Eric Stonestreet stars on the TV sitcom Modern Family. But when Eric was little, his dad let him raise pigs, and he dreamed of becoming a circus clown. In The Wall Street Journal this week (go here), I interviewed Eric for "House Call" on growing up in Kansas City and the dare that landed him on stage in college. [Photo above courtesy of ABC]
Robert Hass is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. poet laureate. His latest book is A Little Book on Form. In the WSJ this weekend (go here), I interview Bob for "Playlist" on his favorite song—Sh-boom by the Chords and the Crew-Cuts in 1954. That year, when he was 13, he danced to the song with a girl in school who became his future wife. [Photo above courtesy of the Poetry Foundation]
Catch me if you can on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. (EDT) on SiriusXM's Feedback with Nik Carter and Lori Majewski (above). We'll be talking about Yes, progressive rock and my "Anatomy of a Song" column on the band's hit, Roundabout. On the dial, you'll find me on SiriusXM's channel 106, which is called "Volume."
With love, from Sweden. Guy Jones (above), who lives in Stockholm and runs the Friends of Jan Lundgren site and social media enterprise, wrote such a touching post about me and my book, Anatomy of a Song. Jan, of course, is one of the world's great jazz pianists. Here's how Guy's post opens...
"How do you start your day? FoJL’s routine is always the same: a quick flick through the Financial Times, an equally rapid check of the BBC’s world news app, and then it’s straight to Marc Myers’ New York-based daily blog, JazzWax. Because—and there’s no way to sugar-coat this—you can’t really call yourself a jazz fan if you don’t keep up with Marc’s quotidian reports, insights and musings on jazz, soul, rock and the arts in general."
For the rest of Guy's post, go here.
To Guy, Jan and all of my dear friends in Sweden, thank you, and a big New York hug.
Captured down under. Tone Shanahan in Australia sent along the following...
"I was at a book launch last night with my son just outside Sydney at a great little bookshop called Gleebooks in Glebe. There were about 100 in attendance whilst the author, David Marr, was interviewed with a Q&A at the end. At the other end of the row where we were seated I spotted your book and took a cellphone photo (above). Apologies for the blurriness of the hastily snapped image."
Housekeeping continues. As I mentioned last weekend, the JazzWax archive is undergoing some cobweb cleansing, so past posts are coming back online little by little. Hang in there. [Photo courtesy of Wallpaper]
Harold McNair in rock. Following my post on Harold McNair, I received the following from Tone Shanahan, who reminded me of McNair's rock work in bands led by Donovan, Ginger Baker and Alexis Korner [photo above from YouTube]...
"Harold McNair came to my attention through Donovan in the 1960s. Not only was he on the Donovan In Concert (1968) album but also on Donovan’s two previous albums and the following two as well. He became integral to Donovan’s sound. It is Harold’s fabulous flute which wafts all the way through the '60’s hit There Is a Mountain.’ Harold also in Ginger Baker’s Air Force for a double live album recorded at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1970. They performed Da Da Man, a McNair composition. He's also on the band's studio album that followed, penning the song Caribbean Soup. And he was part of the Alexis Korner-led big band, CCS, which had a few hits in the early '70s in the U.K.
Harold McNair on video. Bob Naylor sent along the following...
"I saw Harold McNair in concert in 1969. The only video clip I've found of him is with Donovan. He was a virtuoso player, so playing folk tunes must have been such a simple task for him. Still it must have paid well enough to keep the wolf from the door. He also played beautifully on the soundtrack to the British film Kes (1969)." Here's the clip Bob mentions with Donovan...
Also from Bob, the following clipping from Britain's Melody Maker when McNair died in March 1971...
Don Huntstein (1928-2017), a photographer whose iconic images of Columbia's folk, rock and jazz artists were captured just as they revealed something about themselves and graced album covers and liner notes, died on March 18. He was 88. To read Richard Sandomir's obit in The New York Times, go here.
Billie Holiday radio. WKCR-FM in New York will present its annual "Billie Holiday Birthday Broadcast"for 24 hours on April 7. You can tune in on your computer or smartphone from anywhere in the world by going here.
Band documentary. New York-based (U)nity is a funk-soul jazz band made up of Michael Valeanu, Axel Tosca Laugart, Chris Smith, Max Cudworth and Amaury Acosta. They formed the band in 2006 as a project to explore Afro-Cuban jazz, funk, soul and contemporary electronica. They've been influenced by everyone from Chucho Valdés and Art Blakey to Led Zeppelin and Kendrick Lamar. Here's a mini-doc on the band...
Fruits of Kickstarter. Last week I received the following email from Neil Williams...
"Back in 2014, you were gracious enough to share the Kickstarter campaign for my USC thesis film, David's Reverie, at JazzWax. I was able to raise enough money to produce it. David's Reverie is now available online for free on Vimeo until April 8. I wanted to share it with you. Please feel free to include it on JazzWax if you'd like." Here's the video...
Neil adds: "Here is a write-up about the movie on the Living Well with Epilepsy site"...
What the heck. Following my post on Patti Page last week, I thought I'd hip you to what Page did best—sing pop ballads with romantic conviction. Here's Page singing The Nearness of You on her '50s TV show. Her execution is hypnotic and flawless....
Page also was hip, even if her TV arrangements weren't. This one makes me wish Page had recorded a few with Basie. Love that Joe Williams-like held note at the end, complete with a twirl...
Oddball album cover of the week.
Here perhaps is the worst country album ever recorded, with a pine-box cover to go with it. Poor arranger Ernie Freeman. Is the album really that bad? You decide...
from JazzWax http://ift.tt/2okmbVO
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