in Los Angeles, in 1961 and ’62 — and none of it has ever been released until now….They capture the singer in her peak years, and at top form: more relaxed, swinging and adventurous, across a wider span of rhythms and moods, than on the dozens of other albums that hit the bins in her lifetime.”

I am not a shop til you drop kinda gal. Instead of hitting the stores today, I—along with Mr. Scribe and the two Scribe daughters—did yard work. My back is aching, my allergies are kicking and six yard bags are filled with leaves, twigs, and various other organic matter. I am envious of my next door neighbor who has hired a professional lighting company to deck her house in the most spectacular yet tasteful holiday display. Maybe tomorrow I will dig out our measly three boxes of decorations out of storage and begin our own decorating. I am especially excited to look at all of my thank you letters given to me by the third graders last year following my Kwanzaa presentations at school.

Whatever the case, I guess The Holiday Season has begun. As a preview, I’d like to offer the following Old School holiday songs. Enjoy!

***

As always, a big thank you to OSF hostesses, Marvalus at Conversations with Marva and MrsGrapevine. Please check out the rules for joining and list of other OSF participants here.

Bonnie Greer, American-born Author of the play about Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald writes how she came up with the idea for her play.  My fellow Marilyn Monroe impersonator friend, Suzie, plays Marilyn onstage.  See the wonderful Times article here,

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article6923820.ece

Great article, and I  hope she brings this play to America, too. 

–Janet Valenetine, MarilynMonroe impersonator, Las Vegas

www.tributetomarilyn.com

Had myself a good ole time singing along with Ella Fitzgerald. I sang along at the end of the subway platform, tapping my feet and wiggling my butt, not caring if anyone saw me. My eyes welled up with her pained rendition of “Someone to Watch Over Me” and I could picture her lecturing the ne’er do wells of my romantic past in “Goody-Goody. “

Singing off-key to Ella felt in some ways like prayer.

Seven times a day, monks and nuns around the world chant the psalms. That’s usually what they are singing if you hear Gregorian Chant. The reason they chant the psalms is that the psalms are a poetic manifestion of every human expression: hatred, despair, jubilation, longing, desire, etc. By chanting the psalms, the monastics claim, they are tapping into every human heart and lifting that collective heart up to God. They pray for those who don’t pray.

And this is what Ella did for me yesterday. The Great American Song book, a sacred text like any other, contains that same human  capacity for love, fear and joy.  Singing jazz hits is a spiritual exercise, where we plugging ourselves into human suffering and turning it over to the Universe. Ella’s music is divine in many ways…

Me he tenido que comer mis palabras en muchas ocasiones, esto me ha ocurrido por puro desconocimiento o por precipitación pero en cuestiones musicales tengo muy claro qué estilos no me llegan o no me motivan.

Un tipo de música que nunca he conseguido entender y valorar como tantísima gente valora es el Jazz y tengo que reconocer que no me gusta nada o casi nada pero cuando descubrí a Ella Fitzgerald con su increíble y cálida voz tuve que tragarme mi afirmación de que no había nada en el jazz que me gustara.

Y si hay una canción que me pone los pelos de punta, que le puso nombre  con mayúsculas a una forma de cantar que presentaba la voz como una instrumento más, esta es Lady Be good, un temazo en el cual el icono de las cantantes de Jazz, Ella Fitzgerald, mostró al mundo cómo se hace el ‘SCAT’, término que se utiliza para describir la improvisación vocal, utilizando silabas deslabazadas sin ningún significado pero que convertían la voz en un instrumento sorprendente. Por una vez y sin que sirva de precedente, la improvisación que tanto he desdeñado en el Jazz aquí se torna en obra maestra.

Aquí os dejo un enlace con una breve biografía que he encontrado de Ella Fiztgerald. Para el conocedor y amante del Jazz seguro que le sabrá a poco.

O que seria da música sem as grandes vozes negras? Nada melhor que o Dia da Consciência Negra para lembrar grandes ícones que marcaram e marcam a história sonora mundial. Talento, intensidade e paixão definem a grande parte deles.

1. James Brown
Um dos nomes mais influentes do século XX, James Brown é com certeza o “King of Soul”. Sucesso nos anos 60 e presença importante até mesmo na política, o cantor tem 6 dos seus singles na lista das 500 canções de todos os tempos da revista Rolling Stones.

