Hollywood On 52nd Street
This Time The Dream’s On Me was given to the jazz world when Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer penned what would become a classic standard. Debuting in the 1941 film, Blues In The Night, starring Priscilla Lane, Jack Carson, Betty Field, Richard Whorf, Wallace Ford and Elia Kazan.
The Story: Jigger Lane forms a band that includes singer Ginger “Character” Powell, wife of the trumpeter Leo Powell, and Nickie Haroyen and Peppi. All of them dedicate themselves to work as a unit and to play ‘blues’ music. The dedication isn’t paying off in money and while riding the rails in a boxcar they meet and befriend a gangster named Del Davis. He offers them a job at a New Jersey roadhouse, where Powell falls in love with Kay Grant, a former real-good friend of Davis. But when Powell learns that Character is about to have a baby, he returns to her. Jigger tries to make Kay the band’s singer and, when this fails, runs off with her. She leaves him with nothing to show for him except a nervous breakdown. Back at the roadhouse, after his recovery, Kay shows up, has a quarrel with Davis, shoots and kills him and plans to take back up with “Jigger”, who knows better but just can’t help himself. While she is waiting in a car for him, along comes cripple Brad Ames, who she put in that condition. He gets in and drives the car over a cliff, leaving no survivors in the two-passenger crash. The band is back together at the end, still using boxcars as their transportation, but happy playing the blues.
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Helen O’Connell was born on May 23, 1920 in Lima, Ohio but grew up in Toledo, Ohio. By the time she was 15, she and her older sister, Alice, were singing duets in clubs and hotels and on hometown radio stations. She launched her career as a big-band singer with Larry Funk and his Band of a Thousand Melodies. She was singing with Funk’s band in Greenwich Village when Jimmy Dorsey’s manager discovered her. She joined the Dorsey band in 1939 and achieved her best selling records in the early 1940s with Green Eyes, Amapola, Tangerine and Yours.
By 1953, O’Connell and Bob Eberly were headlining TV’s Top Tunes with Ray Anthony and his orchestra. She became a featured singer on The Russ Morgan Show and had her own 15-minute program, The Helen O’Connell Show, twice a week on NBC.
She retired from show business upon her first marriage in 1943 but returned when her marriage ended in 1951, achieving some chart success and making regular appearances on television. At one point she was interviewing celebrities on her own NBC program Here’s Hollywood, hosted the pageants and sang duets with Bing Crosby, Johnny Mercer and Dean Martin.
She won the Down Beat Readers Poll as best female singer in 1940 and 1941, won the 1940 Metronome magazine poll for best female vocalist and was named as the darling of GIs during World War II.Her 1942 recording of Brazil with the Jimmy Orchestra was a 2009 addition to the Grammy Hall of Fame. On September 9, 1993 vocalist Helen O’Connell succumbed to her battle with Hepatitis C in San Diego, California.
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Review: Julie Dexter & The HC3 | The Smiling Hour
There is an inherent understanding of individual artistry I bring to this listening experience. I am filled with anticipation, expectation and a curiosity of what this ensemble will do with the compendium of genius represented in part by Carmichael, Ellington, Lins, Shorter and Higginbotham.
The true measurement of a vocalist is the musicians encircling her and this storyteller has chosen well. With minimalistic accompaniment, they cajole the melody along with a voice that undeniably understands what the lyricist penned. Her interpretations are pure and simple statements from the emotional depths of her soul. Of course, I speak of Julie Dexter, who brings to bear a jazz sensibility reminiscent of the legendary jazz vocalists of the last century.
But do not be deceived. This is far from a project of solo amplitude but a synergy of rhythmic voices that speak volumes. The subtleties in their playing do not bemoan their complete lack of ego as they unfold the story in each song. Like children passing notes in school, this rhythm section comprised of pianist Nick Rosen, bassist Kevin Smith and the anchor Henry Conerway III on drums, easily play off one another, keeping the improvisation of the story vibrant while maintaining the integrity of the composition.
