JazzWax

Rainn, Brian and John

In The Wall Street Journal this week, my "Anatomy of a Song" column was on Come On Eileen, a #1 Billboard hit in 1983 by Britains Dexys Midnight Runners (go here). A fascinating song on so many levels. For one, the only electric instrument played on the song is the bass. Everything else is acoustic. For another, the introduction, verses and chorus are all in different keys. And third, there's even a purposeful speed-up on the bridge. An earworm, to be sure. A song that directly benefited from MTV, which in its early years was akin to Beatlemania.

Here's the video, directed by Julien Temple. It was released in 1982 and helped push the single to the top of the Billboard pop chart, knocking Michael Jackson's Billie Jean out of the #1 spot for a week.

Also in the WSJ, I interviewed actor Rainn Wilson (above) for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Rainn most famously played Dwight Schrute on TV's The Office. He talked about going to Nicaragua at age 4 and why he became interested in acting in high school rather than the chess club.

Here's Rainn in his new film, Blackbird...

And here's a hilarious video of Rainn quizzing Billie Eilish (pre-green hair) on Office trivia...

Dave Thompson plays a beautiful rendition of Like Someone in Love with a Bill Evans feel here...

David Thompson · Like Someone In Love</div

And here's an original by Dave called Interlude...

Stéphane Grappelli. Following my post a couple of weeks ago on jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, I received the following from Danilo Morandi:

Hi Marc, thank you for the delightful Stéphane Grappelli BBC documentary. Here's a video of The Hot Club of France playing J'attendrai, from a popular Italian tune of the day, Tornerai. Here, it's amazing to see Django playing with two fingers...

In the '70s, Grappelli's playing became sharper, losing some of the "prettiness" of the '50s and '60s. He loved to play with young musicians. One of the best examples is the beautifully recorded album entitled, Young Django, a favorite of mine, with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass, Larry Coryell on guitar and Philip Catherine on guitar.

This is the most energetic Swing Guitars, that really cooks, without undue nostalgia for the original. At the end, an awed Coryell, says. "That was beautiful!" Stéphane's modest reply is, "Maybe it's good, I don't know."

Here is Oriental Shuffle...

Here's Grappelli playing piano after soloing on violin...

Grappelli became something of an icon in Europe, playing duos with the best. Here he is with Duke Ellington, playing Solitude, Don't Get Around Much Anymore/I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart and It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)...

Brian Bromberg—Bromberg Plays Hendrix (Artistry Music). In 2012, jazz bassist Brian Bromberg took a hard-rock break with this album, which was just updated with a remix and remastering. On the album, Bromberg fires up fretless and piccolo basses to create a throaty, thrashing Hendrix tribute. The only musician backing Bromberg here is eight-armed drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. All the Hendrix biggies are here, including The Wind Cries Mary, Hey Joe, Purple Haze and Fire. As close as it gets in music to mounting a Harley-Davidson and riding off. Go here for download, here for CD.

Here's Fire...

And here's Brian in action...

Steve Miller. On September 18, 1970, the day Hendrix died, Steve Miller was performing at the Pepperland Ballroom in San Rafael, Calif. He played his band's Peppa Sauce in tribute to the guitarist. Go here...

John Coltrane radio. Next Wednesday, September 23, WKCR-FM in New York will feature its John Coltrane Birthday Broadcast for 24 hours, starting at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday night (EDT). To listen from anywhere in the world, go here.

Doc: The Other '60s Soul Label

I'm still surprised when people ask me what Stax was all about. They know Motown's story and hits, but somehow Stax seems to draw a blank. The Memphis label was founded as Satellite Records in 1957. Four years later, it became Stax when the last names of co-owners Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton were combined. Stax was responsible for recording Southern soul found in the region surrounding Memphis in the 1960s.

It's really a two-part story—from the label's inception to the death of Otis Redding, and from Redding's passing to the funky music that was recorded after.

To fill in the Stax story, here's a terrific documentary on the label, Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story...

JazzWax note: You can buy the documentary as a DVD here.

Five Guitarists With the Blues

In 1969, my family moved out of Manhattan for the northern reaches of Westchester County. I wasn't happy about being there, but it was still better than dealing with the city's overcrowded classrooms and the threat of muggings in school stairways. The good news was that by age 15, two years later, I could access New York by taking the train. So on Saturdays, I began traveling alone to the city to spend hours at large record stores, returning with four or five jazz albums paid for with lawn-mowing money. Jazz was my refuge and, in the rural suburbs, my own private music genre no one else knew about. That's how albums were then. You discovered music you loved that no one else was familiar with and that corner of the world became your best friend. [Photo above of Albert King]

By '71, many of my rock-loving friends in Westchester had grown weary of British blues-rock guitarists. Solos weren't long enough or sufficiently soulful. They were looking for the real thing and were eager to hear more by the names they saw in music-magazine articles. Unfortunately, records by Albert King, Freddie King and other electric blues players weren't available at our local mall. My friends had never been to New York and didn't plan to go. They were frightened of making the trip and the dangers they'd heard about on the news. [Photo above of Magic Sam]

So they cut a deal with me. If I bought them albums by these blues guitarists while I was in the city, they'd pay for two of my jazz albums. I took them up on their offer. Even though I had given up on rock (a little too druggy and long-winded for me), I became intrigued by the blues players and the originality of their sound. Their albums made it onto my shopping list as well. [Photo above of Freddie King]

Here are five blues guitarists who caught my ear nearly 50 years ago and still do now:

Here's Albert King at the Fillmore East in 1970...

Here's Freddie King in Europe...

Here's Magic Sam in 1969...

Here's John Lee Hooker in 1969...

And here's Otis Rush...