May I Present: This Week's Show

The July 28th show is now up on the Coffeetime Archive.

Doing okay? Feeling good? Look up at this summer sky: the blue and the wispy clouds are lovely…

The Picture Was You (& Me)

Coffeetime, July 28, 2005

bed
Tommy Flanagan / Jazz Poet / Alfa / 1.17, 19.89

set 1
Hank Mobley / [released in 1985 as Another Workout ] / Gettin' and Jettin' / Blue Note / 12.5.61
Sonny Clark / Leapin' and Lopin' / Melody for C [cd alternate track] / Blue Note / 11.13.61
Wilbert Baranco & his Rhythm Bombardiers / Weeping Willie / Black & White / LA 1.46
Blue Barron & his O / Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider / Bluebird / c. 1941 / vocal = Three Blue Notes
Wynonie "Blues" Harris / Papa Tree Top / Apollo / LA 12.45 / with Johnnie Alston & his All Stars
Annie Ross / Everytime / Dee Gee (and Regent) / 4.1.52

set 2
Thad Jones / The Magnificent Thad Jones / If Someone Had Told Me / Blue Note / 7.14.56
Flip Phillips & his O / Swinging with Flip Phillips & his O / Someone to Watch Over Me / Clef / 3.21.52
Milt Bernhardt / Modern Brass / What is There to Say / RCA / 3.4.55
The Boswell Sisters / Heebie Jeebies / Okeh / LA 10.3.30
Dick Haymes / I Still Get a Thrill / radio transcription AFRS #333 / LA 10.9.50 / with Hal Kemp & his O
T-Bone Walker / She's the No Sleepin'est Woman / Black & White / LA 12.18.47
The Falcons / Come on Home / Vee-Jay / Chicago 9.26.57 / with Al Smith's Orch

set 3
Max Roach / Award-Winning Drummer / Sadiga / Time / 11.25.59
Miles Davis / soundtrack to Ascenseur Pour L'Échafaud / Nuit sur les Champs-Élyssées (take 4) / Paris 12.4, 5.57
Red Callender Trio / Be Happy Pappy / Black & White / LA 6.46
Mildred Bailey / That Ain't Right / radio transcription WNEW's Saturday Night Swing Session / 3.1.47 / with Ellis Larkins Trio, intro patter with emcee Bob Bach
Walter Jackson / Funny (Not Much ) / Okeh / Chicago 1966

set 4
Art Pepper / Cool Bunny / Aladdin / LA 1.14.57
The Joe Newman Septet / The Midgets / Scooter / RCA / 1956
Georgie Auld / Manhattan with Strings / Harlem Nocturne / UA / 1959 / with Don Costa & his O
Paul Gayten / For You My Love / Regal / 1949 (?) / a hit for Larry Darnell
Barbara Stanwyck / soundtrack to Lady of Burlesque (aka The G String Murders) / Take it Off the E String (Play it on the G String) / 1943 / with sassy dialogue with co-star Michael O'Shea
Sammy Davis Jr. / I've Gotta Be Me / Somebody / Reprise / LA 2.7.67 or 3.4.68
Highway QC's / Walk with Me / Vee-Jay / 1962

last soul song
Alton Ellis / Sunday Coming / The Picture Was You / Studio One / Kingston, Jamaica 1969

Salute to John Hermansader

Sad to report that one of Blue Note's first great cover designers/artists, John Hermansader, recently passed away. I was honored to be interviewed by writer Bob Miller for a July 17 tribute article, The Art of Jazz in the Danbury News Times. Unfortunately, this article has already been archived by the NewsTimes and one has to pay at least $3.49 in order to read it. If you opt out of that, you can take a look at some of Hermansader's wonderfully modern and expressionistic covers on this page at Vintage Vanguard, (which is where I got the image above). Hermansader preceded the better known Reid Miles and, although Miles did make the "Blue Note look" we all can recognize and nicely highlighted Francis Wolff's photos, it's safe to say that Hermansader, who was the jazz fan and aficionado that Miles wasn't, was more successful, by combining both abstracted marks and photographs, at creating a visual jazz.

On the Vintage Vanguard page I've linked here, you can also see his work in BN 5021-5024, 5028-5032, 5037-9, 5041-2, 5045, in addition to those on this page and a few others. (If you click on them, you can sometimes pick out his name along the side of the larger images that opens up in a new window.) These are all 10" records. The other great designer/artist represented on this page is Paul Bacon, and it's not always easy to distinguish who did which without a credit somewhere on the cover.

