#will friedwald

[ninaandjames]

Just received this book today, looking forward to a great read ...

[mosaicrecords]

Books on Jazz

Will Friedwald, Author of Nat King Cole Biography, Interviewed

Jerry Jazz Musician has conducted an in-depth interview with Will Friedwald on the occasion of the publication of his book, Straighten Up And Fly Right: The Life And Music of Nat King Cole.

-Michael Cuscuna

Read the interview from Jerry Jazz Musician… Follow: Mosaic Records Facebook Tumblr Twitter

[directedbychuckjones]

Model sheet for “Kiss Me Cat”, 1953, based on drawings by Chuck Jones.

A Looney Tunes release opening in theaters on February 21, 1953. Directed by Charles M. Jones; Story by Michael Maltese; Animation by Lloyd Vaughn, Ken Harris, and Ben Washam; Layouts by Maurice Noble; Backgrounds by Philip DeGuard; Voice characterizations by Mel Blanc and (uncredited Bea Bernaderet); Musical Direction by Carl W. Stalling.*

*Eternal gratitude to Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald for their indispensable Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, A Complete Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons, a book no cartoon fan should be without.

[mosaicrecords]

A Mosaic Review

Mosaic's Woody Herman Box set Traces a Decade of Many Changes

In case you haven’t picked up our Woody Herman set yet, perhaps Will Friedwald's review from the Wall Street Journal will sway you: "It’s March 25, 1946, and you’ve come to Carnegie Hall to hear the most exciting jazz orchestra then playing, Woody Herman and His Orchestra—known to fans and followers as “The Thundering Herd.” Herman starts the concert agreeably enough with “Caldonia,” the Louis Jordan R&B classic that was also a hit for him, and then he launches into “Bijou,” the darndest thing you’ve ever heard. It begins with a polyrhythmic pattern like none ever known previously in jazz, as expressed by an unusual combination of vibes, bass and percussion; this is immediately followed by another off-kilter staccato rhythmic passage, this one played mostly by the brass. "Did composer and arranger Ralph Burns provide a hint when he gave “Bijou” the subtitle "Rhumba a la Jazz?” It’s more like a misleading clue: The piece is more Middle Eastern than Pan-American, as Jon Hendricks realized when he wrote a lyric to “Bijou” a decade or so later and set the scene in Istanbul. The first solo instrument is leader Herman’s distinctive alto saxophone, which functions as a sideshow barker, beckoning us into a tent where a scantily clad belly dancer begins to undulate, slowly shedding her seven veils. This central “dance” is executed by the stunning trombonist Bill Harris, who transforms this singularly exotic number into something more down to earth: It’s like coming across a blues singer in the middle of a little street in Singapore. "Herman’s 1946 Carnegie Hall concert is documented in an 80-minute recording that is the centerpiece of the new Mosaic Records seven-CD package “Complete Woody Herman Decca, Mars, MGM Sessions (1943-54).” But the boxed set begins in 1943, when Herman’s orchestra was still being billed as “The Band That Plays the Blues,” and this is what distinguished them from virtually any other white band of that period. (During the Carnegie concert, Herman even sings the songbook standard “I’ll Get By” as if it were a 12-bar blues.) The earlier tracks borrow heavily from Duke Ellington, even to the point of featuring several key Ellingtonians, such as Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster. "It was with the arrival in 1944 of pianist Ralph Burns—who quickly became Herman’s dominant arranging voice, and worked with the remarkable rhythm section of bassist Chubby Jackson and drummer Dave Tough—that the band found its own distinctive sound: grounded in the fundamentals but facing the future. Even its basic variations on the blues (“Panacea”) sound unique. The Herd genuflected in the direction of the nascent bebop revolution, but—more important—they embodied the euphoric spirit that accompanied the ending of World War II. The Herd thunders with the ecstatic energy of an American battalion marching—make that swinging—into Paris or Berlin. There’s an inherent optimism in the band’s music. "While the first three discs document the birth and the height of the original Herd (1943-46), the remaining four CDs bring us the Third Herd of 1951-54, as documented on two records labels. The MGM recordings include some overtly commercial material, scorned by jazz purists then and now; still, there are lovely collaborations with crooner Billy Eckstine and movie soundtrack composer David Rose. But the box’s most satisfying material from the early 1950s comes from the Mars label, which Herman owned and operated for several years in partnership with music publisher and friend Howard Richman. "Richman briefly steered Herman in a direction no one could have foreseen: He was the only major American swing band leader to record a whole series of big-band calypsos. The taste and imagination of Herman and Burns led to an inspired orchestral jazz treatment of “Jump in the Line” utilizing flutes and bongos that surely was an inspiration for Harry Belafonte almost a decade later. Nearly every session here contains some previously buried treasure: The same 1952 date that included “Jump in the Line” yielded Burns’s highly imaginative paraphrase of “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” in which the familiar riff melody is played, well, sort of sideways, and Burns’s original “Terrissita,” essentially a gorgeous sequel to “Bijou” that continually shifts meters and keys in a genuinely exotic fashion yet never stops swinging. "Burns’s brilliance is all over this box, no less than Herman’s genius as a bandleader, musician, coach, cheerleader, editor, blues shouter, musical dramaturge, and—as his increasingly younger sidemen called him—“Road Father,” helping his musicians to do the best work possible. In these two somewhat random chunks of Herd history, Herman gives us 141 examples of why his orchestra—which lasted more than half a century from beginning to end—was among the greatest in all of American music."

