JazzWax

Video: Bill Evans at Montreux '78

On the evening of Wednesday, July 12, 1978, the Bill Evans Trio took the stage and performed an 11-song set in the Casino de Montreux at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland. Evans's face was just starting to show the haggard strains of his regular drug use and tireless touring. His hands weren't puffy yet, a condition that develops after long-term intravenous drug addiction. As a result, his playing at Montreux was still tender and measured, not agitated and rushed. [Photo above of Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1978 courtesy of YouTube]

Interestingly, a live Evans album from the 1978 Montreux Jazz Festival was never produced, but the trio's performance was videotaped for Swiss television (Radio Télévision Suisse), which used just six of the 11 songs. Pierre Grandjean produced. The Bill Evans Trio in July '78 featured Evans on piano, Marc Johnson on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Marc had joined the trio two weeks earlier, and drummer Joe LaBarbera would became a member of the final Bill Evans Trio later in the year.

On the newly uploaded video for Swiss TV, we hear the trio play Johnny Mandel's Suicide Is Painless (Theme from M*A*S*H), Duke Ellington's Reflections in D and Miles Davis's Nardis. Then guitarist Kenny Burrell joins the group for Davis's All Blues, Billy Strayhorn's Take the A Train and Thad Jones's A Child Is Born. A shame we don't have the entire 11 tracks in the broadcast. [Photo above of Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1978 courtesy of YouTube]

Here's the 50-minute video for Swiss television...

A special thanks to Dave Thompson, Yvan Ischer and Peter Levin.

Shirley Scott in 8 Albums and 2 Videos

Naturally, my afternoon with tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine on Tuesday led to an afternoon with organist Shirley Scott yesterday. It was inevitable. Once you get Scottie in your ear, you want her to go on and on. I have virtually all of her albums, but I focused on her 1960s releases, which are loaded with powerful original blues and juicy takes on old and new standards. Scott loved to set the keyboards so the bottom sounded thick as she coordinated her left hand with her feet on the pedals while the top notes were set to produce a high-pitched, bell-like ring. She also had long, graceful fingers that moved on the keyboards like softshell crabs. The result was a piano-like approach to the organ with a sophisticated groove. After all, the organ is a full-body instrument.

Let's listen to a bunch of clips by the Queen of the Organ:

First, here's Shirley Scott live, in one of her rare performance clips, with Harold Vick on tenor saxophonist in 1976 playing Don't Look Back...

Starting in 1958, Scott recorded three Cookbook albums with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis that kicked the organ combo into high gear at the Prestige label. Here's the complete Volume 1, with Jerome Richardson on flute...

Here's the complete Jaws from September 1958, which followed the first volume of Cookbook...

Here's the complete Jaws in Orbit from May 1959, with Steve Pulliam (tb), Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (ts), Shirley Scott (org), George Duvivier (b) and Arthur Edgehill (d)...

Here's Soul Shoutin' in October 1963, complete, with Stanley Turrentine (ts), Shirley Scott (org), Earl May (b) and Grassella Oliphant (d)...

Here's Scott's complete The Soul Is Willing in January 1964, featuring Stanley Turrentine (ts) Major Holley (b) and Grassella Oliphant (d)...

Here's the complete Great Scott!, recorded with Bob Cranshaw (b) and Candy Finch (d) in May 1964...

Here's Everybody Loves a Lover from September 1964 with the same personnel as above and Stanley Turrentine added...

Here's Scott in December 1964 on Queen of the Organ, complete, backed by Stanley Turrentine (ts) Bob Cranshaw (b) Candy Finch (d)...

And here's Scottie with fellow organists Brother Jack McDuff and Duke Jethro in November 1996 at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, with drummer Eddie Marshall....

Stanley Turrentine: Let It Go

Yesterday, around 3 p.m., I felt like listening to Stanley Turrentine. I wanted something upbeat and sassy by the tenor saxophonist framed by Shirley Scott's finger-popping organ. I also wanted the groove to be mid-'60s swinging—churchy and soulful, not riffy or electric. A few great standards and a bunch of blues. Most of all, I wanted Turrentine and Scott to square off on solos, showing each other what they got. [Photo above of Stanley Turrentine by Chuck Stewart for Impulse]

So I put on Turrentine's Let It Go, one of my favorite Turrentine albums. Recorded for Impulse in April 1966, the album included bassist Ron Carter and drummer Mack Simpkins. Turrentine and Scott were married at the time and it shows. The pair seem to be carrying on a musical kitchen-table conversation on each tune. The tracks are Turrentine's Let It Go, Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner's On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever), Turrentine's Ciao Ciao, Sy Oliver and Trummy Young's T'ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It), Turrentine's Good Lookin' Out, Alan Bergman and Johnny Mandel's Sure As You're Born and Peter DeRose and Mitchell Parish's Deep Purple.

Turrentine was taught to play the saxophone by his father, his biggest influence. A self described "old young man," Stanley Turrentine was brought up on the Black bands and their star saxophone soloists of the 1930s. Turrentine's bossy style comes from hearing and seeing commanding saxophonists such as Don Byas, Illinois Jacquet, Ben Webster, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins.

Born in Pittsburgh, Turrentine grew up in a musical family. His father, Thomas Turrentine Sr., was a saxophonist with Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans, his mother played stride piano, and his older brother, Tommy Turrentine, became a trumpet player. Stanley began playing professionally in R&B bands in the late 1940s and '50s. His musical training came during his time in the military mid-decade. Then he joined Max Roach's band and made the switch to jazz.

Shirley Scott was born in Philadelphia and studied trumpet and piano before switching to organ and recording late in the 1950s with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. She married Turrentine in 1960, but the pair divorced in 1971. During their marriage. they recorded on each other's albums, creating a singular sound as Turrentine's smooth R&B saxophone interacted with Scott's "told you so" organ. As this album proves, a gorgeous musical union. [Photo above of Shirley Scott by Chuck Stewart for Impulse]

Stanley Turrentine died in 2000; Shirley Scott died in 2002.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Stanley Turrentine's Let It Go here.

It's also on Spotify.

JazzWax tracks: Here's the title blues...

And here's On a Clear Day...