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Showing posts with label jazz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jazz. Show all posts
August 13, 2021
January 18, 2021
August 16, 2017
Art Tatum articles/mentions
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William P. Gottlieb: Jazz photographer
Verve Records & Norman Granz
Oscar Peterson ~ Maharaja of the keyboard
Art Tatum (1946 - 1948)
Vogue Room, New York
photographer unknown
Duke Ellington articles/mentions
Enoch Light ~ Musical Explorations In Sound
Gil Mellé – The Andromeda Strain
Oscar Peterson ~ Maharaja of the keyboard
The Platters ~ Only You (And You Alone)
Max Roach
Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo
Sweets ~ Jitterbugging in the Forties
Duke Ellington
publicity photo
Gil Mellé – The Andromeda Strain
Oscar Peterson ~ Maharaja of the keyboard
The Platters ~ Only You (And You Alone)
Max Roach
Jack Scott and the birth of Stereo
Sweets ~ Jitterbugging in the Forties
Duke Ellington
publicity photo
August 15, 2017
Oscar Peterson ~ Maharaja of the keyboard
- 1977
As a child, Peterson studied with Hungarian-born pianist Paul de Marky, a student of István Thomán. Thomán was a pupil of Franz Liszt,
so his training was predominantly based on classical piano. Meanwhile,
he was captivated by traditional jazz and learned several ragtime pieces and especially the boogie-woogie. At that time Peterson was called "the Brown Bomber of the Boogie-Woogie".
In 1940, at fourteen years of age, Peterson won the national music competition organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. After that victory, he dropped out of school and became a professional pianist working for a weekly radio show, and playing at hotels and music halls.
Some of the artists who influenced Peterson's music during the earlier type of years were Teddy Wilson, Nat "King" Cole, James P. Johnson and Art Tatum. Tatum and Peterson eventually became good friends, although Peterson was always shy about being compared with Tatum and rarely played the piano in Tatum's presence. Peterson absorbed Tatum's musical influences, notably from piano concertos by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff's harmonizations, as well as direct quotations from his 2nd Piano Concerto, are thrown in here and there in many recordings by Peterson, including his work with the most familiar formulation of the Oscar Peterson Trio, with bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis.
An important step in Peterson's career was joining the impresario Norman Granz labels (especially Verve) (link below) and the Granz "Jazz at the Philharmonic" project (link Below). Granz discovered Peterson in a peculiar manner. As the impresario was being taken to Montreal airport by cab, the radio was playing a live broadcast of Peterson at a local night club. Granz was so smitten by what he heard that he ordered the driver to take him to the club so that he could meet the pianist. In 1949, Granz introduced Peterson at a Carnegie Hall Jazz at the Philharmonic show in New York City. Granz remained Peterson's manager for most of his career.
In 1940, at fourteen years of age, Peterson won the national music competition organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. After that victory, he dropped out of school and became a professional pianist working for a weekly radio show, and playing at hotels and music halls.
Some of the artists who influenced Peterson's music during the earlier type of years were Teddy Wilson, Nat "King" Cole, James P. Johnson and Art Tatum. Tatum and Peterson eventually became good friends, although Peterson was always shy about being compared with Tatum and rarely played the piano in Tatum's presence. Peterson absorbed Tatum's musical influences, notably from piano concertos by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff's harmonizations, as well as direct quotations from his 2nd Piano Concerto, are thrown in here and there in many recordings by Peterson, including his work with the most familiar formulation of the Oscar Peterson Trio, with bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis.
An important step in Peterson's career was joining the impresario Norman Granz labels (especially Verve) (link below) and the Granz "Jazz at the Philharmonic" project (link Below). Granz discovered Peterson in a peculiar manner. As the impresario was being taken to Montreal airport by cab, the radio was playing a live broadcast of Peterson at a local night club. Granz was so smitten by what he heard that he ordered the driver to take him to the club so that he could meet the pianist. In 1949, Granz introduced Peterson at a Carnegie Hall Jazz at the Philharmonic show in New York City. Granz remained Peterson's manager for most of his career.
(Jazz at the Philharmonic) 1957
Peterson made numerous duo performances and recordings with bassists Ray Brown, Sam Jones, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, guitarists Joe Pass, Irving Ashby, Herb Ellis, and Barney Kessel, pianists Count Basie, Herbie Hancock, Benny Green, and Oliver Jones, trumpeters Clark Terry and Louis Armstrong, and many other important jazz players. His 1950s duo recordings with Ray Brown mark the formation of one of the longest lasting partnerships in the history of jazz.
