Lucy Reed Fantasy LP with Bill Evans

[mikeweil]

Finally got me a copy of the OJC limited edition CD reissue (OJCCD-1777-2) of Lucy Reed's first Fantasy LP, The Singing Reed (Fantasy LP 3-212). Apart from confirming that this is an excellent album from a great, individual singer, listening raised some discographical questions. Let me start with the track list:

1	Inchworm
2	My Love Is A Wanderer
3	Because We're Kids
4	It's All Right With Me
5	There's A Bot Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York
6	It's A Lazy Afternoon
7	Flying Down To Rio
8	Little Girl Blue
9	Fools Fall In Love
10	Out Of This World
11	You May Not Love Me
12	My Time Of Day
13	No Moon At All
14	Tabby The Cat
15	Baltimore Oreole
16	Thats’ How I Love The Blues

The discographical info on the CD (copied here from discogs) is as follows:

• Bass – Bob Carter (2) (tracks: 1-3, 5, 8-16), Johnny Frigo* (tracks: 4, 6, 7)
• Drums – Sol Gubin (tracks: 1-3, 5, 8-16)
• Guitar – Howard Collins (tracks: 1-3, 5, 8-16)
• Piano – Bill Evans (tracks: 1-3, 5, 8-16), Dick Marx (tracks: 4, 6, 7)
• Vocals – Lucy Reed

Tracks 13 – 16 previously unissued bonus tracks 
Tracks 1-3, 5, 8-16 was recorded in NYC; August 13-15, 1955. 
Tracks 4, 6, 7 was recorded in Chicago; January 18, 1957.

Listening to the CD reveals that on tracks 1-4, 6-8, & 12 Reed is accompanied by piano and bass only; the full quartet with piano, guitar, bass, and drums is heard only on tracks 5, 9-11 & 13-16.

Now there was a Fantasy EP 4052 with tracks 1-3 & 10 released in 1955; discogs here does not mention Bill Evans at all, crediting only Marx and Frigo, which must not be correct.

The Lord disco does not know of the EP and lists only the personnel with Evans for all of the tracks on the CD reissue, not listing Marx and Frigo. He cites Peter Larsen's Bill Evans Discography who supports the 1955 recording date with Evans. 

Does any of this board's members have Larsen's book to tell me what he excatly writes about this session? Does he know about the bonus tracks? When was it published? What makes me skeptical is that Howard Collins' acitivity in New York studios really started only in 1957, this Reed session would be his only earlier date. The second Reed album was recorded in two sessions in New York in January, 1957, im great proximity to the two 1957 Reed sessions, which would fit into the chronology of Evans' recording activities just as well; the Marx/Frigo duet reroded two LPs in Chicago in September and November, 1956, for Brunswick and Coral. Reed spent some time in Chicago and performed with them, according to the liner notes of the Fantasy LP. How does the release of Fantasy LP 3-212 in 1956 and the EP with one of the quartet tracks in 1955 fit a 1957 recoding date?

My experiences while researching the Tjader discography taught me to never trust Lord or the credits on Fantasy CD reissues without confirmation from other sources. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[mikeweil]

Since Fantasy LP 3-212 was definitely released in 1956 the 1957 recording date for the Chicago session must be wrong - January 1956 is more probable. The Marx/Frigo duo recorded two LPs in Chicago late in 1956, September and November - that must be the year when Reed performed with them in that city. 

That Dick Marx - I suspect there was a name change or mixup, as there is a pianist Bill Marx performing and recording with partly the same pool of musicians - from 1958 it's Bill Marx, while Dick Marx stops appearing in that year!

Edited July 13, 2016 by mikeweil

[Larry Kart]

Jazz pianist and champion jingle-writer Dick Marx (at one  time in the '60s Chicago was the jingle capital of the U.S., which is why some veteran Chicago jazz players who worked on those jingles ended well-off financially for life -- royalties each time the jingle was played!) always was Dick Marx, a Chicago fixture and father of rock musician Richard Marx:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-08-15/news/9708150244_1_mr-marx-richard-marx-jingles

Los-Angeles-based jazz pianist Bill Marx was Harpo Marx's son. 

Not in good health in later years IIRC, Reed did continue to sing and at her best was quite marvelous, lots of emotional depth a la latter-day Billie Holiday. She made at least one album in that period of her life; I think it was on Audiophile.

P.S. The reason those Chicago jazz guys were jingle studio stalwarts was that the guy in charge, in addition to someone like Marx, was an ad agency person who thought he knew what he or his bosses wanted but didn't know much about music. Thus the musicians often would have to adjust on the spot, with time being of the essence, to vague or inchoate verbal directions/complaints, a la "That's not it -- I want more 'crackle and crunch'" or "It should be more like peanut butter." Jazz guys were capable of responding to this; most "straight' players less so.

The Audiophile album:

https://www.jazzology.com/item_detail.php?id=ACD-273

[medjuck]

She also did a session with Gil Evans, so worked with both Gil and Bill. 

[mikeweil]

Thanks for clearing the Marx identities, Larry. The Audiophile album is on my buying list later this year. I'm compiling a Lucy Reed discography, seems like there is only one track with Charlie Ventura besides her own three albums.

