RIP Frank D'Rone

[sgcim]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-ent-1004-frank-drone-obit-20131003,0,4228665.column

[king ubu]

never came around checking him out so far ... but I recently stumbled over this:

[Larry Kart]

Wonderful singer and a great guy. Fine guitarist, too -- never heard anyone who could scat sing in unison (and in harmony, too, when he felt like it) with his own interesting solo guitar lines the way Frank could. Not sure there's anything on record that captures how electrifying he could be in a club. In some ways (but only in musical terms, thanks be) he reminded me of another Frank -- Rosolino. The inventiveness just seemed to bubble up.

Another fine Chicago singer-guitarist who came up in the '50s was Johnny Janis, who made a killer album, unreleased at the time (c. 1962), with Dodo Marmarosa, Ira Sullivan, bassist Jerry Friedman, and drummer Guy Viveros. Dodo's comping is superb. Janis eventually put out the album himself under the title "Jazz Up Your Life" (Starwell). Don't know if it's still available.

[Larry Kart]

Two tastes of Johnny Janis, in reverse chronological order. The pianist on the first track is Billy Wallace, who took Richie Powell's place with Max Roach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNxXfa3ko7s

If you ever run across his album "Once in a Blue Moon," don't hesitate. He's in the same class as David Allyn.

[Mark Stryker]

Larry -- I think I remember a profile you wrote of D'Rone in the '80s. The only thing I can kind of recall was an opening scene (I think) of Frank singing and doing something hip with his phrasing that made pianist John Campbell shake his head in admiration or something like that. I can't find the piece online or data bases, though they might not go back far enough. Am I imagining this or does such a story exist?

[Larry Kart]

Mark -- I'm sure it exists (I wrote about Frank a good deal), but if it's before 1985, that part of the Chicago Tribune archive is behind a pay wall. Otherwise:

A review I wrote of Frank in 1987:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-12-10/news/8704010919_1_final-note-jazz-singing

First of a three-part Marc Meyers interview with Frank (from it you can get to the other parts):

http://www.jazzwax.com/2010/03/interview-frank-drone-part-1.html

Frank scatting to/with his guitar on "Four":

"Body and Soul":

[CJ Shearn]

What a great bit of guitar in that video, some real interesting lines!

[JSngry]

It's like he's Jackie AND Roy!

[robertoart]

Sounds very 'vanilla' to me.

Maybe you had to be there.

[Larry Kart]

Sounds very 'vanilla' to me.

Maybe you had to be there.

Just curious -- what by you would not be "vanilla"? IMO, Frank is a lot less "vanilla" than, say, Mel Torme FWTW. But if the standard of non-vanilla-ness is, say, Bobby Blue Bland that would mean or be one thing, and if it's, say, Billy Eckstine that would mean or be another. And if it's, say, Mark Murphy, I'm looking for the exit.

[robertoart]

I don't know what the other end of the spectrum would be. But this all just sounds flattened out and weird to me, just kind of matter of fact performing like Blossom Dearie meets Tony Bennett with a guitar.

That kind of vanilla.

[Larry Kart]

I don't know what the other end of the spectrum would be. But this all just sounds flattened out and weird to me, just kind of matter of fact performing like Blossom Dearie meets Tony Bennett with a guitar.

That kind of vanilla.

OK. I like both Dearie (much of the time) and Bennett (almost always) and don't think of either of them as vanilla.

[robertoart]

I don't know what the other end of the spectrum would be. But this all just sounds flattened out and weird to me, just kind of matter of fact performing like Blossom Dearie meets Tony Bennett with a guitar.

That kind of vanilla.

OK. I like both Dearie (much of the time) and Bennett (almost always) and don't think of either of them as vanilla.

I like Dearie sometimes, Bennett not so much. But possibly like many, I'm not keen on the Ratpack side of things, even when it falls towards Jazz chops (except for Sinatra - may the baby Jesus piss on his evil Mafioso soul), and more to the point, I'm not so knocked out by what I hear.

The album jazzwax talks about Brand New Morning on Cadet, from the late Sixties, does sound like it would be quite wonderful though.

Anyone else heard it?

