The Gone Sounds of Jazz with Sid Gribetz

Fats Navarro

In his brief life, Fats Navarro was a fleeting spectacle of brilliance as a leading trumpeter in the history and development of jazz during the bebop years.
 
Nicknamed “Fats” or “Fat Girl” (befitting all in one his avoirdupois, his high pitched voice, and most important his fat musical tone on the trumpet), Theodore Navarro was born on September 23, 1923 in Key West.  He played music seriously since childhood, and left Florida after high school to embark on a career as a professional jazz musician in big bands, first gaining notice as a teenager in Andy Kirk’s Clouds Of Joy.  Upon the enthusiastic recommendation of Dizzy Gillespie, Navarro was hired to replace Diz in the notorious Billy Eckstine bebop big band in 1945.
 
In the late 1940's Navarro became a leading exponent of the bebop revolution, adding idioms and dialect to the musical language created by Bird and Diz, and, as Dan Morgenstern has written, possessing a beautiful tone, brilliance of execution, solid musicianship, and great powers of invention.
 
 Navarro’s brief life ended on July 7, 1950, at the age of 26, succumbing both to a lingering illness with tuberculosis and the ravages of his heroin addiction.
 
Our program will explore his entire musical career, including his seminal recordings with Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Coleman Hawkins and other greats.
 
broadcast July 2022

Dinah Washington

Dinah Washington called herself "The Queen Of The Blues", and she was that, and then some, a larger than life character and a dynamic singer of great jazz, pop, rhythm and blues, and the American Popular Songbook.Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and reared in Chicago (as Ruth Jones), influenced by gospel music she began singing professionally as a youth.  Lionel Hampton "discovered" her, and she featured in his band for a number of years under the stage name Dinah Washington, before striking out on her own.  Dinah brought forth popular "crossover" hit records for Mercury, jazz classics with all the greats, and best selling numbers like "What A Difference A Day Made", whether with jazz combos, big bands, R&B groups, or string orchestras.Married seven times, to among others saxophonist Eddie Chamblee and gridiron great Night Train Lane, she lived a nervy, extravagant life style.   On the one hand always informed by her gospel roots, Dinah was transcendent, and she translated her varied popular repertoire into the secular and sexual passion of the blues. Her delivery combined intense feeling with crystal-clear diction so that, as the music poured out, she still seemed in total control, one of the all time best at conveying the heartfelt meaning of song lyrics.A heavy drinker, and overusing prescription diet pills, Dinah died from an accidental overdose on December 14, 1963 at the age of 39.  Leaving us even at that young age, she left behind a prolific legacy.  We’ll present a representative retrospective look at her career on our program, timed to coincide with celebration of her centennial, as she was born August 29, 1924.
 
originally broadcast September 1, 2024

Thelonious Monk 1

WKCR presents annual marathon broadcasts to celebrate the October 10 birthday anniversary of Thelonious Monk. 
From the 2023 edition,  here's 205 minutes of a segment I presented.  Begins with a potpourri of Monk's music, first some live performances, next piano music, featuring selections from, among other recordings, the French Vogue session, the Duke Ellington album, and the "The Unique Thelonious Monk".  The final 123 minutes includes a survey of a less-famous aspect of Monk's career, his recordings for the Prestige label.

Tadd Dameron

Tadd Dameron was born in Cleveland in 1917 and came of age towards the end of the Swing Era.  As the bebop revolution unfolded, Dameron was a key figure as a pianist in various bands,  arranger for Dizzy Gillespie and others, and composer of classics such as “Hot House", "If You Could See Me Now", "Our Delight", "Good Bait" and "Lady Bird".
He’s been called the romanticist of the bebop era.  Certainly his sophisticated musicianship and lyrical touch elevated the harmonic advances of bebop, and his emotive style informed the music of Fats Navarro, Wardell Gray, Clifford Brown and so many others.
Additionally, Dameron had the opportunity to present his music in his own medium-sized orchestras.  His recording legacy also includes leading sessions with greats like John Coltrane, inter alia.
Unfortunately his career was interrupted by narcotics issues and related prison terms, and later cut short by various health problems.  Dameron died of cancer in 1965.
 
originally broadcast in 2010

Lester Young 3

The "Bird-Prez Birthday Broadcast", a 72 hour (and some years longer) marathon celebrating Lester Young and Charlie Parker around their birthday anniversaries, August 27 and August 29, is a long standing tradition at WKCR, and it is among our listeners' favorites.
For the 2024 edition, I programmed a set reviewing Lester Young's studio recordings for Norman Granz, on "Verve".

