Annie Ross, 1938
https://youtu.be/99OB6YeGjeU
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 26 July 2020 02:58 (four years ago) link
sorry, her star turn is at 4:44
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 26 July 2020 03:05 (four years ago) link
xxxxpost Speaking of Dee Dee B. and words added to instrumentals: dunno when Horace Sliver wrote lyrics of "Song For My Father"---maybe when he wrote the melody, but I didn't hear it sung 'til Andy Bey; my fave version is Bridgewater's, but worth hearing by whomever:
I wrote a song for my father in hopes it would give him a thrill after seeing Brazil.My father’s music came through me but never got to me untilI went down to Brazil---In Rio all day long, I heard my father’s song...His father was Portuguese-Cape Verdean, born on a CV island.
― dow, Tuesday, 28 July 2020 20:49 (four years ago) link
Thanks for the Dee Dee tip, Dow, really enjoy this “song for my father” performance of hers here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AapII8zmsdc
― brimstead, Sunday, 2 August 2020 02:56 (four years ago) link
Oh your're welcome; yeah, she did a whole album of songs by and associated with Silver, lots of other sets worth checking out too--most recently, I think, a tribute to Nina Simone. Just now turned on the radio and heard most of a Radio Deluxe ep from 15 years ago: Annie Ross just happens to drop in on Jessica Molasky and John Pizzarelli, and hey Dad Bucky P. and a pianist are here too--they talk and listen to a couple of tracks from Annie's latest, I Want To Sing---more talking than singing, but tenacious, savoring the beat---also they listen to Joni Mitchell's version of "Twisted," and she tells how xpost Sing A Song of Basie came about, calling up Miles for him to listen to an early take ect., more stories,---quite a visit.https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioDeluxe/aug-1-annie-ross-recalled/
― dow, Sunday, 2 August 2020 04:09 (four years ago) link
Also, elements of "Song For My Father" appear in/are built on in Steely D.'s "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and Stevie W.'s "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing."
― dow, Wednesday, 5 August 2020 16:59 (four years ago) link
From "Interlude," with lyrics credited here to Sarah Vaughn, later known as "A Night in Tunisia," words by Ella Fitzgerald? But wiki sez Raymond Laveen---anyway https://www.jazziz.com/a-short-history-of-a-night-in-tunisia-dizzy-gillespie-1942/ Striking, militant take from Tunisiatourism.info: https://www.tunisiatourism.info/en/articles/a-night-in-tunisia-histoire-dune-chanson I've long liked Chaka Khan's version, maybe I'll try to post it:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZEMoXjl-Xg
― dow, Thursday, 6 August 2020 18:07 (four years ago) link
From What Cha' Gonna Do for Me(1981), which I may still have somewhere. Liked it pretty well---remember it as blending her trademark sound w elements of jazz in various ways.wiki: reminds me it haswith a guest appearance by Gillespie himself as well as what today would be called a 'sample' of Charlie Parker's legendary four bar alto break from his 1946 recording of the title. Khan's vocal interpretation also features lyrics written by the singer herself.[8]
― dow, Thursday, 6 August 2020 18:14 (four years ago) link
"Boy, you suck. Just my luck. I'd rather get hit by a truck. Lose/My/Number lose. It." sings Allegra Levy on Lose My Number: Allegra Levy Sings John McNeil, where she adds words and sometimes acatting to the trumpeter's tunes. She's usually more subtle than that, I think---she could be a little louder sometimes, she makes me listen more, and never oversings. Got a tight, kinetic piano trio, and McNeil himself shows up sometimes, like on "C.J.," where the scatting first appears, and the bracing "Strictly Ballroom." "Dover Beach" is my fave headphones ballad, with unusually-well mic'd cymbals and drums (bass always sounds great), never obtrusive. Gonna try to link it from YouTube, c'mon ilx,do me right:http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=allegra+levy+%2B+lose+my+number
― dow, Monday, 14 September 2020 02:59 (four years ago) link
Oh well at least Firefox shows the playlist link, if not the link in image.