In any case, hats off to John Hermansader: his early designwork on jazz album covers surely influenced many of those that came after him and helped set jazz apart as the single genre best represented by its distinctive packaging. No other music form has ever had such a cohesively fertile visual component as 1940s-60s jazz.

All hail Mr. Francis

Thanks so much to Mark Francis of alternating Monday Lost & Found fame for filling in for me this past Thursday on Coffeetime. I just finished listening to the show from the archive. (Don't forget you can listen to all the shows on WMBR for up to two weeks after they air, anytime that's convenient for you.) It was a really fab show; don't miss it.

He's put up the playlist and some nifty images on his nifty blog.

Sorry I haven't posted sooner; a biz trip to NYC in the high broil days of late July, full moon and all, was far more exhausting than I ever imagined. I was there to cover (Jimmy Olson style) TypeCon, a conference about type and type design.

Soup's on!

That is to say, the July 14th Coffeetime is now up on the archive. Because a bowl of hot soup is not really a great summertime image!

On the other handyman, though, this soup is always a welcome tasty. [Erm, scroll down on this page to see my disclaimer…]

Day Old Playlist: still yummy

Coffeetime, July 14, 2005

bed
Barney Kessel / People // George Van Eps / The Man I Love

set 1
Thad Jones / Detroit-New York Junction / Zec / Blue Note / 3.13.56
Conte Candoli / Fine & Dandy / Night Flight / Bethlehem / LA 11.29.54
Georgie Auld & his Orchestra / Taps Miller / Musicraft / 5.22.44
Richard Himber & his Ritz-Carlton Hotel Orch / Autumn in New York / Bluebird / 12.5.34 / vocal = Joey Nash
The Basin Street Boys / Josephine / Exclusive / LA 1947 / with Lucky Thompson on tenor, no doubt
Billie Holiday / Songs for Distingué Lovers / One for My Baby (and One More for the Road) / Verve / 1.57

set 2
Sonny Rollins / Work Time / There Are Such Things / Prestige / 12.2.55
Jack McVea & his All Stars / O-Kay for Baby / Black & White (?) / LA 1945
Fletcher Henderson & his Orch / Shufflin' Sade / Bluebird / 3.11.27
Sol Hoopii & his Novelty Trio / Hawaii Nei / Columbia / LA 4.16.28
Frances Langford / Young and Healthy / transcription of NBC radio show (?) / 1935 / introduction = Lum and Abner
Yves Montand / En Balade / Battling Joe / Columbia / early 60s (?)

set 3
Willie Bobo / A New Dimension / Grazing in the Grass / Verve / 12.23.68
Al Caiola & his Orch / Guitars, Woodwinds, and Bongos / Gypsy in My Soul / UA / LA 60s (?) / Ultra Audio Wall to Wall Stereo series
Kai Winding / Trombone by Three / A Night on Bop Mountain / Prestige / 8.23.49
Fats Waller & his Orch / Skrontch / Victor / 4.12.38
Anita O'Day / Memories of You / Capitol / LA 1.18.45
Sam Cooke / Nothing Can Change This Love / RCA / Hollywood 8.23.62 / orchestra conducted by Rene Hall; check out the Songs of Sam Cooke website

set 4
Paul Desmond & Gerry Mulligan / Two of a Mind / The Way You Look Tonight / RCA / 8.13.62
Joe Venuti's Blue Four / Really Blue / Victor / 10.7.30
The Maxim Trio / Ain't That Fine / Downbeat / LA 1949
Paul Revere & the Raiders / Have Love, Will Travel / Columbia / 1964
Esther Phillips / Burnin' (Live at Freddie Jett's Pied Piper) / Don't Let Me Lose This Dream / Atlantic / LA 1970
Golden Gate Quartet / On a Mornin', Take Your Time MIss Lucy, and Oh, Noah / radio transcription, Groves Show / early 40s

last soul song
Carolyn Montgomery / Gonna Make a Change / Jewel / late 60s

It's Here! This week's show, that is…

The July 7th show is now up on the Coffeetime archive.

Are you doing okay and feeling good? How about keeping cool?

