Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Betty Carter was born Lillie Mae Jones on May 16, 1929 in Flint, Michigan but grew up in Detroit. The first music she heard was church music as her father led a choir. She studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory and winning a talent contest became a regular on the local club circuit. By 16 she was singing with Charlie Parker and would later perform with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.
Honing her scatting while touring with Lionel Hampton in the late 40s, it was Hampton’s wife Gladys who nicknamed her “Betty Bebop”, a name she reportedly detested. In the fifties she recorded with King Pleasure and Ray Bryant, and released her first solo LP, Out There With Betty Carter in 1958.
Although her career was eclipsed somewhat through the 60s and 70s, she made a series of duets with Ray Charles that rendered “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” which brought her a modicum of new recognition. She established Bet-Car in 1970, her own record label, after an A&R man attempted to run off with her master recordings. Her private label produced some of her most famous recordings including the double album “The Audience With Betty Carter”.
In the last decade of her life she won a Grammy for “Look What I Got”, appeared on the Cosby show, performed at the White House, was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton and headlined Verve’s 50th Anniversary at Carnegie Hall.
Betty Carter remained active in jazz until her death from pancreatic cancer on September 26, 1998 at the age of 69. The singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style was devoted to the jazz idiom. Her fellow vocalist Carmen McRae once claimed: “There’s really only one jazz singer – only one Betty Carter”.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Oscar Castro-Neves was born one of triplets on May 15, 1940 in Rio de Janiero. Discovering his interest in music at an early age, by six he was playing the little viola and the cavaquinho and forming a band with his brothers. He found his musical interest in the synthesis of European classical influenced altered chords with the bittersweet samba-cancao.
He would learn from Johnny Alf who was deeply influenced by jazz, as would all musicians who chose the path to bossa nova. However it wasn’t until the 60s that it would catch on and in 1962 he was part of the historic Carnegie Hall Bossa Nova Festival.
Soon after he befriended Paul Winter and recorded his debut Oscar! on Paul’s label Living Music. That recording led to other sessions as a leader and performances with the likes of Vinicius de Moraes, Dorival Caymmi, and Quarteto em Cy. In 1966 he recorded with Tom Jobim on his Apresenta album before joining Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 and recording Fool On The Hill. Having recorded three albums, he had already gained immediate fame blending commercially Brazilian, jazz and American pop.
As an arranger he has worked for Quincy Jones, Flora Purim, Laurindo Almeida, Joao Gilberto, played with Yo Yo Ma, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Toots Thielemans, Stevie Wonder, John Klemmer and Stan Getz and been involved in projects with Dave Grusin, Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker.
Guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves continues to record, compose, arrange, score movies and television, perform and tour worldwide.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Gerald Wiggins was born on May 12, 1922 in New York City. He started classical piano lessons when he was four but by his teenage years became interested in jazz. He doubled on bass while attending High School & Art and for a period in the 40s accompanied Stepin’ Fetchit. Following this he worked and toured with the big bands of Les Hite, Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter. Stationed in Seattle while in the military he played in the local jazz clubs.
By the mid 40s Wiggins relocated to Los Angeles and played music for television and film. He has worked with Lena Horne, Kay Starr, Nat King Cole, Lou Rawls, Jimmy Witherspoon Helen Humes, Joe Williams, Ernie Andrews and Eartha Kitt to name a few. He also worked at the Hollywood studios as a vocal coach and worked with Marilyn Monroe and others.
Always a highly flexible pianist, Wiggins was comfortable in swing and bop settings with a consistently witty style filled with catchy riffs became his distinctive signature. His best-known recording as an organist was Wiggin’ Out but it was Wiggins’ trio work with Andy Simpkins and Paul Humphreys that is legendary. Pianist Gerald Wiggins passed away at the age of 86 on July 13, 2008.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Pal Joey premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on December 25, 1940 and ran for 374 performances. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart scored the music with the show starring Vivienne Segal, Gene Kelly, June Havoc, Jack Durant, Leila Ernst and Van Johnson. From the musical came the songs that rose to the roster of jazz classics I Could Write A Book, and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.
The Story: Set in San Francisco, an irresistible heel named Joey Evans (Kelly) gets a job at the Mike’s Club, and becomes attracted to Linda English (Leila Ernst). Joey drops her for a rich, bewitched dowager Vera Simpson (Segal). Vera falls for Joey and builds him his own club, Chez Joey, but soon tires of him. With an encounter by blackmailers, (Durant & Havoc) Joey is off in search of other conquests. Unlike the movie version with Sinatra, Hayworth and Novak, the boy doesn’t get the girl in the end. This play marked the only Broadway musical that Kelly played a major role.
Broadway History: In the 18th century, Broadway ended at the town commons north of Wall Street Wall, where traffic continued up the East Side of the island via Eastern Post Road and the West Side via Bloomingdale Road. The western Bloomingdale Road would be widened and paved during the 19th century, and called “The Boulevard” north of Columbus Circle. On February 14, 1899. The name “Broadway” was extended to the entire Broadway/Bloomingdale/Boulevard Road.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Carla Bley was born Carla Borg on May 11, 1936 is best known for her work as a jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader in the post bop generation and free jazz movement of the 60s.
Raised in Oakland, California she was encouraged by her father, piano teacher and choirmaster, to sing and learn the piano. Giving up church to immerse herself in roller-skating at fourteen, Carla moved to New York and became a cigarette girl at Birdland. It is here that she met and married Paul Bley, who encouraged her to start composing. Her compositions would later begin to appear on recordings by George Russell and Jimmy Guiffre, with compositions being performed by Gary Burton, Art Farmer and Paul Bley.
In 1964 she was involved in organizing the Jazz Composer Guild bringing together the most innovative musicians in New York and started the JCOA record label, which released albums by Clifford Thornton, Don Cherry and Roswell Rudd, Michael Mantler and herself. With Mantler the two started the New Music Distribution Services, now defunct, that specialized in small, independent labels issuing creative improvised music.
Carla Bley has collaborated with a number of other artists, including Kurt Weill, Jack Bruce, Charlie Haden, Phil Woods, Johnny Griffin, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Lew Soloff, Phil Woods and her current partner bassist Steve Swallow. She has continued to record frequently with her own big band and a number of smaller ensembles.
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