Hollywood On 52nd Street
Makin’ Whoopee! and My Baby Just Cares for Me are jazz classics. The former, a jazz/blues song with lyrics written by Gus Kahn and music by Walter Donaldson was first popularized by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical Whoopee!, and then reprised the role in the 1930 movie. Kahn and Donaldson also wrote the latter for the musical comedy film in 1930.
The title is a euphemism for sexual intimacy and the song itself has been called a “dire warning”, largely to men, about the “trap” of marriage. Makin’ Whoopee begins with the celebration of a wedding honeymoon and marital bliss, but moves on to babies and responsibilities, and ultimately on to affairs and possible divorce, ending with a judge’s advice.
The Story: In California Sheriff Bob Wells and the daughter of a rancher Sally Morgan are getting married. She, however is in love with Wanenis, whose part-Indian heritage presents difficulties. Sally abandons Sheriff Bob and their wedding, catching a ride with Henry Williams. Henry has problems of his own, being a hypochondriac, but Sally adds to his problems when she leaves a note saying they have eloped. A chase ensues, with the jilted Bob; Mary, who is Henry’s nurse and is in love with him; and a cast of others. Along the way they arrive at the Indian Reservation where Wanenis lives.
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Gil Mellé was born December 31, 1931 in New York City and began his career in jazz as a post-bop baritone and tenor saxophonist, signed with Blue Note at the age of 19, becoming the first Caucasian on the label. Between 1953 and ’57 he recorded five 10” records and his debut 12” LP, Patterns in Jazz for Blue Note. Leaving the label he then went to Prestige releasing three albums.
In the 1950s, Mellé’s paintings and sculptures were shown in New York galleries and he created the cover art for albums by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. During this period Gil played the tenor and baritone saxophone with George Wallington, Max Roach, Tal Farlow, Oscar Pettiford, Ed Thigpen, Kenny Dorham and Zoot Sims.
It was Mellé who introduced engineer Rudy Van Gelder to Alfred Lion, Blue Note’s founder, in 1952 after Lion was impressed with the sound of Mellé’s recordings. Abandoning jazz and moving to Los Angeles in the 60s his road led to composing for film and television, and experimenting with electronic music.
As a film and television composer, Mellé was one of the first to use electronic instruments that he built himself, was first to compose a main theme for Rod Serling’s Night Gallery series arranged entirely for electronic instruments as well as The Six Million Dollar Man. Gil composed more than 125 motion picture scores including That Certain Summer, The Andromeda Strain, The Judge and Jake Wyler.
Gil Mellé died of a heart attack on October 28, 2004 in Malibu, California.
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Ray Bryant was born Raphael Homer Bryant on December 24, 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began playing piano at age six. He played bass in junior High School. Turning professional before his age of maturity, he made a name for himself in his hometown playing a steady gig at the Blue Note Club.
From the late 1950s, he led a trio, performing throughout the world, and also worked solo. He recorded his first album with Betty Carter in 1955 titled “Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant” that marked his initial ascent. His first solo piano album “Alone With The Blues” in 1958 became the precursor to many more solo projects.
A noted jazz composer, with well-known themes such as “Cubano Chant,” “Monkey Business,” “Little Susie” and “The Madison Time,” the latter being resurrected in the 1988 movie Hairspray and subsequently used in the Broadway show.
Ray has performed and recorded with such players as Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Melba Liston, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Carmen McRae and Aretha Franklin. Along with his brother Tommy and Oz Perkins he formed a trio as the back-up band in 1964 for the off-Broadway run of the comedy show Cambridge Circus starring John Cleese.
Ray Bryant, sensitive yet firm pianist who was comfortable with tonalities of gospel and blues and excelled as both sideman and leader passed away at age 79 on June 2, 2011.
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Chet Baker was born Chesney Henry Baker, Jr. on December 23, 1929 in Yale, Oklahoma. Raised in the musical household of a professional guitar player, he began his musical career singing in church, and then introduced to the trombone, but proved to large it was replaced with the trumpet.
Baker received some musical education at Glendale Junior High School, but left school at age 16 in 1946 to join the Army, serving in the 298th Army band. After his discharge in 1948, he studied theory and harmony at El Camino College in Los Angeles, dropped out in his second year and re-enlisting joined the army band at the Presidio but was soon spending time in San Francisco jazz clubs such as Bop City and the Black Hawk. Once again discharged he pursued his career as a professional musician.
Chet’s earliest notable professional gigs were with saxophonist Vido Musso band and with Stan but earned much more renown in 1951 when Charlie Parker chose him to play a series of West Coast engagements. In 1952, Baker joined the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which was an instant phenomenon due to contrapuntal touches.
With Mulligan serving a sentence on drug charges, Pacific Jazz picked up Baker in 1956 releasing Chet Baker Sings to the consternation of purists, but it increased his profile. He would go on to perform and record with Russ Freeman, Carson Smith, Joe Mondragon, Jimmy Bond, Art Pepper and Shelley Manne among others, win the Downbeat Jazz Poll, make his acting debut in Hell’s Horizon, front his own combos, and become an icon in the West Coast cool jazz movement.
However successful Baker became his lifelong battle with heroin brought a decline to his musical career, pawning instruments, serving prison sentences, encountering expulsion and deportation from European countries, savagely beaten and losing his teeth and ability to play. Chet’s comeback came with being fitted with dentures, relocating to New York and Europe, playing with Philip Catherine, Phil Markowitz, Stan Getz and returning with his most prolific recording era between 1978 and 1988, though on mostly small European labels that never reached wide audience attention.
Chet Baker, composer, flugelhornist and trumpeter who popularity was due in part to his matinee-idol good looks and well publicized drug habit, and who was associated most prominently with his rendition of My Funny Valentine and his documentary Let’s Get Lost, passed away on May 13, 1988 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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Bobby Timmons was born Robert Henry Timmons on December 19, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Studying piano from the age of six by the age of 19 he was moving to New York, playing with the likes of Kenny Dorham’s Jazz Prophets, Chet Baker, Sonny Stitt and Maynard Ferguson. He became a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers from 58-59 touring Europe and became well known for his composition “Moanin”.
He joined Cannonball Adderley for a year, recorded two soul-jazz compositions that became hits “This Here” and “Dat Dere” and rejoined Blakey for a brief stint in the Sixties. Over the course of his career he recorded some 16 albums for Riverside, Milestone and Prestige record labels and recorded another twenty-three as a sideman with Art Blakey, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, Nat Adderley, Kenny Burrell and the Young Lions.
However sophisticated and versatile a pianist he proved to be, Timmons’ success of his compositions, which have become jazz standards, could not compensate for his artistic frustrations and his battle with alcoholism. Pianist and composer Bobby Timmons passed away from cirrhosis at the age of 38 on March 1, 1974.
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