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garthsj
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Posts posted by garthsj
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Joe Mooney was excellent. And he made a few recordings I believe with the Sauter Finnegan Orchestra.
But I can't understand the omission of the Art Van Damm Quartet from this discussion. I believe he was the only TRUE jazz accordianist. He really cooked. He recorded for Columbia records and later one of the German Jazz labels, (MPS?).
Van Damm was no doubt head and shoulders above the other accordian squeezers
Give him a listen
I just LOVE declaratory statements like this .. I have to wonder how many jazz acordionists you have listened to? .... Pete Jolly played a very fine jazz accordion, and we should not forget the great Tommy Gumina.. His work with Buddy DeFranco on a series of albums in the sixties and seventies, that deserve to be reissued on CD, shows what can be achieved ...
By the way.. the word is spelled accordiOn, not accordiAn ...
Oh my - such intensity of feeling !
Gee! And I thought that I was being rather subdued ... for me!
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For what is was worth .. large quantities of Concord albums turned up at Barnes & Noble stores in the last two years .. selling at $4.98 ... The selection was usually spread over several stores, so that in my case I had to travel all over Houston (the largest geographical city in the country) to see which store had which albums. I did over 120 miles of travel in one day, and I acquired about 45 separate albums. At this price I could sample several artists whose work was not well known to me, and I did find several gems that way ... But I also notice that about half of these albums are now in my discard list ... not keepers. Anybody want some Randy Sanke or Jeff Linsky albums?
Garth.
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Joe Mooney was excellent. And he made a few recordings I believe with the Sauter Finnegan Orchestra.
But I can't understand the omission of the Art Van Damm Quartet from this discussion. I believe he was the only TRUE jazz accordianist. He really cooked. He recorded for Columbia records and later one of the German Jazz labels, (MPS?).
Van Damm was no doubt head and shoulders above the other accordian squeezers
Give him a listen
I just LOVE declaratory statements like this .. I have to wonder how many jazz accordionists you have listened to? .... Pete Jolly played a very fine jazz accordion, and we should not forget the great Tommy Gumina.. His work with Buddy DeFranco on a series of albums in the sixties and seventies, that deserve to be reissued on CD, shows what can be achieved ...
By the way.. the word is spelled accordiOn, not accordiAn ...
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This letter was posted on the Jazz West Coast list today. I thought that many of you would be interested:
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 14:52:58 -0500
From: "Wayne L. Wright"
Subject: Fwd: Artie Shaw Funeral
Just got back from Artie Shaw's funeral, which was held indoors in
the chapel of the Pierce Brothers Mortuary in Westlake Village because of
the pouring rain outside. Services were supposed to be public and held at
graveside, but because of the weather, guests were limited to family,
friends, press, and a few acquaintances (that's where I came in). It was a
nice service, filled with funny stories, "Artie-isms," and of course, music.
The coffin was flanked by an early photo of Artie at the beginning of
his career and a more recent picture of Artie in his library, looking
either pensive or annoyed. Both of these pictures were included in the
program. If anyone is interested in scans of these, I'll be glad to send
them as an attachment to whoever wants one.
There was also the award presented by the NEA to Artie on Friday and
a framed letter of congratulations from President Bush, dated November 30,
2004. There was a succession of speakers at the service, which was led by
Larry Rosen, Artie's longtime secretary. As he introduced each speaker, we
got an impression of a man who was not a curmudgeon, but someone who was a
Renaissance Man, a true genius, and a perfectionist, expecting no more than
the same from people he knew. His motto: "Good enough is not good enough"
sums up his sometimes abrasive personality and mindset. Although there were
many funny stories told, I couldn't commit all of them to memory, but here
are a few highlights:
The man whose job it was to catalog Artie's massive collection of over
10,000 books reported inscriptions in the front of three books in the
library. One was by Albert Einstein, one by Sigmund Freud, and one by
another famous author, whose name escapes me now. The handwritten
inscription in the front of the Einstein book read: "To Artie Shaw, with
profound admiration and respect." In the Freud book, the inscription read,
"To Artie Shaw, with profound admiration and respect." Not only did the
third book have the exact same words, but the cataloguer noticed that the
handwriting was the same on all three. He asked Artie about it and Artie
replied that he had written them himself, to identify the books in case
they were ever stolen. As we speak, Artie's book collection is still at his
house. The shelves are reportedly completely full and stacks of books are
on the floor and even piled on the stairs of his staircase.
