The Gone Sounds of Jazz with Sid Gribetz

We continue an occasional series of programs focusing on the American Popular Song, examining the impact of the legendary composers on the jazz repertory.  For some of the best in jazz improvisation derives from its interpretations of the musical forms, melodies and harmonies of these great treasures.
For this show I did something different, and fun, and less intensive.  I surveyed songs that won the Academy Award Oscar as Best Original Song in a motion picture.  These movie songs certainly contribute to the heritage of our great American songbook.
Among the composers winning this award are Jerome Kern, Harry Warren, Harold Arlen and Jimmy Van Heusen, to name a few.  And tunes such as The Way You Look Tonight, Over The Rainbow, It Might As Well Be Spring, Days Of Wine And Roses.
We’ll present a curated presentation of jazz versions of the songs, by greats John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Kenny Dorham, and less famous figures as well.
originally broadcast March 15, 2026

Howard McGhee, a renowned trumpeter of both the big band and be-bop eras, also was a leading figure and mentor on the New York jazz scene in the 1960's and 1970's. 
Born in Oklahoma in 1918, and raised in Detroit, McGhee gained attention in his youth in the big bands of Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, and, notably, Andy Kirk.  Settling in Los Angeles in the 1940's and working in Coleman Hawkins small group, McGhee became a major player in California, recording with musicians ranging from Lester Young to R&B bands.
When Bird, Charlie Parker, famously stayed in LA in 1946 after Dizzy and his group returned to New York, McGhee became a key companion and an important figure in the history of bebop jazz.
McGhee also played with Machito’s Afro-Cuban band, with Milt Jackson, Jazz At The Philharmonic, and had many other significant associations.
In the 1950's, among other credits, he recorded for Bethlehem Records and performed regularly in James Moody’s working group.
Over the last decades of his life, McGhee made records with Phineas Newborn, Teddy Edwards and other prominent figures, which we will hear on the program.  “Maggie”, as he was known, also led his own big band, and he was active in community events with the St. Peter’s Church jazz ministry.
McGhee died in 1987 at the age of 69.
originally broadcast February 10, 2019

Serge Chaloff was a fleeting star on the baritone saxophone during his brief lifetime, one of Woody Herman’s “Four Brothers” and a bebopping legend as well.   He was a sophisticated musician and swinging performer.  Serge possessed a lithe, fleet, flowing conception propelled with a lighter tone and nimble execution on the big horn.
Raised by his prominent classical musician and educator parents in Boston, Serge Chaloff was born November 24, 1923.  His father Julius Chaloff was a pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and ran his own music school; his mother Margaret Stedman Chaloff, revered  by her many famous classical and jazz musician students as “Madame Chaloff”, was a long time teacher with her own studio and also at the New England Conservatory and other schools.
As a young child his parents taught him the piano, and he received formal lessons on the clarinet.  Inspired by Harry Carney he was self taught on the baritone saxophone and began performing in big bands.  Chaloff was also influenced by Charlie Parker and informed by the contemporary bebop scene, and he incorporated those styles as a major component of his expression.
Chaloff was hired by Woody Herman for the “Second Herd” band in 1947-1949 and excelled as part of its legendary saxophone section memorialized by the Four Brothers song and sound.
Unfortunately, Chaloff also absorbed another lesson from the bebop era and many contemporaries, succumbing to heroin addiction.  Chaloff was smitten and suffered more intensively than most, harming his physical health and inspiring erratic behavior to an extent that almost cost him his musical career, and his life.
Let go by Herman, Chaloff spent the early 1950's basically in local Boston clubs and with some brief prominent spots such as a stint in Count Basie’s octet.  He also spent some time on the road with low profile gigging.
By 1954, Chaloff began getting some treatment, and friends eventually  prevailed upon him to enter an intensive in patient rehab program.  Chaloff emerged totally clean and renewed his career with vigor.  Highlights included appearances at George Wein’s Storyville nightclub and his record label.  The “Fabel Of Mabel” album is a storied endeavor and a cult classic.  Chaloff went on significant national tours, appeared on the Steve Allen TV show, and recorded with Capitol Records - two LPs “Boston Blow Up” and “Blue Serge”- that are now considered masterpieces.
However later in 1956 Chaloff was stricken with cancerous tumors on his spine and after some initial surgeries that allowed him to endure, the tumors spread and he died in July 1957 at the age of 33.
With his short life span and limited body of recordings, Chaloff is not well remembered, but he was a significant figure who deserves lasting recognition.
 
