Paula, Jack and Kenny

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed country music star Trisha Yearwood for my "House Call" column on growing up in a small town in Georgia and her burning passion to sing professionally (go here). I also interviewed comedian Paula Poundstone for my "Playlist" column on Chuck E's in Love, her inability to figure out the lyric and why she cried herself to sleep on Greyhound buses when she started out doing standup comedy (go here).

SiriusXM. Last week, I was on the satellite radio show FeedBack on Volume SiriusXM 106 (106) hosted by music pros Nik Carter and Lori Majewski. We talked about my most recent "Anatomy of a Song" column for the WSJ on Donovan's Sunshine Superman. Except for a few Donovan-Dylan slips on my part, I think it came off well. If you're driving today or tomorrow, you can tune in from 9:15 to 10 a.m. (EST) and listen to the rebroadcast. Or you can listen to the SoundCloud by going here.

Jerry Coker. Following my post last week on the arranger, composer, reed and woodwind player, and educator Jerry Coker, I received the following email from Jack Greenberg...

"Jerry was on the faculty at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas from around 1959 to 1962. He earned his masters degree there, I think. I met him when I started school there in 1961. He was director of the jazz ensemble, which I played in. I also played some gigs with him in a quintet (I'm a trumpet player). Jerry had a really gorgeous tone on tenor saxophone, the way he sounded on the Music from Indiana University album you highlighted. It was a real downer to lose him when he decided to take the job at Monterey Peninsula College in 1962. The last time I saw him was in Miami around 1967.  I had been a graduate student at the University of Miami just prior to his taking over the jazz program there. Unfortunately, I had decided to move back to Texas by then and never got to play with him again. That's us in the photo above—me on trumpet and Jack on tenor sax. The drummer's name is Dick Eaton, and the image was taken during a gig we played in Dallas, probably in late 1961."

Bob Porter. I recently posted (here and here) on Bob Porter—radio host, author of Soul Jazz, and producer for Prestige and other labels since the early 1960s. Last week, Bob sent along a link to a video interview he did recently with Michael Fitzgerald, host of the Jazz Forum...

Kenny Dorham. Following up on my post on trumpeter Kenny Dorham, here are four clips that show off the tone of his horn and his approach...

Here's Kenny's Windmill from his Whistle Stop album in 1961...

Here's Dorham with Joe Henderson on Dorham's Blue Bossa in 1963...

Here's Dorham with Sonny Rollins on Sonny's Kids Know in 1957...

And here's Dorham with Sonny Rollins and pianist Elmo Hope on the title track of Sonny's album Movin' Out in 1954...

Musicians' humor. Bill Page, a multi-instrumentalist with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra in the 1960s and a recording studio musician, took to his skis in this clip to add some levity to the bandleader's normally square TV show...

What the heck. Here are the Stylistics singing their 1972 hit Betcha By Golly Wow...

Oddball album cover of the week.

This one was part of the "Hear How To" series that illustrated through recordings a wide range of work and downtime activities. Not sure who this one was for though. Parents who couldn't read? Those unsure how to put a spin on the birds and the bees? Best of all, the photo above features parents talking to kids. Can you tell which one is the parent? And aren't these kids a little old for such a talk?

       

from JazzWax http://ift.tt/2pfpslE