Musician Tom Rainier chose to play two musical selections, which were
played on Artie's own boom box that was brought to the chapel. One was a
1938 radio broadcast of Artie's hot big band playing a song that I believe
was called "Everybody's Jumpin'." Artie wanted that played because it was
five minutes long and gave the soloists a chance to spread out (Artie hated
most of his studio sessions because of the restrictions in time). Artie
took two choruses, another was by Georgie Auld, one by Tony Pastor and I
couldn't identify the others. The other song was the result of an
interesting experiment in which Rainier took selected snippets of Artie's
playing, reassembled them and inserted them into a new recording of Johnny
Mandel's "The Shadow of Your Smile."
The intent was to predict what Artie would sound like if he had
continued to play after 1954. The result was actually pretty amazing. Buddy
DeFranco finished off the piece with an Artie-esque 8-bar cadenza that
brought tumultuous applause throughout the chapel. Artie himself had
admired the work and approved of it. Then Dick Johnson, leader of the Artie
Shaw Orchestra for the past 20 years, played a poignant a cappella
performance of "I'll Be Seeing You."
Eighty-five-year-old comedian Red Buttons talked about meeting Artie for
the first time. "It was during the War," he remembered, "and we were both
in uniform. Artie was in his Navy uniform and I was the bellhop at the
Astor hotel." Buttons recalled that Shaw's first words upon meeting him
were, "What kind of a name is 'Red Buttons'? Who in their right mind would
give anyone that name?" To which Buttons reported that his real name was
Aaron Schwat, to which Shaw immediately responded by calling Buttons "The
Sultan of Schwat."
Sid Caesar was scheduled to be there and speak but he couldn't make it
because of the rain. At that point, Larry asked if anyone else had anything
to say about their relationship with Artie and there were a succession of
very funny stories. I told of my nerve-wracking first broadcast with him in
2000 and then my final meeting with him in 2003 to discuss Bix
Beiderbecke's 100th birthday. Artie's admiration of Bix was not because of
the notes Bix played or his technique, it was the sound he produced on his
cornet. Artie rhapsodized about this sound and the fact that it could only
have come from Bix.
Above all, Artie admired the individual and hated when people said they
tried to play like Artie did. "Play like yourself," he'd say. When I asked
him to comment on Eddie Condon's oft-heard description of Bix's sound,
which was likening it to "a girl saying yes," Artie paused, shook his head
and said, "Poor Eddie...He must have been pretty hard up." The end of the
service came after the playing of Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me" as
sung by Lee Wiley, Shaw's favorite singer. It was an unusual recording,
recorded in 1939, in which Wiley was accompanied by Fats Waller on pipe
organ (Liberty Music Shop L-282).
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The much awaited biography of PAUL DESMOND by Doug Ramsey is now up for ordering. Doug is a fine writer, and he has spent a long time researching this book, so it is high on my acquisitions list.
Here is the basic information:
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This is the top end storage on the market .... expensive, but reasonably attractive.
I would love to change to sleeves .. but like Chuck, I am concerned what those finding my body would do with 4,000 CDs in sleeves ... what is the point of taking the CDs out of their jewelboxes and then keeping them??
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So, you die in a car crash, from cancer, whatever......... Your heirs will be cursing your corpse for the trouble the have disposing of your collection.
Hell, my wife curses my collection while I'm alive. (At least she doesn't curse me.)
Every so often, she threatens to get together with my best friend's wife and sell both of our record/cd collections at a yard sale for 10 cents a piece. I just hope that she waits til I'm gone.
Worse yet, she could get together with her girlfriends when you have taken your mistress (or whatever) out of town, and switch all the CDs around into different jewelboxes !! "Hell hath no fury ...."
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Hey guys, I can't find a photo of Stephen Stimpell.
But seriously, I wonder what ever happened to this guy...
A Google search indicates that he is now largely a drama teacher ... It appears that he did a few small parts in movies until the late 80s, and more recently he is listed as a drama teacher/scene coach in quite a large number of online actor's resumés ... "those that can't .... "
I also could not find a picture, other than that scene that you found ... but it appears as if Wally Cox, William Daniels and Stephen Strimpell all look very much alike .... or they did when they were young!
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Geez Jim, You really know how to hurt a guy! There is such a thing as breach of promise, you know?
But, I am glad to be of help .. now play something for me .... what is the "Stairway to Heaven" for jazz guitarists?
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Thanks for the marriage proposal Jim .. I am single, quite presentable, and financially secure .... what do YOU bring to the table??
