In April 1964, bassist Charles Mingus was on tour in Liège, Belgium, and recorded for the Belgian TV show, Jazz Pour Tous. This 30-minute broadcast was recently colorized using Deoldify. The songs performed are Farewell Eric Dolphy, Carlye Goodbye and Meditations. The group featured Mingus on bass; Dolphy on alto sax, bass clarinet and flute; Clifford Jordan on tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard on piano and Dannie Richmond on drums. Two months later, Dolphy would be dead in Germany after falling into a diabetic coma. His diabetes had gone undiagnosed. [Photo above of Eric Dolphy from YouTube]
Last week in The Wall Street Journal,I interviewed actor, musician, singer, standup comedian Jamie Foxx for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Jamie and I spoke by video Zoom and talked about his early years and being adopted by the same couple that had adopted his mother 13 years earlier. As anyone who has watched Ray, the Ray Charles biopic, Foxx is an extraordinary talent—and he never took an acting lesson. As he told me, "I've always been acting." Jamie has a memoir out (go here).
Also in the WSJ last week, my essay on the Grateful Dead's Skull and Roses live double album that came out 50 years ago on October 24, 1971 (go here). The album's impeccable sound, extended jamming and an entire side devoted to a fusion jazz piece revolutionized the live rock album by showing how the format could be maximized. The Dead also used the album to pull of a marketing coup. Here's the full album...
Seventeen days to go until my book, Rock Concert: An Oral History as Told by the Artists, Backstage Insiders, and Fans Who Were There (Grove Press) is published. Remember, JazzWax is free, and for the past 14 years it has been my gift to you. Give me a gift and buy my book. It reads like a dart. And it's the only rock concert experience this fall that doesn't require a mask.
In the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand where the book is being published simultaneously, please visit Amazon.
John Dennis. Weeks after my post on John Dennis, a little-known jazz pianist, Charlie Berg sent along a wonderful discovery:
Hey Marc. Check out this vocal group. I compared pictures, and I think that's the same John Dennis on piano and here singing bass/baritone. Here are a bunch of recordings:
Here are the Caldwells' It's Like Taking Candy From a Baby in 1948...
Here's I Don't Worry Anymore and I Gotta Move in 1947...
And here's Marv Goldberg on Dennis's bio (go here).
Ira Sullivan. Following my post on Ira Sullivan and Red Rodney last week, I heard from Kim Paris of the FM Radio Archive:
Marc, I enjoyed reading your article about Ira Sullivan and Red Rodney. I believe you'll be interested in hearing this set of the Rodney-Sullivan quintet in concert at the 1980 Chicago Jazz Festival. This recording is courtesy of Mark Rabin's collection, like so many others. Go here.
Homeless hands. Irving Greines, a stunning photographer who I last posted about here, has assembled a page at his site of hands that belong to the homeless. Go here. [Photo above of a homeless person's hands by Irving Greines, courtesy of Irving Greines]
Shock: Music in Hi-Fi. In 1958, producer Creed Taylor formed the Creed Taylor Orchestra with Kenyon Hopkins and released a handful of albums on ABC Paramount. They were the audio equivalent of horror comics popular with teens then. One of them was Shock: Music in Hi-Fi. Mark Cathcart, who hosts a Creed Taylor tribute site, researched the woman who appears shrieking on the cover down to her fingernail polish. Just kidding, but he got pretty close. For more, go here.
René Thomas. Last week, Jean -Luc Gautier send along a video clip of René Thomas and Bobby Jaspar in 1962 on Belgian TV. Go here.
Mina. From Belgium, let's fly down to Rome and listen to a bossa nova medley in 1968 by Mina, the Italian pop singing sensation...
In New York next week? Check out the Django Festival All Stars at Birdland from October 26 to 30. It's part of Birdland's Django Reinhardt New York Festival. The French group is sensational, and the festival, produced by Pat Philips, is celebrating its 21st year. The All Stars—Samson Schmitt, Pierre Blanchard, Ludovic Beier, DouDou Cuillerier and Antonio Licusati—will be playing all five nights and will be joined by special guests:
October 26: Ken Peplowski — clarinet
October 27: Samara Joy — voclaist
October 28: Ingrid Jensen — trumpet
October 29 & 30: Anais Reno — vocalist
The Django Reinhardt All Stars then head out on tour:
October
31: Townecrier, Beacon, N.Y.
November
4: Keystone Korner, Baltimore
5: James Moody Festival, Chase Room, NJPAC
6: Perelman Theatre, Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, Pa.
7: Armenian Church, Wayne, N.J.
11: Outpost Jazz, Albuquerque, N.M.
12: Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix
13: Taos Jazz Bebop Society Festival, N.M.
15 & 16: Dazzle, Denver, Colo.
18: Center For The Arts, Grass Valley, Ca.
19: Blue Note Jazz, Napa, Ca.
21: Torrance Cultural Arts Center, Torrance, Ca.
22: Kuumbwa Jazz, Santa Cruz, Ca.
Art Pepper. Want to listen to the audiobook of Art Pepper's memoir, Straight Life? Co-author Laurie Pepper narrates. Go here.
And finally. Pianist Dave Thompson sent along Bill Evans playing Detour Ahead in 1965, joined by bassist Neils Henning Orsted Pederson and drummer Alan Dawson.Go here...
Canadian guitarist Sonny Greenwich (above) is still with us. He has performed with musicians such as Charles Lloyd, Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, John Handy and Sun Ra. So I was excited last week when I received the following from Matt LeGroulx in Montreal:
Hi Marc. First, thank you and Brigitte Berman for making her "Bix" documentary available to your readers. What a great film. Second, I just came across "It Ain't All Jazz," a documentary about guitarist Sonny Greenwich by his son, though it's equally about pianist Wray Downes and drummer Archie Alleyne, all Canadian jazz legends. Great performances and stories from all three.
They don't sugarcoat their experiences as Black men in North America. It's an essential watch for fans of Montreal jazz and Canadian music in general. Archie passed away in 2015, but Wray only left us last year. Canadian jazz sometimes may seem to begin and end with Oscar Peterson, but scratch the surface and there's so much depth.
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Rock Concert: An Oral History" (Grove), "Anatomy of a Song" (Grove) and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards
