Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Helen Merrill was born Jelena Ana Milcetic on July 21, 1930 in New York City to Croatian immigrants. The internationally renowned jazz vocalist began singing in jazz clubs in the Bronx at the age of fourteen. By the time she was sixteen, she had taken up music full time and in 1952 made her recording debut when asked to sing “A Cigarette For Company” with the Earl Hines Band that was released on their Xanadu album.
As a result of this exposure she received two subsequent singles recorded for Roost Records and was then signed by Mercury for their new Emarcy label. In 1954, she recorded her first and one of her most acclaimed LP simply titled “Helen Merrill” featuring legendary jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown and bassist/cellist Oscar Pettiford, among others. The album was produced and arranged by Quincy Jones, who was then just twenty-one years old. The success of the album got her signed to an additional four-album contract with Mercury.
Her follow-up 1956 album Dream of You arranged by Gil Evans was the precursor to the musical foundations for his Miles Davis years. By the 60s she was in Europe touring and enjoying greater commercial success than in the States. Developing a following in Japan that remains strong to this day, she not only recorded in Japan, Merrill became involved in producing albums for Trio Records and hosting a show on a Tokyo radio station.
Helen returned to the U.S. in 1972 and has continued recording and regular touring since then. Her later career has seen her experiment in different music genres, recording a bossa nova album, a Christmas album a Rodgers and Hammerstein album, as well as resurrecting “Dream of You” in 1987 with fresh arrangements titled “Collaboration” and co-producing “Billy Eckstine Sings With Benny Carter” and singing on duet on two ballads. By 1995 she recorded “Brownie: Homage to Clifford Brown in tribute to the late trumpeter.
Helen Merrill’s career has spanned six decades with no fade in her popularity and has recorded and performed with some of the most notable figures in the American jazz scene such as Chet Baker, San Getz and Romano Mussolini, among many, many others.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
Brigadoon opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre on March, 13, 1947 and had a run of 581 performances. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Leowe composed the music and lyrics for the stars David Brooks, Marion Bell, George Keane and Pamela Britton. From this musical arose to compositions to jazz standard fame – Almost Like Being In Love and The Heather On The Hill.
The Story: Two American hunters in Scotland lose their way and stumble upon the village of Brigadoon that seems to belong to another time. As they enter, a kilted swain is rejoicing his impending marriage. Tommy falls in love with Fiona, Jeff has a fling with Meg. They discover the village is bewitched coming back to life only once every hundred years. Jeff and Tommy flee but Tommy’s love for Fiona brings him back and the village appears just long enough to embrace him.
Broadway History: It was during the 20th century that the Tony Awards were established, in 1947. These awards recognized theater achievement in Broadway theaters. Other Broadway and theater awards include the Drama Desk Awards, New York Drama Critics Circle Award, Theatre World Awards and the Obie Awards. The Drama Desk Awards are the only award given to Broadway and off-Broadway productions, all competing against each other.
The Obie awards cover off Broadway and off-off Broadway productions. The Theatre World awards are given to actors for outstanding debut performances. The New York Drama Critics’ Circle award is the second oldest theater award in the U.S. with the main award for Best Play.
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From Broadway To 52nd Street
St. Louis Woman opened on March 30, 1946 on the stage of the Martin Beck Theatre and ran for 113 performances. Harold Arlen composed the music and Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics for the musical with one tune standing the test of time to become a jazz standard – Come Rain Or Come Shine. The original cast included Robert Pope, Harold Nicholas, Fayard Nicholas, June Hawkins, Pearl Bailey, Ruby Hill, Rex Ingram and Milton J. Williams.
The Story: Set in St. Louis in 1898, Little Augie, a jockey who is on a winning streak, is enamored with Della Green, the belle of St Louis. Della, however, is the girlfriend of abusive Bigelow Brown, the proprietor of the local bar. Decides to leave him, Brown’s previous mistress, Lila, is still around which produces complications.
It’s cakewalking time and Augie attracts the attention and admiration of Della with his virtuoso performance of the cakewalk. Things go so well between them that they agree to set up home together and prepare plans to marry. While Augie is off at the racetrack, Della gets an unwelcome visit from Biglow Brown who beats. Lila enters, begs for a reconciliation, Augie returns, shot is fired, curse is casted on Augie for the shot that in fact was fired by Lila.
At Brown’s funeral suspected Augie is exonerated by Lila’s confession but the curse seems to be working. His horses no longer win and Della blames herself for the troubles. Della leaves feigning no love for Augie but her new friend tells him her true feelings. Believing the curse to be so much mumbo-jumbo, he’ll win his next race and he and Della get back together again.
