Michael Bourne Interviews Frank Wess

May 1, 2008. Posted by Joshua Jackson.

Add new comment | Filed under: Interviews, Listening Post, Masters

When someone like Frank Wess comes to WBGO, you better be prepared to hear some amazing stories. Michael Bourne interviewed Frank Wess, who is currently spending his evenings playing music at the Village Vanguard. The 86-year old Wess will forever be a Basie man, and he told a great story about a Count Basie tour in Europe. When the band arrived, there were no charts for the musicians to play. This could be a bandleader's worst nightmare, taking a band overseas without music. But Basie's response? "Well, you guys never look at them anyway, and I didn't want to pay for the extra freight." Hear what else Frank Wess had to say.
-Josh

© 2008 WBGO

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Great Live Moments - Charles Brown

April 29, 2008. Posted by Joshua Jackson.

Add new comment | Filed under: ballad style, blues at sunrise, career track, civil service job, drifting blues, elvis presley, favorite records, high school science, ivory joe hunter, Listening Post, Live Music, lucky millinder, Masters, merry christmas baby, music party, pine bluff arkansas, second world war, sheraton hotel, sun studios, sweet slumber, toast of the nation, trouble blues, wbgo

Circumstances could have been completely different. Charles Brown was a chemist. He attended college, earned a degree in chemistry, taught high school science, and landed a civil service job in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. That would have been a career track for most. Brown had other ideas. He bristled at the racism he encountered each day. He volunteered to serve in the second world war, but was deemed unfit due to asthma. So Charles Brown packed his bags and headed to California.

Thank goodness. Can you imagine a holiday season without "Merry Christmas Baby?" Or a world without "Drifting Blues?" And who played the piano behind a fellow Texan, Ivory Joe Hunter, on "Blues at Sunrise?" How about "Trouble Blues," or "Black Night?" Mind you, most of those songs were hits before Elvis Presley had ever set foot in Sun Studios.

How about one of my all-time favorite records, Sam Cooke's Night Beat? If you simply listen to the way Cooke sings on that record, you might reach the same conclusion I did - would that record exist were it not for Charles Brown?

Brown celebrated New Year's Eve with WBGO, part of the Toast of the Nation coast-to-coast live music party. He welcomed 1994 from the Sheraton Hotel in Tacoma, Washington. His cool, bluesy ballad style was especially poignant on a song popularized by Lucky Millinder.
-Josh

Listen to "Sweet Slumber Till Dawn," from the WBGO Archives.

© 2008 WBGO

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Jimmy Giuffre Dies at 86/An Update on Jim Hall

April 26, 2008. Posted by Joshua Jackson.

Add new comment | Filed under: arts music, jazz, Jazz Community, jim hall, jimmy giuffre, Listening Post, Masters, nytimes, obituary, Video, wbgo

Jimmy Giuffre died on Thursday, a few days shy of his 87th birthday. Fans of jazz know Giuffre as the composer of the Woody Herman hit, "Four Brothers." Beyond that, Giuffre had a unique mind for music. As I listened to Sonny Rollins' "A Night at the Village Vanguard" yesterday, a record without piano or chordal instrumentation, I thought about how demanding it is to make music like that. Jimmy Giuffre was among one of the first to try, on his record Tangents in Jazz.

I've always liked "The Train and The River," another Giuffre work that people describe as folk-chamber-jazz. When you listen to this, you might suspect that some musicians today like Bill Frisell owe a lot to Jimmy Giuffre. Yes, they do. Anyway, here are two versions of Giuffre's trio playing "The Train and The River," one from the television program The Sound of Jazz:

Then, the great trio of Giuffre, trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, and guitarist Jim Hall, from the Newport Jazz Festival documentary, Jazz on a Summer's Day.

One of the Jimmy Giuffre Three members, Jim Hall, has undergone back surgery for the last couple of months. He has been rehabilitating, and is expected to be released on Tuesday. WBGO wishes the distinguished guitarist and NEA Jazz Master a speedy recovery. Check out Jim Hall's Great Live Moment while you're here.
-Josh

© 2008 WBGO

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