Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Alain Mion was born of French extraction on January 14, 1947 in Casablanca, Morocco but was raised in Paris, France.Influenced by Bobby Timmons, Ray Charles and Les McCann, his style varies between jazz, soul jazz and funky music. By the time he was 19 he formed his own trio and performed at the Blue Note. This subsequently led to him gigging at various festivals with Hank Mobley and Philly Joe Jones.

1974 Alain created the jazz funk group Cortex and recorded a dozen albums before embarking upon a career under his own name in 1982, recording to date eleven albums, such as Pheno-Men, Alain Mion in New York recorded with David Binney and Marc Johnson, and Some Soul Food recorded in Stockholm, Sweden with Patrik Boman and Ronnie Gardiner.

In 2008, he emerged with a new group, Alain Mion FunKey Combo with drums, bass and a saxophone section consisting of Italian and French musicians. He reinvented his new group Alain Mion & The New Cortex with the singer Adeline de Lépinay reprising the role originally performed by Mireille Dalbray on the Troupeau Bleu album.

In the United States, Alain Mion and Cortex’s songs have been sampled by several hip-hop artists including but not limited to Madlib, Fat Joe, DJ Day, MF DOOM, Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y, Mellowhype, Tyler The Creator, Rick Ross, and Lupe Fiasco.

Pianist, composer, arranger, and vocalist Alain Mion continues his exploration of the jazz idiom.

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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

I can only appeal to your sense of fair play that you quarantine, social distance and wear masks whenever you are out around people during this period of increased variants. It is a responsible person who takes the effort to protect others even when they do not have the desire to protect themselves.

This week I’m pulling from the stacks one of Tony Bennett’s highest selling albums of his career I Left My Heart In San Francisco. Released in 1962 on Columbia Records, it peaked at #5 on the Billboard pop albums chart, and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. Tony Bennett won two 1962 Grammy Awards for the title song: Record of the Year and Best Solo Vocal Performance, Male.

The album was produced by Ernie Altschuler and assembled around unused singles from earlier sessions. The previously released songs included the Cy Coleman/Carolyn Leigh songs The Best Is Yet to Come/Marry Young as well as Close Your Eyes/Rules of the Road, which were A&B sides respectively. Candy Kisses and Have I Told You Lately? were recorded in 1961. Tender Is the Night was later used in the 1962 film, while Charlie Chaplin’s Smile from Modern Times peaked at #73 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the only other single that charted with San Francisco.

Three additional tracks were taken from sessions spanning 1957 to 1960. Taking a Chance on Love from the musical Cabin in the Sky, Love for Sale from The New Yorkers, and I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” from Oh, Look!. Bennett’s rescue of Once Upon a Time from All American gave him San Francisco instead, his signature song.

Tracks | 32:20

Side 1

1. I Left My Heart In SanFrancisco (Douglass Cross, George Cory) ~ 2:52
2. Once Upon A Time (Charles Strouse, Lee Adams) ~ 2:57
3. Tender Is The NIght ( Sammy Fain, Paul Francis Webster) ~ 2:38
4. Smile (Charlie Chaplin, Geoffrey Parsons, John Turner) ~ 2:49
5. Love For Sale (Cole Porter) ~ 3:09
6. Taking A Chance On Love (Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh) ~ 2:28

Side 2

1. Candy Kisses (George Coleman) ~ 2:25
2. Have I Told You Lately (Harold Rome) ~ 2:39
3. Rules Of The Road (Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh) ~ 2:42
4. Marry Young ((Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh) ~ 2:20
5. I’m Always Chasing Rainbows (Harry Carroll, Joseph McCarthy) ~ 2:40
6. The Best Is Yet To Come ((Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh) ~ 2:28

