Check out this lovely review that my friend, singer Jane Harvey, just received from jazz crit Will Friedwald:
"When I first heard the original edition of Jane Harvey's THE OTHER SIDE OF SONDHEIM in 1988, it was one of the original things that got to me love Sondheim's music to begin with. Jane was the first to show that even the songs from FOLLIES, SWEENEY TODD, NIGHT MUSIC and his other mature masterpieces could actually swing in the same tradition as the great theater songs of Richard Rodgers or Jule Styne, and that even though the songs are seamlessly woven into the narrative fabric of these shows, that they can still stand on their own in highly intimate, jazz-inspired interpretations. The new edition of this album - one of my favorites of the last 25 years - adds songs, improves on mixes, offers a whole new vocal on "Send in the Clowns" and in general makes a good thing even better."
On March 10, 2010 at 7 pm, author Bill Reed will be reading from and signing copies of his new publication, Hot from Harlem, at Los Angeles' premier literary centre, Book Soup, 8818 Sunset BL W., West Hollywood, CA 90069 - 310 659 3110
________________
From the early days of minstrelsy to Black Broadway, author Bill Reed's Hot from Harlem: Twelve African American Entertainers, 1890-1960, is the story of African American entertainment as seen through the eyes of some of its most famous as well as others of its practitioners. The book moves from the beginning of African American participation in show business up through the present age. Musician Will Marion Cook ("The master of all masters of our people" --- Duke Ellington) and showman Billy McClain are discovered in action at the very dawn of black parity in the entertainment field; six chapters later, the young Sammy Davis, Jr., breaks through the invisible ceiling that has kept those before him “in their place.” In between, the likes of Valaida Snow, Nora Holt, Billy Strayhorn, Hazel Scott, Dinah Washington, and others are found making contributions to the fight against racism both in and out of “the business.” Containing much heretofore previously unknown information --- including a chapter on the fabulous performing Whitman Sisters, written in cooperation with their family---Hot From Harlem turns the spotlight on this unjustly neglected aspect of U.S. entertainment history.
The final chapter, entitled "Subjects for Further Research," contains information about numerous once famous African-American stars of stage, screen, and recordings who have since fallen through the cracks of time.
About the Author
Bill Reed is a journalist and writer whose articles on show business, the arts and popular music have appeared in such publications as Rolling Stone, the San Francisco Examiner and International Documentary. In 1992 he curated two shows at the California Afro-American [now "African-American"] Museum: "Hollywood Days Harlem Nights," a history of Los Angeles' fabled Central Avenue, and "Midnight Ramble," an exhibit of poster art from black cast motion pictures. Reed wrote for the hit TV series One Day at a Time, and is also the co-author of Rock on Film (Putnam's). He is currently a record producer of jazz recordings for SSJ Records (Japan).
ISBN 978-0-7864-4467-0
20 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
271pp. softcover 2010
My good friend guitarist Jimmy Wyble died Saturday a.m. after a short run of bad health. He was 87. The above photo of Jimmy, with another friend, singer Kurt Reichenbach, was taken a couple of years back at the Great Day in L.A. jazz photo op at UCLA.
I met Jimmy a few ago when I was researching the SSJ Records (Japan) release of singer Carole Creveling's 1955 LP Here Comes C.C. My first act was to ring up one-off Creveling sideman Wyble, Surely, he could help me crack the case of the "phantom" singer's identity (I eventually did). But with a career stretching back over hundreds of studio sessions over more than half-a-century, Wyble could remember next-to-nothing. Only that---underscoring the oftentimes ironic aspect of selective memory---“She wore glasses, came to the recording session with her mother, and hailed originally---I think---from Louisiana.” (Oklahoma, actually, I found out later). Considering that much studio time had passed under the bridge since he worked with the singer in ‘55, it was an understandable long term memory lapse. After that, we became fast phone friends, and soon I met Jimmy in-person when he was playing afternoon gigs at a tea room in Pasadena, CA.
What an interesting man he was. What can you say about a musician who began his career with western swing icon Bob Wills in 1942 and, come 1959, could be found touring with Frank Sinatra? Along the way, he also worked with the vaunted likes of Benny Goodman and Red Norvo.
Sometime around the mid-1980s, his wife contracted muscular dystrophy and Jimmy entirely gave up his professional career to take care of her. But when she died around 2005, Jimmy came back with a vengeance and the L.A. musical community was all over him (in the immortal words of Raymond Chandler) "like a cheap suit." He began playing publically again, and teaching and touring (all the way to Argentina and back a few years ago).
In 2007, guitarist (and Wyble protege) Larry Koonse produced a CD of Wyble compositions (actually exercises from a famed guitar instruction book by Jimmy) entitled What's in the Box?Also heard on the CD, in addition to Koonse, are such musicians as (pere) Daved Koonse, Gary Foster, and Joe La Barbera. IMHO it was the album of the year, but I fear that it never received much mainstream attention.
The album's title came from a sparrow adopted and domesticated (!) after Jimmy and his wife, Lily, rescued the baby bird when it fell from it's nest. Writes Koonse in the liner notes for the CD: Chicken (the bird's name) "would sit on Jimmy's lap as he practiced the guitar looking inside to seemingly ask the question 'What's in the box?'" That story should give you some idea of just how sweet and gentle Jimmy was. I don't think I ever met a kinder, lovelier guy.
There are lots of interesting recent clips of Jimmy on Youtube playing and anecdotalizing. Here's one of them:
