The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

Willow Weep for Me is a jazz album recorded in 1965 by guitarist Wes Montgomery and was posthumously released in 1969. The arranger and conductor on the session was Claus Ogerman.

The album reached number 12 on the Billboard Jazz album chart in 1969. At the 1970 Grammy Awards Willow Weep for Me won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group.

After Montgomery’s death in 1968, Verve Records used recordings from the sessions that produced Smokin’ at the Half Note and the label hired arranger Claus Ogerman to write string and brass arrangements for “Willow Weep for Me”, “Portrait of Jennie,” “Oh! You Crazy Moon,” and “Misty.” Subsequent reissues erased the new backing arrangements.

1. Willow Weep for Me (Ann Ronell) – 7:42
2. Impressions (John Coltrane) – 5:01
3. Portrait of Jenny (Burdge, Robinson) – 2:45
4. The Surrey with the Fringe on Top (Rodgers, Hammerstein II) – 5:20
5. Oh, You Crazy Moon (Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) – 5:27
6. Four on Six (Wes Montgomery) – 9:29
7. Misty (Johnny Burke, Erroll Garner) – 6:45

• Wes Montgomery – guitar
• Wynton Kelly – piano
• Paul Chambers – bass
• Jimmy Cobb – drums

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Harlan Leonard was born on July 2, 1905 in Kansas City, Missouri. He started his career in the Territory Band of George E. Lee in 1923, then moved to Benny Moten in 1924 and joined Thamon Hayes ‘ Kansas City Rockets in 1931 with several other musicians from the band. Disbanded in 1934, they formed the basis of the new Moten Orchestra. After Moten’s death in 1935, Leonard founded his own group, bringing several Moten musicians which became Harlan Leonard and his Rockets, and soon was one of the most famous bands in Kansas City.

After Count Basie’s departure for new YorkCity, he and Jay McShann were the strongest rivals. When the first Leonard band fell apart in 1936, he then took over the musicians of the Jimmy Keith band in 1937/38. In 1938 the young Charlie Parker also belonged to the band for five weeks but was dismissed because of unreliability.

In Chicago, Illinois in 1940, the band along with singer Myra Taylor recorded sessions for Victor Records. Returning to Kansas City in 1941, they toured the Midwest, then went to New York City but were unsuccessful so they returned home. Early 1943 Leonard went on a West Coast tour, playing one-nighters and a year engagement in Los Angeles, California.

After the band’s disbandment, Leonard remained in the Los Angeles area, performing occasionally in local clubs until retiring from the music business and working for the Internal Revenue Service.

Clarinetist, saxophonist, and Swing bandleader Harlan Leonard, who was one of the leaders of Kansas City Jazz with Jay McShann, and one of the links between the swing and the subsequent bebop, passed away on November 10, 1983.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Michael Arlt was born in Bünde, Westfalen, Germany on July 1, 1960 and began playing guitar as a teenager. From the beginning, he was interested in a musical gamut, playing in rock, blues, fusion, and free bands. Going to Boston, Massachusetts in the mid-Eighties, he studied at Berklee College of Music, took private lessons from Mike Metheny, and then continued his studies in the Netherlands at the Amsterdam Academy of Arts under Wim Overgaauw.

Since that time, Michael has performed in a variety of ensembles with musicians like Maria de Fatima, Jerry Granelli, Sigi Busch, Rick Hollander, Leszek Zadlo, Wolfgang Ekholt, Joris Teepe, Paquito D’Rivera, Herbert Joos, and Luciano Biondini. He has recorded with Roman Schwaller, Houston Person and Red Holloway. He founded his own trio and the group Brassless with who he recorded. With Don Kostelnik and Duck Scott he forms the organ trio We Three who recorded several albums.

Arlt has been a part of the Lemongrass and Weathertunes music projects, which were founded by the brothers Roland and Daniel Voss. Since the late 1990s, Arlt has been playing with Rick Hollander, in the trio of Reinette van Zijtveld and in a duo with Christian Eckert. As a lecturer, he has taught jazz guitar and harmony at the University of Music in Würzburg since 1990.  Guitarist Michael Arlt continues to explore and perform in the genre. of modern jazz.

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Three Wishes

Nica asked Dakota Staton what her three wishes were and she said she only had two and they were:

1. 1. “One would be that the hearts of men would change. That they could love one anothe rin peace~live with good in their hearts, so that they can meet their God squarely. That is my main wish. I think if I could have that, that would take care of everything else that I was wanting.”

   2. “Freedom! I’d be free. A woman among women!”

*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…

Grady Watts was born in Texarkana, Texas on June 30, 1908 and after attending the Allen Military Academy and the University of Oklahoma, he played in local jazz bands in Louisiana during the late 1920s. By 1931 he had joined the Casa Loma Orchestra, where he became a featured soloist and a composer.

Grady recorded copiously with the ensemble and remained with it until 1942. Among his compositions for the Orchestra was Rhythm Man, You Ain’t Been Livin’ Right, I Remember, and Touch and Go.

The mid-1940s saw Watts abandoning his full-time career as a performer and took jobs in artist & repertoire and as an executive in the chemical engineering industry. Trumpeter and composer Grady Watts passed away in Vero Beach, Florida in January 1986.

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