According to pianist/educator Mark Eisenman, some of Peterson's best playing was as an understated accompanist to singer Ella Fitzgerald and trumpeter Roy Eldridge.
Peterson wrote pieces for piano, for trio, for quartet and for big band. He also wrote several songs, and made recordings as a singer. Probably his best-known compositions are Canadiana Suite and Hymn to Freedom, the latter composed in the 1960s and inspired by the civil rights movement in the United States (links below).
Herb Ellis with the Oscar Peterson Trio
Photo © Ted Williams/CORBIS
Peterson had arthritis since his youth, and in later years could hardly button his shirt. Never slender, his weight increased to 125 kg (276 lb), hindering his mobility. He had hip replacement surgery in the early 1990s. Although the surgery was successful, his mobility was still inhibited. Somewhat later, in 1993, Peterson suffered a serious stroke that weakened his left side and sidelined him for two years. Also in 1993 incoming Prime Minister and longtime Peterson fan and friend Jean Chrétien offered Peterson the position of Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, but according to Chrétien he declined, citing the health problems from his recent stroke.
After the stroke, Peterson recuperated for about two years. He gradually regained mobility and some control of his left hand. However, his virtuosity was never restored to the original level, and his playing after his stroke relied principally on his right hand. In 1995 he returned to public performances on a limited basis, and also made several live and studio recordings for Telarc. In 1997 he received a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement and an International Jazz Hall of Fame Award. Canadian politician, friend, and amateur pianist Bob Rae contends that "a one-handed Oscar was better than just about anyone with two hands".
In 2003, Peterson recorded the DVD A Night in Vienna for Verve, with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (NHØP), Ulf Wakenius and Martin Drew.
Peterson's health declined rapidly in 2007. He had to cancel his performance at the 2007 Toronto Jazz Festival
and his attendance at a June 8, 2007, Carnegie Hall all-star
performance in his honour, owing to illness. On December 23, 2007,
Peterson died of kidney failure at his home in Mississauga, Ontario.
Viewfinder links:
Oscar Peterson articles/mentions
Jazz at the Philharmonic series
Net links:
Oscar Peterson discography
CULT #MTL ~ Oscar Peterson’s Montreal (book review)
Viewfinder links:
Oscar Peterson articles/mentions
Jazz at the Philharmonic series
Net links:
Oscar Peterson discography
CULT #MTL ~ Oscar Peterson’s Montreal (book review)
LA Times ~ 'Oscar, With Love'
YouTube links: Oscar Peterson selections
Hymn To Freedom
Canadiana Suite
Jazz At The Philharmonic (9:32 minutes)
Norman Granz Jazz at the Philharmonic (1956)
I play as I feel
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Styrous® ~ Thursday, August 15, 2017
August 12, 2017
Norman Granz ~ Jazz at the Philharmonic series
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The historic Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concert series started by Verve impresario Norman Granz debuted at the Philharmonic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California on July 2, 1944. It was a star-studded affair, featuring legends such as Buddy Rich, Lester Young, Nat 'King' Cole, Illinois Jacquet, Les Paul, J.J. Johnson, and others. The fascinating thing about the recordings from this show is they serve as an excellent document of the bridge period between the late Swing era and the dawn of Bebop.
Norman Granz - July 2, 1944
holding 'Jazz at the Philharmonic Volume 1' record
photo by Gjon Mili
Granz organised desegregated jam sessions at the Trouville Club in Los Angeles, which he later expanded when he staged a memorable concert at the Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, July 2, 1944, under the heading of "Jazz at the Philharmonic".
The title of the concert, "A Jazz Concert at the Philharmonic Auditorium", had been shortened by the printer of the advertising supplements to "Jazz at the Philharmonic". Only one copy of the very first concert program is known to exist. Granz had organised the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert with about $300 of borrowed money.
Later known as JATP, the ever-changing group recorded and toured extensively, with Granz producing some of the first live jam session recordings to be distributed to a wide market.
After several JATP concerts in Los Angeles in 1944 and 1945, Granz began producing JATP concert tours, from late fall of 1945 to 1957 in USA and Canada, and from 1952 in Europe. They featured swing and bop musicians and were among the first high-profile performances to feature racially integrated bands. Granz actually cancelled some bookings rather than have the musicians perform for segregated audiences. He recorded many of the JATP concerts, and from 1945 to 1947 sold/leased the recordings to Asch/Disc/Stinson Records (the labels of record producer, Moses Asch).
in 1948 Granz signed an agreement with Mercury Records for the promotion and the distribution of the JATP recordings and other recordings. After the agreement expired in 1953 he issued the JATP recordings and other recordings on Clef Records (founded 1946) and Norgran Records (founded 1953). Down Home Records was intended for traditional jazz works. Jazz at the Philharmonic ceased touring the United States and Canada, after the JATP concerts in the fall of 1957, apart from a North American Tour in 1967.
