New Charlie Parker interview

Leigh Kamman

Wonders never cease. I've just discovered broadcaster Leigh Kamman's YouTube channel, as well as his website. Kamman passed away in 2014, aged 92.

Among the jewels in his vaults, there is the short interview below with Charlie Parker, posted only yesterday. It's a phone-in, and Kamman introduces himself as "The Little Bandmaster" from The 1280 Club on WOV, New York.

Notes on Charlie Christian's centennial

Today it's the 100th anniversary of Charlie Christian's birthday. For a special 2h30m programme we've done (in Spanish) in El Club de Jazz, I've spent the last few months re-visiting his complete output (except for a very few items, such as Bill Savory's airchecks housed at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem). My playlist tells me that it's 239 tracks long—about 13 hours straight—including the ones where Christian's presumed to play with Benny Goodman's orchestra. On top of that, I've listened to other guitar players (Bus Etri doing "Flying Home" in 1940, anyone?), plus a generous helping of string music from Texas and Oklahoma also known as Western Swing.

Charlie Christian at the Metronome All-Star session
February 7, 1940. Courtesy of Leo Valdés.

Because it is unavoidable that some of the same old stories will be regurgitated for the centennial, I've jotted down a few notes about CC:

RIP Juan Claudio Cifuentes, 'Cifu' (1941-2015)

(For once, this entry is not a parallel translation of its Spanish sister)

After all the arguments and bickering — which, yes, it's better than many other things, but we could do without most of it, really — there is something about intense music fandom, including jazz, that benefits your health. Case in point would be the dean of Spanish jazz commentators, Cifu who, even as a septuagenarian and having survived two cancers, never lost the enthusiasm for the music. I would introduce him to new, unknown, talent with zero commercial value, and, if he liked it, he would push it harder than Samson in the temple. Last time we spoke, it was about Gigi Gryce and his looking forward to doing a series of programmes with the complete recordings of Artie Shaw and His Gramercy Five. We never got around to finishing it.

Cifu by Jaime Massieu, October 2014

Cifu is how friends called Juan Claudio Cifuentes de Benito, who's died earlier today, having suffered a stroke last week. He was husband, father, grandfather, friend... but for a gigantic amount of people in Spain and beyond he was the face and voice of jazz, judging from the reaction in social media (and he didn't even like computers).

A radio broadcast from Birdland 1952

Kai Winding pictured by Bill Gottlieb, c. January 1947

In his Past Daily website, Gordon Skene has recently uploaded a NBC broadcast from September 9, 1952, with two bands, a quartet led by Pete Brown, and a sextet with Kai Winding at the helm. Tracks and personnel are, as introduced by the MC, as follows:

Pete Brown (alto sax), Sir Reginald Ashley (piano), Leonard Gaskin (b), Hayward Jackson (d).

     00:34  How High the Moon
     03:36  Strike Up the Band
     07:13  Perdido

Kai Winding (trombone), Kenny Dorham (trumpet), Jackie McLean (alto sax), Horace Silver (piano), Gene Ramey (bass), Ed Shaughnessy (drums)

     12:37  Always
     19:50  Stardust
     23:06  Rifftide (How High the Moon)

The music in this broadcast may be a bit disappointing, or perhaps some of us forget that not everything from the past is a masterpiece. Even so, it's better than OK, despite the short sets, the rather conventional songlists and the striking youth of some future stars like Silver and McLean, 24 and 21 respectively. You can actually hear the MC asking their names during the announcements:

"... fellow at the piano is named Silver, right?
... Horace Silver, and the fellow on alto...
...Jackie McLean"

Because he's not so well known, Pete Brown's set is more interesting, especially since his own records place him closer to R&B than bebop.

This radio broadcast, a real blast from the past, can be heard here.

Past Daily is here, and also on Facebook and Twitter.

Encore: BG and Sextette... unissued!

Auld, Goodman, Williams, Christian
(Photographer unknown)

Things that just happen: the previous blog was about Charlie Christian and his recordings with Benny Goodman, and this one too.

As everything else, social networking is as good as its end result. For me and whoever is reading this, it will allow us listening to 22 minutes from a radio programme recorded on February 19, 1941, at WNYC, where the announcer, Ralph Berton, requests tunes to Benny Goodman and his Sextet. Although there is a CD (Benny Goodman: A Tour de Force / The Small Groups, Live, Encore 7001) including two tracks from this broadcast ("Sheik of Araby", and "Gone with 'What' Wind"), the rest was unissued, so much so that some of it doesn't even appear on Leo Valdés's discography. The impromptu "Blues in Bb" may be the most interesting bit.

The programme can be listened to here, and the playlist is as follows:

     00:00  Rose Room (ending)
     00:52  Flying Home
     05:49  Blues in Bb
     10:42  The Sheik of Araby
     13:13  Body and Soul (George Auld + rhythm)
     17:38  Gone with "What" Wind
     20:40  Stompin' at the Savoy

Personnel is Goodman on clarinet, Christian on guitar, Cootie Williams on trumpet, George Auld on tenor sax, Johnny Guarnieri on piano, Artie Bernstein on bass, and Dave Tough on drums. Eternal thanks to Loren Schoenberg for the heads up.

Unheard Tal Farlow, Eddie Costa, Marian McPartland...

... at least unheard by me. Via Marian McPartland's Facebook page, I just bumped into this radio broadcast presented by NBC in association with the AFM "as a contribution to the US savings bonds division of the Treasury department"—which could hardly be more relevant at the moment 55 years later—from The Composer, a club where, in the Summer of 1956, the bill was shared by two trios, Tal Farlow's and Marian McPartland's. The relief pianist was John Mehegan.

Personally I'm gobsmacked because Farlow's trio with Eddie Costa and Vinnie Burke, the line-up here, was an extraordinary but very short-lived group, and while I knew about this gig, I didn't know it had been recorded and preserved. McPartland's trio has Bill Britto on bass and the great Joe Morello on drums.

I can't really say nothing else right now, so I'll leave you with the music. You can listen on the player below, or go to the site where I found it, Past Daily. The details are as follows:

July 23, 1956.* The Composer, New York. 

Tal Farlow Trio: Farlow (g), Eddie Costa (p), Vinnie Burke (b).

 0:00 They can't take that away from me
 5:34 You don't know what love is 
10:02 And she remembers me 

Marian McPartland Trio: McPartland (p), Bill Britto (b), Joe Morello (d).

15:28 Falling in love with love 
19:20 For all we know
23:54 Bohemia After Dark

* It's possible that this was broadcast on this date, but recorded previously. The MC mention that the music was "transcribed" (recorded for later broadcast), and according to the New Yorker magazine, Farlow's last day at the Composer was July 18th.

Happy 100th, Little Jazz!

Roy Eldridge (1911-1989) would have been 100 years old today. He's one of the great trumpets in the history of jazz. In the following videos BBC's Julian Joseph overviews his life and music.