by Scott Yanow,
1956 was when Miles Davis finally made it. The trumpeter, who turned 30 that year, had first recorded with Charlie Parker when he was 19 and was a member of Bird’s quintet during 1947-48. He had led an influential nonet during 1948-50 whose recordings had become known as “The Birth of the Cool,” and his underrated early 1950s sessions (which included such notables as trombonist J.J. Johnson, tenor-saxophonist Jimmy Heath, pianist Horace Silver, and drummer Art Blakey) could have been accurately titled “The Birth of Hard Bop.” A serious drug habit hindered his rise to prominence although by 1954 he had permanently kicked the habit. In 1955 at the Newport Jazz Festival, his playing on “’Round Midnight” in a quartet with Thelonious Monk alerted the audience, which included George Avakian from the Columbia label, that he was on his way back towards becoming a major force in music. While Davis was signed with the much smaller Prestige company through the end of 1956, he was able to reach an agreement that allowed him to record an album for Columbia (Round Midnight) in 1956 while fulfilling his contract with Prestige. He convinced Bob Weinstock of Prestige that if he gradually released Davis’ recordings for that label over the next few years rather than all at one time, the publicity that Columbia would give the trumpeter would also benefit Prestige.
In the fall of 1955, Miles Davis put together his classic quintet with the then relatively unknown tenor-saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. While it took a few months, Coltrane quickly developed into a major player, one who would soon be competing with Sonny Rollins (Davis’ first choice for the quintet) as the top young tenor on the scene.
The three-CD set, titled Miles Davis 56, starts off with three selections that the trumpeter recorded on Mar. 16, 1956 with an all-star group also including Rollins, pianist Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor. That session, which consisted of Dave Brubeck’s “In Your Own Sweet Way” and two lesser-known Davis pieces (“No Line” and “Vierd Blues”), totals just 17 minutes and can be considered an appetizer for what was to follow.
The remainder of this reissue has all of the music from Miles Davis’ four Prestige albums of that year: Workin,’ Steamin,’ Relaxin,’ and Cookin.’ The 26 selections (plus an alternate take of “The Theme”) were recorded by the first classic Miles Davis Quintet on May 11 and Oct. 28. Other than the lone alternate, all of the performances are first takes with the group performing the music as they did on a nightly basis in clubs. The rhythm section (with Garland at Davis’ urging sometimes emulating Ahmad Jamal), the rapidly developing Coltrane, and the leader (whether open or muted) were quite tight as a unit, concise in their solos, and definitive of 1956 jazz. Among the many highlights are “Surrey With The Fringe On Top,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “Four,” “If I Were A Bell,” “I Could Write A Book,” “Tune Up,” and “My Funny Valentine.” As a bonus, there is an early run through of “’Round Midnight” from these sessions (not as classic as Davis’ version for Columbia) that was only released later on in a sampler.
With Ashley Kahn contributing very good liner notes and Dan Morgenstern’s from an earlier reissue also being included in the booklet along with nine photos, Miles Davis ’56 (available from www.amazon.com) is an excellent way to acquire these classic performances.
HELEN MERRILL
Helen Merrill, who is now 97, was one of the top jazz singers of the 1950s and ‘60s although she tends to be underrated today. Starting with her 1954 album with trumpeter Clifford Brown, nearly all of her recordings were gems. An earlier two-CD set from the British Avid label titled Four Classic Albums (AMSC 1337) reissued the Clifford Brown date (simply titled Helen Merrill), Dream Of You, You’ve Got A Date With The Blues, and The Nearness Of You.
The recent Four Classic Albums Plus (ASMS 1493) is not quite on the same level but it has its moments. Two of the albums, Helen Merrill With Strings and Merrill At Midnight, which date from 1955 and 1957, have the singer backed by orchestras arranged by Hal Mooney. The emphasis (with a few exceptions) is on ballads and, while Merrill sings quite well, particularly on “Beautiful Love,” “Comes Love,” “Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year”,” “Lazy Afternoon,” and “Easy Come, Easy Go,” the arrangements are pretty predictable and middle-of-the-road. A real oddity is the 1959 album American Country Songs” which has Merrill featured on a dozen country songs (four by Hank Williams) with a jazz rhythm section and strings arranged by Chuck Sagle. That project might have worked better if it were more adventurous and not weighed down by the charts.