Viewfinder link:
Net links:
NPR ~ Jazz Genius Behind The Scenes
The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice
Jazz Times ~ Ella Fitzgerald: She Was His Star
The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice
Jazz Times ~ Ella Fitzgerald: She Was His Star
Norman Granz articles/mentions
August 7, 2017
Stan Kenton articles/mentions
August 4, 2017
Louis Armstrong ~ Trumpeter & scat singer extraordinaire
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Today is the birthday of Louis Armstrong who was born August 4, 1901, 116 years ago. He
was an American trumpeter, composer, singer and actor who was an influential figure in jazz.
His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and
different eras in jazz. He came to prominence in the 1920s as an
"inventive" trumpet and cornet
player. He was an influence in jazz, shifting the
focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance.
Louis Armstrong
photographer unknown
Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was the grandson of slaves. He was born into a poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was the grandson of slaves. He spent his youth in poverty, in a rough neighborhood known as the Battlefield, which was part of the Storyville legal prostitution district. The district was immortalized by the photographer, E. J. Bellocq, in the early 1900's.
He attended the Fisk School for Boys, where he most likely had early exposure to music. He brought in some money by selling newspapers, delivering coal, singing on the streets at night, and also by finding discarded food and selling it to restaurants, but it was not enough to keep his mother from prostitution. He hung out in dance halls close to home, where he observed everything from licentious dancing to the quadrille. For extra money he also hauled coal to Storyville, and listened to the bands playing in the brothels and dance halls, especially Pete Lala's, where Joe "King" Oliver performed as well as other famous musicians who would drop in to jam.
After dropping out of the Fisk School at age eleven, Armstrong joined a quartet of boys who sang in the streets for money. He also started to get into trouble. Cornet player Bunk Johnson said he taught Armstrong (then 11) to play by ear at Dago Tony's Tonk in New Orleans, although in his later years Armstrong gave the credit to Oliver. Armstrong hardly looked back at his youth as the worst of times but drew inspiration from it instead: "Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine—I look right in the heart of good old New Orleans... It has given me something to live for.
Louis Armstrong ca 1900's
photographer unknown
In Louisiana on New Year’s Eve, 1912, Armstrong fired a pistol (loaded
with blanks) in the air in celebration. A nearby policeman
arrested him for the offense and took him to juvenile court. The
following day, eleven year old Louis was sentenced to the Colored Waifs
Home for Boys, a New Orleans reform school. The year and a half sentence would have an incredible impact on his life (link below). He developed his cornet playing skills by playing in the band of the Home.
Louis Armstrong, front row center
1931 visit to the
New Orleans boys' home
formerly known as the 'Colored Waifs Home'
In 1919, Joe Oliver decided to go north and resigned his position in the Kid Ory band; Armstrong replaced him. He also became second trumpet for
the Tuxedo Brass Band.
Armstrong had considerable success with vocal recordings, including versions of famous songs composed by his friend Hoagy Carmichael. His 1930s recordings took full advantage of the new RCA ribbon microphone, introduced in 1931, which imparted a characteristic warmth to vocals and immediately became an intrinsic part of the 'crooning' sound of artists like Bing Crosby. His interpretation of the Hoagy Carmichael song, Stardust,
became one of the most successful versions of this song ever recorded,
showcasing Armstrong's unique vocal sound and style and his innovative
approach to singing songs that had already become standards (link below).
Armstrong's radical re-working of Sidney Arodin and Carmichael's Lazy River (recorded in 1931) encapsulated many features of his groundbreaking approach to melody and phrasing. The song begins with a brief trumpet solo, then the main melody is introduced by sobbing horns, memorably punctuated by Armstrong's growling interjections at the end of each bar: "Yeah! ..."Uh-huh" ..."Sure" ... "Way down, way down." In the first verse, he ignores the notated melody entirely and sings as if playing a trumpet solo, pitching most of the first line on a single note and using strongly syncopated phrasing. In the second stanza he breaks into an almost fully improvised melody, which then evolves into a classic passage of Armstrong "scat singing" (link below).
