Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Janet Lawson was born on November 13, 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland to a Jewish father and Catholic mother from Eastern Europe. Her father was a jazz drummer and her mother was a singer and lyricist who sometimes sang in her father’s band. At home, they worked on songs together at the piano. She performed on the radio and regional television as a child.
Lawson began singing with a local big band in her teens. When she was eighteen, she moved to New York City and got a job as a secretary at Columbia Records. She appeared regularly on Steve Allen’s television show between 1968 and 1969 and worked in theater.
Living across the street from Al Jeter, the head of Riverside Records, gave her access to make contacts when she attended parties at his penthouse apartment. While going to jazz clubs she found inspiration from seeing Thelonious Monk and made her debut at the Village Vanguard with Art Farmer.
In 1976 she formed the Janet Lawson Quintet, which in 1983 included saxophonist and flutist Roger Rosenberg, pianist Bill O’Connell, Ratzo Harris on bass, and drummer Jimmy Madison. She became known as a scat singer and improviser.
Lawson has worked with Art Farmer, Chick Corea, Ron Carter, Bob Dorough, Duke Ellington, Tommy Flanagan, Sheila Jordan, Barry Harris, Milt Hinton, Eddie Jefferson, Barney Kessel, Dave Liebman, Joe Newman, Rufus Reid, Clark Terry, Ed Thigpen, Cedar Walton, Duke Pearson and David Lahm.
She has taught voice at New York University and the New School, given private lessons, taught elementary school children, and has made trips every year to Latvia to attend a youth music camp.
In 1977 she recorded with Eddie Jefferson and by the Eighties she recorded two albums as a leader. In 1982 she was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Female Jazz Vocal Performance, and in 2007 received a Hall of Fame nomination from the International Association for Jazz Education.
Vocalist Janet Lawson, who in the early 2000s was diagnosed with Lyme disease, Bell’s palsy, Parkinson’s disease and suffered damage to her vocal cords, transitioned on January 22, 2021 in New Jersey.
Confer a dose of a Baltimore vocalist to those seeking a greater insight about the musicians around the world who are members of the pantheon of jazz…
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Requisites
Joanne Grauer Trio ~ Joanne Grauer | By Eddie Carter
I love piano trios, and I was listening to a little-known title after dinner a few nights ago, which became the inspiration for this morning’s column. Joanne Grauer Trio (Mode Records MOD-LP-113) marks the debut of a young pianist named Joanne Grauer, whose musical education began at age five. Her brother and dad were professional musicians, and she started classical training at age twelve. Her musical education took a turn towards jazz while studying with Sam Saxe, a West Coast piano instructor who broadened her knowledge of the challenging dynamics of jazz piano. Listening to Hampton Hawes, Horace Silver, and Johnny Williams further moved her toward a career as a jazz pianist.
On her first date, she is joined by Buddy Clark on bass and Mel Lewis on drums. My copy is the 1988 US Mono reissue on VSOP Records (VSOP #58). The opener is an original by Joanne titled Mood for Mode. The trio introduces the song at a relaxing tempo that continues through the melody and is sure to get the listener’s toes tapping. Joanne is up first and swings so easily, while Buddy and Mel’s exemplary support follows her like a shadow. Buddy has the next solo and makes his point by generating a good feeling. Joanne returns for a few concluding thoughts before the theme’s return dissolves slowly into nothingness.
The pace picks up for Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s, Have You Met Miss Jones? The trio begins with a lively introduction and melody, leading to Joanne’s vivaciously spirited opening statement. Buddy and Mel engage in a short, joyous conversation until the threesome’s closing chorus takes the song out. Invitation by Bronislaw Kaper and Paul Francis Webster is given a regal treatment by Joanne, who performs the song alone. She brings out the jazz standard’s sensitivity and delicacy in a beautifully romantic rendition that is sure to linger in the listener’s mind and heart long after it is over.
The first side finale, Happy Is the Sheepherder by Marv Belew, is full of good spirits from the start of the ensemble’s cheerfully sunny melody. Joanne takes the reins and gives an optimistic, upbeat interpretation ahead of the restatement of the theme, during which Buddy makes a brief comment before the ending. Side Two takes off at a fast clip with I’ll Remember April by Gene de Paul, Patricia Johnston, and Don Raye. The trio swings with authority in the brisk opening chorus. Joanne sets a jubilant mood in the opening solo, then shares a spirited exchange of ideas with Mel ahead of the trio’s reprise and fadeout.