here's the front cover of CD (out Fri.), w personnel listed:https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61Nnge4usEL._SL1417_.jpg
― dow, Monday, 14 September 2020 03:05 (four years ago) link
listened to the title track, good stuff
― brimstead, Monday, 14 September 2020 03:33 (four years ago) link
Yeah, and forgot to mention that the album sometimes reminds me of Sheila Jordan and Steve Kuhn's albums, also that they and Steve Swallow performed the music he wrote for Robert Creeley's poems, on the album Home. Playground might be a better place to start w Kuhn-Jordan or Jordan-Kuhn projects overall, but think this is the most thread-relevant. (Complete personnel: Steve Swallow - electric bassSheila Jordan - voiceSteve Kuhn - pianoDavid Liebman - saxophonesLyle Mays - synthesizerBob Moses - drums)
― dow, Tuesday, 15 September 2020 00:23 (four years ago) link
And I was wondering about who sings Coltrane, when I saw this, on Rolling Jazz--if my first ever attempt to post a link from one thread to another doesn't work, just search on there (or YouTube) for John Coltrane Giant Steps Carnatic ScattingRolling Jazz Thread 2020
― dow, Tuesday, 15 September 2020 00:47 (four years ago) link
I love Les Double Six's version of Naima. Big influence on Robert Wyatt, I think.
― fetter, Tuesday, 15 September 2020 09:42 (four years ago) link
Will have to check Les Double Six, thanks for reminder.
Last night on John Pizzarelli's and Jessica Molasky's xpost Radio Deluxe, LH&R casually twisted me a new earhole once again, sending me toward rabbithole--now I'm wondering about these 4-albums-on-2-CDs sets, reissued on Avid, also others on Acrobat, Jasmine, Sony Canada, for that matter---do they sound good??https://www.amazon.com/s?k=lambert+hendricks+and+ross&crid=2FOPQHGG1GODK&sprefix=lambert+h%2Caps%2C195&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_9
― dow, Sunday, 27 September 2020 21:08 (three years ago) link
I’ve never listened to that show but it sounds like I finally should. John’s website has them but it seems to be a week behind?
― Erdős-szám 69 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 27 September 2020 21:27 (three years ago) link
Oh but the show has its own site as well.
― Erdős-szám 69 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 27 September 2020 21:36 (three years ago) link
There might be more that they've posted on Soundcloud---see the one I linked upthread. B-but you didn't answer *my* question!
― dow, Monday, 28 September 2020 02:26 (three years ago) link
Mixcloud, that is (the link is right).
― dow, Monday, 28 September 2020 02:28 (three years ago) link
I must say I’ve been enjoying Dee Dee Bridgewater’s Horace Silver album a lot... but I think I love her album of Kurt Weill songs even more. Favorite new-to-me artist of the year!
― brimstead, Monday, 28 September 2020 16:28 (three years ago) link
Great, glad you dig her. I like Ja'l Deux Amours too, from 2007, when she was living in France: Dave Gelly of The Guardian stated, "'J'ai Deux Amours' was the number with which Josephine Baker captivated Paris in the early 1930s, and Dee Dee Bridgewater is her nearest equivalent today, a star both at home in the US and in her adopted country. Her singing is as expressive as ever, but what really caught my attention was the arrangements, a collaborative effort by the singer and her band. Harmonically sophisticated and at times fairly abstract, they quickly banish any idea of sentimental, Gallic wallow."...Jason MacNeil of AllMusic commented, "These Parisian café tunes bring out the best in this stellar jazz singer, particularly on the opening title track. Accompanied by accordion, which introduces the song, Dee Dee Bridgewater takes you from Paris down to the French Riviera with a warm, slightly island sound as she sings en français. And she has no problem creating her soothing jazz pipes regardless of language."...[1] The Buffalo News review stated, "Bridgewater still shows her skill at shaping a phrase, her ability to bring out the depths of every word. She sings in French with obvious relish. But I hope she doesn't forget her fans back home."[3] She hasn't, but also went further South and made Red Earth with Mali musicians.More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%27ai_Deux_Amours
― dow, Monday, 28 September 2020 16:53 (three years ago) link
Sounds rad, will check it out!
― brimstead, Monday, 28 September 2020 16:55 (three years ago) link
― Erdős-szám 69 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 13:24 (three years ago) link
Sing A Song Of Basie is phenomenal!!
― brimstead, Wednesday, 30 September 2020 17:20 (three years ago) link
It’s sand, man!
Yeah, that one is great.
