From Broadway To 52nd Street
I Married An Angel opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theater on May 11, 1938. Running for three hundred and thirty-eight performances, the musical starred Dennis King, Audrie Christie, Vera Zorina and Vivienne Segal. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart composed the score from which emerged Spring Is Here as another jazz standard.
The Story: The musical tells the story of a banker and ladies man who breaks off his engagement, swearing he will marry an angel. A real angel promptly flies into his life and he marries her. But her angelic honesty causes no end to problems for him until his sister teaches the angel the way of the cynical world. His sister also bribes a cab driver to delay creditors until a way is found to save her brother’s bank.
Jazz History: On the Street of Jazz musicians, jazz lovers, college students and big businessmen—everybody knew that this was “The Street that Never Slept,” the street where every night was New Year’s Eve. Here, for the price of a drink or two, you could walk through the whole history of jazz. Hot jazz was born and raised on The Street, as were the big swing bands of the thirties and the modern “cool” jazz combos of the forties. Comics like Alan King and Joey Adams got their start here, as did musicians like Erroll Garner, Jack Teagarden, and Coleman Hawkins.
Bessie Smith performed on the Street, as did Count Basie, Charlie “Bird” Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Art Tatum, Sarah Vaughn, the Dorsey Brothers, Artie Shaw, and other jazz greats. The Street gave birth in Prohibition-era speakeasies, where musicians jammed for gin or just for the fun of it and its post-Repeal blossoming as the center of the jazz universe. The Street lined up and down on both sides with tiny, smoke-filled rooms where black and white musicians played to capacity crowds long before its postwar decline to become a tawdry tenderloin of strip and clip joints.
Sponsored By
www.whatissuitetabu.com
More Posts: broadway
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charlie Rouse was born on April 6, 1924 in Washington, DC. He played tenor saxophone and flute, developing a distinctive nasal tone complimenting a bop-oriented style. Rouse moved very little, looked straight-ahead and wore a solemn expression when he played. He became highly influential by association with Thelonious Monk from 1959 to 1970. He would later become a founding member of Sphere, a band that paid tribute to Monk’s music.
Throughout the forties Rouse worked with Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, made his recording debut with Tadd Dameron, and as the 50’s opened he was a part of Count Basie’s octet, and worked with Clifford Brown and Oscar Pettiford. He co-led the Jazz Modes with Julius Watkins and would go on to work with Mal Waldron. He would record, as a leader gaining some recognition by the eighties; with Carmen McRae on her classic Carmen Sings Monk project, and his last recording would be a Monk tribute concert.
The hard bop tenor and flautist died of lung cancer at the age of 64 in Seattle, Washington on November 30, 1988. Coincidently, Monk’s patroness NIca de Koenigswarter died the same day in New York City.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stan Levey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 5, 1926, the son of a car salesman and boxing promoter. A self-taught prodigy, at age 16 Levey went to a local club where Dizzy Gillespie was headlining and convinced him to let him sit in on drums. So impressed was Dizzy that he offered the youngster an opportunity to join the group full-time. Taking some heat for recruiting a white, Jewish 16 year old to anchor his band, Dizzy simply responded – “show me a better black drummer and I’ll hire him”.
Levey joined the group, relocated to New York City with Dizzy, joined a small band led by Coleman Hawkins featuring Thelonious Monk, cut his first recording session with Art Tatum, played with Ben Webster and sat in with Woody Herman’s First Herd when regular drummer was unavailable.
In 1945 Levey joined Charlie Parker’s Quintet and when Dizzy and Charlie joined forces later that year they kept Levey and brought in bassist Al Haig and pianist Curly Russell. Considered the first and most innovative bebop lineup in history and it was during this period that classic standards like “A Night In Tunisia”, “Manteca” and Groovin’ High” were written.
During the late 40’s Levey toured with Norman Granz’s Jazz At The Philharmonic, in 1951 returned to Philly and formed his own band, worked five years with Stan Kenton, settled on the West coast joining Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All Stars and his drumming would influence the emerging West Coast jazz sound. He increased his session playing backing the likes of Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Holiday and Streisand. He played on over three hundred soundtracks for television and film, and turned his passion for photography into shooting a number of record covers.
Levey retired from music in 1973 to pursue his love of photography and he covered everything from fashion spreads to industrial photos to record jackets. On April 19, 2005 he passed away in Van Nuys, California at the age of 79. He never returned to music.
More Posts: drums
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Abraham Samuel “Boomie” Richman was born on April 2, 1922 in Brockton, Massachusetts and began his career as a tenor saxophonist playing locally in his hometown. Moving to New York at twenty and within three years became a key soloist with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, a gig that lasted for six years at the height of the big band era. Playing a Selmer Tenor Mark VI saxophone with a baritone reed with a wide flare created a very expensive sound for the tenor who also played clarinet, bass clarinet, piccolo and flute.
Following his leaving the Dorsey band he were spent as a session player for the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Lena Horne, Sammy Davis, Benny Goodman, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland and Buddy Holly.
Richman played with Benny Goodman off and on throughout the early fifties. Upon his retirement from Goodman in 1956, he became the ‘first-call’ studio ace in New York City recording for television and radio commercials. This had him playing on shows hosted by Jimmy Dean, Perry Como, Dick Cavett, Patti Page, Pat Boone and Andy Williams. His last recording was for the movie The Godfather. His swing-based style remained unchanged well into the eighties when he retired from the music scene.
More Posts: saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
In the jazz world his moniker was Duke Jordan but he was born Irving Sidney Jordan on April 1, 1922 in Brooklyn, New York. The gifted and imaginative pianist was well known for his work with Charlie Parker during his classic quintet years with Miles Davis. From the 50’s on he had a long solo career performing in trio format after playing for periods with Sonny Stitt and Stan Getz. His most notable composition Jordu became a jazz standard when Clifford Brown adopted it into his repertoire.
He married the talented jazz singer Sheila Jordan in 1952 and the union lasted for a decade. He continuously performed throughout the sixties although he faded from the public eye until he began recording an extensive sequence of albums for Steeplechase in 1973 producing some of his best live recordings.
In 1978 he moved his residence to Copenhagen, Denmark where he lived until his death on August 8, 2006. His music always reflected the inherently melodic style that was enlivened by his delightful crisp touch and unexpected turns of phrase. Duke Jordan’s recordings can be found on Prestige, Savoy, Blue Note, Charlie Parker Records, Muse, Spotlite and Steeplechase.
More Posts: piano