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The fame of Andy Warhol has lasted a lot longer than fifteen minutes but perhaps his jazz album cover artwork is less well known than his soup tins, Marilyn Monroes or his Velvet underground Banana Cover. We discuss these in this episode  many are collected  in this blog by The Music Aficionado here with some thoughtful insights,  more can be found on the discos site here

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Pat Moran was active as a jazz pianist in the 1950s-1960s and played with many notable artists particularly on the West Coast.  Her trio album with Scott La Faro 1957 is a real gem in our opinion. Her classical training has furnished her with a great facility at the piano and her fast runs are crisp and well phrased.  The complete trio album released by  Fresh Sounds combines the Scott la Faro session with The Pat Moran Quartet (1956), with Moran on piano John Doling on bass, John Whited on drums and Beverly Kelly  on vocals.  Scott la Faro actually said  "I don't even like any of my recordings except maybe the first one I did with Pat Moran on Audio Fidelity." 

There is also an interesting live album from Birdland with horns added. On this album the whole band sing 4 part harmony! 

Here is a link to an Apple Music playlist
Here is the link to a short documentary 

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Nick and Simon talk about the artist Romare Bearden who was connected to the jazz scene in more than one way. His most well known works are collages, and often depict jazz subjects. He went to School with Billy Eckstine, and wrote Sea Breeze with him which featured on the Branford Marsalis album Romare Bearden Revealed 

A cultural figure whose foundation supports his legacy and the artistic community 


 

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Simon and Nick talk about the long running radio show hosted by Marion McPartland.

Episodes are still available to stream from NPR, like this one with Gene Harris


 

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This episode is based around the book " Blue Rhythm Fantasy" which is concerned , primarily,  with the work of arranger Chappie Willet. A freelancer, he set up an office in the Times Square district calling it The Broadway Music clinic. He was a successful African American entrepreneur and worked for some of the top acts of his day including Louis Armstrong.
 

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Nick and Simon discuss the short lived but influential London jazz club "Club Eleven", (named after the number of founder members) It began life just before Christmas 1948 and was a co-operative arrangement designed to bring bebop to the attention of the jazz public at large. The musicians involved were Ronnie Scott, Hank Shaw, Leon Calvert, Johnny Rogers, Bernie Fenton, Tommy Pollard, Lennie Bush, Joe Muddel, Tony Crombie and Laurie Morgan plus manager Harry Morris. Johnny Dankworth and Denis Rose were regulars from the start. Some gave up steady work, Scott left Ted Heath, Fenton severed relations with Oscar Rabin, and Rose, Crombie, Muddel and Dankworth came from the now defunct Tito Burns orchestra.

These were the first truly organised bebop sessions in Britain. With the star-studded assembly of musicians, Club Eleven became the focal point for the 'new jazz' and an inspiration to many other young musicians throughout the country.

The house band was the Johnny Dankworth Quartet comprising Dankworth, Bernie Fenton (pno), Joe Muddel (bs), and Laurie Morgan (d) and a band led by Ronnie Scott with Hank Shaw (tpt), Johnny Rogers (alto), Tommy Pollard (pno), Lennie Bush (bs), and Tony Crombie (d). The Dankworth quartet became a quintet when trumpeter Leon Calvert was added. 

Mac's Rehearsal Rooms, 44, Windmill Street, (where the Moffat Club had been), became the first venue operating on Thursday and Saturday nights. Entry was by descending a wooden staircase to a cramped low ceilinged room with a bandstand at one end. It was dimly lit with bare light bulbs and a few battered sofas. Only bebop was played - fierce and urgent music! The early months of the Eleven saw the highest peak of enthusiasm in the history of British modern jazz. The jazzmen continued to listen and study as many records by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis that they could get hold of. Broadcasts, recordings, and concerts came in quick succession and public acclaim was such as to force a move within a few months to much larger premises at 50, Carnaby Street, satisfying the legions of fans coming from all over the country to the by now famous Club 11. It was now operating six days a week in the evening and was open in the afternoon as a meeting point for musicians. At this point Johnny Dankworth left to form his Seven taking Joe Muddel with him, and Harry Morris also quit.

 

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Nick And Simon talk about the Jazz Novel Blow up a storm published in 1959 [ a seminal year in Jazz history]


This is a first novel by the director, producer and dramatist, Garson Kanin, whose short stories have appeared in Esquire, Vogue and the Atlantic Monthly. Written in the first person and told in flashback this is a dramatist's recollections of his early days in jazz -- during the depression and the close of prohibition. While in Chicago, on tour with his actress wife, the narrator receives a phone call from a forgotten Lee Woodruff which brings back a flood of impressions and memories of their small combo shaped and led by Woody. Through a haze of half remembered incidents he recalls the growth of their trio into a sextet, the men who gave the group impetus and the women who were tenuously involved with the band. Woodruff, now an emotional wreck, unable to play, in and out of hospitals, insists upon unburdening himself to the narrator and attempts to explain the eventual failure of their group.

Kanin's best-remembered for his screenplays, however, which were written in collaboration with his wife, actress Ruth Gordon, whom he married in 1942. Together, they wrote many screenplays, including six that were directed by George Cukor. These included the Spencer Tracy - Katharine Hepburn film comedies Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952), as well as A Double Life (1947), starring Ronald Colman.

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Simon & Nick discuss the score to Mr Benn by Don Warren an alias for Duncan Lamont.
Lamont worked for several decades as a freelance musician (on flute and clarinet as well as saxophone), based around Archer Street in Soho, playing in the surrounding jazz clubs. He often performed with British bands accompanying American vocalists, including Fred Astaire, Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Marlene Dietrich, Peggy Lee and (for 19 seasons) with Frank Sinatra. He also played with touring bandleaders such as Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Henry Mancini. Lamont led his own band for 11 years. He worked on recording and performing projects with Kenny Wheeler for many decades.

For those who missed the original Mr Benn books and TV show (the former, published first In 1967, the latter aired between 1971 and 1972 before making several returns via reruns on the BBC), the plot is straightforward. Black suit and bowler hat-clad London professional Mr Benn leaves his house each episode, walks to a local fancy-dress shop, and chooses an outfit. An adventure then ensues, set in a world that reflects his outfit. Harking back to a glorious time in children's television - one that has latterly been remembered for its psychedelic edges and surrealist tendencies - Duncan Lamont's score was a perfect accompaniment to those mini odysseys. It's woozy, blissful and dreamy one minute, then jaunty and upbeat the next, taking the form of brief but beautiful accidentals to set the scenes.

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Nick and Simon talk about the film Born to Be Blue  a 2015  drama film directed, produced and written by Robert Budreau. The film stars Ethan Hawke and Carmen Ejogo. The film is about American jazz musician Chet Baker, portrayed by Hawke.

Directed by | Robert Budreau
Written by | Robert Budreau
Produced by | Jennifer JonasRobert BudreauLeonard FarlingerJake Seal[1]
Starring | Ethan HawkeCarmen Ejogo
Cinematography | Steve Cosens
Edited by | David Freeman
Music by | David Braid Todor Kobakov Steve London

 

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Inspired by a post on Instagram, and the  standard stereotypical responses to the question " Dear 'people who don't like jazz' what don't you like about it?" posed by Kira C Garcia  (follow her here)   Nick and Simon pondered the question. Look out for a blog on this from Simon.

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