Armstrong moved to Los Angeles in 1930 to seek new opportunities. He played at the New Cotton Club in Los Angeles with Lionel Hampton on drums.
Armstrong's radical re-working of Sidney Arodin and Carmichael's Lazy River (recorded in 1931) encapsulated many features of his groundbreaking approach to melody and phrasing. The song begins with a brief trumpet solo, then the main melody is introduced by sobbing horns, memorably punctuated by Armstrong's growling interjections at the end of each bar: "Yeah! ..."Uh-huh" ..."Sure" ... "Way down, way down." In the first verse, he ignores the notated melody entirely and sings as if playing a trumpet solo, pitching most of the first line on a single note and using strongly syncopated phrasing. In the second stanza he breaks into an almost fully improvised melody, which then evolves into a classic passage of Armstrong "scat singing" (link below).
Armstrong moved to Los Angeles in 1930 to seek new opportunities. He played at the New Cotton Club in Los Angeles with Lionel Hampton on drums.
Louis Armstrong - February 27, 1932
photographer unknown
In 1931, Armstrong appeared in his first movie, Ex-Flame and was also convicted of marijuana possession but received a suspended sentence. He returned to Chicago in late 1931 and played in bands more in the Guy Lombardo vein and he recorded more standards. When the mob insisted that he get out of town,
Armstrong visited New Orleans but soon he was on the road again and after a tour across the country
shadowed by the mob, Armstrong decided to go to Europe to escape.
After spending many years on the road, Armstrong settled permanently in Queens, New York in 1943 in contentment with his fourth wife, Lucille. Although subject to the vicissitudes of Tin Pan Alley and the gangster-ridden music business, as well as anti-black prejudice, he continued to develop his playing.
Following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town
Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with trombonist/singer Jack Teagarden,
Armstrong's manager, Joe Glaser dissolved the Armstrong big band on
August 13, 1947, and established a six-piece traditional jazz group
featuring Armstrong with (initially) Teagarden, Earl Hines
and other top swing and Dixieland musicians, most of whom were
previously leaders of big bands.
On June 26, 1950, Armstrong recorded the first American version of C'est si bon (Henri Betti, André Hornez, Jerry Seelen) and La Vie en rose (Louiguy, Édith Piaf, Mack David). When it was released, the disc garnered worldwide sales.
Louis Armstrong - 1953
photo by Herman Hiller
In 1964, after over two years without setting foot in a studio, he recorded his biggest-selling record, Hello, Dolly!, a song by Jerry Herman, originally sung by Carol Channing.
Armstrong's version remained on the Hot 100 for 22 weeks, longer than
any other record produced that year, and went to No. 1 making him, at 62
years, 9 months and 5 days, the oldest person ever to accomplish that
feat. In the process, he dislodged the Beatles from the No. 1 position they had occupied for 14 consecutive weeks with three different songs.
Of course, I can't ignore one of his other great hits, Mack the Knife by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for the music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. There is a link to the song from the Hollywood Palace filmed on the 1st of May, 1965 (link below).
Producers Showcase - 1956
Against his doctor's advice, Armstrong played a two-week engagement in March 1971 at the Waldorf-Astoria's Empire Room. At the end of it he was hospitalized for a heart attack. He was released from the hospital in May, and quickly resumed practicing his trumpet playing. Still hoping to get back on the road, Armstrong died of a heart attack in his sleep on July 6, 1971, a month before his 70th birthday. He was residing in Corona, Queens, New York City, at the time of his death. He was interred in Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, in Queens, New York City. His honorary pallbearers included Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Harry James, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, Earl Wilson, Alan King, Johnny Carson and David Frost. Peggy Lee sang The Lord's Prayer at the services, Al Hibbler sang Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen and Fred Robbins, a long-time friend, gave the eulogy.
Chrisma ~ Chinese Restaurant
The Ray Charles Singers
Al Jarreau ~ Breakin' Away & scat
Verve Records ~ the inner sleeve & Norman Granz
Carl Van Vechten & the Harlem Renaissance
William P. Gottlieb ~ Jazz photographer
Net links:
spclarke.com ~ Louis Armstrong ~ An American Original
E. J. Bellocq ~ The Storyville photographs
Jazziz ~ Colored Waifs Home for Boys
YouTube links:
Louis Armstrong:
Stardust (1931)
Lazy River (1931)
C'est si bon (1950)
Hello, Dolly (1964)
Hello, Dolly (live in Berlin 1965)
Mack the Knife
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, August 4, 2017
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