Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Narada Michael Walden was born on April 23, 1952 in Kalamazoo, Michigan and after graduating from college he was a member of rock bands in Miami, Florida.
Atlantic Records released his first album, Garden of Love Light, in 1977, followed by I Cry I Smile and The Awakening. The latter album charted during the 1980s including a duet with Patti Austin and appeared on the Bright Lights, Big City movie soundtrack.
Fusing jazz with R&B he built his studio in 1985 and produced music for The Temptations, Stacy Lattisaw, Aretha Franklin, Angela Bofill, Lisa Fischer, Sister Sledge, Herbie Hancock, Patti Austin, Whitney Houston, Clarence Clemons, George Benson, Kenny G, Lionel Richie, Al Jarreau, and Mariah Carey.
Walden has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and won three including Best R&B Song for Freeway of Love; Producer of the Year, Non-Classical; and Album of the Year for The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album.
Drummer, keyboardist and bassist Narada Michael Walden, who got his nickname Narada from Sri Chinmoy, is currently the drummer for Journey.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
The pandemic has me comfortably relaxing in my listening room selecting my next choice which is the 1956 album Playboys by trumpeter Chet Baker and saxophonist Art Pepper. The album was their third collaboration between Pepper and Baker, following the successes of The Route and Chet Baker Big Band, all three recorded in 1956.
Playboys was reissued in 1961 under the name Picture of Heath after the fifth track (itself a reference to Jimmy Heath, composer of all but two of the tracks). The tracks themselves were presented in a slightly different order, starting with the new title track.
Hugh Hefner reportedly objected to the original album cover (clearly inspired by Playboy magazine with its near-identical wordmark and pinup photo) and threatened to sue. For Picture of Heath, the original cover was replaced with a photo of the artists in the recording studio.
The 1990 Blue Note/Pacific Jazz CD reissue of Playboys used the pin-up cover, but the same label’s 1998 CD reissue returned to the Picture of Health cover.
Track Listing | 40:07 All compositions by Jimmy Heath except as indicated- For Minors Only ~ 4:00
- Minor~Yours (Art Pepper) ~ 6:44
- Resonant Emotions ~ 5:41
- Tynan Tyme (Pepper) ~ 5:32
- Picture of Heath ~ 6:44
- For Miles and Miles ~ 6:25
- C.T.A. ~ 5:12
1998 CD Release
- Picture of Heath
- For Miles and Miles
- C.T.A.
- For Minors Only
- Minor Yours
- Resonant Emotions
- Tynan Tyme
- Chet Baker ~ trumpet
- Art Pepper ~ alto saxophone
- Phil Urso ~ tenor saxophone
- Carl Perkins ~ piano
- Curtis Counce ~ bass
- Larance Marable ~ drums
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lou Stein was born on April 22, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and joined Ray McKinley’s band in 1942. He played with Glenn Miller when the latter was stateside during World War II.
After the war he worked with Charlie Ventura from 1946 to 1947 and became a session musician. He performed with the Lawson-Haggart Band, Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Louie Bellson, Red Allen, Coleman Hawkins, and Lester Young.
Recording as a bandleader, in 1957 he had a U.S. Top 40 hit with Almost Paradise, as well as a Top 60 hit with his cover version of Got a Match the following year. From 1969 to 1972 he played with Joe Venuti.
Pianist Lou Stein passed away on December 11, 2002.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John G. Blowers Jr. was born April 21, 1911 in Spartanburg, South Carolina and learned to play percussion during his schooldays and began performing with the Bob Pope Band in 1936.
After attending Oglethorpe College, in 1937 he travelled to New York City, where he found employment as a drummer in Greenwich Village. In 1938 he joined Bunny Berigan’s band, and in 1942 he began performing with the up-and-coming Frank Sinatra, who asked Johnny to record with him. They performed and recorded together regularly until the 1950s.
In 1947, he opened Club Blowers in the Queens district. In addition to Sinatra, Blowers performed with Louis Armstrong, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Sidney Bechet, Eddie Fisher, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, and Mel Tormé.
Johnny Blowers, drummer of the swing era, passed away on July 17, 2006.
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Three Wishes
When asked Quentin “Butter” Jackson told the Baroness his three wishes were:
- “Peace, happiness, and contentment.”
- “To play some kind of music as long as I live.”
- “That all people of the world would learn to live peaceably among one another, so that there would be nothing but love on the planet.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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