The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Remaining hesitant to be in crowds of people without a mask, more and more people are unmasking while we are still in the pandemic. Legislators are speaking unmask rhetoric and otherwise responsible people are listening. This Jazz Voyager is listening to my conscience and protecting myself and those around me.
This week I have chosen another quartet recording by the New York Jazz Quartet, founded by pianist Roland Hanna. The first iteration of the group consisted of flautist Hubert Laws, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Billy Cobham. In 1974 the lineup changed to Frank Wess, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Ben Riley. Drummers Richie Pratt and Grady Tate also were enlisted to contribute their talents to the group at different times through the decade the band was together. The group recorded for the Inner City, Enja, Salvation and Sonet Records from 1972 to 1982
This album is the group’s fourth release, Blues For Sarka, recorded live on May 17, 1978 at The Domicile in Munich, West Germany. It was produced by Horst Weber and Matthias Winckelmann, recorded by Carlos Albrecht and released the same year on Enja Records. The cover photography was taken by Josef Werkmeister and the cover design was by Weber & Winckelmann
Track List | 45:11 All compositions by Roland Hanna except as indicated- All Blues (Miles Davis) ~ 15:29
- Rodney Round Robin ~ 5:44
- I’ll Tell You Tonite (George Mraz) ~ 7:14
- Blues for Sarka (George Mraz) ~ 7:11
- Smelly Jelly Belly ~ 9:33
- Frank Wess ~ flute, tenor saxophone
- Roland Hanna ~ piano
- George Mraz ~ bass
- Grady Tate ~ drums
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jackie Mills was born on March 11, 1922 in New York City and he first learned guitar before picking up drums when he was ten years old. He played in the swing groups of Charlie Barnet and Boyd Raeburn in the 1940s. He followed with gigs with Jazz at the Philharmonic, Gene Norman, Babe Russin, Mannie Klein, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Rene Touzet, Sonny Criss, Andre Previn, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, and Red Norvo.
In the late 1940s Jackie became interested in bebop and began playing in a style influenced by Max Roach. He began playing with Harry James in 1949, working with him through the late 1950s.
Mills recorded as a session musician during the 50s, working with artists such as Gerry Wiggins and Anita O’Day. In his later career, Mills recorded occasionally, including with Freddie Roach in 1966 and Dodo Marmarosa in 1978, but was chiefly active as a record producer and co-founder of Choreo Records, doing production work for Columbia, MGM, Mainstream, Capitol and Liberty Records.
In 1969, Mills acquired Larrabee Sound Studios from its co-founders Gerry Goffin and Carole King. As owner and operator through the mid-1980s, the studio was acquired by his son Kevin.
Drummer Jackie Mills transitioned on March 22, 2010 in Beaumont, California.
The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
It is amazing but not surprising how people want to get back to the same old routine they were in before the pandemic instead of inventing themselves anew. As I move around my city I see more and more people not wearing masks in enclosed spaces. I am not surprised by the robotic sense of normalcy by society.
This week I have selected an album by the underrated and often unappreciated vocalist Irene Kral. The younger sister of pianist Roy Kral, I discovered her towards the end of her career in 1977 when I heard her album Where Is Love. I was enamored by her voice and the quiet understatement of her singing. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to hear her live as she transitioned the followin year in August.
The album I present today is her third studio session, Better Than Anything, recorded on June 17 & 18, 1963 at the World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles, California. It was produced by Joe Burnett, engineered by Richard Bock and released the same year on Äva Records and distributed by MGM. Making up the quartet with Irene is the Junior Mance Trio.
The cover design was by Richter & Mracky Design Associates, the photography by Fred Seligo and the liner notes were written by Tommy Wolf.
Track List | 29:24
- Better Than Anything (David “Buck” Wheat, Bill Loughborough) ~ 2:21
- The Touch Of Your Lips (Ray Noble) ~ 2:22
- The Meaning of the Blues (Bobby Troup, Leah Worth) ~ 3:11
- Rock Me To Sleep (Benny Carter, Paul Vandervoort II) ~ 2:20
- No More (Tutti Camarata, Bob Russell) ~ 3:10
- Passing By (Laurent Hess, Charles Trenet, Jack Lawrence) ~ 1:54
- It’s a Wonderful World (Jan Savitt, Harold Adamson, Johnny Watson) ~ 2:34
- This Is Always (Mack Gordon, Harry Warren) ~ 3:23
- Just Friends (John Klenner, Sam M. Lewis) ~ 2:40
- Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry (Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn) ~ 3:35
- Nobody Else But Me (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II) ~ 1:54
- Irene Kral ~ vocals
- Junior Mance ~ piano
- Bob Cranshaw ~ bass
- Mickey Roker ~ drums
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Three Wishes
Louis Bellson was talking with Nica and during the conversation she asked him what three wishes he would ask for if they could be given and this was his answer:
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“That jazz music would become an integral part of all music. And I hope that the American people would consider it a part of American creative art. Because I feel that its music potential has a place alongside all other great music of the world. And also it should be respected and the musicians should be respected too, because I feel in the future there is going to be a greater tie~in with symphony music.”
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“I hope that all the young fine musicians today who are interested in jazz as a creative art have the opportunity to express themselves. By this I mean there are no clubs or places where the youngster can gain knowledge and learn his craft. It is shameful to know that there are many gigantic industries in every other form, but our creative form suffers the most.”
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“I am hoping that music will mend the entire world. It has been proven that our relations with other countries has been one hundred percent pure in friendship because of music. I feel that music will blossom into a flower, and that flower will express one great thought, and that is: We belong to the human race and we all learn the same notes.”
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*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Buddy Deppenschmidt was born William Henry Deppenschmidt on February 16, 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father was a saxophonist and bandleader under the name Buddy Williams, but his mother moved him to Richmond, Virginia when he was four.
Self-taught, he started playing drums professionally while in his teens and then went on the road in the western U.S. with the territory band Ronnie Bartley Orchestra. Returning home, he played with local bands and became the drummer for the Newton Thomas Trio through the mid to late Fifties, which was also the touring rhythm section for the Billy Butterfield Quintet. When the Newton Thomas Trio played the Virginia Beach Jazz Festival, it received rave reviews on a bill that included the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the Charlie Byrd Trio. Two nights later, Charlie Byrd came into the Jolly Roger jazz club where Buddy was playing, and offered him the job as drummer with his trio. He played with the trio at the Showboat Lounge in Washington, D.C. from 1959–62.
In February 1961, while on a goodwill tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department, the Charlie Byrd Trio with Byrd on guitar, Keter Betts on bass, and Buddy on drums, they visited 18 countries throughout South and Central Americas, and Mexico. While in Brazil, he spent his free time with local musicians, teaching them jazz and learning bossa nova. It was his idea to record an album combining jazz and bossa nova with Stan Getz.
After Byrd, Deppenschmidt joined the Tee Carson Trio in the early Sixties, then moved to Pennsylvania and formed the Jazz Renaissance, was also the drummer with the John Coates Trio, toured the midwest and west coast with the Bernard Peiffer Trio and studied with drummer Joe Morello.
He’s worked on A Thousand Clowns, Wall Street, Bossa Nova, The Lake House, and Whatever Works movie soundtracks. He’s played with a who’s who list of jazz musicians from Mose Allison and Chet Baker to Coleman Hawkins and Shirley Horn, Phil Woods and more.
Drummer Buddy Deppenschmidt, biographies are in The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Sixties and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, transitioned on March 20, 2021 in Pennsylvania from complications of COVID-19. He was 85 years old.
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