Chill Vocals, Pt. 2

My personal response to global warming; as heard on my show, the Duplex Mystery Jazz Hour, Thursday, July 3, 2014 on WZBC, 90.3, WZBC.ORG.

Listen Here.

Playlist:

Mark Murphy "On the Red Clay" (Jazz, 1975) on muse 

Count Basie "Whirlybird" from "At Birdland" (Jazz, 1960) on Emus  

June Christy "Something Cool"(Jazz, 1953) on Blue Note 

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra "Take the A Train" (Jazz, 1952) on Columbia 

Ella Fitzgerald "My Reverie" (Jazz, 1960) on Verve 

Chet Baker "Line for Lyons" (Jazz, 1956) on World Pacific 

Jack Teagarden "Don't Tell a Man About His Woman" from "Essential Jazz Vocals" (Jazz) on Verve 

Lee Wiley & Bobby Hackett "STREET of DREAMS" (Jazz, 1950) on Columbia 

Billy Eckstein "Caravan" (Jazz, 1949) on Verve 

Bob Dorough "Something for Sydney" (Jazz, 1997) on Blue Note 

Peggy Lee "That's the Way it Goes" (Jazz, 1941) on Columbia 

Louis Armstrong "Mack the Knife" (Jazz, 1955) on Columbia 

Billie Holliday "Fine And Mellow" (Jazz, 1939) on Commodore

King Pleasure "Golden Days" (Jazz, 1960) on Prestige 

Blossom Dearie "Surrey With The Fringe On The Top" (Jazz, 1958) on Verve 

Mel Torme and the MelTones "Hit the Road to Dreamland" (Jazz, 1959) on Verve 

Joe Williams "Hey Bartender" (Jazz, 1951) on Columbia 

Ella Fitzgerald "Blues in the Night" (Jazz, 1961) on Verve 

Lambert, Hendricks and Ross "Charleston Alley" (Jazz, 1959) on Columbia 

Mose Allison "Ever Since the World Ended" Jazz, 1997) on Blue Note 

Betty Carter "Some Other Time" (Jazz, 1993) on Capital Jazz 

Kurt Elling "Those Clouds Are Heavy, You Dig?" (Jazz, 2009) on Concord 

Vanessa Rubin "Black Coffee" (Jazz, 1995) on novus 

Mark Murphy "Canteloupe Island" (Jazz, 1960) on muse 

Chris Connor "Blue Silhouette" (Jazz, 1954) on Bethlehem 

Joe Williams "Who She Do" (Jazz, 1983) on Delos 

Listening to Commodore Records

Commodore Records, which grew out of the Commodore Record Shop in Manhattan, was the brainchild of Milt Gabler. Gabler was the first to re-issue old jazz records, the first to list all personnel on records and the first to do mail order for jazz records. As you can see by the playlist, Gabler used a stable of great players in the mainstream/traditional/swing vein. The label recorded Billie Holliday singing "Strange Fruit" when her producer at Columbia Records, John Hammond, would not. 

This edition of the Duplex Mystery Jazz Hour with Steve Provizer ran on WZBC.ORG on 06/12/2014. Audio is available at http://wzbc.org/#archive; Thursday, 5-7 PM.

Playlist:

Eddie Condon "Carnegie Jump" (Jazz, 1938) 

Eddie Condon "Jada" (Jazz, 1938) 

Chu Berry "Sittin' In" (Jazz, 1938) 

Chu Berry "Forty Six West Fifty Two"  (Jazz, 1938) 

Wild Bill Davison "That's a Plenty" (Jazz, 1943) 

George Brunis "Tin Roof Blues"  (Jazz, 1943)

Jelly-Roll Morton "Panama" (Jazz, 1940) 

Eddie Edwards & His Original Dixieland Jazz Band "Tiger Rag" (Jazz, 1946)

Billie Holliday "Strange Fuit"  (Jazz, 1939)  

Johnny Wiggs & His New Orleans "Zulu's Parade" (Jazz, 1950) 

Muggsy Spanier And His Ragtimers (Jazz, 1944)

Coleman Hawkins "Boff Boff (Mop Mop)" (Jazz, 1943) 

Wild Bill Davison "At the Jazz Band Ball"  (Jazz, 1943)

Sidney Bechet and His Feetwamers "Jelly Roll Blues" (Jazz, 1950) 

Max Kaminsky & His Jazz Band "Eccentric" (Jazz, 1944) 

Eddie Edwards & His Original Dixieland Jazz Band "Shake It And Break It" (Jazz, 1946)

Eddie Condon "Ballin the Jack" (Jazz, 1939) 

Eddie Condon "Basin Sreet Blues" (Jazz, 1943) 

Eddie Edwards & His Band "Skeleton Jangle" (jazz, 1944)

Bobby Hackett and His Orchestra "At Sundown" (Jazz, 1944) 

Eddie Edwards & His Original Dixieland Jazz Band "Lazy Daddy" (Jazz, 1946) 