originally broadcast February 15, 2026

Tina Brooks was a lyrical tenor saxophonist with a yearning, introspective, yet soulful sound. He attained a brief measure of recognition on several Blue Note albums in the late 1950's and early 1960's but never achieved great fame.
Harold Floyd Brooks was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on June 7, 1932, into a musical family. (His older brother David “Bubba” Brooks, also a saxophonist, was a mainstay in the jazz world for many years). In his youth, Harold was nicknamed Tina from his teeny, diminutive size. The family moved to the Bronx in 1944 when he was 12 years old, and Brooks was a Bronx-iteHe came of age playing in Latin and Rhythm and Blues bands, eventually gaining major professional experience in the touring groups of Amos Milburn and Lionel Hampton. By 1956 and 1957, under the tutorship and close friendship of modern jazz greats Benny Harris and Elmo Hope, Brooks was playing in the thriving Bronx jazz scene, in clubs such as the Blue Morocco, 845, and Freddie’s Bar, with friends such as Oliver Beener and Larry Gales.
Introduced to Blue Note Records executive Alfred Lion, Brooks was immediately thrust in to the big leagues on a Jimmy Smith record session. His extended saxophone solos on Smith’s “The Sermon” gained great repute. He made tremendous contributions as a sideman with Freddie Hubbard (Open Sesame), Kenny Burrell (Blue Lights), and Jackie McLean (Jackie’s Bag).
In 1959 and 1960, Brooks also worked in theater, serving as an understudy in the cast of Jack Gelber’s legendary Off Broadway play “The Connection”, with live jazz music by Freddie Redd. As a result of this relationship, Brooks would record with Redd on some of his albums.
Blue Note eventually made four sessions with Tina Brooks as a leader of quintets, recording dynamic versions of American popular song standards along with lyrical and sophisticated original compositions, in association with band-mates such as Hubbard, McLean, Lee Morgan, and Sonny Clark. However, only one album, “True Blue”, would be released in his lifetime. Championed by critics and record executives such as Michael Cuscuna, his remaining albums would be released posthumously, as an early staple of Cuscuna’s connoisseur Mosaic label, and also on Blue Note.
Tina Brooks suffered from various health problems, as well as being saddled with the scourge of heroin addiction. He was not well enough to perform beyond his thirties, and he succumbed to kidney illness and the ravages of his drug use, dying on August 13, 1974 at the age of 42.
 
originally broadcast July 21, 2024

Trumpeter and vocalist Hot Lips Page was a key figure in early jazz, the swing era, and rhythm ‘n’ blues.
Oran Page was born in Texas on January 27, 1908. As a teenager, he began a career with the “territory bands” and the southwestern swing tradition.  From a young age he possessed a sizzling style and command of the trumpet, which perhaps was the source of his nickname, although his friends noted his enjoyment of the early ‘20's Henry Busse/Paul Whiteman record “Hot Lips”, too.
Page made his mark with the Blue Devils and other seminal Kansas City bands, and he was an important member of the early Count Basie and Reno Club orchestras.
Leaving Count Basie to embark on a solo career, Page made a key contribution as a leader of small combos during the swing era and the 52nd Street nightclub scene.  In that milieu he made numerous significant recordings.  He also appeared as the featured trumpet soloist for a time with the Artie Shaw band in 1941-42.  After World War II, Page was a key figure in the development of the rhythm and blues sound, both with his own records and backing singers like Wynonie Harris (“Good Rockin’ Tonight”).
You’ll enjoy “Lips” for his dynamic approach on the trumpet and an earthy, down home singing style, all of which conveyed a deep humanity and emotional connection with the music.
Page died of pneumonia and heart trouble at the early age of 46 in 1954. 
 