Dancing Nitely by Bill Holman takes the trio’s foot off the accelerator with a soothing introduction that gets into a simpler groove on the melody. Joanne leads off with a carefree, light-hearted performance, followed by Buddy, who eases into the second statement. The leader has a few more things to say preceding the trio finishing it out. I’m Glad There Is You by Jimmy Dorsey, and Paul Madeira is a beautiful love song from the forties. Joanne brings the song to life with a gorgeous solo introduction segueing into the trio’s tender melody. As the song’s only soloist, she delivers an intimately delicate interpretation, with Buddy and Mel complimenting her every note into the peaceful ending.
The Song Is You by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II ends the album on an upbeat note with the trio in perfect harmony on the energetic melody. Joanne takes flight in the song’s only solo with a vigorous performance that’s thrilling from start to finish into the reprise and climax. Red Clyde supervised The Joanne Grauer Trio, and Dayton Howe was the recording engineer. The album has a superb soundstage that transports the musicians to your listening room with stunning fidelity. Joanne Grauer’s next release wouldn’t hit stores until seventeen years later, and she has only a few titles in her discography.
But if what I heard on this album is an indication, I’ll certainly be on the lookout for those other releases. If you’re a fan of piano jazz as I am and are in the mood for an album to help you unwind after a long day or week. I invite you to check out The Joanne Grauer Trio on your next record shopping trip. It’s a delightful album that would make a terrific complement to your day or evening’s listening and become a welcome addition to your jazz library!
~ Joanne Grauer – Source: Album liner notes by Joe Quinn ~ I’m Glad There Is You, Have You Met Miss Jones, The Song Is You – Source: JazzStandards.com © 2023 by Edward Thomas Carter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eddie Benitez was born on November 12, 1956 in San Juan, Puerto Rico and his family moved to Europe soon after his birth for his father’s work. Raised in Italy and Spain, the family returned to the U.S. when he was nine and settled in Brooklyn, New York. He formed his first band at age twelve and began competing and winning local battles of the bands in Brooklyn. It was at one such battle of the bands where he was discovered by an AR person from Fania Records. Soon after the teenage guitarist was signed to the label.
Playing his first concert at Marcala la paz Honduras in front of 20,000 fans soon after joining the label in 1976, his performance with his band Nebula and the Fania All Stars marked the beginning of his early rise to fame as a guitarist. His debut release Nightlife was followed six months later with Essence of Life. He would later perform with such stars as Tito Puente and Mongo Santamaría.
His musical style began with Latin jazz as part of the Fania family, and would later incorporate smooth jazz and world music styles. His performing career came to a sudden halt at the age of 23 when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, changing his life forever. Surviving cancer he took time off to reflect on life and spirituality and throughout his life Benitez has claimed to have had many spiritual visions, including those that occurred while overcoming a heart attack and an unexplained three-day coma.
He returned to performing with a private concert in Phoenix, Arizona in 2003 and it was there that reports that some in attendance saw mysterious beings, some would claim they were angels, on the stage with Benitez when he performed. That event gave rise to the title of his book and his tour.
Guitarist Eddie Benitez transitioned on January 17, 2019 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hubert Fol was born in Paris, France on November 11, 1925 and learned piano from an early age through lessons from his mother. He also took lessons in violin and clarinet in his teens and early twenties.
As a saxophonist, Hubert worked with Claude Abadie and Boris Vian and co-founded the Be Bop Minstrels with his brother in 1947. In 1949~1950, he toured Europe and recorded with Coleman Hawkins, then worked with Kenny Clarke and Django Reinhardt before embarking on another European tour with Dizzy Gillespie and Rex Stewart.
In the 1960s his health deteriorated, leading to his playing far less frequently.Saxophonist and bandleader Hubert Fol transitioned on January 19, 1995 in Paris.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gray Hall was born November 10, 1992 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Learning to play the guitar as a youth, by the time he was in high school he was playing lead with Nathaniel’s jazz quartet and with Donnie in their modern blues group called Edens Unknown.
He and his high school classmates Alex Plye and Mike Haldelman while working with Marilisa Cook-Simmons on vocals, creating an electro-future-soul odyssey that blends the art of soul, production, and instrumentation that demonstrates the art of cool.
After graduating from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina he rejoined his fellow musicians Pyle and Haldeman to produce and record tracks for the neo-soul jazz group Space Captain. Splitting his time between performing and recording in New York City and recording at the Great Time Studio in suburban Philadelphia.
Other studio work by Hall features original beats and soundtrack mastering for So Far Productions (NYC). He has studied guitar with Daniel Sheriff, Greg Hyslip, and Rory Stewart; and interned as an studio production assistant with Eddie Motilla of Universal Studios, NYC and The Record Room in Miami, Florida.
Guitarist Gray Hall, who works in genres ranging from modern jazz, jazz fusion, modern blues, and neo-soul, continues to perform, record and produce.
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