Henry Mancini 100th Birthday, April 16, 2024

[Teasing the Korean]

Henry Mancini would have been 98 today.  

Mancini is well-loved by jazz fans for helping to introduce jazz into dramatic film and TV scoring.  Peter Gunn alone opened a floodgate for TV jazz detectives.  

His tunes, along with those of Michel Legrand, are among the last to attain status as jazz standards.

"Fallout" is one of his masterpieces. 

 

Edited April 9 by Teasing the Korean

[Ken Dryden]

He left a valuable legacy.

Wouldn’t Johnny Mandel also be in that group?

 

[JSngry]

Love that Baby Elephant Walk.

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, Ken Dryden said:

He left a valuable legacy.

Wouldn’t Johnny Mandel also be in that group?

Of course.  If I had to pick an all-time favorite jazz score, it would probably be I Want to Live.  And, yes, also with Legrand and Mancini in terms of the last standards.  

The thing with Mancini, though, was that jazz scoring really crystalized with Peter Gunn, and as a result, all of these other private eye shows started using jazz.  Also, the Peter Gunn album was a massive seller, and as such, it must have been a gateway into jazz for many viewers and listeners. 

 

[Late]

My Friend Andamo. I wonder who played bassoon for Mancini.

[Teasing the Korean]

56 minutes ago, Late said:

My Friend Andamo. I wonder who played bassoon for Mancini.

I love that tune.  A lot of those wind/reed players doubled and tripled on different instruments.  I don't think the Mr. Lucky album credits the players.  Some of the other albums do.

I always loved this tune from Peter Gunn:

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[medjuck]

Howabout Elmer Bernstein? Man with the Gold Arm, Sweet Smell of Success and tv show Staccato. 

[sgcim]

I remember buying a Downbeat with HM on the cover saying, "The only way to make any money in the music business is to go into the Band uniform field."

I should thank him for waking me up from my idealism by wishing him  HAPPY 98TH BIRTHDAY, Henry!

[Larry Kart]

Alex North

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, sgcim said:

I remember buying a Downbeat with HM on the cover saying, "The only way to make any money in the music business is to go into the Band uniform field."

If you still have that issue, look at the letters section, I got one published. I was either 15 or 16 at the time. First and only time I had written in. Beginner's luck, and I quit while I was ahead.

 

 

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, medjuck said:

Howabout Elmer Bernstein? Man with the Gold Arm, Sweet Smell of Success and tv show Staccato. 

Yes, we recently celebrated his centennial. April 4, 2022.  Ms. TTK played him on the Cocktail Mix segment of her radio show.

Much as I love all the scores you mentioned, I would argue that jazz film/TV scoring crystalized around Mancini more than it did Bernstein.  Staccato was a reaction to Peter Gunn. 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[HutchFan]

46 minutes ago, JSngry said:

If you still have that issue, look at the letters section, I got one published. I was either 15 or 16 at the time. First and only time I had written in. Beginner's luck, and I quit while I was ahead.

That must have been quite a thrill for a teenager.

Do you have an image of your letter?  If not, what was it about?

 

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Alex North

You missed his birthday.  He was born December 4.  I'll place a note on my calendar to wish him a Happy Birthday this coming December.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[JSngry]

17 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

That must have been quite a thrill for a teenager.

Do you have an image of your letter?  If not, what was it about?

 

I I got pissy about a Bill Cole review of a Music, Inc. record.

,

[Ken Dryden]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

If you still have that issue, look at the letters section, I got one published. I was either 15 or 16 at the time. First and only time I had written in. Beginner's luck, and I quit while I was ahead.

 

 

I think that I've written a jazz magazine a letter twice. I took JazzTimes to task for assigning a review of Will Calhoun's Live at the Blue Note (Half Note) to someone who couldn't tell the difference between Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance" (what the last track was mislabeled) and McCoy Tyner's "Passion Dance" (what the last track actually was). I was shocked when it was published verbatim. Bill Milkowski bragged about getting some JT writers with a similar shallow knowedge of the music ternminated.