2. Ella Fitzgerald
Mestre do improviso, da boa técnica e do excelente repertório. Aos 19 anos, Ella já era considera a dama do jazz. Depois de uma trajetória brilhante, a cantora é referência para a maioria das gerações que se encantam pelo estilo e ícone da música mundial.

3. Whitney Houston
Nomeada como uma das melhores vozes femininas, Whitney é influência na carreira de várias cantoras da atualidade. Foram 160 milhões de discos vendidos no mundo e o terceiro contrato mais caro já pago a uma artista feminina solo. 19 singles em primeiro lugar não é pra qualquer artista.

4. Cartola
Sambista que se preze deve conhecer esse nome. Compositor e cantor, Cartola foi um marco brasileiro para o mundo. Quem disse que as rosas não falam, se enganou por não ter ouvido o querido Agenor.

5. Michael Jackson
É impossível não colocar o Rei do Pop entre as grandes figuras negras. Apesar do “branqueamento”, Michael começou com os cabelos black nos Jackson 5, e só mais tarde veio romper com isso. Sua carreira não pôde ser mais brilhante e vanguardista, o astro foi recorde em inúmeras categorias.

6. Bob Marley
Com letras que questionava o mundo e uma sonoridade vinda da Jamaica, Bob é o maior representante do reggae mundial. Regravado por várias gerações, o cantor levou em 2001 o Grammy pelo Conjunto da Obra.

7. Beyoncé
Alanvancando sua carreira no grupo Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé é hoje uma referência no cenário R&B/Pop mundial. Dona de uma voz potente, a cantora é apontada por um trabalho inovador e surpreendente. Com Sasha ou com ela mesma, é sempre um grande prazer conferir seu trabalho.

8. Gilberto Gil
Tropicalista, irreverente, cultural. Nenhum negro seria melhor para representar a música popular brasileira que Gilberto Gil. Detentor de uma obra grandiosa, o multiartista é impulsor de grandes projetos culturais e representante de um dos melhores períodos musicais do Brasil.

9. Alicia Keys
Potência e sucesso. Alicia Keys define bem esses dois conceitos. Vencedora de 14 Grammy, a cantora estreou sua carreira com “Songs In A Minor”, muito soul e uma polêmica envolvendo James Brown. Tudo resolvido, hoje Alicia prepara o quinto álbum de carreira e promete, mais uma vez, mostrar que é um verdadeiro talento da música.

10. Jay-Z
No segmento musical do Rap, os EUA ganham destaque. Berço de grandes nomes, o Brooklyn mostrou ao mundo Jay-z. Grande parte da sua criação foi sucesso na voz de artistas como Mariah Carey e Beyoncé. O rapper é o homem de negócios da indústrial musical.

Por Patrick Moraes

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”

~Ella Fitzgerald

——-

Jamie

mochawriter.com

“Cry Me a River” is a popular American torch song, written by Arthur Hamilton and first published in 1953. A jazzy blues ballad, “Cry Me a River” was originally written for Ella Fitzgerald to sing in the 1920s-set film, Pete Kelly’s Blues (released 1955) but the song was dropped. Fitzgerald first released a recording of the song on Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! in 1961.
The song’s first release and most famous recording was by actress/singer Julie London in 1955. A sultry performance of the song by London in the 1956 film The Girl Can’t Help It helped to make it a million-selling blockbuster (#9 US/#22 UK).

In 1970, British blues rocker Joe Cocker made the chart with an upbeat hard-rock rendition on the album, Mad Dogs and Englishmen. In 1995, British actress Denise Welch’s double A-side “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” / “Cry Me a River” spent three weeks in the UK Singles Chart, reaching #23.

You should also listen to the performance is by Ella Fitzgerald, one of the best performances of this song. The song has been song in other languages also, like French by  Viktor Lazlo.

The lovely and talented Lisa Baker, Playboy’s Miss November 1966 enjoys jazz, cheese-tasting, and a refreshingly open-minded take on afternoon snacking attire.

Photographed by either Bill Figge or Ed DeLong

Cheese looks like simple red-rind edam, alcohol looks like some kind of dessert wine, I am going to say Sauternes because I could drink that by the bottle and think it pairs well with cheese.

I like to order a cheese plate, where they give you the whole range from mild to sharp, with a glass of Sauternes at a fancy place when I feel like being hoity-toity and/or want to die from eating cheese, as I am viciously lactose intolerant and never remember to carry any kind of medicine with me. Read: if in some distant future, I am out with you, and I order a cheese plate, sex is not even remotely on my mind. The spirit may be willing thanks to the wine, but the flesh? Weak doesn’t begin to cover it.