Hmmmmmm .. well you might be a professional guitarist, but I am a professional communications historian ... seriously, I teach communications at the University of Houston, and my specialty is media history ... BUT, I will not lie.. I actually remembered the William Daniels series, and looked up the dates in "Les Brown's Encyclopedia of Television" ... I had forgoten about "Mr. Terrific" ... and VCRs were not readily available in those days to allow for recording of similtaneous shows .... so I did not see much of it.
BTW, the Brown Encyclopedia can usually be found used for a good price ...
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Guys, I know about Underdog. I'm talking about a show (not a cartoon) that was unsuccessful- I don't know if it even ran for a complete season. Cox starred as some kind of nerdy (of course) superhero. I can't remember any other details. I thought it might have been called "Captain Fantastic". As I recall, there was a show on another network with a similar theme, with a title along the lines of "Mr. Wonderful". I can picture the star's face, but can't remember his name. I'm thinking these were on in '68, because a Google search revealed that Cox was in some Sport Cola ads in '68, and I associate the experience of seeing the show in conjunction with those ads. I suppose it could have been slightly earlier... possibly '66 or '67.
The trouble with the Google searches I've tried is that I keep getting too many hits related to "Mr. Peepers", "Hiram Holiday", "Underdog", and "The Hollywood Squares". Does anybody know of a good source of info for TV shows that flopped? I could swear I had seen a reference to this show online a few years ago...
William Daniels, who looked a lot like Wally Cox, starred as "Captain Nice." This series and a remarkably similar one on CBS called "Mr. Terrific" (1967) which starred Stephen Strimpel, both debuted the same evening, 9 January 1967. Both aired their last episode on 28 August 28 1968. Neither was a big enough hit to justify being renewed for a second season.
I actually enjoyed "Captain Nice," and William Daniels is a very fine actor ...
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In the mid-fifties, when I was just beginning to discover girls, we in far-off Cape Town used the term "bopping" to describe what had previously been known as "jiving." Dancing was done to a mixture of things ranging from Benny Goodman's "Lullaby of the Leaves" (his flirtation with be-bop) to Presley's "Hound Dog" ... so it was a transition period.
The fifties are a rich period for the study of cultural transition, especially because it was fueled by the political tensions of the Cold War. I have spent a lot of time researching this issue of "social control" of media for various books and government reports I have written. I can recommend one good overview of the subject ... James Gilbert, "A Cycle of Outrage: America's Reaction To The Juvenile Delinquent In The 1950s" (N.Y.: Oxford U.P., 1986).
I once gave a special lecture here at the Museum of Contemporary Art on the subject of "Cultural Choices in 1950s: To Be 'Cool' or 'Hot'?" My premise, illustrated with lots of personal photographs of my teenage years, was that some of us were faced with sticking with Gerry Mulligan ('cool'), or going with the Presley tidal wave ('hot'). The iconography and styles of these two "schools" were quite different ... of course, in Britain it later manifested itself as the battle between "mods" and "rockers". Interestingly, there really was no similar division among American teenagers. Rock just became so dominant, and teenage jazz fans were too few to constitute a serious movement, or to even be noticed!
Garth.
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On the Byrd set, he probably made a mistake because Mosaic made a mistake with the tray and so you have what looks like 2 cds although they're double cd cases. But as Reinier say, for a buck, how can you go wrong.
He has now responded to a query, and yes, it is the complete 4-CD set ... This seller is obviously not too familiar with Mosaic ... I wonder how he acquired the set ...
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Now can somebody help me figure out what TV show Wally Cox did in 1968 (I think)? Not a successful show... I think it was on NBC.
Wally Cox was the voice of "Underdog" ... 1968-70 seasons ... "There's no need to fear -- Underdog is here!"
He starred in two earlier shows .... "Mr Peepers," 1952-55; and "The Adventures of Hiram Holliday," 1956-57
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My GOD - and you'd rather have the Pablo ORIGINALS!!!????
Pablo - the label that would issue things with some large-sized text as the cover? I think they saved money by not using a photographer, nor even an art director!
Mike
Maybe they were appealing to the over-40 crowd & didn't one them to have to put on their reading glassing to browse their releases!
DAMNED RIGHT!!!
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I am surprised that no one has mentioned the recently deceased Hank Garland as a great jazz guitar player when he chose to be. His albums on Columbia are classic straight ahead excursions, and have recently been reissued. This is well worth listening to ....