Eddie Jefferson

Eddie Jefferson was the progenitor of the style known as “vocalese”, the writing of lyrics to the improvised solos on jazz instrumental recordings.Jefferson was born on August 3, 1918 in Pittsburgh.  His father was in show business, and Pittsburgh back in the day was a jazz town of vitality.  Eddie began professionally as a child in song and dance acts with local friends such as Erroll Garner.As a young man, Eddie plied his trade as a dancer on the traveling black entertainment circuit, working on the same bills opposite jazz greats such as Coleman Hawkins during the “Body And Soul” years.  Along with his dance partner Irv Taylor, Jefferson would while away the time on the road listening to songs on a portable record player, and they would conceive lyrics to go along with the soloists on the records, whether of Prez and Herschel Evans and Buddy Tate with Count Basie, or Chu Berry with Cab Calloway, or popular bands.  Jefferson was also influenced by the scat singing and surrealism of Leo Watson.  The arrival of Charlie Parker and bebop gave another inspiration to Eddie.From this background emerged a new style of jazz singing.  Just as the jazz soloist created a new melody in improvising, Jefferson canonized the recorded solos and invested them with fixed life as songs of their own.  It is often said that the purpose of the solo is to tell a story.  Jefferson’s lyrics interpreted these stories, and also told his own.  His experience from the jazz life would be the chronicles he made of “Body and Soul”, “Now’s The Time” or “So What”.  Or he would tell his own love stories (“Disappointed”), or spin yarns of fanciful tales turning Lester Young’s version of “It’s Only A Paper Moon” in to a take off of a trip to space on “Come Along With Me”, or reworking “A Night In Tunisia” as an exotic desert fantasy.The first public breakthrough remains the most famous - in 1949, on a visit to Sweden, James Moody recorded a version of the standard “I’m In The Mood For Love” with a stunning improvisation.  The record took off in the states, and Eddie Jefferson wrote lyrics that would become “Moody’s Mood For Love” (There I Go, There I Go...).  King Pleasure made the first recording of the song, and that immediately put the genre on the map.  Annie Ross and others would soon follow.  And Eddie Jefferson teamed up with Moody, becoming both the singer with his touring band, and road manager, throughout the 1950's.  Meanwhile, groups such as Lambert Hendricks and Ross took up the cudgels, and vocalese became a sensation.But the popularity of jazz faded in the 1960's and Jefferson was forced to support himself outside of music.  With the beginnings of a jazz revival in the 1970's Eddie was back.  He teamed with the young saxophone player Richie Cole and toured the country, and Eddie was also a big part of the jazz loft scene in Soho and the Bowery in New York City at places like Bond Street and The Tin Palace.  Unfortunately, this comeback ended when Eddie was senselessly murdered in 1979, while leaving his performance outside Baker’s Keyboard Lounge in Detroit.
 
originally broadcast in 2017

Charlie Parker 2

The "Bird-Prez Birthday Broadcast", a 72 hour (and some years longer) marathon celebrating Lester Young and Charlie Parker around their birthday anniversaries, August 27 and August 29, is a long standing tradition at WKCR, and it is among our listeners' favorites.
From the 2023 edition, I programmed a set which included primarily a look at Bird's studio recordings of 1947, a magical period for bebop.

