Saturday Is Record Store Day

I still cherish the cover art and sound of vinyl records even though it has been many years since I set foot in a store that sold only records and accessories like phonograph needles and spindle adaptors (used to play donut-shaped 45 rpm records). Plus many of the stores in New York that I patronized like Discomat, King Karol, and Colony are long gone. Target is the only store I've been to where I've seen a vinyl record like Marvin Gaye's What's Going On for sale (at double or triple the original price). But no one would consider Target a record store.

That brings me to why I'm writing this blog post. It's to remind you that Saturday, April 18, is Record Store Day. So anyone fortunate to have a record store near them can stop by and buy a vinyl record or more.

Thankfully, I had the good sense to hold on to my LPs and 45s. I'm now able to play them on a portable record player that I bought at a now out-of-business Bed, Bath, & Beyond store in Harlem seven or eight years ago. The record player plays records in all three speeds-- 33, 45, and 78.

A little more than two weeks ago I found on 106th Street, near Columbus Avenue, some discarded records. The albums that interested me the most were the ones by such jazz notables as Charlie Parker, Johnny Hodges, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. In that pile of records was a five-disc set called Collector's Classic History of Jazz, as well as Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, one of my favorite classical music compositions. On the record, Stravinsky conducts the orchestra.

A Desert Island Disc

This Al Jarreau album, Breakin' Away, released in 1981, is one of the jazz albums I would want to have with me if I were stuck on a desert island. (My favorite song on the album is "Roof Garden," a foot-tapping number.)

As you can see, Jarreau, who died in 2017, unlike many men, was not afraid to be seen wearing pink, especially on an album cover.
 

The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Classic "Time Out" LP

Time Out, recorded in 1959 by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, is one of my favorite jazz albums. ("Take Five," the hit jazz tune, is on the album.) I have both the long-play vinyl record and the CD. 

Brubeck in the CD's liner notes said that "[c]reating a 'hit' out of the odd-meter experiments of Time Out was the farthest from any of our minds...when [we] went into the studio to record."

I love the above photo. It appears in the reissued CD's booklet. Paul Desmond, the alto saxophone player as well as the composer of "Take Five," did his own thing by wearing a suit and tie and didn't try to copy what his bandmates wore. He was cool and confident.

Jazz In 34 Volumes

One of my favorite reference books is the Random House College Dictionary. That book defines the word "discography" as "a descriptive list of phonograph records by category, composer, performer, or date of release."

Why am I talking about this word? Well, for one thing, I am a music lover, especially of jazz. Secondly,  I am interested in the minutest details about sound recordings. And thirdly, the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami told the New York Times Book Review's "By the Book" column (November 20, 2022) that he owns The Jazz Discography, a 34-volume set compiled by Tom Lord.

"It takes up a lot of space," he said, "and I imagine most people would find it unnecessary to own, but for jazz collectors it's a real treasure, the painstaking result of years of work."

And no doubt the whole set would cost a jazz enthusiast a small fortune.

I would love to see one of these volumes, just to browse through its pages and immerse myself in its encyclopedic range and scholarship. Contained in those 34 volumes is presumably every, or almost every, jazz recording from the music's infancy to more recent years. That would include famous works, lesser known ones as well as those long forgotten. I would especially want to read the entries for Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959), one of my favorite recordings, and Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (1959), for example, to learn some little known facts about them.

The Jazz Discography, which is available in the New York Public Library, would allow me to finally gain enough jazz knowledge to be able to complete, with more ease and confidence, the esoteric crossword puzzle that appears each month in the New York City Jazz Record.

Let's Hope For An Al Jarreau Biography

I recently joined a Facebook group devoted to the jazz singer Al Jarreau, who died in 2017. It's called the Al Jarreau Family Group and has more than 32,000 members who post comments, photos, album cover art, videos, and anything else that's Al Jarreau-related.

I began listening to Jarreau in the mid-seventies when I bought his album Glow, which, according to Wikipedia, was his second album. It was released in 1976. I believe I bought the album at a Discomat chain store in the Times Square area. From that point on, I became an Al Jarreau fan.

Because there are so many people who cherish his singing talent, I posted on the site a question: "Does anyone know if there is a biography of Al Jarreau in the works? Or maybe a scrapbook publication or a special magazine issue about him?"