― Erdős-szám 69 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 17:27 (three years ago) link
jaymc would something like amina claudine myers' african blues fit with style you were looking for? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk2fg2cE27I
― H in Addis, Thursday, 1 October 2020 02:08 (three years ago) link
So today on WBGO for Dave Brubeck’s centennial (which is actually today), Michael Bourne played a musical Brubeck wrote with his wife Iola, The Real Ambassadors, starring Louis Armstrong and featuring Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, which I was glad to hear, since I had read about but never listened to it. The musical was recorded in the studio first, but by the time it was performed live at the Monterey Jazz Festival Annie Ross was gone and had been replaced by Yolande Bavan. I went down a tiny rabbit hole and found this [u=https://www.jazzwax.com/2007/11/a-chat-with-yol.html]extremely interesting 3-part interview[/u] with Bavan, and am now listening to the live albums of that trio, including Live at Newport ‘63, featuring another centennial artist of this month, Clark Terry.
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 6 December 2020 21:37 (three years ago) link
Oh yeah, Clark Terry's "Mumbles" routine counts as vocalese or close enough. Had neglected the LH & Bavan era, thanks for tip.
― dow, Sunday, 6 December 2020 21:59 (three years ago) link
Yeah, I enjoyed a few of those Mumbles routines today, "Mumbles" itself and this one called "Never." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7XtciQyhJA
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 6 December 2020 22:10 (three years ago) link
LH & Bavan from the 1962 (not 1963) Newport Jazz Festival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgxfCsGTVhY
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 6 December 2020 22:13 (three years ago) link
Thanks! Don't think I've ever heard that line-up before---what a position to be in, having to follow the tenure of starpowered Annie Ross. So I think I read that Dave Lambert stopped to help a stranded, maybe injured motorist and got struck himself, fatally. Hendricks, with his offspring or whomever, used to irritate me on radio shows in the 80s: his voice had gotten too dry and stiff for all that spotlight, and maybe it always was, other than brief solo breaks in the trio format. But good to hear more prime-of-life trio, thanks again.
― dow, Monday, 7 December 2020 01:43 (three years ago) link
Yes, that’s what happened to Dave Lambert, unfortunately. Bavan tells a somewhat detailed version of the story in that interview I linked.
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 7 December 2020 02:11 (three years ago) link
Yeah, didn't want details; I know and know of several people that's happened to, resulting in major injury at least (Andre Dubus got all tore up, lastingly). Reminds me also of a transcribed conversation between Jon Savage and JG Ballard: Savage mentions how motorway design and construction lead to psychopathic behavior, making it so easy to hit and be hit, thus hard not to run.
― dow, Monday, 7 December 2020 02:32 (three years ago) link
In some areas, anyway.
― dow, Monday, 7 December 2020 02:34 (three years ago) link
Hey, check it out. https://jazztimes.com/reviews/books/peter-jones-this-is-bop-jon-hendricks-and-the-art-of-vocal-jazz-equinox/
― Dog Heavy Manners (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 1 January 2021 03:13 (three years ago) link
Reviewer A.D. Amorosi in the spirit: "Having a fellow jazz singer and the author of the award-winning This Is Hip: The Life of Mark Murphy tackle the roots of bop vocalese and its firestarter...is sort of like asking one of the Apostles to take on the entire Bible...requires nothing less than a surgeon’s skills and a comedian’s ability to pace oneself to the punchline." Author Peter Jones is a jazz singer too? Is he good?
― dow, Friday, 1 January 2021 19:27 (three years ago) link
No idea. Good question.
― Dog Heavy Manners (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 1 January 2021 19:45 (three years ago) link
Michelle Hendricks, daughter of Jon, brings words, voice, and something of a new spark to an old fave, "Song from The Old Country," by and with the now late great, always jumpin' Adams-Pullen Quartet:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpZW5ulfWYM
― dow, Thursday, 17 June 2021 22:11 (three years ago) link
(Lewis Nash in there, doing just fine in the wake of Dannie Richmond RIP)
― dow, Thursday, 17 June 2021 22:15 (three years ago) link
Should have said "Michele," sorry.
― dow, Thursday, 17 June 2021 22:17 (three years ago) link
Speaking again of xpost "Song For My Father"---this was posted just now on So, does anyone know what "Rikki, Don't Lose That Number" is about?