Stomach swelling and projectile vomit notwithstanding, I am not the only girl who gets ga-ga over cute little cheese samples and suchlike. Sauternes and a cheese plate with nuts and triangle slices of that quince stuff have mellowed many a lady’s mind and made her look at her date more charitably. All the elements of a cheese-tasting spread are honestly easy to procure, and look super-posh. Believe me. Take this to the bank. We women go bananas for that kind of shit. Dessert wine, cheese varieties, almonds, and quince: write that down.

Records visible in the centerfold photo are Trini Lopez’s “Trini Lopez at PJ’s,” a live recording from 1963; the 1960 album “Hello Love” by Ella Fitzgerald; and “Playboy Presents: Once In A Blue Moon” by Johnny Janis (nice plug by the magazine).

Get it: the skis make her bunny ears. That’s kind of clever, right?

Anyway, I’ve blathered all this time about cheese and wine and LP’s mainly because I got all these pictures but very little info about Ms. Baker, other than that she was Playmate of the Year in 1967. Outside of that, her credits kind of died down around the late ’70s and they were all Playboy projects. I actually found more about her present doings than I did her past. She is currently still an active spokesmodel for products and print model available for photoshoots, appearing at conventions around the United States.

l to r: DeDe Lind (Miss August 1967), Helena Antonaccio (Miss June 1969), and Lisa Baker at Glamourcon 2006, from Helena’s official website.

Interestingly, according to the wiki, Ms. Baker now lives in Florida and rooms with fellow retired Playmate DeDe Lind, who is alleged to be one of the most popular Playmates ever, garnering the most bags of mail ever received in the magazine’s history up until the time of her appearance in August, 1967. The two travel to conventions together and appear at local events.

You keep on keepin’ on, girls. God bless ‘em!

Photographed by Patrick “Patman” Sun, DragonCon 1998. Judging from her expression and her grip on that alien, I think Ms. Lind may have been over-served at the hotel bar.

Bu sefer de epik bir başlık oldu. Fakat durum budur. Kalemleri artık yalnızca bir şeyler karalamak için kullanıyoruz. Neyse ki, beni el yazısına teşvik eden şahane bir yardımcım var!

Yardımcım bir Lamy dolmakalem. Yıllar önce Banu Berlin’deki Bauhaus Müzesi’nden almış ve bana armağan etmişti. İlk günlerde kullanmaya kıyamadım. Sonra her fırsatta kullanır oldum.

Dolmakalemleri eskiden beri severim. Çocukken şu pompalı dolmakalemlere şaşar kalırdım: Ucunu mürekkebe batırır, içindeki hazneyi sıkıp mürekkebi fokurdatmasını, ardından hazneyi bırakıp mürekkebi içine çekmesini izlerdim. Kartuşlu modellerle tanışmam sonra oldu. O günlerde, artık yaşım ilerlemişti ve dolmakalemleri “havalı” bulmaya başlamıştım. Banu bana bu Lamy dolmakalemi armağan ettiğinden beridir şaşkınlığı, havayı bir kenara bıraktım. Dolmakalemlere, özellikle benimkine bayılıyorum. Kapağını açarken tatlı bir “plop!” sesi duyuluyor; sanki Nat King Cole şarkı söylüyor. Kalemin öyle iyi ayarlanmış bir geometrisi var ki, parmaklarınızın arasına oturuveriyor ve her seferinde ucu en doğru açıyı tutturuyor. Yazmaya başladığınızda kalem, kâğıda mürekkebi tam olması gerektiği kadar aktarıyor; ne eksik, ne fazla. Mürekkep hiçbir yere bulaşmıyor, kâğıtta koca lekeler yapmıyor. Bir de, kalemin ucu kâğıda sürtündükçe çıkan o ses var! Eğer o sesi dinlerseniz, ruh halinize uygun bir şarkı mırıldandığını duyabilirsiniz. Çok ciddiyim! Dolmakalemimin ucu bir pikap iğnesi, kâğıt bir plak sanki… Mutlu bir yazı, Louis Armstrong’un sesiyle “What a Wonderful World”; tutkulu bir yazı, Ella Fitzgerald’ın sesiyle “Fever”; iddialı bir yazı, Aretha Franklin’in sesiyle “Think”; hüzünlü bir yazı, BB King’in sesiyle “The Thrill Is Gone”… O kadar lezzetli ki!

