Jazz Poetry - "O-Jazz-O"

O-Jazz-O by Bob Kaufman

Where the string
At
some point,
Was umbilical jazz,
Or perhaps,
In memory,
A long lost bloody cross,
Buried in some steel cavalry.
In what time
For whom do we bleed,
Lost notes, from some jazzman's
Broken needle.
Musical tears from lost
Eyes.
Broken drumsticks, why?
Pitter patter, boom dropping
Bombs in the middle
Of my emotions
My father's sound
My mother's sound,
Is love,
Is life.

--From Cranial Guitar (1995)

Note: Bob Kaufman (1925 - 1986) was a Beat/surrealist poet inspired by jazz music. He was born in New Orleans, lived in New York during the 1940s and 1950s (where he met fellow Beats William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg), and then settled in San Francisco from 1958 until his death. Kaufman usually recited his poems and didn't write them down - his work survives because his wife, Eileen, transcribed the poems as he conceived them. His poetry used the syncopated rhythms and meter of jazz and particularly bebop. Kaufman described his own work this way: "My head is a bony guitar, strung with tongues, plucked by fingers and nails."

Gerry Mulligan - "Walking Shoes" (1956)

Recorded in Rome. Gerry Mulligan, baritone sax; Zoot Sims, tenor sax; Jon Eardley, trumpet; Bob Brookmeyer, trombone; Bill Crow, bass; and Dave Bailey, drums.

Buck and Cow Cow

Perhaps only baseball players and mobsters have more colorful and varied nicknames than jazz musicians. I did an earlier post on jazz musicians with animal nicknames entitled “Little Bird and Papa Mutt,” which included the following list:

• Bird - Charlie Parker
• Cat - William Alonzo Anderson
• The Cat - Jimmy Smith
• Duck - Donald Bailey
• The Fox - Maynard Ferguson
• Frog - Ben Webster
• Gator - Willis Jackson
• The Great Dane - Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
• The Hawk - Coleman Hawkins
• The Lion - Willie Smith
• Little Bird - Albert Ayler and Jimmy Heath
• Mouse - Irving Randolph
• Mousey - Elmer Alexander
• Mule - Major Holley
• Mutt or Papa Mutt -Tom Carey
• Pony - Norwood Poindexter
• Rabbit - Johnny Hodges
• The Stork - Paul Desmond
• Tiger - George Haynes

     A reader suggested the following addenda: Ben Webster was also apparently called "Beast"; saxophonist Sonny Stitt was yet another "Little Bird"; and Charles Edward Davenport, an early boogie woogie piano player, was known as "Cow Cow." I also found a few others to add, thanks to Bill Crow’s (who doesn't need an animal nickname) book Jazz Anecdotes:

• Bunny - Roland Berrigan
• Honeybear - Gene Sedric
• Hoss - Walter Page
• Octopus - Tal Farlow
• Porky - Al Porcino
• Sharkey - Joseph Bonano

     Trumpeter Wilbur Dorsey Clayton, who played with Count Basie, was nicknamed “Buck” by his mother, although this was apparently a not-so-subtle allusion to his American Indian ancestry. A couple of questionable additions: Trumpeter Charles Melvin Williams, who spent many years with the Duke Ellington orchestra, was known as  "Cootie." I call this “questionable” because the word cootie refers only to a body louse, and I would hesitate to include this under the category of animals. Ditto for guitarist Clifton “Skeeter” Best - a mosquito is an animal only by the broadest definition.
     Finally, there’s trumpeter and composer Joseph “Wingy” Manone, who lost an arm as a boy in New Orleans as a result of a streetcar accident. This nickname has to rank as a bit of gallows humor, although Manone’s 1948 autobiography was entitled Trumpet on the Wing. Jazz violinist Joe Venuti, who was a notorious practical joker and good friend of Manone, used to send “Wingy” a single cufflink every year on his birthday.

This Week in Jazz History: May 27 to June 2

May 27

• Bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen born 1946 in Osted, Denmark.
• Pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba born 1963 in Havana, Cuba.
• Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater born 1950 in Memphis, TN.

 May 28

• Pianist/composer Reginald Forsythe born 1907 in London, England.
• Bandleader Andy Kirk born 1898 in Newport, KY.
• Pianist Russ Freeman born Chicago, IL, 1926.