I did find this:
In his 2006 autobiography, Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty, Silver recalled events leading up to the iconic 1964 recording following a visit to Brazil as a guest of pianist Sergio Mendes during the week-long Carnival festivities.
"Believe me, Carnival provided much excitement," he wrote. "After returning home to New York from my visit with Sergio and (drummer) Dom Um, I was haunted by the bossa nova rhythm I had heard in Brazil. So I said to myself, 'I'm going to try to write a song using that rhythmic concept.' I sat down at the piano for a few hours and came up with a new song using the bossa nova rhythm. However, the melody didn't sound Brazilian to me; it sounded more like some of the old Cape Verdean melodies my dad had played. Dad had always wanted me to take some of the old Cape Verdean songs and do jazz interpretations of them. This didn't appeal to me, but when I realized I had written a new song with a Brazilian rhythmic concept and a Cape Verdean melodic concept, I immediately thought about dedicating the song to Dad. So I titled it 'Song for My Father'."
https://www.wrti.org/arts-desk/2021-06-18/the-story-behind-horace-silvers-song-for-my-father
― birdistheword, Monday, October 4, 2021
― dow, Monday, 4 October 2021 16:27 (two years ago) link
(Because of the "SFMF" lift on "Rikki")
― dow, Monday, 4 October 2021 16:28 (two years ago) link
To be fair:Fagen told All About Jazz in 2011: “There was never a conscious thought about picking up Horace Silver’s intro… as for the piano line, I think I had heard it on an old Sergio Mendes album. Maybe that where Horace heard it, too (laughs).”
― dow, Monday, 4 October 2021 16:30 (two years ago) link
xxxpost Speaking of Dee Dee B. and words added to instrumentals: dunno when Horace Sliver wrote lyrics of "Song For My Father"---maybe when he wrote the melody, but I didn't hear it sung 'til Andy Bey; my fave version is Bridgewater's, but worth hearing by whomever:
― dow, Tuesday, July 28, 2020
(Also performances etc. posted upthread)
― dow, Monday, 4 October 2021 16:39 (two years ago) link
Andy Bey just turned 82. Not sure if he is performing anymore these days, but still a lot of recordings to listen to.
― Fine, Fine, Superfine Career Opportunities (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 30 October 2021 05:15 (two years ago) link
Sheila Jordan, "Bird's Song" (based on "Relaxin' at Camarillo"):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1JuKM8lOj4
― dow, Sunday, 2 January 2022 22:02 (two years ago) link
Oh, man, my heart skipped a beat when Shelia's name just showed there. I went to see her recently and talked to her a a brief moment but of course kept my mask on and was afraid to breathe on her.
― (I'm Not Your) Steppin' Razor (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 2 January 2022 22:08 (two years ago) link
She did that “Bird’s Song” recording at the age of 89. She’s 93 now.
― Josefa, Sunday, 2 January 2022 22:13 (two years ago) link
Wow, I thought the age was finally beginning to show in her voice, but I still like it.Xpost Sorry,James! Yeah, that's gonna happen w the actuarial tables kicking in all over the place these days.
Not vocalese, but Susannah McCorkle was one of the most word-wise of jazz singers---also a prize-winning short story writer, but wouldn't do original lyrics, said she didn't have it---did do wonderful English lyrics for Brazilian ballads---no idea how accurate as translations, but they sound great---here's a 17 -minute excerpt of a vintage comma wine-fine Xmas set---singing and comments on some songs---rerun Dec. 24, 2021 (following John Waters on his favorite Christmas songs, so look for that segment too:
TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. We're celebrating Christmas Eve with excerpts of shows from our archive. Next, we go all the way back to 1988 for a great concert of Christmas songs performed by the late Susannah McCorkle. 1988 was also the year she was described as the outstanding female jazz singer of her generation by jazz critic Francis Davis. Full disclosure - he's my husband. Susannah was also a writer and translator, and her love of language was apparent in her interpretation of lyrics. Joining Susannah for this concert in our studio was pianist Lee Musiker and bass player Dean Johnson.https://www.npr.org/2021/12/24/1066327058/jazz-singer-susannah-mccorkle-performs-a-holiday-concert-for-fresh-air
― dow, Sunday, 2 January 2022 22:15 (two years ago) link