Lamy dolmakalemler Türkiye’de yıllardır satılıyor. Kartuşlarını bulmak da hiç sorun değil; bütün büyük kırtasiyelerde renk çeşitleriyle mevcut.

Eğer yazarken sadece klavye kullanıyorsanız, kendinize bir iyilik yapın ve hemen güzel bir dolmakalem edinin.

- Yıldıray

BULUŞMA NOKTASI

… sem mais nada a acrescentar…

Between 1953 and 1957, John Hammond supervised a series of record dates for the Vanguard label.  I first heard one of those records — the second volume of the THE VIC DICKENSON SHOWCASE — at my local library in the late Sixties, and fell in love. 

The Vanguard sessions featured Ruby Braff, Shad Collins, Buck Clayton, Joe Newman, Emmett Berry, Pat Jenkins, Doug Mettome, Vic Dickenson, Benny Morton, Benny Green, Urbie Green, Lawrence Brown, Henderson Chambers, Ed Hall, Peanuts Hucko, Jimmy Buffington, Coleman Hawkins, Buddy Tate, Rudy Powell, Earle Warren, Lucky Thompson, Frank Wess, Pete Brown, Paul Quinichette, Mel Powell, Sir Charles Thompson, Jimmy Jones, Hank Jones, Sammy Price, Ellis Larkins, Nat Pierce, Steve Jordan, Skeeter Best, Kenny Burrell, Oscar Pettiford, Walter Page, Aaron Bell, Jo Jones, Bobby Donaldson, Jimmy Crawford, Jimmy Rushing, and others.

The list of artists above would be one answer to the question, “What made these sessions special?” but we all know of recordings with glorious personnel that don’t quite come together as art — perhaps there’s too little or too much arranging, or the recorded sound is not quite right, or one musician (a thudding drummer, an over-amplified bassist) throws everything off. 

The Vanguard sessions benefited immensely from Hammond’s imagination.  Although I have been severe about Hammond — as someone who interfered with musicians for whom he was offering support — and required that his preferences be taken seriously or else (strong-willed artists like Louis, Duke, and Frank Newton fought with or ran away from John).  Hammond may have been “difficult” and more, but his taste in jazz was impeccable.  And broad — the list above goes back to Sammy Price, Walter Page, and forward to Kenny Burrell and Benny Green. 

Later on, what I see as Hammond’s desire for strong flavors and novelty led him to champion Dylan and Springsteen, but I suspect that those choices were also in part because he could not endure watching others make “discoveries.”  Had it been possible to continue making records like the Vanguards eternally, I believe Hammond might have done so.   

Although Mainstream jazz was still part of the American cultural landscape in the early Fifties, and the artists Hammond loved were recording for labels large and small — from Verve, Columbia, Decca, all the way down to Urania and Period — he felt strongly about players both strong and subtle, musicians who had fewer opportunities to record sessions on their own.  At one point, Hammond and George Wein seemed to be in a friendly struggle to champion Ruby Braff, and I think Hammond was the most fervent advocate Vic Dickenson, Sir Charles Thompson, and Mel Powell ever had.  Other record producers, such as the astute George Avakian at Columbia, would record Jimmy Rushing, but who else was eager to record Pete Brown, Shad Collins, or Henderson Chambers?  No one but Hammond. 

And he arranged musicians in novel — but not self-consciously so — combinations.  For THE VIC DICKENSON SHOWCASE, it did not take a leap of faith to put Braff, Vic, and Ed Hall together in the studio, for they had played together at Boston’s Savoy Cafe in 1949.  And to encourage them to stretch out for leisurely versions of ”Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now,” “Jeepers Creepers,” and “Russian Lullaby” was something that other record producers — notably Norman Granz — had been doing to capitalize on the longer playing time of the new recording format.  But after that rather formal beginning, Hammond began to be more playful.  The second SHOWCASE featured Shad Collins, the masterful and idiosyncratic ex-Basie trumpeter, in the lead, with Braff joining in as a guest star on two tracks. 

