A Century of Music

[Zeeba Neighba]

Frank Sinatra - A Swingin' Affair! (1957)
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus (1957)
John Coltrane - Blue Train (1957)

After Miles, have continued the great listening today. A Swingin Affair! doesn't get enough attention as Songs For Swingin' Lovers and Come Fly With Me but it's just as good. Contains his iconic recording of "Night and Day" (which he would rerecord on Reprise) plus two renditions by Frank I really enjoy "Stars Fall on Alabama" and "The Lonesome Road"
Rollins Saxophone Colossus is arguably his best with the classic "St. Thomas" as well as "Moritat" (taken from "Mack the Knife")
Blue Train is listed as this year's best on Best Ever Albums, and I can't argue. Strangely, I probably break out 5 or 6 Coltrane albums before this one, and I'm not sure why - fantastic stuff

 

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Anita O'Day - Anita Sings the Most (1957)
Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster (1957)
Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners (1957)

First appearance of the wonderful jazz singer Anita O'Day. Great voice, wild life - she could do drugs as well as the jazz boys and remarkably lived until age 87. Trivia: she chose her stage name from the pig Latin word for "dough". Tremendous confidence and interesting interpretation of standards. Not remembered as well as Billie and Ella but should.

Have always enjoyed the meeting of the two great tenors Hawkins and Webster - mostly low-tempo to mid-tempo ballads and standards but soooo smooth.
An aside: love it when jazz musicians cover odd songs - I mean, I love me some "Body and Soul" and "Embraceable You" but they are covered so often. Really get into it when a musician breaks out songs like "I'm An Old Cowhand" (as I mentioned earlier with Sonny Rollins) or, here, the old barbershop quartet standard "Shine On Harvest Moon'. Well done!

And speaking of Sonny Rollins, he had a busy 1957 - Saxophone Colossus, Way Out West, his Village Vanguard live set, and here with Monk on what is often touted as Monk's best Brilliant Corners - listening chronologically and hearing the jazz pianists of the time, one really appreciates just how out there Monk's angular playing was. Rollins and altoist Ernie Henry both are excellent and their dissonant playing sounds so modern even listening today.

 

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West Side Story (Original Broadway Cast) (1957)
The Music Man (Original Broadway Cast) (1957)
Johnny Griffin - A Blowin' Session (1957)

Turning now to the two biggest musicals of the year. The Music Man was one of my father's favorite musicals (and who could blame him with the charismatic performance of Robert Preston). As for West Side Story and my father, not so much. However I love both. In fact, the 8 track of the film West Side Story was probably my first personal music preference bought when I was probably 10 when getting a new record player (with 8 track player - wowwee!). I think it was also my only 8-track. But man do I enjoy the soundtrack (and Bernstein's score).
Which won the Tony for Best Musical that year in one of the biggest competitions of the award (along with lesser known musicals like Jamaica, New Girl in Town, and Oh Captain! Answer: The Music Man

Next back to jazz and an album true to its title - not only Johnny Griffin but John Coltrane and Hank Mobley appear on this album not to mention some fantastic trumpet work by Lee Morgan. Three tenors! It's just not done, man! Actually Coltrane wasn't suppose to be on the album but Griffin saw him on the way to the studio and asked him to join him; Coltrane was very obliging - the result, some powerful "blowin'".
This was an album choice on the initial MG's original album club (but you all remember that, dontcha)

 

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Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book (1957)
Frank Sinatra - Where Are You (1957)
Count Basie - April in Paris (1957)

My day so far:
Years ago, I wanted to acquire Ella's Song Books on CD which, at the time as they were double and triple CDs, were slightly pricey. Each year my dad would buy me one for Christmas, so fond memories of these thoughtful gifts each time I listen
Although my favorite Song Books are Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart, all of them are just great including this one which allows Ella to really scat on several numbers. The Ellington Song Book is unique in that Duke and his band actually accompany Ella. Fantastic

With Swingin' Affair and his Christmas album, Ol' Blue Eyes was quite busy in 1957. He also released Where Are You - his first Capitol album without Nelson Riddle (Gordon Jenkins is the arranger/conduction). I'm not as big a fan of Sinatra's albums where the whole album is devoted to slow numbers, torch songs but the title track and "I'm A Fool To Want You" are tremendous.