Best of the four albums is 1960’s Parole E Musica, a rarity that was recorded in Rome. The European musicians in the combo are all fine jazz players, there are occasional trumpet solos, and Merrill gets to swing 11 well-known jazz standards. As for the “Plus” part of the twofer, there are four songs from a similar 1960 session that Merrill sings in Italian (including an early version of “Estate”), and also her two earliest recordings from 1952-53: “A Cigarette For Company” and “The More I See You.”
While the earlier Avid twofer is recommended first, Four Classic Albums Plus (available from www.avidgroup.co.uk) is a reissue that Helen Merill fans will also want.
KEN POSTON’S LATEST JAZZ FESTIVAL
Ken Poston’s semi-annual jazz festivals which celebrated Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and West Coast jazz are now legendary. While those Los Angeles-area events stopped a couple of years ago, he is presenting a new festival in San Diego where he works with KSDS-FM,
On Aug. 21-23 at the Wyndham Bayside Hotel, Poston organized and is hosting Milestones: A Miles Davis Centennial Celebration. There will be 16 concerts, four panel discussions and three hours of rare films.
The concerts trace Miles Davis’ career from 1945-67 plus one fusion-oriented performance. Featured will be such notables as trumpeters Jon Faddis, Nicholas Payton, Jeremy Pelt, Terrell Stafford, Gilbert Castellanos, Miles Evans (Gil’s son), and Ron Stout, altoists Charles McPherson and Bobby Watson, tenor-saxophonists Ernie Watts, Ralph Moore, Doug Webb and Bob Sheppard, flutist Holly Hofmann, pianists Eric Reed, Kei Akagi, and Joshua White, drummers Roy McCurdy, Kenny Washington, and Gerry Gibbs, and others.
More information about this historic event can be gained by contacting Ken Poston at kenp@jazz88.org, calling 619-388-3758, or writing to KSDS FM 88.3, 1313 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101.
OMAR SOSA
One of the great jazz pianists to emerge from Cuba, Omar Sosa has been recording inventive and stimulating music ever since moving to the San Francisco Bay area in the mid-1990s. Now based in Spain, Sosa recently recorded We Are Not The Headliner with his Quarteto Americanos. The core group with Sheldon Brown on a variety of reeds, bassist Ernesto Mazar Kindelan, and drummer Josh Jones appeared recently at Catalina Bar & Grill.
Sosa did not announce the song titles although one can assume that most of the tunes can be found on his recent CD. Most notable was his constant interplay with Brown who switched between bass clarinet, several wooden flutes, soprano, and tenor. Sosa often played piano with his right hand and an electric keyboard with his left, sounding quite individual on both. While his occasional use of taped spoken word and vocals was forgettable, his piano playing was virtuosic and he rarely stopped smiling at his sidemen. His musical chemistry with Brown, which was sometimes playful with some witty tradeoffs, and the grooves set by the rhythm section made this an enjoyable evening of inventive music.
THE COMEBACK OF LISA RICH
In the 1980s, Lisa Rich seemed to be heading to the top of her field. A very appealing jazz singer who was not shy to take chances and stretch herself, she recorded a pair of gems (1983’s Listen Here and 1985’s Touch Of The Rare), performed in India and China (the first American jazz artist to visit China since 1949), sang with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, was an artist-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1987 recorded a set of Chick Corea songs (Highwire) that was not released until 2019. A superior scat-singer who could also sing heartfelt renditions of ballads in a beautiful voice, her future seemed limitless.
But then she was struck down by serious health problems that forced her involuntary retirement. Lisa Rich became a fulltime vocal teacher and three decades passed. Finally, deciding that it was now or never, she gradually returned to active performing, taking three years of lessons from her mentor the late Jay Clayton. In 2024 she released As Long As You’re Living. Amazingly enough, despite the passage of so much time, her voice still sounded youthful and very much in its prime. Joined by pianist Marc Copland, bassist Drew Gress and trumpeter Dave Ballou, she displayed energy, enthusiasm, power, and creativity without ever sounding as if she had taken so much time off.