Now, some of the finest jazz recordings were made in adverse circumstances (I think of the cramped Brunswick and Decca studios of the Thirties).  And marvelous music can be captured in less-than-ideal sound: consider Jerry Newman’s irreplaceable uptown recordings.  But the sound of the studio has a good deal to do with the eventual result.  Victor had, at one point, a converted church in Camden, New Jersey; Columbia had Liederkrantz Hall and its 30th Street Studios.  Hammond had a Masonic Temple on Clermont Avenue in Brooklyn, New York — with a thirty-five foot ceiling, wood floors, and beautiful natural resonance. 

The Vanguard label, formed by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon, had devoted itself to beautiful-sounding classical recordings; Hammond had written a piece about the terrible sound of current jazz recordings, and the Solomons asked him if he would like to produce sessions for them.  Always eager for an opportunity to showcase musicians he loved, without interference, Hammond began by featuring Vic Dickenson, whose sound may never have been as beautifully captured as it was on the Vanguards. 

Striving for an entirely natural sound, the Vanguards were recorded with one microphone hanging from the ceiling.  The players in the Masonic Temple did not know what the future would hold — musicians isolated behind baffles, listening to their colleagues through headphones — but having one microphone would have been reminiscent of the great sessions of the Thirties and Forties.  And musicians often become tense at recording sessions, no matter how professional or experienced they are — having a minimum of engineering-interference can only have added to the relaxed atmosphere in the room. 

The one drawback of the Masonic Temple was that loud drumming was a problem: I assume the sound ricocheted around the room.  So for most of these sessions, either Jo Jones or Bobby Donaldson played wire brushes or the hi-hat cymbal, with wonderful results.  (On the second Vic SHOWCASE, Jo’s rimshots explode like artillery fire on RUNNIN’ WILD, most happily, and Jo also was able to record his lengthy CARAVAN solo, so perhaps the difficulty was taken care of early.)  On THE NAT PIERCE BANDSTAND — a session recently reissued on Fresh Sound – you can hear the lovely, translucent sound Freddie Green, Walter Page, and Jo Jones made, their notes forming three-dimensional sculpture on BLUES YET? and STOMP IT OFF. 

(Something for the eyes.  I am not sure what contemporary art directors would make of this cover, including Vic’s socks, and the stuffed animals, but I treasure it, even though there is a lion playing a concertina.)

What accounted for the beauty of these recordings might be beyond definition.  Were the musicians so happy to be left alone that they played better than ever?  Was it the magisterial beat and presence of Walter Page on many sessions?  Was it Hammond’s insistence on unamplified rhythm guitar?  Whatever it was, I hear these musicians reach into those mystical spaces inside themselves with irreplaceable results.  On these recordings, there is none of the reaching-for-a-climax audible on many records.  Nowhere is this more apparent than on the sessions featuring Ruby Braff and Ellis Larkins.  Braff had heard Larkins play duets with Ella Fitzgerald for Decca (reissued on CD as PURE ELLA) and told Hammond that he, too, wanted to play with Larkins.  Larkins’ steady, calm carpet of sounds balances Braff’s tendency towards self-dramatization, especially on several Bing Crosby songs — PLEASE and I’VE GOT A POCKETFUL OF DREAMS. 

Ruby and Ellis were reunited several times in the next decades, for Hank O’Neal’s Chiaroscuro label and twice for Arbors, as well as onstage at a Braff-organized tribute to Billie Holiday, but they never sounded so poignantly wonderful as on the Vanguards. 

Hammond may have gotten his greatest pleasure from the Basie band of the late Thirties, especially the small-group sessions, so he attempted to give the Vanguards the same floating swing, using pianists Thompson and Pierce, who understood what Basie had done without copying it note for note.  For THE JO JONES SPECIAL, Hammond even managed to reunite the original “All-American Rhythm Section” for two versions of “Shoe Shine Boy.”  Thompson — still with us at 91 — recorded with Walter Page, Freddie Green, and Jo Jones for an imperishable quartet session.  If you asked me to define what swing is, I might offer their ”Swingtime in the Rockies” as compact, enthralling evidence. 

Hammond was also justifiably enthusiastic about pianist Mel Powell — someone immediately identifiable in a few bars, his style merging Waller, Tatum, astonishing technique, sophisticated harmonies, and an irrepressible swing – and encouraged him to record in trios with Braff, with Paul Quinichette, with Clayton and Ed Hall, among others.  One priceless yet too brief performance is Powell’s WHEN DID YOU LEAVE HEAVEN? with French hornist Jimmy Buffington in the lead — a spectral imagining of the Benny Goodman Trio. 