Finally Count Basie's outstanding April in Paris - can't get much better when it comes to a classic big band jazz album

 

[Ojai Sam]

Finally Count Basie's outstanding April in Paris - can't get much better when it comes to a classic big band jazz album.

One more time!

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Count Basie - At Newport (1957)
Dizzy Gillespie - At Newport (1957)
Art Pepper - Meets the Rhythm Section (1957)

Finished my day with these three - all albums that continue to get frequent play by me over the 25+ years I've owned them. Given the success of Duke Ellington's Newport concert album a year earlier, it's understandable that more Newport albums should follow. Both are great - I adore Gillespie's album which shows Gillespie's wonderful humor as well as the return of pianist Mary Lou Williams (who had taking a break from performing). Still, hearing Lester Young live on tenor on the Basie set is an experience

Finally the cool saxophone of Art Pepper - I've posted before the mythology of this album (Pepper unrehearsed, dealing with drug issues, with musicians he hadn't met/played with prior (Miles Davis' rhythm section), on a crappy sax) produces a gem of an album. The ultimate cool sounding disc.

 

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Little Richard - Here's Little Richard (1957)
The Crickets - The "Chirping" Crickets (1957)
Chuck Berry - After School Session (1957)
Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! (1957)

Spent the morning with these important debut albums of rock pioneers all from 1957

 

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Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (1957)
Miles Davis - Miles Ahead (1957)

Back to some Miles Davis who had SIX albums released in 1957 - three by Prestige (Walkin', Cookin', and Bags Groove), two by his new label Columbia (Round About Midnight and Miles Ahead), and one by Capitol (the combined Birth of the Cool tracks recorded years earlier and released as singles and EPs previously). Out of all of them the only one actually recorded in 1957 was Miles Ahead where Miles teams up with a big band ("+19") and arranger Gil Evans. Here Miles (who by 1957 had already fired John Coltrane and Philly Joe Jones from his "first great quintet") was interested in Third Stream music, a combination of jazz and classical (with some world music elements). Aside from Sketches of Spain, I don't adore this direction of Miles preferring both his feet in jazz like on Cookin' and the other "-in'" albums which, though recorded all in 1956, would be released by Prestige over the ensuing 4 years

 

[Ojai Sam]

Johnny Griffin - A Blowin' Session (1957)

Three tenors! It's just not done, man!

Pavarotti and his two friends might not agree.

Sonny is definitely for the birds though.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Last week finished up 1955 with:

Roy Hamilton - You'll Never Walk Alone

Hamilton is a singer I only discovered perhaps 5 years ago - He's one that deserves to be remembered more. A tremendous voice who, though he covered standards bringing a gospel flavored vocal to them, had a tremendous influence of soul. He was a big inspiration of Sam Cooke. The Righteous Brothers emulated his style (and would cover one of his biggest hits "Unchained Melody"); thus the blue-eyed soulsters are in debut to Hamilton as well. Bill Medley in fact once noted in his biography that Hamilton was Elvis' favorite singer.

I fell lamentably behind on this worthy project due to the crush of work. I’m catching up by working backwards and stumbled over this one. I’ve heard the name and vaguely remember “You Can Have Her” but he’s got a huge discography on Spotify. Gotta check this one out:

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Finished up my 1957 listening this weekend with:

Thelonious Monk - Monk's Music
Charles Mingus - The Clown
Sarah Vaughn - At Mister Kelly's
Coleman Hawkins - The Hawk Flies High

Four to finish the week. After Miles let Coltrane go, he would join Monk's group for a bit - as great as Brilliant Corners is, personally this one is my favorite of Monk's
The Clown is an unusual album in Mingus' discography and easy to overlook as it's between Pithocantropus erectus and Tijuana Moods two stone cold classics. Still it contains one of Mingus' greatest - "Haitian Fight Song" (which he would rework a couple of times most notably as "II B.S." on Mingus x 5). The Jean Shepherd (of Christmas Story fame) narrated title track seems dated with musical accompaniment of a clown's desire for public approval, but has grown more interesting to me on repeated listening
As for the last two, just solid listens - Sarah sounds great live, and you know I love Coleman Hawkins. Great finish to 1957.