[Larry Kart]

Just began to listen to "This Is Lucy Reed." Wow! Not quite like any other singer I l know. As intense an interpreter of lyrics as, say, Jeri Southern but deeply boldly musical (Southern, by contrast often was a lyrics-first singer IMO) with some quite novel, striking musical ideas, plus the grain of her contralto voice is right up my alley (not unlike Irene Kral, though I believe Reed preceded her). As for her ear, listen to how she weaves through those daunting Gil Evans and George Russell arrangements.

[JSngry]

That's the one I've heard, the one with Georgie and Gilly and the boys. Can't say that it inspired me to explore her any further, but it did inspire me to keep it in the player and then the car for longer than usual. As you imply, it takes ears to deal with all that kind of shit going on behind you, ears and courage and confidence

The first Ryan Truesdell Gil Evans Project has a chart of "Smoking My Sad Cigarette" written but not(?) recorded for that album, using Kate McGarry on vocals, and it's one of the highlights on that record, which for my money is nothing but highlights. That's what drove me to get the Lucy Reed record and hey, that worked out just fine.

Maybe more, then. Because I will like me some Irene Kral (people say she's kind of "cold" or whatever, but seems to me that that kind of hardass insistence on doing it that way that well implies its own kind of passion that is as deep as it is not easy to tolerate for slackers who want it always up front and unwrapped)., and if you say that, you get my attention.

[Larry Kart]

BTW, Jim, can you tell me in what key Reed sings "St. Louis Blues"? Sounds unusual to me.

[JSngry]

She's in G. Orignal and still standard key from my experience.

Great blues key for tenor, btw. tenor A, unlimited side key possibilities,and that A...ask Jeff or somebody else, they'll tell you, from the A all the way up to the E, from the root to the 5th, unbroken, there's not one note in there you can't fuck with the fingerings on and do what needs to be done. I played for years with a bar band whose repertoire was pretty standards in Bb and shuffles in G. If you can't learn how to shade or worry a note on tenor doing that all night long, switch to piano, I guess.

Now, Perry Como did it in Eb on Como Swings. That's a weirdass key imo.

[Larry Kart]

Thanks, Jim. Can't imagine why it sounded unusual to me.

[JSngry]

She sings it like a show tune, which I guess it ultimately is, but not THAT kind of show.

[Larry Kart]

11 hours ago, JSngry said:

She sings it like a show tune, which I guess it ultimately is, but not THAT kind of show.

I know what you mean; OTOH on first listen I liked that she didn't try to get bluesier than it was in her to be but instead went in another direction.

[mikeweil]

Fresh Sound just released a double CD including both Fantasy albums, the bonus tracks from the OJC CD, one more track from the session with Dick Marx that appears to be unissued; and all the tracks she recorded with big bands before - from some rare singles. Wow ...

http://www.freshsoundrecords.com/lucy-reed-albums/6568-this-is-lucy-reed-complete-recordings-1950-1957-3-lp-on-2-cd-bonus-tracks.html

[Dmitry]

On 7/19/2016 at 7:19 PM, Larry Kart said:

BTW, Jim, can you tell me in what key Reed sings "St. Louis Blues"? Sounds unusual to me.

Interesting you mention that composition. It's the one track I didn't care for on the OJC This is Lucy Reed CD. Her singing is very distinct.
Does anyone have her last record, Basic Reeding, recorded in 1989-1990, and released in 1992, a few years before she died? 

https://www.discogs.com/release/15201375-Lucy-Reed-Basic-Reeding

 

[medjuck]

Just read on Lord that the Gil Evans session was his  first recording on piano. 

[Larry Kart]

3 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Interesting you mention that composition. It's the one track I didn't care for on the OJC This is Lucy Reed CD. Her singing is very distinct.
Does anyone have her last record, Basic Reeding, recorded in 1989-1990, and released in 1992, a few years before she died? 

https://www.discogs.com/release/15201375-Lucy-Reed-Basic-Reeding

 

Yes, I have a copy of "Basic Reeding."

[Teasing the Korean]

Is Jerry Slosberg on the album with Dick Marx and Johnny Frigo?

Imagine being Dick Marx, and then your son is Richard.  

[Larry Kart]

Don't see Slosberg in the personnel. Seems to be just Reed, Marx, Frigo on bass, and drummer Sol Gubin.

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Is Jerry Slosberg on the album with Dick Marx and Johnny Frigo?

Imagine being Dick Marx, and then your son is Richard.  

The great classical and movie-dubbing singer Marni Nixon (e.g for Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady" and Natalie Wood in "West Side Story") was married to  film composer Ernest Gold ("Exodus"). Their son was singer-songwriter Andrew Gold.

[Teasing the Korean]

40 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Don't see Slosberg in the personnel. Seems to be just Reed, Marx, Frigo on bass, and drummer Sol Gubin.

The great classical and movie-dubbing singer Marni Nixon (e.g for Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady" and Natalie Wood in "West Side Story") was married to  film composer Ernest Gold ("Exodus"). Their son was singer-songwriter Andrew Gold.

Yes, but Andrew Gold was a pretty good singer-songwriter by pop/rock standards.  That other guy, not so much.

Also thinking about Marty Paich, whose son played with the dreaded Toto.

[Teasing the Korean]

17 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

The great classical and movie-dubbing singer Marni Nixon (e.g for Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady" and Natalie Wood in "West Side Story") was married to  film composer Ernest Gold ("Exodus")...

Larry, I just bumped my Twilight Zone Jazz thread and included music from Ernest Gold's masterpiece, Pressure Point.