Since the newspapers seldom report all the winners in the jazz and blues categories, here they are. All of the nominees are listed in this previous post.
Best Jazz Instrumental Album
Terri Lyne Carrington—Money Jungle
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
Randy Brecker, Wlodek Pawlik Trio and Kalisz Philharmonic—Night in Calisia
Here are some other awards involving jazz and blues artists nominated in other categories. Maria Schneider's classical album, Winter Morning Walks, won in all three categories for which it was nominated: Best Contemporary Classical Composition, Best Classical Vocal Solo (Dawn Upshaw), and Best Engineered Album, Classical. Gary Clark, Jr.'s song, "Please Come Home," from Blak and Blue, won for the Best Traditional R&B Performance. (Gregory Porter was also nominated in this category.) Mavis Staples and Allen Toussaint had albums nominated in the Americana category, but did not win.
Finally, the liner notes from John Coltrane's Afro Blue Impressions (Remastered and Expanded) received the award for Best Album Notes. The booklet includes the original liner notes by Benny Green and a 2013 essay by Neil Tesser.
It's been a while since I've featured a vocal group. Here is one of the great groups of the '50s, the Flamingos, lip-syncing their 1956 recording of "Would I Be Crying?" from the Alan Freed movie, Rock, Rock, Rock. The song was not a big hit but it is very representative of their ballad style.
This is from the Flamingos' middle period when they recorded for Chess. The lead singer is Nate Nelson. (Prior to 1955, Sollie McElroy sang lead, and from 1958 on, it was usually Terry Johnson.) The other participants in the recording were Jake Carey, Zeke Carey, Johnny Carter and Paul Wilson. Someone is missing; I'm not sure who or why.
Benny Goodman performs two songs from the 1937 Busby Berkeley musical, Hollywood Hotel, which starred Dick Powell and Rosemary Lane. First the orchestra does "Sing, Sing, Sing." The primary soloists are Gene Krupa, drums; Harry James, trumpet; and Goodman. This is followed by the Benny Goodman Quartet playing "I've Got a Heartful of Music." In addition to Goodman and Krupa, Lionel Hampton plays vibes and Teddy Wilson, piano.
Congratulations to the organizers of the Westsylvania Jazz and Blues Festival. They have met their fundraising goal of $6000. Using Kickstarter, they collected $6188 from 83 donors. The festival will be held Saturday, May 24, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., in downtown Indiana, PA.
Of course, this is just the minimum amount that is needed. I'm sure they'll still accept your donation. Presumably, the more money raised, the better the acts at the festival.
As soon as I hear who is scheduled to perform, I'll let you know.
There are a number of Muddy Waters videos available, most of them from his later years. You can see his performance at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, but the fidelity is poor. This is my favorite early video. Muddy plays slide guitar on "Long Distance Call" from the 1968 Copenhagen Jazz Festival. The rest of the group is Otis Spann, piano; Paul Oscher, harmonica; Pee Wee Madison, guitar; Sonny Wimberley, bass; and S. P. Leary, drums.
Even when my
Dad was most ill, he still found a way to say something to put a
smile on people's faces. His legacy is that he touched people with
his music and his conversation.
Chris
Thomas King
Blues legend Ernest “Tabby” Thomas died in a Baton Rouge, LA nursing home on New Year's Day, four days
short of his 85th birthday. He had been suffering from cancer. In addition to being a
singer, guitarist and pianist, he owned Tabby's Blues Box, a Baton Rouge night club, for 25 years. He sang and played in the New
Orleans and Southern Louisiana style known as swamp blues. Blues
singer Chris Thomas King is his son.
Ernest Joseph Thomas was born in Baton
Rouge on January 5, 1929. Chris Thomas King has written an essay about his father's early life, up until 1953. He was a high school
football quarterback, although he later came to regret it due to
lingering injuries. His nickname, “Tabby the Cat,” came from his
moves on the field. While in high school, he became a fan of jump
blues, especially New Orleans R&B singer Roy Brown. His football
prowess earned him a scholarship to Leland University, where he
intended to study to become a minister, but he dropped out.
In 1949, he moved to Detroit, where he
became an amateur boxer and took in the Hastings Street blues scene.
Unable to find work, he joined the Air Force and served in Guam and
Riverside, California. After his service commitment was ended, he
remained in San Francisco and took a job in a shoe store. He won a
talent show sponsored by radio station KSAN singing Roy Brown's “Long About
Midnight.” Among the competitors he defeated were Etta James and
Johnny Mathis. This led to his first recording, “Midnight is
Calling” (1952) on the Recorded in Hollywood label.
When the record failed to catch on, he
returned to Baton Rouge in 1953. Louis Armstrong heard him perform
at the Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans and put him in touch with the Eric
Shaw booking agency. He soon found his way to J. D. Miller's
recording studio in Crowley, LA, where swamp blues greats such as
Lightnin' Slim, Slim Harpo, and Katie Webster got their starts, and
where he recorded the songs that established his reputation. The
first of these, released on Miller's own Feature label in 1954, was
“Tomorrow.”
Most of Thomas's other recordings for
Miller were leased to Excello Records in Nashville. He was usually
accompanied on harmonica by either Lazy Lester or Whispering Smith.
In 1961, he had a local hit with “Hoodoo Party,” a typical New
Orleans-style rocker.