Wake Up & Dream

I was sad to read today in the NY Times online (you need to register to read it) that June Haver passed away. She sang "Give Me the Simple Life" so beautifully in one of my favorite (in the sweet category) movies, Wake Up and Dream. (Love John Ireland and John Payne {and Clem Bevans!} in that movie too.) I wish I could buy a copy, but it's not out on DVD yet, that I know. If it comes on TV, be sure to catch it.

Diary of a July 7th Show

Coffeetime, July 7, 2005

bed
Red Garland / When There Are Grey Skies / Prestige / 10.9.62

set 1
Curtis Fuller / Sliding Easy [Mosaic Box of Complete UA] / CTA / UA [Mosaic] / 3.9.59 / arr. by Gigi Gryce
Herbie Mann / Just Wailin’ / Minor Groove / New Jazz / 2.14.58
Ozzie Nelson & his Orch / Sir Walter’s Serenade / radio transcription / 1940-42
Ben Selvin & his Orch / Little Mary Brown / Okeh / 10.8.31 / vocal = The Wallace Trio
Andy Kirk & his 12 Clouds of Joy / Until the Real Thing Comes Along / Decca / 4.2.36 / vocal = Pha Terrell
Lewis Bronzeville Five / Oh! Mabel! Oh! / Bluebird / Chicago 5.9.40
Buddy Clark / Just One More Chance / Columbia / 12.26.47

set 2
McCoy Tyner / Today and Tomorrow / When Sunny Gets Blue / Impulse / 6.4.63
Lucky Thompson / & Gerard Pochonet et son quartette / I Cover the Waterfront / Dawn / Paris 3.12, 14.56
Kansas City Five / Good Mornin’ Blues / Commodore / 3.18.38
Fletcher Henderson & his Orch / Stampede / Vocalion / 3.22.37
Ethel Waters / (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue / Columbia / 4.1.30
Betty Grable / Fidgety Joe / radio transcription / 1939 / introduced by Don Wilson
Amos Milburn & his Chickenshackers / One, Two, Three, Everybody / Aladdin / LA 6.23.54
Irene Reid / soundtrack to MGM film Once a Thief / Once a Thief / Verve /4, 5.65 / a Lalo Schifrin sdtrack

set 3
Shelly Manne & his Men / At the Black Hawk, volume 5 / How Deep Are the Roots / Contemporary / San Francisco 9.23.59
Roy Milton & his Solid Senders / LA Hop / Specialty / Hollywood 12.27.47
The Rhythmakers / I Would Do Anything for You / Melotone / 7.26.32
Peggy Lee / When a Man Loves a Woman / Capitol / LA 4.4, 8.49
The 3 Riffs / Driftin / Apollo / 5.9.50

set 4
Cal Tjader / Plays Harold Arlen / Over the Rainbow / Fantasy / summer 1960 / arr. by Clare Fischer
Cy Touff / Cy Touff, his Octet & Quintet / Groover Wailin’ / Pacific Jazz / LA 12.4.55
Nick Travis / The Panic Is On / They All Laughed / RCA / LA 1954
Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five / You Got to Go When the Wagon Comes / Decca / 3.13.40 / vocal = Daisy Winchester
The Platters / Dance with Me Henry / live on The Ed Sullivan Show / 8.12.56
Dinah Washington / Dinah! / Look to the Rainbow / EmArcy / LA 11.11.55
The Hightower Brothers / Jesus Will Fix It / Nashboro / 1963

last soul song
The Five Stairsteps & Cubie / Our Family Portrait / You Make Me So Mad / Buddah / Chicago 1968 / featuring James III on lead

Vintage Children's Books

I went to Boing Boing a few days ago and was reminded of a site I found last December after a friend gave me an old Russian (actually, Soviet) coloring book: Children's Books of the Early Soviet Era.

My coloring book:

Happy 4th - here is the show!

I hope you all have had a great weekend, with blue skies, blue water, …uh … and a blue popsicle. The latest show is up on the Coffeetime Archive.

I've added some links to a few political blogs on the right; erm, don't hold it against me if we are on different sides of the fence. Whaddya expect? (Note though, the views and opinions and links to vintage toy sites, scopitones, and silly pictures are purely those of yours truly and do not reflect WMBR, its management, or the Technology Broadcasting Corp.)

Here is a summery image for you too.