Wild Bill Davidson "I'm Coming Virginia" (Jazz, 1946) 

DeParis Brothers Orchestra "I've Found a New Baby" (Jazz, 1944) 

Muggsy Spanier and His Ragtime Band "Rosetta" (Jazz, 1944) 

Eddie Condon and His Windy City Seven "Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland" (Jazz, 1938) 

Wild Bill Davison And His Commodores "Baby, Won't You Please come Home" (Jazz, 1943)

Eddie Condon And His Band "Georgia Grind" (Jazz, 1940)

Jack Teagarden and his Swingin Gates "Chinatown. My Chinatown" (Jazz, 1944) 

Wild Bill Davison And His Commodores "Riverboat Shuffle" (Jazz, 1943) 

George Wettling & His Rhythm Kings "How Come You Do Me Like You Do Me" (Jazz, 1944)

VIsiting the Abel Meeropol Archive

Abel Meeropol, under the pen name of Lewis Allan, was the composer of the song "Strange Fruit." I'm producing an animation about the amazing story of the song's creation and its linkage to Billie Holliday, so it was a natural to pay a visit to the Howard Gottlieb Archival Center at Boston University, where his papers are stored. 

An internet search will easily get you biographical details of Meeropol's life, but in this post, my aim is to give you a sense of how these documents brought me closer to the person.


Read and see more.

Charlie Shavers: Decided. by Steve Provizer

[I first wrote about Charlie Shavers a couple of years ago and since then, have noticed signs that increased attention is being paid to this great trumpet player (pure coincidence, I'm sure). I have expanded that piece, added new links and new commentary]

I first heard Shavers many years ago playing on Billie Holliday''s Verve LP "Solitude"- my favorite Lady Day record. Charlie's playing, both open and muted, was beautiful. I don't know why I didn't pursue his discography at that point; it just kind of spun out over time and I have grown to increasingly dig Shaver's facility, creativity and tone.

The only other swing trumpet players who could give Charlie Shavers a run for his money as both soloist and lead player were Roy Eldridge, Harry Edison and Buck Clayton. If you happened to like the particularities of their sounds, you might say Harry James, Cootie Williams, Bunny Berigan or Red Allen were in his league. Shavers' tone was basically 'poppin', but rounder, slightly less edged and with a touch more vibrato than the others. His range was unsurpassed, except by Eldridge. He used mutes to great effect throughout his career.

Shavers was an alumnus of the Tiny Bradshaw, Lucky Millinder and John Kirby, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman bands and Jazz at the Philharmonic. He recorded and sounded perfectly at home in many styles-blues, traditional, swing, semi-bop.

There's a dearth of info out there about the man. There is one very cool interview with him here, and what he says about the trumpet will surprise you. In this interview with Bobby Shew, there is a reference to Charlie's having what seems to be narcolepsy.

Whether or not he had that kind of medical condition or not he seems to have been an extremely laid back possibly even passive, guy. It's interesting to speculate on how his personality interacted with his career-especially his recording career-as many of the recordings he made in mid-to-late career (he died at age 50) were not very good. Producers put him in settings they thought would make him appeal to a bigger audience. On some of these, he is simply a high note guy and on some, a "beautiful music" guy. He probably had neither the clout nor the personality that would have made him push back against any of these musical follies.


Here's Charlie with Johnny Dodds in 1938 playing the mistitled tune "Melancholy."

This is the Charlie Shavers Quintet in 1947 doing "Dizzy's Dilemna."

Here's Charlie and Lady Day, 1952, on "Moonglow."

Here he is in 1952 with Eldridge in one of the classic JATP "battles."

One of the few clips of Charlie has him here in another fantastic "battle" with Buck Clayton:

Here he is holding down the solo and first chair at the same time for the Dorseys:



Here he is with his first major gig-John Kirby. Sid Catlett is fantastic:




And finally, here he is not long before his death. Dig the violinist Svend Asmussen. You might also recognize the bass player and the tenor player:

Comfort-Food Jazz by Steve Provizer

As Flann O'Brien once wrote, in "At-Swim-Two-Birds":


"When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life seems black as the hour of night,
A pint of plain is your only man."


Well, the man was an alcoholic, so his RX for the blues was a little narrow.


Jazz may not be the magic elixir. It may not make the lame strap on roller blades. It may not even make ugly people look better at closing time, but still we turn to it for succor.


In this needy state, you may find your choices are less adventurous than usual. If it was food you chose to fill the hole in your soul, you might pass on the escargots and go for the beef stew. It's it's music, you might opt for cozy over adventurous-at least I do. What do I want for my "comfort jazz"? Allowing myself the obligatory ten choices:


Mulligan, Getz and Brookmeyer together.
Late Billie Holiday
Early Ellington
Coltrane's Crescent
Miles on Prestige
Dizzy singing
Clifford's "Ghost of a Chance"
King Pleasure
Ella doing ballads during the 50's
Eldridge-"After You've Gone"

What's your jazz for solace?