Sonny Stitt

Sonny Stitt was one of the greats.  Sonny possessed technical skill and fleet mastery as a musician, and he projected a tone full of warmth and human expression.  He excelled whether playing bebop, ballads or the blues, “rhythm” pieces or improvisatory excursions in the American popular songbook standards.Edward Boatner, Jr. was born February 2, 1924 in Boston.  He came from a musical family, as his father was a composer and college music professor, and his mother a piano teacher.  Several siblings had careers in classical music.  The family moved to Saginaw, Michigan when he was a toddler, and it was there that he was raised.  At some point his parents separated and his mother married a man named Robert Stitt.  Edward adopted his stepfather’s surname, and the moniker “Sonny”.Stitt played various instruments from an early age and excelled in school music programs.  As a youngster he was attracted to the alto sax and the sound of Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter.  As he became a teenager Stitt played in the nascent Michigan jazz scene.  After high school, he joined the popular Tiny Bradshaw band.  In his travels, Stitt met Charlie Parker in Kansas City in 1943 and became enthralled with Bird’s sound and conception.As the bebop evolution took hold, Stitt was one of the “Unholy Four” in Billy Eckstine’s legendary bop big band sax section.  In 1946, when Dizzy Gillespie left Bird behind in California, he hired Stitt to fill Parker’s chair in both small groups and his orchestra.  Between his work with Dizzy and other legendary bebop aggregations, Stitt appears on many of the seminal recordings of the late 1940's.  In the early 1950's Stitt teamed with Gene Ammons as a proponent of earthy jazz blowing, and he began playing tenor, and sometimes baritone, sax, while also retaining his original alto.Termed by many as a “Lone Wolf”, Stitt had a lengthy career performing in many settings but never his own regular band.  Also, for decades he recorded prolifically for many labels, producing a quantitatively amazing discography of artistic fertility, but never a signature “oeuvre”.  Among some highlights of later years were organ combos with Don Patterson, experiments with the electric sax during the rock years, a 1960 stay in Miles Davis’s regular group, the Giants of Jazz Tour of the early 1970's, and some mature, critically acclaimed records on the Muse label in the last decade of his life.  Stitt died of cancer in 1982 at the age of 58.Too many ignorant critics often criticized Stitt, unfairly and inaccurately, as merely “a Charlie Parker imitator”.  And with reference to Stitt's prolific performance output, similar haters also unfairly chastised him as someone who “just mailed it in”.  Additionally, he was dogged by substance abuse issues, heroin addiction during the bebop years (which he beat) and then alcohol problems, which detracted from an ability to maintain popular fame.  Notwithstanding these hindrances to larger acclaim, the true jazz aficionados acknowledge his mastery, and you should listen closely to his recordings, to recognize that Stitt leaves a worthwhile legacy of touchingly beautiful music.Given the breadth of Stitt’s output, we will only barely sample his career in our five hour show.  But those samples I trust will be a meaningful listen and illustrative of his skill.  As a final note, this February 2024 show will be an acknowledgment of his centennial.

Ben Webster In The 1950's

For this program I selected a narrow focus -- Ben Webster's activities in the 1950's.
Webster is best known as the tenor saxophone giant from Duke Ellington's famous bands followed up with fame and renown as an ongoing swing legend of the 1940's.  In his much later years as a European expatriate, Webster achieved international stardom and respect as an “elder statesman”.  But often overlooked were his contributions to jazz during the 1950's.  Then in his forties, Webster's maturing artistry reached a level of poetry and grace, which, when matched with his brute force and power, produced some stunning music, if not popular acclaim.Our program will examine this aspect of his career.  First up was a return to Kansas City, with Jay McShann and other R&B offerings; next, teaming up in Norman Granz productions for jazz combos with his old swing friends, Oscar Peterson, and sensitive strings; as another highlight, rejoining Billie Holiday to provide necessary support for what were the best of Lady Day’s later recordings; and finally, moving to California, for a triumphant reception at the 1959 Monterrey Jazz Festival, leading to partnerships with blues shouter Jimmy Witherspoon and others.
 
originally broadcast in 2011

Lester Young 2

The "Bird-Prez Birthday Broadcast", a 72 hour (and some years longer) marathon celebrating Lester Young and Charlie Parker around their birthday anniversaries, August 27 and August 29, is a long standing tradition at WKCR, and it is among our listeners' favorites.
Here's a session that I put together for the 2023 broadcast. Two parts on Lester Young.
First a brief random sample of his collaborations with Billie Holiday.  Sumptuous.
The second part is a more in-depth look at Lester Young's activities in 1943 and 1944, a period often overlooked, as overshadowed by other more popular portions of his career.