Thomas and his band, the Mellow, Mellow
Men, were a leading Southern Louisiana attraction for decades. By
day, he worked in a chemical plant, where he became a union steward.
In the late '60s, he started his own record label, Blue Beat, where he released his recordings and those of fellow musicians from the area.
In 1979, he opened Tabby's Blues Box, which featured swamp blues
peers such as Raful Neal, Silas Hogan and Henry Gray, while providing
a venue for younger performers like Raful's son Kenny Neal, Larry
Garner, Tab Benoit and his own son Chris. The club was shut down by
urban renewal in 2000, but he moved to another location. He also hosted a radio program in Baton Rouge.
He had a serious auto accident in 2002,
and a stroke in 2004, which made him unable to play, but did not
affect his singing. Here he is singing “The Thrill is Gone” with
his son after his stroke.
He closed the club later that year, but
continued to play at blues festivals until recently. In this undated
clip, he is joined on stage at the Baton Rouge Blues Festival by
Buddy Guy.
On January 7, a concert celebrating the
life of Tabby Thomas was held at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge.
Performers included Henry Gray, Kenny Neal, Tab Benoit and Chris
Thomas King.
Eric “Guitar” Davis (1972-2013)
Singer-guitarist Eric “Guitar”
Davis, 41, was murdered on the streets of Chicago on December 19.
The son of drummer Bobby “Top Hat” Davis, he had released one CD,
Trouble Makin' Man, available
from CD Baby. He recently signed with Delmark and was considered to be an up-and-coming blues star. Here he is singing the title
tune from his CD at the Chicago Blues Festival.
You may also be interested in reading: Chick Willis (1934-2013)
It's been 50 years. The songs on this
2-CD set were recorded in October and November 1963 in Berlin and
Stockholm by Norman Granz for Pablo Records. A double LP was
released in 1977, and made available on CD in 1993. This remastered
edition contains the same nine songs, plus alternative versions of
“Naima,” “I Want to Talk About You” and “My Favorite
Things.” I missed the original LP among the flood of Coltrane
albums that were released after his death. This is a most welcome
reissue.
This is the classic Coltrane Quartet at
the height of its almost superhuman power. As Neil Tesser's liner
notes point out, these songs were recorded at a time of transition in
Coltrane's development. He was moving away from what Tesser calls
his “vertical period,” characterized by rapid movement up and
down the harmonic structure of the songs, often referred to as
“sheets of sound.” He was moving into a “horizontal
period”—longer solos, often unconstrained by the harmonic
structure of the song. Both of these approaches are in evidence
here. The set opens with Coltrane on tenor doing “Lonnie's
Lament,” a solo filled with sheets of sound.
One of the opening salvos of the
horizontal period was Coltrane on soprano saxophone doing “My
Favorite Things,” presented here in two versions. The 14-minute
version is typical of what we're used to hearing, with Coltrane and
pianist McCoy Tyner switching from major to minor keys, demonstrating
the hypnotic power of repetition with an accumulation of small
changes in melody and phrasing. The other version is a 21-minute
masterpiece, with all of the same qualities, but more of them. It
has replaced his 1963 performance (17 minutes) at Newport as my
favorite version—at least until someone finds one that's 28 minutes
long.
Coltrane's restless exploration is
illustrated by the two versions of “I Want to Talk About You,”
both of which end with extended, unaccompanied arpeggios that are
almost as long as the song itself. Coltrane seemed to be leaving the
quartet behind and taking off into the stratosphere.
The other soprano saxophone number in
this set is “Afro Blue,” which I'm sure Coltrane chose because it
has some of the same hyponotic qualities as “My Favorite Things.” You can see it here. On tenor, “Naima” and “I Want to Talk About You” are
ballads. “Spiritual” is as the title implies. The other three
are sheer tenor madness.
These are nine great songs, twelve
great versions, all quite accessible to the Coltrane novice. The
sound quality is very good for a 50-year-old live recording. The
only gliches occur when Coltrane briefly turns his head away from the
microphone. Coltrane's two most well known live albums are Live
at the Village Vanguard (1961)
and Live at Birdland
(1963). This one belongs on the shelf right next to them.
Tracks,
CD1: Lonnie's
Lament; Naima; Chasin' the Trane; My Favorite Things; Afro Blue;
Cousin Mary. (63 min.). CD2:
I
Want to Talk About You; Spiritual; Impressions; Naima (alternate
take); I Want to Talk About You (alternate take); My Favorite Things
(alternate take). (63 min.).
Personnel:
John
Coltrane, tenor and soprano saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy
Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums.
Jammin' the Bluesis a 10-minute film of a jam session from 1944. The cinematography is well ahead of its time. The three tunes are "Midnight Symphony," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," sung by Marie Bryant, and "Jammin' the Blues." The personnel: Harry "Sweets" Edison, trumpet; Lester Young, Illinois Jacquet, tenor saxophones; Marlowe Morris, piano; Barney Kessel, guitar; Red Callender, John Simmons, bass; and Sid Catlett, Jo Jones, drums. Ms. Bryant dances with Archie Savage.
Lester Young plays the tenor sax solo on "Midnight Symphony;" Illinois Jacquet on "Jammin' the Blues." Notice the unconventional way Lester Young holds his horn, sideways, almost like a flute.
