Requisites
My Favorite Things ~ John Coltrane
My Favorite Things was the seventh studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane, recorded on October 21, 24, 26, 1960. Released in 1961 on Atlantic Records, it was the first album to feature him playing soprano saxophone, a gift from Miles Davis while they were on tour in Europe. An edited version of the title track became a hit single that gained popularity in 1961 via radio airplay, thus helping the record become a major commercial success. In 1998, the album received the Grammy Hall of Fame award. Fifty-eight years after its release, in 2018 the album attained gold record status, having sold 500,000 copies.
The title track is a modal rendition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music. The melody is heard numerous times throughout, but instead of playing solos over the written chord changes, both Tyner and Coltrane take extended solos over vamps of the two tonic chords, E minor and E major played in waltz time. This use of modal jazz is evident throughout the album.
The album consists of four songs with Cole Porter’s Ev’rytime We Say Goodbye following the title track on Side 1, then two from the brothers Gershwin, George and Ira, with Summertime and But Not For Me on Side 2. The length of the album is a mere 40:25 but is well worth the listen and a valued addition to any music library that one desires to build.
In the documentary The World According to John Coltrane, narrator Ed Wheeler remarks on the impact that this song’s popularity had on Coltrane’s career: The recording was a hit and became Coltrane’s most requested tune, and a bridge to his broad public acceptance.
The band features John Coltrane playing soprano saxophone on Side 1 and tenor on Side 2, McCoy Tyner on piano, Steve Davis on the double bass, and rounding out the quartet is drummer Elvin Jones.
The production team was Nesuhi Ertegün ~ producer, Tom Dowd, Phil Iehle ~ engineers, Lee Friedlander ~ photography, Loring Eutemey ~ cover design and Bill Coss wrote the liner notes.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ronnie Foster was born May 12, 1950 in Buffalo, New York and was attracted to music at the age of four. Attending Public School 8, then Woodlawn Jr. High for a year, he took music more seriously from his early teens while at McKinley Vocational High School for two years, and having his first professional gig aged fifteen, playing in a strip club. He spent his final year at Lafayette High School. The only formal musical instruction he received was a month of accordion lessons.
Foster initially performed with other local musicians before moving to New York City with his own band, and acquired a publishing company. He has performed as a sideman with a wide range of musicians, frequently working with guitarist George Benson and playing on the guitarist’s album Breezin’.
He has played organ with Grant Green, Grover Washington, Jr., Stanley Turrentine, Roberta Flack, Earl Klugh, Harvey Mason, Jimmy Smith, and Stevie Wonder. His music Mystic Brew has been sampled by A Tribe Called Quest and J. Cole.
Organist Ronnie Foster, who is also a record producer, continues to perform, record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Laura Ellis was born on May 11, 1972 and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She had the fortune to become a protégé of The Manhattan Transfer founding member Alan Paul which guided the honing of her vocal skills. Steeped in the Great American Songbook she ventured on a four year run of The Vintage Voice, and toured with The Wonderelles, covering the music of the famous girl groups.
Ellis has a penchant for cinema noir of the 40s and 50s and replicates those vintae tunes by bringing those seedy characters to life. Her Cinema Sweethearts celebrate the days of teen idols and her cabaret performances transport listeners back in time. Her blend of jazz and nostalgia has entertained audiences across the nation..
She has recorded a contemporary vocal jazz album, Here Lies Love, produced by Alan Paul, and Femme Fatale, featuring the classic songs from the dangerous dames of film noir. In 2016 she released Broken Lovely, a compendium of love songs of the broken, mended, and free.
Now calling Los Angeles, Californiar home, vocalist Laura Ellis has lent her voice to History Channel’s Route 66, Modern Marvels documentaries, the HBO series Carnivale, a commercial appearance with the late Della Reese, and ABC’s Modern Family.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles William Porter was born May 10, 1978 in Boynton Beach, Florida. He studied trumpet at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Paris Conservatory. His mentors include Wynton Marsalis, Mark Gould, Raymond Mase, Guy Touvron, and Laurie Frink.
Porter started in the New York jazz scene in the 1990s while studying classical music under Wynton Marsalis at the Juilliard School. He became a long-standing member of the Absolute Ensemble, and is a frequent member of the Charlie Porter Quintet, The Alan Jones Sextet and the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra.
As a bandleader, he has toured as both a jazz and classical musician, and released his debut self-titled album, Charlie Porter, and a sophomore project Immigration Nation. As a sideman he has recorded some two dozen albums with Philip Glass, Absolute Ensemble, Paquito D’Rivera, Tristan Murail, Billy Martin, Anthony Coleman, Russ Spiegel, Majid Khaliq, Chuck Israels, Alan Jones, and Derek Hines.
As an educator he is currently based in Portland, Oregon and presently holds the position of adjunct professor of jazz trumpet at Portland State University. Trumpeter, composer and music educator Charlie Porter, who has won several trumpet competitions and awarded a Grammy for his collaboration on the Joyce DiDonato album Songplay, continues to perform, record and teach.
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The Jazz Voyager
Criss-crossing the country once again, the Jazz Voyager is on a six hour flight to that Golden Gate city where many a heart has been left. This trip will be to honor the seventy year career of the extraordinary vocalist Patti Austin and her contributions to the music industry that began on the Apollo stage at the age of four.
The fun will be had when all congregate in the Miner Auditorium of the SFJazz Center for this gala tribute. Opened in 2013, the center is located in the heart of the city’s arts district, and includes two performance spaces, multiple music practice rooms, a digital lab, and the B-Side restaurant and bar.
This evening will feature performances not only by the honoree but by Terence Blanchard, PJ Morton, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Siedah Garrett, Dumpstaphunk, SFJAZZ Collective, and more.
The center is located at 201 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102. For tickets and more info go to https://notoriousjazz.com/event/patti-austin.
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