Bob Dorough in Tokyo!

Thanks to Ruriko and Keizo

Bob Dorough AND Andy Bey

Wonder if anyone is. . .  hip/rich/dextrous/fast/intelligent/culturally aware/music lover enough to catch both gigs at Blue Notes in Tokyo and New York this weekend" Dorough's in Tokyo (see below) and in NYC the equally fabulous ANDY BEY! Sunday night at 8 pm doing a solo set. I've seen Bey solo and with a trio and it's a toss-up! Here's the copy from the Blue Note advert:

"After a twenty two year absence from recording Andy Bey returned with four albums that have become a permanent part of the musical landscape. The 2005 Grammy Nominated American Song is a delicious celebration of one of America’s great gifts to the music world: The American Songbook. On his new release Ain’t Necessarily So Bey brings the energy of live performance to compositions by the gods of American Songwriting. Insiders have always known about Andy Bey. Given his limited output of studio recordings, live performances were the source of Bey’s reputation as singer. Aretha Franklin reminisces about the nights when Andy and The Bey Sisters worked the Village in New York: “Soon as I finished my gig I’d run over to hear them. Andy never got the recognition he deserved . . . jazz originals . . . brilliant and precious.” Like the playground legend who never made it to the NBA, Andy Bey was almost consigned to the fading murmurs of those who caught him in Paris in ‘59, or Birdland in the mid ‘60s. There are few left who remember when Lena, Nina and Carmen crowded into Harlem’s Shalimar to hear Bey light it up. That tantalizing footage of Andy Bey and his sisters delighting a crowd of Parisian partygoers in the Chet Baker documentary Let’s Get Lost, gives us a clue of the years of brilliance that were never committed to vinyl. One can only imagine what we’ve missed. But, we have been blessed with four records that have changed how we think of Jazz vocals. Decades intervened between those after hours below the radar sessions and the 1996 recordings presented on Ain’t Necessarily So. But the vivid performances haven’t dimmed. Like so many before him, British vocalist Jamie Cullum described what it’s like to fall under Bey’s spell: “Andy Bey was at Ronnie Scott’s and I saw him six nights in a row. I got into a huge amount of debt going to see Andy Bey. What I love about him is that he creates an atmosphere. As soon as he opens his mouth, you’re transported to another place.”

A recording of standards has become the default option for artists in search of an audience or a late career boost. A new cadre of singers has been anointed keepers of the Songbook flame. But as The New Yorker observed, the proof is in the listening: “The “jazz vocal section of your record store is probably dominated by young white singers , but Andy Bey an African-American veteran has made this year’s record to beat.” Andy Bey’s live performance, on Ain’t Necessarily So makes the point that the best performers raise the standards by drawing more from a song than the obvious. At 67 Andy Bey is one of the last major performers with a personal connection to the era. But he refuses to be bound by precedent. He invests these eight songs with an accumulation of musical sensibilities that make them sound as if they were born yesterday. The songs may be standards, but the interpretations are by no means routine. As People magazine confirmed “American song has met an American Master."

The release of an Andy Bey recording is a cause for celebration. During the last five decades Bey’s deeply engaging four octave baritone voice has taken on the character of a musical instrument. Was that a bowed bass or a ship’s horn through the fog? An Alto flute or cascading water? Since the critical acclaim surrounding the release of Ballads, Blues and Bey in 1996, much attention has been paid to the fact that Andy Bey did not record as a leader for over two decades. His absence was, as Newsday put it, “like having Ella Fitzgerald take a vow of silence.” But the truth is that Mr. Bey did not aspire to be a star, he strove to be an artist. And he has actively engaged in cultivating and manifesting his gift during his entire lifetime. Bey approaches the discipline like the great musician he is. But, his performances are more than musical exercises. Frank Wess says “What’s special about Andy Bey is that he knows how to tell the story.” Al Pryor in Jazziz wrote that Bey "reminds us of how emotionally powerful the great American song can be.” Bey’s four albums since his reemergence have become legend.

Andy Bey has been hailed as a cultural phenomenon, and has been applauded by the tastemakers of contemporary music. From Pharrell Williams to Mos Def, and Jamie Cullum, Andy Bey has become an icon for the next generation, many of whom attend his performances not only for the pure pleasure, but also for enlightenment at the feet of a master.

Andy Bey will have a new, Solo CD, to be released on HighNote Records June, 2013. "The World According To Andy Bey," will surely be a treasure the world will embrace. "

The Talk of Tokyo

This event, described by one Japanese jazz journalist as a "miracle," represents this American jazz great's very first performance in Japan. Don't want to get too Guinness-y about this, but perhaps it represents some kind of record of sorts for singer-pianist-songwriter Bob Dorough, i.e. the oldest (you do the math) U.S. musical artist to've ever made a performance debut in Japan---a nation of true cultural custodians. That country's press is overwhelmed with stories about this wonderful occasion. Has there even been a single article about this recent "miracle" in the west?

A Keeper of the Flame

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just received my copy of Paul Marinaro's first CD. Chicago's Audrey Morris turned me on to him a few years ago. I wondered what was taking him so long to release this. Now I know. Great songs, singing, concept, musicans, the works! Even the packaging is magnificent.

Happy birthday to yoo-ooo-oooby-dooo!

 

Link to Dave Lambert & Co's "Audition at RCA"

It's About Time

Now available on download sites: CDBaby, Amazon and ITunes, Sue Raney singing two legendary Baseball songs by (let's just say THE GREAT and let it go at that) Dave Frishberg: "Dodger Blue" and "Van Lingle Mungo." Arranged and conducted by Alan Broadbent.

Links: Amazon DB , VLM ; Itunes DB , VLM ; CDBaby DB , VLM

Another "choice" voice - Johnny Janis

From  Jazz Cafe on WHRU-FM, here is Bob Collins' interview (2/16/11) with singer-guitarist Johnny Janis.

Jazz Cafe pt.1

Jazz Cafe pt. 2

Johnny Janis on youtube:

. . .and on the net: discography

He has a new boxed set. You can write him here for more info: johnnyjanissr@gmail.com

Slippery When Wet

In addition to being a world class Bullock's salesperson, swimmer, and movie star, Esther Williams also possessed a quite wicked sense of humor. For example, the opening sentence ---not since "Call Me Ishmael"---of her best-selling autiobio was, "Jeff [Chandler], you're far too big for polka dots." That was her response upon seeing, for the first time, her lover Jeff Chandler in cross-dressing attire. Who knew?! Certainly not Esther.

But my favorite Williams tale was recounted in the autiobio of radio/TV personality Henry ("I've Got a Secret") Morgan. In the 1940s, Morgan was stationed in Hollywood as an announcer for the Armed Forces Radio Network. It was then that he befriended Williams. . .already a star.

One afternoon, they were pleasure driving up Pacific Coast Highway and decided to stop in a roadside diner for a snack. The owner of the establishment immediately recognized the star and kept repeating over and again, "No one will ever believe me when I tell them that Esther Williams stopped in. . .No one will ever believe me. . . " And so on and so forth.

Williams and Morgan finished eating and headed for the car at which point, she excused herself to Morgan, turned on her heels and went back in to the place. She was gone for only a beat and quickly returned to the car.

"Why did you go back in?," asked Morgan.

"I flashed him," said Williams, who paused an instant then added, ""I wanted to make sure that no one would ever believe him."

Valaida Snow would have been 106 today