William N. Law Blog: Lee, Milt and Jimmy

This week in The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed bestselling suspense writer Lee Child (go here) for my "House Call" column. Lee talks about his childhood and how the Beatles transformed his generation in the U.K. from glum offspring of war-weary parents to fizzy teens optimistic about the future. You'll also get a kick out of how he came up with the pen name Lee Child. His latest Jack Reacher book is The Midnight Line (Delactorte). [Photo above courtesy of Lee Child]

Also in the WSJ, I interviewed novelist Louise Penny for my "Playlist" column on Procol Harum's Conquistador, from the Procol Harum Live album in 1972 (go here). It was one of the first prog-rock recordings that skillfully combined a symphony orchestra and a rock band in a live setting. Louise's latest book is Glass Houses (Minotaur). [Photo by Ian Crysler, courtesy of Louise Penny]

Jimmy Woode. Following my post on Milt Buckner's Locked Hands, which featured Jimmy Woode (above) on bass, I received the following from Arlene Corwin, pianist Bob Corwin's former wife:

One night in Sweden, in a Borås city jazz club, I was playing piano. In the audience was Red Mitchell, whom I'd never met, and who had just moved to Sweden. One American to another, we started to chat and learned that my biggest influence—trumpeter Tony Fruscella—was his best friend with whom he lived back in the 1940. They used to practice together. Bebop, Mozartian phrases. Their formative years.

Also in the audience was a big, jolly man who introduced himself as Jimmy Woode. He was Jimmy Woode Sr. Being the most gregarious of men, he insisted that my beau Kent [Anderson] and I follow him to his apartment. We did. He also insisted on feeding us, playing the blues on the organ for us and talking, talking and talking. Big and round, he was astonishing looking. Energetic, smooth-faced, not a wrinkle.

But Jimmy Woode Sr. was quite an old guy, it turned out. It also turned out that when Kent was a very young man (16 or so) and an apprentice in the town's biggest and best music shop, a man had come in, sat down in the vast room of grand pianos and played the blues. A black man living in Sweden who could play the blues! Well, you can imagine.

And here it was, the late 1980's and our lives intertwined. It was only after that encounter that I learned about the importance of Jimmy Woode Jr., Duke Ellington's bassist. We never saw Woode Sr. again. He died soon after. As I said, he was an old guy. The most youthful looking old guy in the world. And very proud of Woode Jr. I also never learned how or why he ended up in Sweden.

Milt Buckner. Jim Eigo, of Jazz Promo Services, sent along a link to Armin Büttner's site and his lavish discography of pianist and organist Milt Buckner. Go here. [Photo above of Buddy Tate, left, and Milt Buckner]

Jimmy Sweeney. When Elvis Presley was starting out, his biggest influence turns out to have been Jimmy Sweeney. Jimmy who? Sweeney (center, above) was an African-American singer based in Nashville who recorded in the studios there in the early 1950s. Christopher Kennedy did a masterful writing job in the current issue of Britain's Mojo and has solved the mystery of a demo Elvis emulated when recording Without You in 1954. For some reason, Mojo doesn't make its content available online in the States.

The following site (go here) picked up Chris's piece, but they seem to have used dictation software, so there are a lot of typos and garbles. Chris sent along a PDF of the original article, so I can tell you that the headline reads as follows:

The King's Singer: When Elvis Presley sang 'Without You' at Sun Studios in June 1954, A legend was born. But the voice on the recording Elvis was desperate to emulate has never been identified. That is, until musician and writer Christopher Kennedy heard the acetate, 87 years on. He's convinced Presley's mystery influence can finally be named: Jimmy Sweeney.

Here's Sweeney singing I Pay With Every Breath in 1954...

George Shearing. Following my post on Milt Buckner and his locked-hands technique, saxophonist and educator Bill Kirchner sent along the following on the Shearing sound:

Hi there. The Shearing Quintet sound (vibes and guitar in octaves, piano filling in the three inner voices) was derived from the Glenn Miller 'Moonlight Serenade' voicing (clarinet, two altos, two tenors, with the clarinet and bottom tenor in octaves). This is the same voicing as the five-saxophone “Four-way close, double lead” voicing (two altos, two tenors, baritone, with the lead alto and baritone in octaves). It later was popularized by Supersax and became known as the “Supersax voicing,” though it was used as early as 1940 by Ellington in his famous 'Cotton Tail' saxophone soli. Under all these guises—and the locked-hands piano voicing—this is one of the most frequently-heard sounds in popular music.

Bossa nova. Last week, David Fisher sent along a link to a wonderful site devoted to covers of Brazilian albums:

I’m passing on a web site I thought you’d appreciate, if you don’t already know about it (go here). It’s the work of a gentleman named Andreas Dünnewald, who authored 'Brazilliance,' a 2011 book on classic samba and bossa nova recordings and album covers. The site is an online version of the book that, unfortunately, is available only from Amazon Germany. I can’t find it anywhere else and found out from the author himself that the publisher (Conte-Verlag) has all but abandoned promotion of it. Mercifully, the site is chock full of historical information, awesome picture files and Andreas’ lovingly compiled playlists.

Marty Mellman. Last week, following my post on organist Hank Marr's Live at The Club 502 in Columbus, Ohio's, I heard from Lori Mellman, daughter of Marty Mellman, who ran club in the 1960s:

I was not yet born when Marty owned The 502 Club. He once took me to the grocery store that occupied the space where the club used to be and took me on a "tour." He showed me where Miles Davis played, which was then the frozen food section. He also told me great stories about Nancy Wilson, Ahmad Jamal, Hank Marr, Dionne Warwick, Cannonball Adderley and many others. At the time I did not appreciate the club's history.

Note: Lori hosts a Facebook page on her father here.

Jimmy Rushing radio. Don't miss "Symphony Sid" Gribetz's five-hour radio broadcast on Sunday celebrating the career of vocalist Jimmy Rushing. Sid will be spinning from 2 to 7 p.m. on New York's WKCR-FM. You can listen from anywhere in the world on your computer or phone by going here.

Kenny Clare. Following my post on Milt Buckner's Locked Hands, featuring drummer Kenny Clare on brushes, I received the following from pianist Dave James:

Your post got me thinking about the brush aspect of percussion. I played drums for quite a few years, but I never had much luck with brushes, so I've always had respect for musicians like Joe Morello and Vernel Fournier—guys who could really give them a workout. That got me digging around a bit to identify some other drummers with a flair for the brushes. I came across this post at Drumforum.org that provides some pretty good examples (go here).

What the heck. Johnny Maestro was among the finest blue-eyed soul vocalists of the 1960s (I'd put Bill Medley, Jay Black and Gary Puckett high on this list). Maestro died in 2010. Here's Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge's performing their biggest hit (#3), Worst That Could Happen (1969)...