A day later, Shannon West, who publishes a website called jazzseries.com/wordpress, responded: "The posts he did over the years when he was doing the diary/journal/blog narrative on his website gave such wonderful insight into what he was doing at the time--traveling, recording, touring, etc.--and he writes narrative as expressively as he writes songs. I wish they could dig up the archives and compile them....Nobody could write Al better than Al so my vote is to edit and release the 15 years or so of archival posts."

I think that would be a wonderful idea including photos, song lyrics, diary entries, correspondence, etc. That could all be part of a special collectors issue magazine. On the cover could be photographer Richard Avedon's black-and-white photo of Jarreau from the front cover of his 1980 album This Time. I bet the issue would sell out immediately and require several reprintings.

A Publication For Jazz Lovers

One jazz publication I make it a point to get each month at the Mist Harlem entertainment venue on 116th Street is the New York City Jazz Record. It's a free tabloid-size magazine published on newsprint and contains CD reviews, musician interviews,a calendar of events, a birthday column commemorating day by day musicians (living and dead) born in that particular month, as well as a jazz-related crossword puzzle. The latter is so esoteric and daunting it requires a near encyclopedic knowledge of jazz and its history. For example, the June 2019 issue had the following clues: "'50s Canadian RCA Victor catalogue prefixes";"'70s jazz critic for CODA magazine"; "What Lester did in Britain"; "Gerry Mulligan nickname." If nothing else, it'll encourage me to bone up on jazz history. (Disc jockey Phil Schaap of Columbia University's radio station WKCR could probably complete the puzzle within thirty minutes or less.)

As a longtime jazz lover and CD and record collector, the New York City Jazz Record is an important part of my jazz education and I recommend it to anyone interested in jazz and its practitioners.

I look forward to reading it each month and hope it'll be around for a long time.

An Anti-Racist Song From The 1950s

Carmen McRae recorded a beautiful tune in 1958 called "Georgia Rose" (found on the CD, Carmen McRae's Finest Hour on the Verve label).There's a line in it that goes "Don't be blue, 'cause you're black, Georgia Rose." The tune, written by Jimmy Flynn, Harry Rosenthal, and Alexander Sullivan,  was very bold for its time with its anti-racist, black is beautiful message. I mentioned this song in a blog post in 2012. It would be useful if someone, maybe me, wrote an article or a book about the origin of the song.

Record Store Day

Today is Record Store Day. Long live vinyl!

The Declaration Of Independence In Words And Music

I'm amazed that conservative radio talk show hosts, who are so ultra-patriotic on the air, have not discovered the Fifth Dimension's The Declaration (Bell Records, 1970) and played it on their shows.

On the recording, the Fifth Dimension, the African American pop vocal group better known for hits such as Up, Up and Away and Wedding Bell Blues, takes the words of the Declaration of Independence and sets them to music, beginning with the words "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal...."

Maybe these talk show hosts have heard the record and think the Declaration of Independence is too sacred a document to be trivialized by turning it into a song intended for airplay on Top 40 radio stations.

I think it's a wonderful "song" and maybe it, instead of The Star-Spangled Banner, should be sung at public events.

A Singer Who Can "Sang"

In Curtis Davenport's review of a debut album called Home by jazz singer Shirley Crabbe (Jazz Inside magazine, May 2012), he stated enthusiastically that "the lady can sang!"

He went on to explain the qualities of such a singer. "Those who can 'sang,' cause a smile to come to your face and occasional goosebumps when they vocalize."

"[T]hose who can 'sang,'" he continued, "aren't necessarily those who employ the type of amateurish vocal histrionics often heard on 'American Idol' or 'The Voice,' instead they are those who have a good voice, an understanding of the meaning of their lyric and an ability to interpret that lyric in a way that makes you feel the song they are singing."

This explains why I am such a big fan of the late singer Carmen McRae (1922-1994) and why I hope to obtain every album she ever recorded. She also could "sang."

After reading Curtis Davenport's review, I am now interested in hearing Ms. Crabbe's vocal skills.

And although the review was published six years ago, the comments are still relevant and timeless.