• Tony Bennett ~ vocals
• Ralph Sharon ~ piano; arrangements on Love for Sale
• Candido Camero, Sabu Martinez, Billy Exiner ~ percussion on Love for Sale
• The Count Basie Orchestra ~ instruments and arrangements on Taking A Chance on Love
• Marty Manning ~ arrangements on San Francisco, Once Upon A Time, Tender is the Night, Candy Kisses, Have I Told You Lately?
• Cy Coleman ~ arrangements on Marry Young, The Best Is Yet to Come
• Ralph Burns ~ arrangements on Smile, Rules of the Road
• Frank De Vol ~ arrangements on I’m Always Chasing Rainbows

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Edward Burke  was born on January 13, 1909 in Fulton, Ohio. Adept at both violin and trombone, he played both professionally in jazz bands. He worked with Walter Barnes late in the 1920s, then with Cassino Simpson and Ed Carry in the early 1930s.

He worked with Kenneth Anderson in 1934 before joining Erskine Tate’s band through the end of 1935. Following a stint with Horace Henderson, Ed then joined Earl Hines’s band in 1938.

The 1940s saw Burke playing with Walter Fuller and Coleman Hawkins and later in the decade he was with first Duke Ellington and then Cootie Williams. In the early 1950s he joined Cab Calloway’s outfit before working with Buddy Johnson a few years later.

By the 1960s and through the 1970s he essentially went into retirement, though he occasionally played with musicians such as Lem Johnson and Wally Edwards. Violinist and trombonist Ed Bure transitioned on  April 19, 1988 in East Elmhurst, New York.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Dannee Fullerton was born January 12, 1944 in Los Angeles, California and at the age of four, moved with his mother to Saudi Arabia, joining his father who worked for the Arabian American Oil Company. By 11, he was enrolled at the Institut Montana Zugerberg, an all boys international school in Switzerland. It was here that drums became a strong influence and his very first drum set was a pair of brushes and a set of bongo drums. Along with singing, Dannee played the guitar and the drums.

At 14, he started a band at the Institut and gave concerts 3 to 4 times a year, something that had never before been accomplished on that campus. By 15 Dannee attended a concert and on the bill was the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and the Benny Goodman Orchestra featuring Gene Krupa playing Sing,Sing,Sing. The effect upon hearing this music caused Fullerton to give away all his rock and roll albums and so he could seriously concentrate on jazz.

During these formative years, he taught himself and others to play Jazz and continued to hold jazz concerts at school. Creating the school’s first jazz club, convincing the Director to allow students to attend jazz concerts, he was able to see concerts by the Oscar Peterson Trio, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Ahmed Jamal, Cannonball Adderly, the John Coltrane Quartet and the Dave Brubeck Quartet… Dannee was now hooked on the jazz art form and was intent on learning it.

Graduating from high school, Fullerton  attended Berklee College of Music and studied under Alan Dawson, Herb Pomeroy, John La Porta, and Jack Peterson. Later he studied privately with drummer Pete La Roca. He played sessions with Keith Jarrett, Mick Goodrick, Gene Perla, John Abercrombie, Sam Rivers, Sadao Watanabe, Byard Lancaster and other students at the time. He performed with the Keith Jarrett Trio for two years, in his Boston, Massachusetts trio.

Drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam era, he served in various Army bands over the next 24 years, serving in Europe, Korea, Okinawa and many locations within the United States. During his service Dannee performed with Maynard Ferguson, Herb Ellis, The Ink Spots, Bill Watrous, Bill Lohr, “Jazz Express” (Dannee’s own group) John Payne, Don Erdman, Kurt Black, Buddy Tate, Joe Newman, Mike Francis and Curt Warren to name a few.

Retiring from military service in 1989, he settled outside Tacoma, Washington. Drummer Dannee Fullerton, who never recorded professionally, continues to perform locally with Jack Percival, Sid Potter, Tim Eikholt, Tom Russell, Gary Black, Joe Bach, Roger Gard, Pete Lira, Bob McNamara, Ken Upton and Lance Buller, among others.

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Three Wishes

Erroll Garner was puzzled by the question asked of the Baroness he said to her this:

1. “I don’t know! I feel as though I’m limited with only three wishes. I feel as though I’m limited.”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

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