January 21, 2017

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin on her unusual childhood and what she’s doing now to deal with her disappointing performance at the Rio Summer Olympic Games last year (go here). [Photo of Missy Franklin, above, by Allison Michael Orenstein for The Wall Street Journal]

Also in the WSJ, I interviewed fragrance entrepreneur Jo Malone on her favorite song—Miley Cyrus’s The Climb, from the movie Hannah Montana (go here). Jo went through tough times when she sold her Jo Malone fragrance line to Estée Lauder. Jo in London now heads up the fragrance company Jo Loves.

Clark Terry. Saxophonist Bill Kirchner sent along a fabulous video of the Clark Terry Big BAD Band last week with Horace Parlan on piano. The personnel: Clark Terry (tp, flug); Stan Shafran, Vince DiMartino, Oscar Gamby and Richard Williams (tp); Sonny Costanza, Richard Boone and Jimmy Wilkins (tb); Jack Jeffers (bass tb; tuba) Chris Woods, Arnie Lawrence, Jimmy Heath, Ernie Wilkins NS Bobby Johanson (saxes, woodwinds); Horace Parlan (p); Eddie Jones (b) and Grady Tate (drums). Here’s the video…

Martin Luther King Jr. Following my post last week on jazz tributes to Martin Luther King Jr., Fran Morris Rosman of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation reminded me of Ella’s It’s Up to Me and You. She wrote the words and music, and it was released by Capitol as a single in 1968. Ella hits some interesting high notes, particularly at the end. Here’s the single…

Mitch Seidman sent along Herbie Hancock’s I Have a Dream, from Hancock’s album The Prisoner (1969)…

And Bill Kirchner recommended Dizzy Gillespie’s Brother K, from The Source (1973)…

Don and Hank. Pianist Joe Alterman sent along a photo that Sandie Wilson (wife of the late pianist Jack Wilson) took a few years ago of pianists Don Friedman (left) and Hank Jones. Read my review of Joe’s new album here.

Teddy Reig. Ed Etkins found the caricature above of Roulette producer Teddy Reig in the Maynard Ferguson archives at the University of North Texas, where the Ferguson and Stan Kenton libraries are housed. Ed notes: “I have made nine trips there, mostly to document the Ferguson collection and to create scores, provide missing parts and

identify untitled manuscripts. Back in the day no one would have attached any historical significance to Ferguson’s music, and judging by the condition of most of it, his charts were sadly neglected. Kenton had a librarian, and his library shows far more care

with careful repairs to manuscripts going back to the 49’s.”

What the heck. Here’s Maynard Ferguson in December 1958 playing Bill Holman’s arrangement of Don’cha Go ‘Way Mad from Ferguson’s Swingin’ My Way Through College. The band: Maynard Ferguson (tp,v-tb); Bill Chase, Larry Moser and Jerry Tyree (tp); Slide Hampton and Don Sebesky (tb,arr); Jimmy Ford (as); Carmen Leggio and Willie Maiden (ts); John Lanni (bar); Bob Dogan (p); Jimmy Rowser (b) and Frankie Dunlop (d)…

Don’cha Go ‘Way Mad

Oddball album cover of the week.

This 10-inch LP from the early 1950s was fairly typical of Pennsylvania’s Essex Records. The label featured mostly mood music while its covers displayed female models in various states of ecstasy. The covers were an attempt to make the music seem irresistible at record stores to bachelors fresh from the liquor store searching for first-date music. Here’s a sample from the album…