Edited October 7, 2013 by freelancer

[JSngry]

[Larry Kart]

Bennett is on "the Ratpack side of things"? I've never heard the least bit of ring-a-ding-ding from him. The Bennett album for skeptics to hear IMO is this one, with Ruby Braff and George Barnes:

http://www.amazon.com/Tony-Bennett-Sings-Rodgers-Songbook/dp/B0009IW8XU/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1381155106&sr=1-1&keywords=bennett+rodgers

This performance in particular:

[sgcim]

Great stuff. It's too bad the rock and/or roll had to push guys like Frank and Johnny Janis into Palookaville, but the Market must be satisfied!

[JSngry]

...hmmm...I find it unfortunate...and not because of anything except the participants' results. Perhaps Charles Stepney instead of Richard Evans would have made it less so. But that first cut sounds like a left-over from one of Evans' Woody Herman dates (and the vocal and the guitar sound overdubbed, and not integrated particularly well into the final mix. And that splice at he end of the guitar solo...wonder if the album had that...). But nothing says "contrived & half-ass" like half-assed contrivance itself.

As for "Make Me Rainbows"...Stepney could have made that one work. This does not work, this is silly, like...take a sad song and leave it to itself to stay sad.

Maybe they should have covered Donny Hathaway instead of The Bergmans. Evans could do that.

That's pretty silly too, but it stays within itself, and there were words.

[sgcim]

I could agree with you on the first one, but "MMR"?

Sure, it would've sounded better if it swung, but Ella already did that.

[JSngry]

Sorry. Maybe without the words. Maybe.

Make me rainbows? Screw that. Make me dinner. Make me rich. Make me shut up and get back to work. Just don't make me no freakin' RAINBOWS, ok?

[sgcim]

It was written for the movie "Fitzwilly" by John "Star Wars" Williams, that starred Dick Van Dyke and (I think) Julie Andrews.

What do you expect those two white people to sing, "Make Me hominy grits"?

Musically, it's pretty unusual- it starts on the iii minor chord with an 11th in the melody. Then it goes into the bV key which then go into a bunch of min7 chords completely out of the key. Evans even does a very hip 7#9 substitution towards the end.

Bringing DH into it reminds me of the time I was playing an Italian wedding, and the sax player starts playing "Femina" like King Curtis.

The drummer yells at him, "Where the fuck do you think we are- on "Soul Train"?

[Becquer]

In that Chicago Trib article, mention is made that Frank (so-to-speak) was never associated with a signature tune.

He owned Matt Dennis' Everything Happens To Me.

Absolutely.

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmlO0b8uXxA

Edited October 8, 2013 by Becquer

[Larry Kart]

In that Chicago Trib article, mention is made that Frank (so-to-speak) was never associated with a signature tune.

He owned Matt Dennis' Everything Happens To Me.

Absolutely.

A hint of this is on #7:

http://www.allmusic.com/album/when-love-goes-wrong-songs-for-the-broken-hearted-mw0000663806

I always thought of "Joey, Joey" as his signature tune. If the whole world didn't know that in the way the whole world associated Tony Bennett and "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," why would it have? It's like Reich is saying that Frank wasn't as popular as he would have been if he had been more popular.

[Becquer]

I met Frank back in Chicago...very open and welcoming in that (fellow) Italian way of his.

Re: Everything Happens To Me.

Entire tune is on Spotify.

[Chuck Nessa]

For me, Bill Henderson owned "Joey, Joey".

[JSngry]

It was written for the movie "Fitzwilly" by John "Star Wars" Williams, that starred Dick Van Dyke and (I think) Julie Andrews.

What do you expect those two white people to sing, "Make Me hominy grits"?

Musically, it's pretty unusual- it starts on the iii minor chord with an 11th in the melody. Then it goes into the bV key which then go into a bunch of min7 chords completely out of the key. Evans even does a very hip 7#9 substitution towards the end.

Bringing DH into it reminds me of the time I was playing an Italian wedding, and the sax player starts playing "Femina" like King Curtis.

The drummer yells at him, "Where the fuck do you think we are- on "Soul Train"?

wow