The other letter was a recent email to Downbeat about their choice of highlight reviews, but I doubt it will be published.

[JSngry]

I was pissed that Bill Cole was whining about the Music Inc. record (the first one, the first big band one) was playing "old music".

Of course, I had no idea who Bill Cole, that he was one of those guys who looked at everything through the lens of politics/revolution/etc first.

Nor did I realize that using my listening to a Mulligan/Baker/Konitz record at the time of writing the letter was probably not the best example to make my point about "timeless" music, not to Bill Cole, and not about Strata-East.

Bill Cole replied to the latter though. Kind of a non-committal, I paraphrase:"you want five stars, you got 'em. but it's still old music", something like that.

I had forgotten who Bill Cole was when I read his Miles bio, but once I remembered, it all made sense.

 

[sgcim]

20 hours ago, JSngry said:

If you still have that issue, look at the letters section, I got one published. I was either 15 or 16 at the time. First and only time I had written in. Beginner's luck, and I quit while I was ahead.

 

 

LOL! That was the issue. I probably got it from the library. Some friends of mine got so sick of the "New Stars" column they had at the end of DB, they made up a story about some teenage 'Wunderkind',and it got printed! It was back in the 80s, so I don't remember any of the details, but it was really funny.

[Rooster_Ties]

On 4/18/2022 at 8:05 AM, JSngry said:

Bill Cole replied to the latter though. Kind of a non-committal, I paraphrase:"you want five stars, you got 'em. but it's still old music", something like that.

Was Cole’s “reply” in print? - in a later issue of DB? Just pulled out my (my uncle’s) copy of the 02-Mar-72 issue to read your letter — half to read Cole’s response too — but I’m only seeing your letter.  (Or did he mail a reply to you directly?)

[JSngry]

Maybe Cole replied to somebody else's letter about the same review, there was at least one more. But he did offer that reply.

It's been a loooong time, so if I'm incorrectly attributing his reply to my letter, that's my bad. Sorry.

If your uncle has a collection, follow the trail back to the initial review and then check the letters afterward. It'll be in there somewhere.

Come to think of it....maybe my letter was in response to cole's reply to somebody else's letter about his initial review. It ws pretty snippy, that review was.

[Teasing the Korean]

Tuesday, April 16, 2024, marks Mancini's 100th birthday.

I posted the following from CBS Sunday morning in a different thread last year.

 

[sgcim]

I've got to remember to celebrate the centenary for the man who said on the cover of DB, "If you want to make money in  music , get into the marching band uniform business! That statement woke me up to reality.

[Teasing the Korean]

14 hours ago, sgcim said:

I've got to remember to celebrate the centenary for the man who said on the cover of DB, "If you want to make money in  music , get into the marching band uniform business! 

😹

[Teasing the Korean]

So what will you be spinning today?  I listened to Wait Until Dark and The Night Visitor, both of which use two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart from each other. 

Also listened to a suite I curated of tracks from Touch of Evil, focusing on the Latin, jazz, and dramatic music, but omitting the teenage rock 'n' roll juke joint stuff.  

[Teasing the Korean]

The Mancini Estate just uploaded the full 1964 special Hank did for UK TV.

 

 UK

[sgcim]

We just played a new chart that the millionaire leader of a BB I played in last night bought for the band of "Mr. Lucky" It was weird, in this world of computerized copyists, the chart looked like it was dashed off in a few minutes by hand. Each chorus of the tune was separated by the bass line of "Hey Big Spender"

. Is that a thing? It gets kind of old after the tenth time.

I brought in my arr. of a Gene Puerling thing I worked a long time on. As usual, the band completely effed it up, cause the drummer just had cataract surgery, the saxes couldn't come close to playing it, the trumpet players held a rebellion cause they couldn't follow the signs, we were missing one trombone player, and it just sounded like cacophony, instead of the beautiful way it sounded on the computer

As usual, I'll bring it down to the other great band I play in and they'll play the sh-t out of it. This is my general procedure, but it's getting to be a bit much with these guys, and their little tantrums, but I should have outlined the form before we started.