 May 29

• Drummer Kenny Washington born 1958 in Staten Island, NY.
• Duke Ellington records Anatomy of a Murder, 1959.
• Pianist Hilton Ruiz born 1952 in New York, NY.

 May 30

• Saxophonist Frank Trumbauer born 1901 in Carbondale, IL.
• Clarinetist/bandleader Benny Goodman born 1909 in Chicago, IL.
• Trumpeter Sidney DeParis born 1905 in Crawfordsville, IN.

 May 31

• Saxophonist Otto "Toby" Hardwicke born 1904 in Washington, D.C.
• Two drummers born - Albert "Tootie" Heath 1935 in Philadelphia, PA, and Louis Hayes 1937 in Detroit, MI.
• Pianist Bill Evans records Time Remembered, 1963.

 June 1

• Saxophonist Hal McKusick born 1924 in Medford, MA.
• Vocalist Billie Holiday records “I’ll Never Be The Same” with a band led by pianist Teddy Wilson, including tenor saxophonist Lester Young, 1937.
• Pianist/composer Thelonious Monk records “Played Twice,” 1959.

 June 2

• Vocalist Ella Fitzgerald records “Sing Me A Swing Song” with drummer Chick Webb’s band, 1936.
• Pianist Marty Napoleon born 1921 in New York, NY.
• Multi reedman Eric Dolphy records “Last Date in Hilversum,” The Netherlands, 1964.

Source: Smithsonian Jazz

The Way It Went Down

Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer (2009) is a warts-and-all portrait of the great jazz vocalist, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 87. The film contains a trove of archival footage covering O’Day’s entire career, extended interviews with O’Day, and comments from other musicians and critics. While the filmmakers obviously adore her, they don’t shy away from the darker aspects of her life. Neither does O’Day herself - shy is not an adjective you could possibly apply to her.
     O’Day was born in Chicago in 1919 and was a chorus girl by the age of 17. She claimed a surgical mistake during a childhood tonsillectomy, which excised her uvula, left her incapable of singing with vibrato or able to maintain long notes. This forced her to develop the more rhythmic singing style that she was famous for.
     She got her big break in the early 1940s with Gene Krupa’s band. A short “soundie” musical film from the time shows a young, flirty O’Day upstaging trumpeter Roy Eldridge on "Let Me Off Uptown." She also spent some time with the Stan Kenton orchestra as the lead singer, although it was not always a happy collaboration.
     She launched her solo career in the late Forties, and this was also the start of her drug problems. She was arrested for possession of marijuana and sentenced to 90 days in jail. O’Day was one of the earliest embodiments of the “hip white chick” and she’s even mentioned in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. She asserts that the controversy actually helped her career.
     She recorded her first album, Anita O’Day Sings Jazz, in 1952 for the new label Norgran Records, Norman Granz’s precursor to Verve Records. In fact, it was the label's inaugural record and proved to be a popular success. O’Day recorded a total of seventeen LPs for Verve. At the same time, she was also arrested for possession of heroin, an addiction that would continue into the late Sixties and lead to her designation as “the Jezebel of Jazz.”
     Her appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival propelled her into stardom. Her spectacular performance of “Sweet Georgia Brown” while decked out in a short black dress and showy ostrich-feather hat is featured in Bert Stern’s documentary Jazz on a Summer’s Day, where she steals the show. This performance is shown in full here as well. After this, she continued to record in the 1960s and toured extensively overseas, particularly in Japan.
     She nearly died of a heroin overdose in 1968; in fact, she was pronounced dead before being revived. This experience convinced her to kick the habit. She is quite matter-of-fact about her drug addiction in her 1981 memoir, High Times, Hard Times, and in this film she refuses to sentimentalize or moralize about it. During an interview on the Today show, host Bryant Gumbel sanctimoniously delineates her many hardships: "Your personal experiences include rape, abortion, jail, heroin addiction..." She cuts him off - "It's the way it went down, Bryant" - the icy emphasis on the final “t” in his first name chills any attempt to elicit “valuable lessons learned” from her life. She’ll have none of it.
     This film shows her to be not only a great vocalist and hip white chick, but also - there’s no better way to put it - a tough broad. Her later career was uneven, as was her voice (intonation was not her strong suit), but she continued recording right up to the end - her last LP was the aptly named Indestructible! (2006). 
     Life of a Jazz Singer contains some great vintage material of O’Day: versions of “Let’s Fall In Love” and “Boogie Blues,” as well as “Love For Sale” and “Trav’lin’ Light” with a Japanese big band. Also included are a lightning-quick “Tea For Two” and a sensuous “Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square” from a 1963 Swedish performance. My personal favorite is a version of “Honeysuckle Rose” from a televised concert in Tokyo from 1963. The video quality is mediocre, but the performance is a swinging, joyous experience.