The last Vanguards were recorded in 1957, beautiful sessions featuring Buck Clayton and Jimmy Rushing.  I don’t know what made the series conclude.  Did the recordings not sell well?  Vanguard turned to the burgeoning folk movement shortly after.  Or was it that Hammond had embarked on this project for a minimal salary and no royalties and, even given his early patrician background, had to make a living?  But these are my idea of what jazz recordings should sound like, for their musicality and the naturalness of their sound.

I would like to be able to end this paean to the Vanguards by announcing a new Mosaic box set containing all of them.  But I can’t.  And it seems as if forces have always made these recordings difficult to obtain in their original state.  Originally, they were issued on ten-inch long-playing records (the format that record companies thought 78 rpm record buyers, or their furniture, would adapt to most easily).  But they made the transition to the standard twelve-inch format easily.  The original Vanguard records didn’t stay in print for long in their original format.  I paid twenty-five dollars, then a great deal of money, for a vinyl copy of BUCK MEETS RUBY from the now-departed Dayton’s Records on Twelfth Street in Manhattan.  In the Seventies, several of the artists with bigger names, Clayton, Jo Jones, and Vic, had their sessions reissued in America on two-lp colletions called THE ESSENTIAL.  And the original vinyl sessions were reissued on UK issues for a few minutes in that decade. 

When compact discs replaced vinyl, no one had any emotional allegiance to the Vanguards, although they were available in their original formats (at high prices) in Japan.  The Vanguard catalogue was bought by the Welk Music Group (the corporate embodiment of Champagne Music).  in 1999, thirteen compact discs emerged: three by Braff, two by “the Basie Bunch,” two by Mel Powell, two by Jimmy Rushing, one by Sir Charles, one by Vic.  On the back cover of the CDs, the credits read: “Compilation produced by Steve Buckingham” and “Musical consultant and notes by Samuel Charters.”  I don’t know either of them personally, and I assume that their choices were controlled by the time a compact disc allows, but the results are sometimes inexplicable.  The sound of the original sessions comes through clearly but sessions are scrambled and incomplete, except for the Braff-Larkins material, which they properly saw as untouchable.  And rightly so.  The Vanguard recordings are glorious.  And they deserve better presentation than they’ve received.

P.S.  Researching this post, I went to the usual sources — Amazon and eBay — and there’s no balm for the weary or the deprived.  On eBay, a vinyl BUCK MEETS RUBY is selling for five times as much.  That may be my twenty-five dollars, adjusted for inflation, but it still seems exorbitant. 

On eBay I also saw the most recent evidence of the corruption, if not The Decline, of the West.  Feast your eyes on this CD cover:

Can you imagine Jimmy Rushing’s reaction — beyond the grave — on learning that his reputation rested on his being an influence on Jamie Cullum, Norah Jones, and Harry Connick, Jr.?  I can’t.  The Marketing Department has been at work!  But I’d put up with such foolishness if I could have the Vanguards back again.

Jag är ju en sån där kultursnobb som inte tittar på Idol (eller Let’s dance för den delen). Därför blev det något av en chock när lundatösen Amanda Bengtsson, nu Jenssen, plötsligt uppträdde på den svenska Grammisgalan (jo, jag tittar faktiskt på den). 

På scenen stod en uppenbarelse: den mest blonderade blondin i röd, tajt, strax över knäet kort klänning, röda, högklackade skor och röd läppstiftsmun. Och som hon tog i när hon sjöng singellåten ”Do You Love Me”! Så mycket att sången och kompet kunde hamna bredvid varann, i varsin tonart.

Sen kom Amanda Jenssens debutalbum, ”Killing Your Darlings” (Epic), som fick snurra, om och om igen, i bilens CD-spelare. Jag lyssnade, log och skrattade – tills jag tystnade och började lyssna ordentligt. Där fanns ju nåt… enastående.  Hon var… en personlighet. Hon sjöng och spelade över… medvetet. Så smart och proffsigt. 

Amanda Bengtsson, alias Jenssen.

Musiken är egentligen inte min genre: ett slags evigt mondän och lyxig glampop med fyndiga ordval i de engelska texterna och småstölder á la Per Gessle i de catchiga melodierna. Också i studion har hon tagit i. Amanda kan skrika sig ur vilken tonart som helst och glida mellan tonerna som Bambi på isen.