They begin the set with an up-tempo swing invitation to come along to the Black Nile interjected with a bit of scatting on her interpretation of a Vanessa Rubin lyric. Turning to a light-hearted lament, Julie relates her loss of words that’s more a compliment that a complaint with You Leave Me Breathless. The quartet reaches back some forty years to remind the listener that Thom Bell and Linda Creed are still relevant in this modern day world of strife with People Make The World Go Round.
There are three moments of quiet during this session where the ballad takes the spotlight: Jay Livingston’s Never Let Me Go, Hoagy Carmichael’s The Nearness Of You and Good Morning Heartache by Irene Higginbotham. Kevin’s refreshing bowing and plucks, Nick’s offerings of piano accents and Henry’s brush setting tempos compliment Julie’s heartfelt interpretations.
Returning to the fun, we have Nat Adderley’s composition The Old Country, an easy romp with That’s Livin’, a tribute to Duke Ellington that showcases the trio’s interaction on the lone instrumental, Cotton Tail. Well placed in the lineup is the gentle Ivan Lins’ bossa title track The Smiling Hour giving you to sway to the rhythms before closing out the set with the classic Mongo Santamaria’s Afro Blue.
In a world where the milieu seeks style over substance, this formidable foursome is notorious for the honesty of their sound, thus proving substance is their style. There is sparseness in their articulation exhibiting a maturity that echoes less is more. Within this offering lies an unscripted collective intimacy that captures the discipline and freedom in each performance and they have given a new bloom to the classics that will stand the test of time. But what I like most about this expose they’ve aptly titled The Smiling Hour is… the promise of things to come.
carl anthony | notorious jazz | may 19, 2015
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Irving Berlin composed Blue Skies in 1926 as a last-minute addition to the Rodgers and Hart musical Betsy. After only 39 performances the song was an instant success, though the show closed. However, in 1927, it became one of the first songs to be featured in a talkie, when Al Jolson performed it in The Jazz Singer.
The Story: The son of a Jewish Cantor must defy the traditions of his religious father in order to pursue his dream of becoming a jazz singer. Cantor Rabinowitz is concerned and upset because his son Jakie shows so little interest in carrying on the family’s traditions and heritage. For five generations, men in the family have been cantors in the synagogue, but Jakie is more interested in jazz and ragtime music. One day, they have such a bitter argument that Jakie leaves home for good. After a few years on his own, now calling himself Jack Robin, he gets an important opportunity through the help of well-known stage performer Mary Dale. But Jakie finds that in order to balance his career, his relationship with Mary, and his memories of his family, he will be forced to make some difficult choices.
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Grace Kelly was born Grace Chung on May 15, 1992 in Wellesley, Massachusetts of Korean ancestry. A move to Brookline, Massachusetts, mother remarried and a legal adoption and her name became Kelly. Growing up in an environment of music appreciation of American standards, Broadway and jazz.
Hearing Stan Getz during the ritual Sunday brunch she fell in love with the sound, however, too young to play saxophone she started taking classical piano lessons at age six. She hanged to jazz because she liked making up her own melodies. She wrote her first song On My Way Home at age seven, took up the clarinet in 4th grade the switched to saxophone later the same year and by 12 recorded her debut CD Dreaming. While in the recording stages Kelly met An Hampton Callaway who offered to write liner notes for her first CD.
At age 14, Kelly appeared as special guest artist for two nights with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, at 15 with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the following year for the Let Freedom Swing Celebration of America concert with Dave Brubeck as part of the inaugural festivities for President Obama. She left Brookline High at 16, got her GED, recorded her CD with Lee Konitz titled GRACEfulLEE, attended Berklee College of Music on full scholarship and graduated in 2011.
She has studied with Lee Konitz, Greg Osby, Jerry Bergonzi, James Merenda, George Garzone, Jeremy Udden and Allan Chase; played National Anthem for the Celtics preseason and playoff games, and has opened the Newport Jazz Festival in 2010.
Her list of collaborations is extensive but includes Harry Connick, Esperanza Spalding, Kenny Barron, Teri Lyne Carrington, Chris Potter, Dianne Reeves, Marian McPartland, Adam Rogers, Bob Dorough, Frank Morgan and Phil Woods among others. She has to date amassed more than two-dozen awards, recorded 10 sessions as a leader and continues to perform at some of the 600 concerts, clubs and festivals all over the world.
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