Jimmy Smith - "The Sermon" (1964)

Jimmy Smith, organ; Quentin Warren, guitar; and Billy Hart, drums. From a BBC-TV broadcast.

This Week in Jazz History: May 20 to May 26

May 20

• Woody Herman’s Woodchoppers record “Pam” featuring trumpeter Sonny Berman, 1946.
• Drummer Ralph Petersen born 1962 in Pleasantville, NJ.
• Mills Blue Rhythm Band records “St. Louis Wiggle Rhythm” with trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen, 1935.

 May 21

• Bassist Christian McBride born 1972 in Philadelphia, PA.
• Pianist/vocalist Fats Waller born 1904 in New York City.
• Trumpeter Kenny Dorham records But Beautiful with pianist Hank Jones, bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Max Roach, 1957.

 May 22

• Pianist Dick Hyman records “Jelly and James P.,” a tribute to Morton and Johnson, 1975.
• Alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman records “Lonely Woman” and “Congeniality,” 1959.
• Pianist Sun Ra born 1914 in Birmingham, AL.

 May 23

• Saxophonist John Coltrane records “Greensleeves” with a large ensemble including trumpeters Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard and reedman Eric Dolphy 1961.
• Banjoist/guitarist Fred Guy born 1897 in Burkesville, GA.
• Clarinetist Artie Shaw born 1910 in New York City.

 May 24

• Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp born 1937 in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
• Historic jazz concert at New York’s Imperial Theater - including clarinetist Artie Shaw’s new band that featured a string section. 1936.
• Tenor saxophonists John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins record Tenor Madness, 1956.

 May 25

• Clarinetist/tenor saxophonist Jimmy Hamilton born 1917 in Dillon, SC.
• Two trumpeters born - Miles Davis, 1926 in Alton, IL., and Wallace Roney, 1960 in Philadelphia, PA.
• Saxophonists Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins and trumpeter Roy Eldridge record “I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me,” 1940.

 May 26

• Trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Miles Davis born 1926 in Alton, IL.
• Vocalist Peggy Lee born 1920 in Jamestown, ND.
• Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton records Flying Home with a classic solo by tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet, 1942.

 Source: Smithsonian Jazz

In Memoriam: Hank Jones (1918 - 2010)

Hank Jones - "Willow Weep for Me" (1994)

John & Julie & Julia

Julia Child made me a blogger.
     At the beginning of this year, I watched Julie & Julia. For those of you unfamiliar with the film, it concerns a young woman in Queens, Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams), who is feeling that her life has stagnated. To break out of her doldrums, she decides to cook her way through Julia Child’s tome, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in the course of a year - 524 recipes in 365 days - and to blog about the experience. The movie then jumps back to Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) in late-1940s Paris, who is also looking for something to do with her life. After several unsuccessful attempts at procuring an avocation, including hat making, she finally enrolls in the Cordon Bleu cooking school, where she sticks out like a broken drumstick as a tall, uncouth, loud American - who fearlessly attacks every cooking challenge.
     The story cuts back and forth between the stories of these two women, who both find fulfillment in their own ways in the act of cooking. Julia, after many struggles, writes her masterpiece and gets it published. Julie gains more and more followers for her blog, is profiled in the New York Times, and publishes a book about her year of cooking called Julie & Julia.
     The day after watching this film, I started this blog. I was truly inspired by the notion of sharing a passion - in my case, it happened to be jazz instead of Coq au Vin - by communicating with others online. And even though fame, fortune, and the New York Times have yet to come calling, I don’t regret it a bit. In fact, I’d like to encourage anyone reading this to start a blog. Whatever it is that you’re passionate about, share it. If you’re a visual artist, post your art. If you’re a musician, post your tunes. Writers, write. There’s an audience out there looking for you. And you’ll get to indulge your own sweet tooth for your subject every day. You can have your cake and blog about it too.