JazzWax

Brian, Benny and Neil

Last week in The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). On stage belting out songs since 1980, Brian seems like a stressed-out truck driver with a hair-trigger temper. The truth is Brian is among the sweetest rock stars I've interviewed. His father was British and his mother was Italian. His father fought in World War II for the British and helped liberate Rome and the region surrounding the city in June 1944. In a small town, his dad met the woman he was going to marry. In 1947, the couple headed to northern England to make a home, and Brian was born. But the gray English weather, cool temperatures and lard-cooked food dampened his mother's spirits. You'll never believe what helped save the marriage. His new memoir is here.

Here's Brian singing Back in Black with AC/DC at Donington Park in England in 1991...

And here's Brian with AC/DC at the Grammy Awards Ceremony in 2015...

Nine days to go. My book, Anatomy of 55 More Songs—the follow-up to my 2016 bestselling book Anatomy of a Song—will be out December 6. If you enjoy JazzWax, please show your support and buy a copy—go here. You know most or all of the songs in my book and you'll love the stories behind them from the composers who wrote the hits and the stars who recorded them. I'm so convinced, here are the 55 songs:

1. Walk On By — Dionne Warwick
2. Dancing in the Street — Martha and the Vandellas
3. Sunshine Superman — Donovan
4. Good Vibrations — Beach Boys
5. Up, Up and Away — The 5th Dimension
6. Get Together — Youngbloods
7. The Weight — The Band
8. Fire — Crazy World of Arthur Brown
9. Bad Moon Rising — Creedence Clearwater Revival
10. Crystal Blue Persuasion — Tommy James
11. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough — Diana Ross
12. Paranoid — Black Sabbath
13. Truckin’ — The Grateful Dead
14. I’m Eighteen —Alice Cooper
15. Band a Gong — T Rex
16. Roundabout — Yes
17. Doctor My Eyes — Jackson Browne
18. Long Tall Woman in a Black Dress — The Hollies
19. Rocket Man — Elton John
20. Papa Was a Rolling Stone — The Temptations
21. I’ll Be Around — The Spinners
22. Killing Me Softly — Roberta Flack
23. Smoke on the Water — Deep Purple
24. Hello It’s Me — Todd Rundgren
25. She’s Gone — Hall & Oates
26. Come and Get Your Love — Redbone
27. Sundown — Gordon Lightfoot
28. I’m Not in Love — 10CC
29. Love Is the Drug — Roxy Music
30. The Boys Are Back in Town — Thin Lizzy
31. Fly Like an Eagle — Steve Miller Band
32. Year of the Cat — Al Stewart
33. Barracuda — Heart
34. Nobody Does It Better — Carly Simon
35. Peg — Steely Dan
36. My Best Friend’s Girl — The Cars
37. The Gambler — Kernny Rogers
38. September — Earth Wind & Fire
39. What a Fool Believes — Doobie Bros
40. Accidents Will Happen — Elvis Costello
41. Devil Went Down to Georgia — Charlie Daniels
42. Good Times — Chic
43. Highway to Hell — AC/DC
44. Cars — Gary Numan
45. On the Radio — Donna Summer
46. Bad Reputation — Joan Jett
47. Rapture — Blondie
48. Don’t Stop Believing — Journey
49. Steppin’ Out — Joe Jackson
50. Burning Down the House — Talking Heads
51. The Power of Love — Huey Lewis
52. Small Town — John Mellencamp
53. Take It So Hard — Keith Richards
54. Being Boring — Pet Shop Boys
55. If It Makes You Happy — Sheryl Crow

Listen to the songs for free by going to my book site and playing them on my specially created Spotify playlist in the same order as the book. Go here.

Benny Golson. Producer-director Jacey Falk hopes to finish his documentary on tenor saxophonist and composer Benny Golson by July. The documentary is Benny Golson: Going Beyond the Horizon, and he needs funding to help pay the licensing fees on the songs he wants to use. His GoFundMe page can be found here. Here's the documentary's trailer... 

In Paris? The restaurant Birdie Num Num in Paris is hosting an exhibit by the fabulous photographer Gilles D'Elia through December. All of the images are for sale. For more information on Gilles as well as his glorious photographs, go here.

Giacomo Gates sent along an audio clip of Thelonious Monk's Stuffy Turkey. Think of the clip as fantastic holiday leftovers. Here's Monk...

Travel playlist. Heading home on Sunday? I've got music for you. Earlier in the week, I received the following email from Kim Paris of the FM Radio Archive...

Marc, I enjoyed reading Mark Rabin's JazzWax contribution last weekend on transportation films and soundtracks. As you probably know, Mark is one of the leading contributors of broadcast recordings on FM Radio Archive, with 70 recordings so far.

What you may not know is that Mark's contribution to the FM Radio Archive coaxed Raoul van Hall to share his "Jazz From The Left" radio show broadcasts. Raoul also made some in-flight entertainment soundtracks for Air China, China Airways, Gulf Air, Oman Air & Bangkok Airlines.

Raoul was kind enough to share one called "Jazz Giants" that I posted on FM Radio Archive so JazzWax readers can enjoy. Go here.

Duduka Da Fonseca—Yes!!! (Sunnyside). Duduka is is a Brazilian jazz drummer and a founding member of Trio da Paz with Romero Lubambo and Nilson Matta. His new album, Yes!!!, features Quarteto Universal—with Vinicius Gomes on guitars, Helio Alves on piano and Gili Lopes on bass. The beauty of Duduka is his feathery ferocity on drums that not only drives the music but creates a shimmering atmosphere around it. On his new album, Duduka is accompanied by musicians who bring the rhythmic heat with flexibility and intensity. Best of all on this album, each song has a different personality and feel. Go here.

Here's Samba Novo...

Billy Drummond—Valse Sinistre (Cellar Music). Drummer Billy Drummond has long been inspired by the edge and push of alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. So opening his new album with McLean's Little Melonae makes perfect sense. The musicians in Billy's group, Freedom of Ideas, are Dayna Stephens on saxophones, Micah Thomas on piano and Dezron Douglas on bass. What I enjoy most about this album is how the musicians go deep and create long shadows with bursts of light. Each artist in the quartet contributes extraordinary musicianship, and the approach on each song is conversational and defies convention. The thread running through all of the songs are Billy's drums, which coax, combat and challenge the other musicians as they let their personalities stand out. Go here.

Here's Clara's Room...

Ant Law and Alex Hitchcock—Same Moon in the Same World (Oim). The British jazz composer-collagists Ant Law (guitar) and Alex Hitchcock ( saxophonist) join forces here with Micah Thomas (piano), Dezron Douglas (bass) and Dayna Stephens (saxophone) and a team of special guests—Joel Ross, Eric Harland, Jasper Høiby, Linda Oh, Kendrick Scott, Shai Maestro, Tim Garland, Ben Williams and Sun-Mi Hong. Their music is deliciously eclectic and conceptual, pushing and pulling in different imaginative directions, delivering a wide range of styles and forms. The best part about this album is how it holds your attention with a shower of jazz and acid-jazz fragments and sonic layers. For me, it's jazz that grows on me and won't let go. Go here.

Here's Haven't Meta Yet...

Correction. Following my post on the Giants of Jazz, Nico Wilke sent along an email to let me know that the video was from October 1972, not 1971. He sent along photos of the 1971 event that he attended and the different attire by the musicians in 1972. I made the fix, and the 1972 poster is above. To read the post, go here.

And finally, here's Neil Young and Crazy Horse and their great new single Chevrolet from their new album, World Record. Neil is joined by Crazy Horse guitarist Nils Lofgren, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina. That's Neil's late father, Scott Young, on the album cover above. Scott was a Canadian journalist, sportswriter and author of 45 novels and non-fiction books. Neil's still got it...

Here's Chevrolet...

Video: Giants of Jazz in Holland, 1972

The Giants of Jazz was a bebop supergroup assembled by George Wein in 1971 after a riot at the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, R.I., suspended the event. To recoup the losses, George sent the newly formed sextet and the festival itself out on tour. Starting in the fall, the Giants performed in Australia followed by Europe and the U.S. in 1972, where they appeared at mostly indoor venues throughout the country before heading off to Europe again that fall. I saw them in July 1972 when I was 15 at Carnegie Hall. Post-riot, the Newport Jazz Festival had relocated to New York. A jazz fan for three years and by then versed in the music recorded by the bop legends on stage, I was blown away.

On October 29, 1972, on the second European tour, the group—Dizzy Gillespie (tp), Sonny Stitt (as/ts), Kai Winding (tb), Thelonious Monk (p), Al McKibbon (b) and Art Blakey (d)—appeared at Rotterdam's De Doelen in the Netherlands. The Giants had appeared a year earlier at the concert hall, which had been rebuilt in 1965 with its main hall holding 2,200 seats.

Earlier this week, Danilo Morandi in Switzerland sent along a two-part video of the Giants of Jazz's performance there taped originally for Dutch TV. I figured since most of you are recovering from yesterday's meal, this would be perfect sofa viewing and listening.

Here's Part 1...

And here's Part 2...

Video: Bill Evans and Lee Konitz, 1965

To my American readers in the U.S. and abroad, Happy Thanksgiving. To the rest of the world, Happy Thanksgiving. Today is one of our favorite holidays. It's nondenominational and celebrates cooperation with others for the sake of mutual survival. And like all great holidays, a robust meal is the focus and consumed with family and friends as we say thanks for all that is good and kind.

In this spirit, I thought I'd serve up a video of Bill Evans and Lee Konitz that was taped for Danish TV in Copenhagen in late 1965. Dave Thompson sent this one along. [Photo above of Bill Evans in Copenhagen in late 1965 courtesy of the Jan Persson estate]

Touring separately in Europe in October 1965, pianist Bill Evans and saxophonist Lee Konitz found themselves together in West Berlin at the end of the month. They performed at West Berlin's Philharmonie in West Berlin on the 29th and then headed north to Denmark with Evans's bassist and drummer on this European tour—Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen and Alan Dawson. [Photo above of Lee Konitz in Copenhagen in late 1965, courtesy of the Jan Persson estate] 

On the 31st, they taped two songs for Danish television in Copenhagen, most likely in the afternoon as a tune-up for their stage performance that night at the Tivoli Theatre. The songs were How Deep Is the Ocean and Beautiful Love.

Here's their TV taping. Safe travels if you're on the road this weekend...