Jazz History: Charlie Parker began rising in prominence in the early 1940s, and he played frequently with bands led by Jay McShann, Earl Hines, and Billy Eckstine. In 1945, a young Miles Davis Miles Davis moved to New York and became intrigued with Parker and the emerging bebop style. He studied at Juilliard, but had trouble earning respect among jazz musicians because of his unrefined sound. Soon he would work his way into Parker’s quintet. In 1945, the term ‘moldy fig’ was coined to refer to swing musicians who were reluctant to accept that bebop was the new path of jazz development.
In the mid 1940s Charlie Parker began to deteriorate from drug use. He was admitted to Camarillo State Hospital after a breakdown in 1946. His stay there inspired the song “Relaxin’ at Camarillo”.
In 1947, tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon achieved fame for recordings of “duels” with saxophonist Wardell Gray. Gordon’s virtuosity and aggressive tone attracted the attention of young alto saxophonist John Coltrane, who would shortly thereafter switch to tenor saxophone.
In 1948, Miles Davis and drummer Max Roach, fed up with Charlie Parker’s reckless lifestyle, left his band. Davis formed his own nonet. In 1949 recorded the unconventional ensemble. Some of the arrangements were by a young Gil Evans, and the restrained style of the music came to be known as cool jazz. The record, released almost a decade later, in 1957, was called Birth of the Cool.
By the end of the 1940s, bebop was the ideal among young jazz musicians. Unlike swing, bebop was untethered to popular demands. Its primary concern was musical advancement.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
William Clarence Eckstine was born on July 8, 1914 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but grew up in Washington, DC of Prussian and African American heritage. He began singing at the age of seven, entering amateur talent shows while dreaming of a football career that was sidelined when he broke his collarbone. Focusing on music he worked his way west to Chicago, joining Earl Hines’ Grand Terrace Orchestra as vocalist and occasionally trumpeter from1939 – 1943. During his tenure he made a name for himself through the Hines band’s radio shows with such jukebox hits as “Stormy Monday Blues” and his own “Jelly Jelly”.
Eckstine formed the first bop big band in 1944 making it a fountainhead for young musicians who would reshape jazz by the end of the decade, including Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro and Sarah Vaughn, with Tadd Dameron and Gil Fuller were among the band’s arrangers. Billy hit the charts often during the mid-’40s, with Top Ten entries including “A Cottage For Sale” and “Prisoner of Love”.
Breaking down barriers throughout the Forties as a leader of the original bop big band and as the first romantic black male in popular music, Mr. B, as he was affectionately known, went solo in 1947. His seamless transition to string-filled balladry saw him recording more than a dozen hits by the end of the decade and winning numerous awards from Esquire, Down Beat and Metronome magazines. His 1950 appearance at New York’s Paramount Theatre greatly surpassed Sinatra’s audience draw at the same venue.
Over the course of the next two decades Billy appeared on every major television variety show from Ed Sullivan to Nat King Cole, Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Joey Bishop, Flip Wilson and Playboy After Dark. After a long series of hit tunes and recordings by the 70’s Billy’s recordings came sparingly although he still performed before adoring audiences throughout the world. He made his final Grammy-nominated recording singing with Benny Carter in 1986.
Billy Eckstine, vocalist, bandleader, trumpeter, valve trombonist and guitarist passed away on March 8, 1993, at age 78, in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lloyd “Tiny” Grimes was born on July 7, 1916 in Newport News, Virginia and began his career playing drums and one-fingered piano. In 1938 he took up the electric 4-string tenor guitar and two years later joined the Cats and a Fiddle as guitarist and singer. 1943 saw him as part of the Art Tatum Trio making a number of recordings and this early configuration recorded some of the more interesting early examples of Tiny Grimes’ guitar work.
After leaving Tatum, Grimes recorded with his own groups in New York and he recorded with a long list of leading musicians, including Billie Holiday. He made four recordings with Charlie Parker that are considered excellent examples of early bebop jazz: “Tiny’s Tempo”, “Red Cross”, “Romance Without Finance” and “I’ll Always Love You”. He was to become one of the 52nd Street regulars during this period.
Towards the end of the decade Tiny scored a hit on a jazzed up version of “Loch Lomond”. His band was billed as Tiny “Mac” Grimes and the Rocking Highlanders, appearing in kilts and included top tenor sax man Red Prysock and big-voiced baritone singer Screaming Jay Hawkins. Grimes continued to lead his own groups into the later 1970’s recording for Prestige in a series of strong blues-based performances with Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Pepper Adams, Roy Eldridge, Earl Hines and others of note.
With Paul Williams he co-headlined the first “Moondog Coronation Ball”, promoted by Alan Freed in Cleveland, Ohio on March 21, 1952, often claimed as the first rock and roll concert. It is also generally considered he played on the first rock and roll record with a group called The Crows one-hit wonder “Gee”.
Tiny Grimes, a jazz and R&B guitarist most noted for playing a four-string electric tenor guitar, passed away on March 4, 1989.
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