Bobby Tucker R.I.P.

Pianist-arranger-accompanist Bobby Tucker died in Morristown, NJ on April 12, 2007. To the best of my knowledge there has been little or no mention of this in the press. I only learned of his death because a mutual friend of Tucker and myself tried to ring Bobby up this a.m. and was informed of his passing by a family member who answered the phone. Tucker is especially known for having been the musical director for two great jazz artists, Billie Holiday and Billy Eckstine. Both of these stints were lengthy ones, and Tucker can also be heard on multiple recordings made by the two Billie/Billy(s). A common misconception is that he was the Bobby Tucker who conducted the chorus on Frank Sinatra's acappella recordings made during the 1949 musicians' strike.

Tucker was especially sought out as an accompanist for singers and among those others he worked with were Johnny Hartman, Lena Horne, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. He was a musician's musician, so much so that there is next to no biographical information about him on the internet. Even allmusicguide only has a photo and a date of birth. But most music insiders knew Tucker or, at least, of him. To the best of my knowledge, he only made one album under his own name, 1960's "Too Tough." He was 85.

If any reader can add to this skimpy obit (of sorts) it will be greatly appreciated.

A Tale of Two Kitzmillers

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A petite Madeline triggered while watching a Marty Paich salute at the L.A. Jazz Institute fest Sunday night.

Sitting there, I suddenly flashed back to the 1950s and my misdirected juvenile belief that the John Kitzmiller, who was Marty Paich's tuba player, was also the very selfsame Kitzmiller who was a black American expat actor who'd begun his career appearing in Italian neorealist movies. Now, how hip is THAT?, I thought. Talk about covering the artistic waterfront! I wanted to be at least as versatile as that when I grew up.

Eventually, however, I began to realize that this was merely wishful thinking, when I learned that Kitzmiller, the musician, was married to jazz singer-pianist Jeri Southern. I could imagine her as the wife of a Marty Paich sideman. But married to an expatriate black actor who had shown up in Fellini movies? Nyah! Not even Jeri Southern was THAT hip.

I had a lot of weird misconceptions and scrambled epiphanies like that when I was but mere protplasm in Buster Brown Shoes. I wanted the world to be round, alas it turned out to be terribly square.

Hanging with Helen Merrill

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I moderated my panel at the L.A. Jazz Institute Festival Saturday morning, with singers Annie Ross, Tierney Sutton, Helen Merrill and Pinky Winters. With the exception of a 45 minute speech I made in phonetic Japanese in Tokyo a couple of years ago, I don't think I have ever before engaged in any extensive public speaking. Kind of unsettling to me. But when Institute director Ken Poston rang me up and asked me to do it, I answered "YES!" before he had even finished the question. I was especially jazzed by the idea of working (so to speak) with one of my desert island favorites, Helen Merrill. Afterwards, I even got to spend a bit of time with her before she had to catch a plane back to NYC. The panel participants also performed concerts at the Festival, singing, variously, the works of Kern (and his lyricists), Berlin, Porter, the Gershwins, and Lerner and Loewe.

My friend (and I would go so far as to say mentor), the late Nat Shapiro, once told me that Merrill was one of the few truly intelligent singers he had ever met (no other names, please). I can see now why he was so impressed. She was great fun to be with. For much of the time we traded off comments about all the things we love about Japan and its people. In case you arent't aware, Merrill, for a number of years, lived in that country where she very simply is considered the pluperfect personification of a jazz singer. It should also be noted that her 1955 Emarcy album with Clifford Brown is the largest selling jazz album ever in that country.

I had the pleasure of introducing Ms. Merrill to Hajime Sato of Eastwind Imports, a dealer who was selling CDs at the Fest. They began chatting in Japanese and continued to do so for quite some time. The fan in me can die happy now that I, also, have been spoken to in Japanese by Helen Merrill!

Sato san has only lived in the U.S. for eight years (born in Kobe, Japan), but his English strikes me as verging on perfect. He and I developed a running gag over the four days of the Fest. I would pass by his display without breaking stride and throw somewhat muzukashii English words at him as a test, i.e.

ME: "Flabbergasted!"

HAJIME: "I KNOW THAT ONE! TO BE ESPECIALLY AMAZED OR SURPRISED!"

And so on and so forth. . ..

Here are a couple of quotes I threw at the panel to get the collective juices flowing:

"THE MOST POPULAR DEFINITION OF A JAZZ SINGER IS THAT THERE IS NO DEFINITION. BUT THERE IS," WROTE THE LATE JAZZ CRITIC WHITNEY BALLIETT. “A JAZZ SINGER SIMPLY MAKES WHATEVER HE OR SHE SINGS. . .SWING. ETHEL MERMAN IS NOT A JAZZ SINGER. DORIS DAY IS."

A CERTAIN JAZZ CRITIC----I THINK IT WAS IRA GITLER---ONCE WROTE THAT "ONE PERSON'S JAZZ SINGER IS ANOTHER'S ROBERT GOULET."

I think I did okay moderating the panel, which was filmed for a documentary about the Great American Songbook, and didn't disgrace myself too much.

Sometime soon, I will post a transcription of some of the remarks and comments made by these four wonderful artists.

A great four days filled with terrific music and wonderful memories.

Here's a photo of the occasion and a review, in both Japanese AND English, by Professor Takahiro Miyao on his Glocom blog.
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Right you are re: 5/22 photo quiz; it's Miss Kay Starr.