Recently, Lisa Rich recorded I Still Rise (available from www.amazon.com) with the same rhythm section. On such numbers as “No Moon At All” “Footprints” (retitled “Ancient Footprints”), “Like Someone In Love,” and her original “How Can We Sing About Freedom,” she shows that she is back as one of the top jazz singers around today. Her comeback is quite inspiring.
JAZZ BY STEVE SCHAPIRO
Steve Schapiro (1934-2022) is best remembered as a photojournalist who took many classic photos from the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and portraits of celebrities for movies. However, before his career really took off, he took more than 20,000 photos of the New York jazz scene of the early 1961-62. For a time, he was the main photographer for Riverside Records and its subsidiary Jazzland, taking a countless number of photos at recording sessions and at live dates at the Village Vanguard. He was also a regular at the Apollo Theater during the winter of 1961-62 before his life and career changed.
300 of Steve Schapiro’s best black and white jazz photos from that period are in the recently released book Jazz (ACC Art Books, 316 pages). Forgotten but luckily fully preserved through the years, most have rarely been seen before. Richard Scheinin contributed a definitive six-page introduction covering Schapiro’s brief but significant association with jazz along with a few profiles of musicians that are scattered throughout the book. A page of reminiscences from Sonny Rollins is also an added plus as is a final page by Kurt Elling about knowing the photographer near the end of his life.
But it is the photos, most of which take up a full page, that really tell the stories including candid shots of Cannonball Adderley, Joe Zawinul, Ron Carter (65 years ago), Bobby Timmons, the Bill Evans Trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, a nearly unrecognizable Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Ida Cox, Coleman Hawkins, Billy Strayhorn, Dorothy Ashby, Count Basie, Nina Simone, Eric Dolphy, Lee Morgan, Junior Mance, producer Orrin Keepnews, and scores of others. The photos find the musicians at work in the studios, backstage, and greeting each other, capturing their humanity for all time.
Every recording deserves informative liner notes (I have written 1,005) and every jazz musician needs a well-written press biography along with press releases that announce important events. I write all of these and more at reasonable rates. Please contact me at 661-678-3542 or at scottyanowjazz@yahoo.com for further information about my services. My latest book, Jazz Through The Eyes Of A Jazz Journalist (My Jazz Memoirs) is available at www.amazon.com.
My latest book, Jazz Through The Eyes Of A Jazz Journalist (My Jazz Memoirs) is available at www.amazon.com.
I have a new book that is available from amazon.com. Life Through The Eyes Of A Jazz Journalist. It is subtitled My Jazz Memoirs and is my 12th book and first in a few years. I discuss in an often-humorous fashion my early days and discovery of jazz, my period as the jazz editor of Record Review, the story behind my involvement with the All Music Guide, and I reminisce about some of my adventures as an amateur musician. Included are vintage interviews with Freddie Hubbard, Chick Corea, and Maynard Ferguson, encounters with Clint Eastwood, summaries of the Monterey and Playboy Jazz Festivals (including a full-length review of the 1985 Playboy Festival), memories of other events (such as the IAJE Conventions), and brief snapshots of many memorable club and concert performances. There is also background information about my other books, evaluations of the jazz critics who inspired me early on, and my thoughts on jazz criticism which includes advice to up-and-coming jazz journalists. Rounding out the book is a chapter on how the jazz writing business has changed over the past 50 years, and appendixes that include the jazz greats of the past, 86 jazz giants of today, 21 young performers to look for in the future, jazz books and DVDs that everyone should own, and a dozen enjoyable Hollywood jazz films.
Life Through The Eyes Of A Jazz Journalist, a paperback book, sells for $26 through Amazon.com Signed copies (which will take 2-3 weeks) are also available for $30 (which includes free postage) by sending the money via Pay Pal to scottyanowjazz@yahoo.com and by sending your mailing address to that E-mail.