 

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Starting 1958 listening today as always with a playlist of the top singles as well as great songs that didn't chart as high (or at all)

1958 Top Singles
1) "Nel blu dipinto di blu" (aka Volare) by Dominico Modugno (the first Grammy winner for best song)
2) "All I Have to Do Is Dream" by The Everly Brothers
3) "Don't" by Elvis Presley
4) "Witch Doctor" by David Seville
5) "Patricia" by Perez Prado
6) "Catch A Falling Star" by Perry Como
7) "Tequila" by The Camps
8) "Sail Along Silvery Moon" by Billy Vaughn
9) "It's All In the Game" by Tommy Edwards
10) "Return to Me" by Dean Martin
11) "It's Only Make Believe" by Conway Twitty
12) "Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley
13) "Bird Dog" by The Everly Brothers
14) "Get A Job" by The Silhouettes
15) "Little Star" by The Elegants
16) "Twilight Time" by The Platters
17) "Stood Up" by Ricky Nelson
18) "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands" by Laurie London
19) "Secretly" by Jimy Rodgers
20) "At the Hop" by Danny & The Juniors
21) "Yakety Yak" by The Coasters
22) "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck" by Elvis Presley
23) "Rockin' Robin" by Bobby Day
24) "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson
25) "A Wonderful Time Up There" by Pat Boone

1957 and 1958 were such great years if you're a doo wop fan - many top doo wop songs even charted high.
Elvis and The Everly Brothers still going strong as was Conway Twitty's Elvis-sounding "It's Only Make Believe". Ricky Nelson at peak popularity here

I love doing this countdown just so I can hear songs like Dave Seville's pre-Chipmunks "Witch Doctor" and Sheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater"

Other greats from the year:
"Tom Dooley" by The Kingston Trio
"Johnny B. Goode" and "Carol" by Chuck Berry
"Summertime Blues" by Eddie Cochran
"Good Golly Miss Molly" by Little Richard
"For Your Precious Love" by The Impressions/Jerry Butler
"La Bamba" by Ritchie Valens
"Rumble" by Link Ray
"Chantilly Lace" by The Big Bopper
"Do You Want to Dance" by Bobby Freeman
"Willie and the Hand Jive" by Johnny Otis
"Stagger Lee" by Lloyd Price
"Tears on My Pillow" by The Imperials
"Dizzy Miss Lizzy" by Larry Williams
"16 Candles" by The Crests
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" by The Platters
"Splish Splash" by Bobby Darin
"(Night Time Is) The Right Time" by Ray Charles
"Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" by Carl Perkins
"It's So Easy" by Buddy Holly

So many of these were later made into popular/well known covers in the 1960s

 

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Frank Sinatra - Come Fly With Me (1958)
Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else (1958)
Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin'

Starting 1958 albums with one of the greats - Sinatra's concept album all centered around travel/places around the globe.

Somethin' Else is as much a Miles Davis album as it is Cannonball Adderley (who was in Davis' group at the time). Davis's trumpet and Cannonball's alto sound great together.
Haven't been entirely keeping track of running times but at almost 11 minutes, "Autumn Leaves" may be the longest track I've listened to so far. Listening chronologically makes me appreciate how artists, now all in on the 12" LP format were stretching time limits of conventional song format.

Finally, another favorite (I have a lot of them it seems) - pianist Sonny Clark's Cool Struttin' with trumpeter Art Farmer and altoist Jackie McLean

 

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Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue (1958)
Count Basie - The Atomic Basie (1958)
Elvis Presley - King Creole (1958)
Tito Puente - Dance Mania (1958)

Simone's debut shows her already confident delivery/song interpretation
I owned Atomic Basie (in it's "complete" form) well before the more well known April in Paris and actually enjoy it more. Wonderful big band
Presley's movie soundtrack albums are typically his weakest releases, but King Creole is arguably his strongest of the soundtracks
Finally, some fun Latin music care of the timbales of bandleader Tito Puente

 

[Ojai Sam]

