Jazz Giant Dresses For The Cold

very cool and very warm

This cold weather theme continues.

Even in my cold state, I remembered a great photo of Eric Dolphy and thought "Here's a man who knows how to dress for winter."

A jazz giant, and knows how to rock the knit sweater and hat.

I could talk at length about Dolphy, and I will do so soon. I wrote about his integral role in Oliver Nelson's "Blues and the Abstract Truth", which was one of the albums I discovered and fell in love with very early in my jazz journey. It could also be the best album title of all time.

The guy was a shocking talent. He excelled at the flute, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, soprano clarinet, baritone saxophone and piccolo. I'm sure he could have made great jazz on any woodwind that came his way. He played with most of the giants before setting out on his own, including playing on some of my favourite Mingus recordings including the brilliant but oddly titled  album Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse! 1963).

I also love his recordings with Chico Hamilton and that California sound is called cool jazz, but maybe it will warm us with thoughts of beaches and margaritas and bright sunshine.

His playing on "Beyond the Blue Horizon" is lovely. 

Who Doesn't Love a Bargain?

amazing amazing amazing

My wife likes to tease me about liking second hand shops and that doing so is a Ponka family tradition. I don't deny it - I admit to a thrill upon finding those gems that you occassionally discover. I especially love used book stores and I am still thrilled that I got the three volume set of Paul Metcalf's Collected Works in hardcover for $45 during a recent trip to Minneapolis. I am reading his Genoa with awe.

My love of a bargain goes for music too. Friends, you know I am willing to drop $100+ dollars on a Mosaic box set (the Charles Mingus set ships in three weeks! I can't wait!) but there are amazing deals for the bargain hunter to be had out there. Last night I was browsing through iTunes and came across a new series of music anthologies called 100 Original Tracks which has, you guessed it, 100 songs by a particular artist. I was excited to see that they had a jazz collection by Quincy Jones. I have one of his albums - This Is How I feel About Jazz (1957) - which is great stuff and features a who's who of jazz superstars including the great Charles Mingus, Art Farmer, my man Paul Chambers, Milt Jackson and Lucky Thompson. (Have a listen to "Sermonette" and I challenge you tell me you don't love it...) I wanted to hear more of his music, so you can understand why I was excited to find a collection that had so much of it. The kicker? The set only cost $6.99! I know! Crazy, right? That's less that 7 cents per song! How could I not buy it? I cleared a gig of space from my iPhone and downloaded it on the spot.



serious value for money...

The downside of sets like this is that there are no liner notes so it is impossible to know what musicians are playing on each track (why doesn't iTunes provide liner notes??) but for the price you truly can't go wrong. I think the set is worth it for the live version of Oliver Nelson's "Stolen Moments" that features some killer trumpet work by Freddie Hubbard.  (Without liner notes, I only know it's him beacuse Quincy introduces him by name... I can recognize some players by their sound alone, but not in this case.) Freddie played on the original recording with Oliver Nelson's killer band, but to be honest, I prefer his playing on this track. Perhaps it is the live setting that has him playing with such intensity...

There are some other fine sets in this line so if you have $20 to spare, you could pick up a few hundred tracks of amazing jazz. Enjoy!

J.J.'s Big Score

Yesterday's post about Oliver Nelson has me thinking about other jazz greats who got work scoring for film and TV. The list is a long one. 
Just to name a few off the of of my head: Miles Davis Ascenseur pour l'Échafaud, Gerry Mulligan The Subterraneans, and then there's Quincy Jones (did you know that he began life as a jazz trumpeter?) who scored numerous films. 
Oliver Nelson scoring the cheesefest that was The Six Million Dollar Man got me thinking about J.J. Johnson.


His stellar album "J.J. Inc" (1960) is playing right now as the babies struggle to fall asleep for their afternoon nap. It features a young Freddie Hubbard in one of his first sessions and is highly recommended.  


J.J. Johnson's career began back in the 1940s and he recorded some classic albums with a who's-who of the jazz world including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and Stan Getz just to name a few.  He brought the bebop sensibility to the trombone, which is a testament to his skill. Playing a lot of notes in a hurry is not as easy on that horn as it is on a trumpet or sax.  He influenced every trombone player after him and a lot of songwriters too as he wrote a number of jazz standards. 

I thought of his later days which played out in a similar vein as Oliver Nelson...


J.J. Johnson got involved in that fabulous film genre known as Blaxploitation and he scored films including Willie Dynamite and Cleopatra Jones (listen here!).  


Why Shelley Winters never got another Oscar nod for her role as 'Mommy' I'll never know.


If you like, you could look down on J.J. Johnson for working in this genre, but a man needs to make a living, right?


I know what I am talking about.  After all, I worked on many films that weren't a fraction as entertaining as Cleopatra Jones and I cashed my paycheques with a clean conscience. Why should a jazz legend be any different?

Albums That All Humans Should Own #4

My fourth pick is one of the first jazz albums I ever bought.  My cousin Glenn and I used to listen to it driving around town in his old Chevelle.

Not only does it have one of the best album titles of all time (okay, I know the name of the album shouldn't affect the music therein but it does, doesn't it?) but it also features one of the greatest bands ever assembled and it's a shame that this all-star unit never recorded more.

'The Blues and the Abstract Truth' (1961) by Oliver Nelson is my third pick of essential albums that all humans should own.


Check out the names on that album cover.

• Bill Evans - Piano
• Roy Haynes - Drums
• The multi-instrumentalist-who-died-too-young Eric Dolphy
• Oliver Nelson - Alto
• My man Paul Chambers - Bass
• Freddie Hubbard- Trumpet

Few bands have that kind of talent and the music is diverse and has incredible flow. It's a sextet that sounds like an orchestra.  Take a listen to Stolen Moments, one of the all-time great songs in the history of jazz. After that slow build-up, Freddie Hubbard plays some nice trumpet, but then comes one of my favourite moments in all of recorded jazz: Eric Dolphy's flute solo.

It is spectacular stuff.  Spectacular flute solo? Is that what you're thinking? 


Trust me, in the right hands the flute can be great. Admittedly, there are only a few masters of the instrument in jazz other than Eric Dolphy. (Yusef Lateef for one... I'll have to think to find a third. Sonny Red maybe?)


If you were sitting here with me drinking a martini as I am, I could hum it to you as it is a passage I know by heart. The consummate skill with which he plays astounds me even after countless listens.

I ask my wife who is sitting across from me doing some work she brought home from the office -Would you like me to whistle Eric Dolphy's flute solo from Oliver Nelson's masterful Stolen Moments?

-Tempting. Thanks but no.

Trust me friends, even if you don't want to splurge for the entire  disc, download that one track and brace yourself for the magic that comes at the 3 minute mark.  Eric Dolphy is a jazz god.

On a parting note I will mention that Oliver Nelson not only recorded one of the greatest jazz albums of all-time, but in the 70's he got a lot of work scoring for film and TV (which the snooty jazz community poo pooed him for) and some say that this hard work drove him to an early grave. One of the highlights of this second career? Writing the music for that classic series of my childhood, The Six Million Dollar Man.

If you are thinking that I mention that fact just so I had an excuse to post this great photo of the great Lee Majors, you may be right.

I mean, the theme song is written by Oliver Nelson and take a listen. It's not Stolen Moments, but it is pretty cool. 


PS: Okay, I can't resist: you can watch the $6,000,000 man battle Sasquatch here. Dig that Oliver Nelson score!