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=music
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If you want to know more about jazz guitar players .. just click here ....
http://www.classicjazzguitar.com/artists/a...e.jsp?artist=28
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Hello everybody! I am really feeling this jazz guitarrist, Norman Brown. I know some of you may not be smooth jazz fans but this guy is awesome. I heard this song entitled "Up and at 'em," and I fell in love with it right away. Does anybody know the latest on him?
Actually very few of us are "smooth jazz" fans .... you have the wrong list of people .. frankly you could not pay me enough to push smooth jazz ... especially on this list ...
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Is French guitarist Christian Escoude still active?? His album with John Lewis, "Mirjana" is a memorable one ...
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Thanks "7" ... That is a really interesting and informative site .. and what a real labor of love...
Garth.
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O.K.! O.K! Now I know that I am going to get flamed here, but I would like to confess that I never really "understood" GG's great popularity. I have most of his BN albums, because I am a Blue Note completist of sorts up to the late 60s, but these are not my favorite guitar albums. I guess I grew up with Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Kenny Burrell, Howard Roberts (very underrated), Tal Farlow, Jimmy Raney, Billy Bauer, Johnny Smith, and Jim Hall as my list of favorites in the late 50s and 60s. GG seemed rather tame to me, and not being a devotee of funk or soul, his music, while pleasant rhythmically, was not the kind of thing I would put on the turntable to actually "listen" to for improvisational inspiration. Now he has become a jazz icon ... and I am still forced to wonder why?
Right you are, Jim!!!
Not totally unrelated is my guilty pleasure in watching all the dedicated BN fans on this board who are "suddenly" discovering the equal, if not superior, joys to be discovered on the "weaker" labels, such as Riverside and Prestige represented by the OJC umbrella .... And for someone who went through the hell of fighting the "east coast vs. west coast" battles in the fifties and sixties, it is a major thrill to see people on this board talk so glowingly about albums on Pacific Jazz, Contemporary, and Fantasy .... WOW! I never thought that I would ever live to see the day when a die-hard BN fan, could also find something memorable in Lennie Niehaus, Curtis Counce, or Shelley Manne! No doubt that jazz fans today have much "bigger ears."
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Anybody mention Bob Mover? One of the greatest, in my opinion -
and how about Jaki Byard? He played very nice alto -
and Boots Musulli -
and let's not forget THE DEMON -
I like Bob Mover and I love Boots Musulli, what little I have heard of them both. (Musulli's two great albums, the Charlie Ventura "Bop For The People" Concert, and the "Kenton Present's ..." are still favorites of mine).
One name that seems to have been overlook so far is George Robert ... and considering that he is Swiss, I wonder why Ubu has not championed him?
What Bob Mover albums can you recommend Allen?
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Oh yeah, what to avoid....
1) Buy the Charlie Christian Box (The Genius of the Electric Guitar).
2) Insert CDs in plain vanilla jewel cases thereby avoiding any consternation brought on by the absolutely horrible original packaging.
3) Throw away the original packaging. No really!
4) Do not feel guilty!
5) Play the heck out of this music!!
Great, essential music .... very nerve-wracking packaging .... open at your peril!
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O.K.! O.K! Now I know that I am going to get flamed here, but I would like to confess that I never really "understood" GG's great popularity. I have most of his BN albums, because I am a Blue Note completist of sorts up to the late 60s, but these are not my favorite guitar albums. I guess I grew up with Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Kenny Burrell, Howard Roberts (very underrated), Tal Farlow, Jimmy Raney, Billy Bauer, Johnny Smith, and Jim Hall as my list of favorites in the late 50s and 60s. GG seemed rather tame to me, and not being a devotee of funk or soul, his music, while pleasant rhythmically, was not the kind of thing I would put on the turntable to actually "listen" to for improvisational inspiration. Now he has become a jazz icon ... and I am still forced to wonder why?
.... and if you think that this makes me a Philistine, don't ask me to reveal what I really feel about Wayne Shorter ....
Garth.
P.S. BTW, does anyone enjoy the Charlie Christian Columbia box as much as I do? Now there is music to snap you out of a sour mood!
Overlooked pianists
in Artists
Posted · Edited by garthsj
There are some fine names that have been thrown out so far, but coming to this thread late in the day, I was surprised that no one had mentioned Claude Williamson. He is certainly one of the best following in the Powell tradition, but with his own technical brilliance thrown in. From the west coast group we also have the brillliance of Russ Freeman, and Pete Jolly,
One pianist who is widely recognized for his seminal contribution to jazz, and yet never really gets the attention he deserves as a pianist is John Lewis! Whenever I am feeling the need to lose myself into jazz improvisation, I listen to John Lewis.