From the video for “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck”:

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Relaxin' With the Miles Davis Quintet (1958)
Lee Morgan - The Cooker (1958)
Ahmad Jamal - At the Pershing: But Not For Me (1958)

Back to some jazz first with another of Miles' "-in'" albums with Coltrane and his "first great quintet". His classic "Oleo" is here as well as "If I Were A Bell" (off Guys and Doll). Mellow album but very good

Hey remember when @JazzyRandy used this album as his avator An early album of Morgan as a leader, but a great one. The atypical use of a bari-sax as the only other "horn" really works here. Starts with "Night in Tunisia" where he chooses to slow the tempo down a notch compared with past recorded versions (Gillespie, Blakey), but that only better highlights the blistering trumpet solo to come. Good stuff!

Finally, one of the great piano jazz albums - Jamal's live set at the Pershing which at the time was one of the best selling jazz albums especially with the song "Ponciana". Initially dismissed by Downbeat magazine as talented "cocktail music", Jamal's style as slower almost a "cool jazz" sound utilizing space more that speedy playing represented an evolving style in jazz piano (soon to be seen prominently in Bill Evans' albums). Jamal performs mainly ballads - he once said, "I like doing ballads. They're hard to play. It takes years of living, really, to read them properly." Easygoing album but deceptively skillful.

 

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Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book (1958)
Ray Charles At Newport (1958)
Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans (1958)

Second half of the day with these three. I don't break out Ella's Irving Berlin song book as often as the ones of the past couple of years but no doubt there are some greats here ("Always", "Lets Face the Music And Dance", "Lazy", "Puttin On the Ritz", a skat-filled "Blue Skies")

Also good revisiting Ray Charles' Newport set. Yes indeed that's Ray with an alto sax on the cover - he plays that too here

First time listening to Everybody Digs Bill Evans - for some reason my past Evans listening starts a few years later post-Kind of Blue with Portrait in Jazz and his albums of the early 60s. This is Evans second album after his his 1956 debut. Love the testimonials by folks like Miles, Ahmad Jamal and Cannonball Adderley right on the front cover.

 

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Lou Donaldson - Blues Walk (1958)
Ramblin' Jack Elliot - Jack Takes the Floor (1958)
Champion Jack Dupree - Blues From the Gutter (1958)

Started the day with a wonderful jazz saxophone album with Blues Walk followed by two Jacks - Ramblin' Jack Elliott (still alive at age 88 and performing in the last decade), was a folk musician very influenced by Woody Guthrie (who appears on guitar here on one track) and sounds like what Dylan would be doing in his early years. New Orleans pianist Champion Jack Dupree, in an album I chose years ago in the old MGs year by year series, serves up some nice blues and boogie woogie here - excited to hear this one again

 

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Miles Davis - Milestones (1958)
Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin (1958)
Frank Sinatra Sings For Only the Lonely (1958)

Miles was quite prolific around this period - Coltrane is back along with Cannonball Adderley. Aside from pianist Bill Evans, almost the crew that would record Kind of Blue

An album with divided reviews. In her penultimate album (back on Columbia after being unhappy with Verve), Billie's voice is shot. The Penguin Jazz Guide once famously said this album is "a voyeuristic look at a beaten woman". Certainly Billie lays it all out there emotionally. I prefer Billie's voice a bit less haggard, but still quite a beautiful album; very sad, though. She would die the next year - her delivery and voice always seemed quite mature and experience but at her death she was shockingly only 44 (!!)

Another album of slow torch songs from Frankie. As I've mentioned, not my favorite style when devoted in a whole album. For fans of this tone though, considered one of his best (Allmusic for example gives 5 stars)

 

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The Kingston Trio - The Kingston Trio (1958)
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley (1958)
Cal Tjader/Stan Getz Sextet (1958)

Last night and this AM, continuing 1958 with two influential debuts. Bo Diddley with his classic Bo Diddley beat was more influential, copied by a generation of guitarists. The Kingston Trio's number one debut certainly helped usher in the folk revival of the late 50s/early 60s.

Now, just chilling with a bit of cool jazz - love Getz's tenor sound. It mixes nicely with Tjader's vibes.