Remembering Claus Ogerman

In 2015, the Newark, New Jersey-based public radio station WBGO Jazz 88 announced that the  German-born conductor/arranger/composer Claus Ogerman had turned 85 years old. My introduction to him was via two George Benson albums he arranged and conducted in the late 1970s, Breezin' and Inflight. I later bought an album he recorded called Gate of Dreams at the now-defunct Colony record store in Midtown Manhattan. I thank Kevin Jeff and his Jubilation! Dance Company for inspiring me to seek out the vinyl LP. Jeff used one of the recording's tracks for a dance work he choreographed. The music was so beautiful and moving that I had to buy the album.

I learned  recently via Wikipedia that Ogerman died in March of 2016.

R.I.P. Natalie Cole

I own two CDs by the recently deceased Natalie Cole (1950-2015). My favorite of the two is Ask a Woman Who Knows (Verve). This CD would be among my desert island discs, those recordings I would want to bring with me if I was stranded on a desert island.

It is one of the few CDs I own that I would play from beginning to end because all 13 tracks are gems. The songs I particularly like are "So Many Stars," "The Music That Makes Me Dance," "Soon," "Tell Me All About It,"and "My Baby Just Cares for Me," which is on the final track. Her performance of this particular song is a real showstopper.

Now she has joined her father, Nat King Cole, in Heaven to perform eternal duets.

George Benson, Guitarist And Autobiographer

I'm looking forward to reading guitar virtuoso George Benson's recently published book, Benson: The Autobiography, written with Alan Goldsher (Da Capo Press, 2014).

I'm particularly interested in what he has to say about the recording sessions for Breezin' and In Flight, two of my favorite jazz recordings as well as what it was like collaborating with fellow guitar virtuoso Earl Klugh whose career I've been following since his emergence on the music scene in 1976 with his self-titled recording, Earl Klugh, on the Blue Note label.

I hope Klugh will also write his autobiography.

Folk Music In New York

After seeing the "Folk City" exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York this past Wednesday, and subsequently browsing through a display copy of its print companion, Folk Music: New York and the American Folk Music Revival by Stephen Petrus and Ronald Cohen (Oxford University Press, 2015), I want very much to read the book and learn even more about this exciting and influential period in music history when, to quote an exhibition poster, "folk music enjoyed unprecedented popularity in the United States." This popularity continued until 1964 when the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, the Dave Clark Five, and other British groups arrived during what was then called the British Invasion, which dominated the pop charts.

"Folk City," beautifully arranged in an attractive black and red color scheme, traces the roots of folk music all the way to the 1920s and is grouped around such themes as "Becoming Folk City, 1948-1958" and "The Politics of Folk." As an overview of the folk music scene in New York, it spotlights the entrepreneurs, musicians, venues, and songs that brought it into existence. This is done through the display of such items as photos, videos, record album covers, and artifacts like Leadbelly's 12-string guitar from 1937 and the sign from the Greenwich Village performance venue called Gerdes Folk City. Walking around the exhibition room, a museum visitor will feel as if he or she has taken a giant leap into the past.

One interesting feature of "Folk City" is the ability to hear songs that were recorded by Odetta; Peter, Paul, and Mary; Pete Seeger; Richie Havens; Harry Belafonte, and others. There are about four listening stations at different locations in the exhibition room. At these spots, one can put on a pair of recording-studio-quality headphones, and by pushing one of about eight buttons, hear songs like "Day-O" by Harry Belafonte and "If I Had a Hammer" by Peter, Paul, and Mary played in their entirety.

Also on display is a large wall map of Manhattan titled "Mapping Folk City, 1935-1965" that pinpoints the location of various record companies, organizations, radio stations, residences of musicians, and performance venues during those years.

On the evening I visited the museum, I attended one of the two mini walking lectures given that day by author and exhibition curator Stephen Petrus. As a handful of museum visitors followed him around the room, he highlighted important information about the period, giving some historical context, and explained New York's role in helping to popularize folk music throughout America and the world.

The "Folk City" exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York closes in January 2016.

Note:This blog post has been revised.

An Unpublished Interview With Ben Bagley

I have an interview I did with the late record producer Ben Bagley at WBAI-FM in New York. It was recorded in 1977 and was never broadcast. I hope to transcribe the interview for publication in this blog and/or in one of the New York-based newspapers or magazines. Bagley (1933-1998) produced several record albums of music by Broadway composers such as Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, and Cole Porter. These recordings were released on his Painted Smiles label.