-Will Friedwald writes about music and popular culture for the Wall Street Journal.

You still have a chance to purchase this set: go here for more info and to order your set. Follow: Mosaic Records Facebook Tumblr Twitter

[travsd]

This Friday: Please Join Me and Will Friedwald on the Clip Joint Live Stream

This Friday: Please Join Me and Will Friedwald on the Clip Joint Live Stream

**Friday, November 5 @ 7:00PM EASTERN** Will Friedwald and CLIP JOINT LIVESTREAM PRESENTS: salute to:**RON HUTCHINSON’S “VITAPHONE PROJECT” ** presenting: “VITAPHONE VAUDEVILLE” with special guest: MR. TRAV SD THIS IS A FREE EVENT! BUT PLEASE REMEMBER OUR 
VIRTUAL TIP JAR! Click Zoom link below to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86441008415… Meeting ID: 864 4100 8415 Passcode: 607470

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[theaterpizzazzstuff]

Steve Ross Gets a BIG Post Birthday Surprise!

It was “shush shush, keep it quiet” until December 23 when a Surprise Birthday Party was thrown by Max St. James and friends at the new location for Mont Blanc (owner Marie) on West 52nd Street. You must recall being greeted by Lola (Chita Rivera’s sister) at the old location on West […]

by Sandi Durell: The Crown Prince of Cabaret, Steve Ross, was duly surprised by his friends on Dec. 23 at Mont Blanc with a Post Birthday celebration . . .

[smithery]

The amazing thing about Cole Porter is that the most sophisticated of all songwriters is also the most passionate.

You wouldn't normally expect those two qualities to go together hand in hand. Indeed, one of the essential components of sophistication is coolness - a blasé quality. The most heinous breach of upper-crusty behavior would be to actually show that you care about something. Yet, Cole Porter takes passion to its ultimate extreme: people in Cole Porter songs are always at the end of their rope, they are borderline obsessives who have the object of their obsessions under their skin and can't stop thinking about him or her night and day. They are mystified, hypnotized, and every time their lover leaves them, they die a little.

As one of Porter's progeny, the lyricist and showman Alan J. Lerner put it, "Cole was the only composer lyric writer in the entire musical world who ever knew how to write a passionate song. Everybody else could - when we're fortunate - write a tender song, or a romantic song, or a wistful song, or a nostalgic song. But only Cole could write passion." It's in that duality - the contrast between describing the day to day activities of the uber-rich, those who keep their cool at all costs, and those of us who feel love with such a burning passion that they would, nay must, die for it.

this is some writing by Will Friedwald from the liner notes of a cd i bought, "The Very Best of Cole Porter".

this matter of sophistication and passion interests me. i think it is conceived of in an interesting way here. i have not thought of sophistication as coolness, but as complexity without complication. and its something that i have thought was to do with passion. the most refined things seem to be filled with appreciation of the most passionate things, such as opera or ballet. maybe thats what sophistication is to me; not a coolness exactly, but a detachment that allows appreciation of the complexity of passion without complication.

is that classicism? im talking crap again

[lyricallinks]

Dreaming in Blue: Miles Davis Festival in NYC @ Smoke through June 30 Click for INFO