JazzWax

Doug Raney: New York Visits

In 1977, 20-year-old guitarist Doug Raney was touring Europe with his father, guitarist Jimmy Raney. Doug fell in love with the soul there and exuberant appreciation of club audiences and decided to move to Copenhagen at age 21. That's where he began his recording career and that's where he remained until his death at 59 in 2016. During this time, he made only several trips back to the States. Two of them were in 1993 and 1996. In the first case, I suspect he returned to visit his ailing father in Louisville, Ky. For the second trip, he probably went back to tie up lose ends of his father's estate. Jimmy Raney had died in 1995. On both return trips, Doug recorded in New York with different trios.

Doug Raney is one of my favorite jazz guitarists. His songs choices, chord voicings and re-harmonizing are extraordinary. Every album he recorded is gorgeous and constantly on rotation in my office space while writing. There is no fat or wheel-spinning, just beautiful improvised lines with space and swing. The two albums Doug recorded on visits to New York in the '90s were Blues on a Par in 1993 and Back in New York in 1996. The former featured George Cables (p), Doug Raney (g), Steve LaSpina (b) and Adam Nussbaum (d). The latter included Michael Weiss (p), Doug Raney (g), Scott Colley (b) and Kenny Washington (d).

Like most of his albums, these two were for the Danish Steeplechase label and both were produced by Nils Winther. On Blues on a Par, the tracks are I Concentrate on You, Estate, Raney's Blues on a Par, Close Your Eyes, When Sunny Gets Blue, Kenny Dorham's La Mesha and Charlie Rouse's Pumpkin's Delight. On Back in New York, the songs are I'm Old Fashioned, For Heaven's Sake, The Touch of Your Lips, Skylark, All or Nothing at All, I Wanna Talk About You and Get Out of Town.

On both albums, the New York musicians are superb, especially the pianists George Cables and Michael Weiss (above), who bring enormous elegance as a backdrop for the ever-swinging Raney. Drummers Adam Nussbaum and Kenny Washington also are exceptional, adding dashes and splashes of snare and cymbal excitement. It's a shame there are so few live videos of Doug on YouTube. His calm and evident kindness was a pleasure to see.

For more information on Doug, read my interview with his brother Jon shortly after Doug died in 2016 here.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Doug Raney's Blues on a Par and Back in New York (both Steeplechase) here and here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Blues on a Par...

Here's I'm Old Fashioned from Back in New York...

And here's Doug in action...

Laura, Jeanne and Dodo

This week in The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed actress-singer Laura Benanti for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Laura co-stars in the film Worth due in September, playing a grieving widow in the drama about the fund set up to compensate families that lost family members during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and those who resisted signing up for payment out of guilt and pride. She's also in Gossip Girl. Laura is such a lovely person and emotionally open and fun, as you might imagine. And so talented. [Publicity still above of Laura Benanti courtesy of Laura Benanti]

Here's Laura last year (in her bathroom during lockdown) singing Stephen Sondheim's I Remember, from his Evening Primrose. Laura has a stupendous Broadway voice...

SiriusXM. For those of you who missed my appearance on SiriusXM twice over the past two weeks, here are both shows:

Here's the entire show on Jackson Browne...

And here's the entire show on Laura Nyro...

Diana Panton. Last week I posted on Diana Panton's first nifty studio concert accompanied by pianist Don Thompson and guitarist Reg Schwager, which you'll find here. The series will continue all summer. Catch Diana Panton's second studio concert at YouTube here [photo above of Diana Panton]...

Jeanne Lamon (1949-2021) died last week. She was 71. A superb violinist, she was the music director of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir for 33 years, helping to make it one of the most important performing baroque ensembles, I love baroque music, probably because of the counterpoint and that it's perfect music for writing, given its highly organized structure. [Photo above of Jeanne Lamon courtesy of Lamon estate]

Here's a terrific New York Times obit of Lamon. And here's a clip of her in action in 2011...

And here's another clip from late last year...

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers '70. Jonathan Horwich wrote to let me know that Discogs.com has CDs for sale of the album I posted about last week with Joanne Brackeen on piano. Go here.

Beach Boys. I just felt like hearing the isolated vocal stack on Wouldn't It Be Nice and thought you'd want to hear it, too...

Arnett Cobb radio. Sid Gribetz presents a five-hour radio broadcast celebrating the career of tenor saxophonist Arnett Cobb this Sunday, August 1, from 2 to 7 p.m. (ET) on WKCR-FM's “Jazz Profiles." To listen from anywhere in the world, go here. [Photo above of Arnett Cobb]

Louis Armstrong radio. Louis Armstrong always believed his birth date to be July 4, 1900. Years after the trumpeter's death in 1971, researchers discovered a baptismal certificate indicating Armstrong's actual birth date as August 4, 1901. So WKCR-FM in New York celebrates Armstrong's birthday on both days. Armstrong recordings will be featured all day. Listen from anywhere in the world by going here. [Photo above of Louis Armstrong by William P. Gottlieb]

And finally, let's close out with Dodo Marmarosa's Dary Departs, with Harry Babasin on cello and Jackie Mills on drums, recorded for Dial in Hollywood on December 3, 1947 [photo above of Dodo Marmarosa]...

Beverly Kenney: Vocalist in Distress

By my count, Beverly Kenney recorded seven albums between 1955 and 1959. She had a singing voice that was somewhere between Blossom Dearie and Marilyn Monroe, but her approach on songs was courageous, taking risks on melodies that made her interesting to hear. What wasn't evident from her publicity photos—showing a poised, attractive and seemingly upbeat woman—was her deep depression. Kenney suffered terribly at a time when medications for mental illness were barely effective or were powerfully strong. Those who suffered often were left with a terrible choice—take the pills and remain unable to function or don't take them and fend for yourself. The latter, of course, came with enormous peril. In April 1960, at age 28, Kenney took her own life by consuming a bottle of prescription medicine.

Earlier this week, Brett Gold sent along a link to a 10-minute documentary by Tony Guerrero and a link to Guerrero's Beverly Kenney tribute page. Here's the documentary...