Det gör ingenting. För vart rösten än tar vägen så ropar och viskar hon – det kan hon också – med attityden att jävlaranamma jag ska minsann ta mig in i show business och inget kan stoppa mig. Ur vägen! Vilken pondus! Så stor vilja! Det kallas ung kvinnokraft.

Amanda Jenssen får mig att tänka på Grace Jones och Marilyn Monroe, om hon haft en chans att styra sin karriär. Tänk en skånsk Marilyn Monroe årgång 2008. Wow! Jag har också lyckats få tag på en massa demolåtar med Amanda. Inspelad ”At home” var hon ju något helt annat: en kvinnlig singer/songwriter till akustisk gitarr.

Och när jag gick in på www.amandajenssen.com (nätsida för Amanda-fans) och kollade hennes Idol-framträdanden så upptäckte jag ju också – äntligen! på tiden! – vilken bredd hon har.

I Idol sjöng Amanda allt från den unga Elvis-låten ”That’s Alright Mama!” över ”You Really Got Me” (The Kinks), ”Born To Run” (Springsteen), ”Dream A Little Dream Of Me” (Ella Fitzgerald) och ”Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen) till den äldre Elvis Presley-låten ”Suspicious Minds” med samma stora – ja, gigantiska – attack, inlevelse och uttryck.  

(Ystads Allehanda och Ny Tid 2008)

I spend more than enough time in front of the computer (my neck can testify to this) but I’ve recently encountered two websites that might prove promising for jazz fanciers.  One, Wolfgang’s Vault, initially awakened all my snobbery: lips that touch Black Sabbath will never touch mine.  And I’m not terribly interested in Grateful Dead backstage passes.  But the Vault has just opened the jazz door a crack for three performances from the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival — audio only — featuring the Basie band, Dakota Staton, and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.  And more from 1959 is promised on November 17.  See for yourself at http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/concerts/support/newport-jazz.html.

The other site is much more welcoming — it seems to be the official French government video site — my understanding of this is hampered by my stale rudimentary French — called INA.FR.  Visit their site and search for ”jazz,” about 600 videos come up.  Some of them are powerfully irrelevant, and much of the “jazz” here is beyond my admittedly narrow interests.  But there are live performances by Ella, Duke, Louis, Lucky Thompson, Bill Coleman, Vic Dickenson, Byas, Bechet, Hawkins, Getz, Gillespie, and long compilations from French jazz festivals — all in evocative black and white.  You’ll be delighted by what this site has to offer: http://www.ina.fr/.

Suzie Kennedy

London theatregoers can enjoy two plays about Marilyn Monroe this autumn. Marilyn And Ella opens at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue on November 15th, showing on three consecutive Sundays.

Based on a real-life encounter between Monroe and Fitzgerald, Marilyn And Ella began as a radio play by Bonnie Greer. Exploring issues of racism, sexism and fame, it is essentially a two-hander with music made popular by the respective stars during the swing era. Marilyn is played by Suzie Kennedy and Ella by Hope Augustus.

Meanwhile at the Leicester Square Theatre, Marilyn: Forever Blonde is showing until November 18th. This is a one-woman show starring Sunny Thompson as Monroe near the end of her life, and also includes music. The play is based on Marilyn’s own words and has won several awards during its long international run. Here in Britain, Sunny has garnered rave reviews from the Loving Marilyn website and blogger Mrs Trefusis.

I previously reviewed Marilyn And Ella in 2008, but I understand that it has undergone a few changes since then. Suzie Kennedy is a gifted impersonator and also stars in the forthcoming film, Io E Marilyn.  I am confident that she can do justice to Marilyn’s memory, and will add reviews of the new production as they appear, right here.

That’s why I’m following you…

Uma das minhas músicas preferidas do mundo.

Inauguro este blog dedicado a videos del youtube con un clásico del Jazz.

Se trata de un concierto inolvidable en el Berlín de la guerra fría. Una de mis versiones preferidas del clásico Summertime.

Ella Fitzgerald – Voz

Paul Smith – Piano

Wilfred Middlebrooks – Contrabajo

Gus Johnson – Batería

Scarves are one of the main fashion trends that are dominating the young scene. I do adore this trend as it keeps me warm and I live on a very cold cold campus…also people are coughing all over the place and I consider it another way to keep their germs away from me and my immune system!

When the season starts to turn from crispy golden to cold and gray there is always something to cheer anyone up.

Would You Like To Take A Walk: Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
On The Sunny Side Of The Street: Louis Armstrong