Tom Waits Corner

[(BB)]

Thanks for the link.

[Larry Kart]

Frank Vicari, an excellent player, died a week ago last Friday. I'd say he was out of Trane primarily but in a very personal, oblique manner, circa '57 Trane perhaps.

[Larry Kart]

More on Vicari:

From allaboutjazz.com: (Slightly edited by yours truly, for grammar/spelling

).

Tenor Saxophonist Frank Vicari Dies

Frank Vicari died in NYC, on Friday October 20 at 3:47 eastern time.

Although only known through specialized circles of jazz aficionados, saxophone

legend Frank Vicari has truly earned the title of master. He started on clarinet

and was encouraged by his father to practice hard every day. When he was fourteen

Frank added tenor sax to his repertoire and started hanging out in the Newark

Jazz clubs with cats three times his age who gladly accepted the talented

teenager into their group and showed him the ropes.

By the time Frank was 15 he joined the local union in order to be able to do

gigs but when he was eighteen drafted into the Air Force where he played in

various service bands from 1951-55. After serving in the Air Force Frank played

around New York City where he rapidly became known as a respected musician and

played in various ghost bands until 1960 when he was recruited by Maynard

Ferguson for the lead tenor chair and where he remained until 1965. This band is

said to be the pinnacle of Maynard's big band career.

After the Ferguson band was dismantled. Frank joined Buddy Rich but soon was

convinced by Woody Herman to join him and his Thundering Herd in 1965. He

remained as lead tenor player and eventual became the leader until 1970 when he

moved to St. Thomas so he could play in small jazz ensembles seven nights a week

and just blow and escape the hectic New York music business.

Upon his return from St. Thomas, Frank toured and recorded with Dave Matthews,

White Elephant, J. Giles, George Benson, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Billy

Eckstine, Tom Waits, John Lennon, and on the Saturday Night Live Band. Frank was

also nominated for his solo on “Mary Ann” while with Maynard Ferguson.

He was a featured member of the Howard Williams big band, which appears at The

Garage in Greenwich Village, New York, every Monday evening.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

'Orphans' out today and an interview on NPR.

[ghost of miles]

A new biography of Waits out, though it seems to have gotten mixed notices so far.

[mjzee]

I saw Waits open for Zappa. IIRC, it was at Avery Fisher Hall (or was it still Philharmonic Hall then?). The week before (or after), I saw Zappa at Brooklyn College, with Kathy Dalton opening. Same logic for both: Dalton was on DiscReet, and Waits was managed by Herbie Cohen. Waits appeared solo, and didn't make much of an impression on the audience, who were pretty hardcore Zappa fans. But Waits was still in his Sinatra phase; if he did more of his Beefheart thing, he might have garnered more attention.

I was never a fan of later Waits; he lost me after Nighthawks At The Diner. By far, my favorite album of his was The Heart of Saturday Night; I could listen to that all day.

I still say there's a great untold story of the relationship between Cohen and Zappa. What congruence was there between the Greenwich Village folkie scene and L.A. dada? It probably would have been better if the folkies were never on Straight or DiscReet, as their releases went nowhere.

[Chuck Nessa]

I always smelled urine in Tom Waits' corner.

I think he'd like it that way.

[mjzee]

In a Mojo interview April of 1999 he says:

"I was always rather intimidated by Frank, 'cos he was like some type of a baron. There was so much mythology around him, and he had such confidence. Tremendous leadership and vision. When I toured with him, it was not well thought out. It was like your dad saying, "Why don't you go to the shooting range with your brother Earl?" And I was like, I don't really want to, I might get hurt. And I did get hurt. I went out and subjected myself to all this intimidating criticism from an audience that was not my own. Frank was funny. He'd just say: "How were they out there?" He was using me to take the temperature, sticking me up the butt of the cow and pulling me out. Kind of funny in retrospect. I fit in, in the sense that I was eccentric, Went out every night, got my 40 minutes. I still have nightmares about it. Frank shows up in my dreams, asking me how the crowd was. I have dreams where the piano is catching fire and the legs are falling off and the audience is coming at me with torches and dragging me away and beating me with sticks...so I think it was a good experience. "

This reminds me of a routine Albert Brooks told on his album Comedy Minus One. He talks about having to open for Richie Havens at some college. As Brooks waits to go on, he hears the crowd chanting "Richie! Richie! Richie!"

A guard at the stage door looks at him and asks "Your name Richie?"

"Nope."

"They're gonna kill you."

[JohnJ]

I saw Waits open for Zappa. IIRC, it was at Avery Fisher Hall (or was it still Philharmonic Hall then?). The week before (or after), I saw Zappa at Brooklyn College, with Kathy Dalton opening. Same logic for both: Dalton was on DiscReet, and Waits was managed by Herbie Cohen. Waits appeared solo, and didn't make much of an impression on the audience, who were pretty hardcore Zappa fans. But Waits was still in his Sinatra phase; if he did more of his Beefheart thing, he might have garnered more attention.

I was never a fan of later Waits; he lost me after Nighthawks At The Diner. By far, my favorite album of his was The Heart of Saturday Night; I could listen to that all day.

I still say there's a great untold story of the relationship between Cohen and Zappa. What congruence was there between the Greenwich Village folkie scene and L.A. dada? It probably would have been better if the folkies were never on Straight or DiscReet, as their releases went nowhere.

I also much prefer early Waits. It is not often mentioned but I love the soundtrack to 'One From the Heart' by Waits and Crystal Gayle. It has a great late night vibe and features Teddy Edwards, Jack Sheldon and Shelly Manne among others.

[Bright Moments]

what a nice surprise - i was listening to tin hat trio's "helium" and tom waits sings a song (helium) on it!