originally broadcast September 27, 2015; rebroadcast May 9, 2021

WKCR presents a marathon broadcast celebrating Max Roach annually, on his birthday anniversary, January 10.
Here’s my segment from the 2020 edition.  It begins with a survey of Sonny Rollins collaborations with Max (81 minutes), then takes a relaxing visit to the Royal Roost to hear the Charlie Parker Quintet in live performance (18 minutes), and finally over an hour of selections of Max Roach as a sideman on recordings from the late 1940's bebop era, by Dexter Gordon, Allan Eager, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, Don Byas and Buddy DeFranco.

Johnny Griffin earned the nickname “The Little Giant” for his short physical height but big powerful sound on the tenor sax.  Coming out of the blues and swing of his Chicago roots but also informed by the sophisticated developments of the bebop era, Griffin’s proficiency on his instrument and the fleet and darting lines of his attack make him one of our greats.
Griffin was born in Chicago on April 24, 1928 and attended DuSable High School under the tutelage of its legendary teacher, Captain Walter Dyett.  As a teenager he played professionally in blues groups with T-Bone Walker.  Immediately upon his high school graduation Griffin joined Lionel Hampton’s big band.  In the late 40's and early ‘50s Griffin also played in R&B groups such as Joe Morris and appeared on some of the early Atlantic rhythm and blues records.
Griff established himself on the modern jazz scene of New York later in the 1950s. He was a key member of Art Blakey’s 1957 edition of the Jazz Messengers; he replaced John Coltrane as the saxophonist in Thelonious Monk’s Five Spot group and stayed for several months in 1958; signed to the Riverside label he made numerous significant recordings with great compadres; and in the early 1960's he teamed with Eddie Lockjaw Davis for a swinging Tough Tenor combo.
Griffin moved to Europe in 1963 and forged an international career as one of the leading expatriate American jazz artists. For many years he made many frequent trips to the US to visit Chicago, and the Village Vanguard in New York, with a regular group that included Michael Weiss, Dennis Irwin and  Kenny Washington.  He had a productive and active performing life into this century.
Griff died in 2008 in France at the age of 80.
originally broadcast January 18, 2026

Tiny Grimes was one of the innovators of the early days of the electric guitar, and he was a significant figure in the development of both jazz and rhythm and blues.
His first major professional engagement was with the popular novelty vocal group “The Cats and the Fiddle” in the early 1940's.  Next, he became a key figure in the regular piano trio of the legendary Art Tatum.
After his experience with Tatum, Tiny Grimes remained a vital participant in the small group swing of the 52nd Street night clubs.  During this period, Grimes also participated in recordings with jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Buck Clayton, and Ike Quebec, all to be heard on the program.
Shifting gears, in the late 1940's and early 1950's, Tiny Grimes was an important figure in the beginning days of rhythm and blues and nascent rock and roll, with his “Rocking Highlanders” groups, work with Screaming Jay Hawkins, and participation in the early R&B recordings of Atlantic Records.
In the late 1950's, Tiny Grimes made some great mainstream jazz records for Prestige, and later, he was a key figure in classic jazz revival of the 1970's, performing frequently in Europe, and in New York venues such as the West End Café.
Grimes passed away in 1989 at the age of 72, after some debilitating illnesses.
originally broadcast December 20, 2009

WKCR presents an annual marathon 24 hour tribute to trumpet virtuoso Clifford Brown on October 30, his birthday anniversary.
From the 2021 edition, here are two thematic segments – Clifford Brown with vocalists (Sarah Vaughan, Helen Merrill, and Dinah Washington), about 85 minutes, and Clifford Brown in California in the spring and summer of 1954, about 50 minutes – along with several tracks of classic recordings for general listening at the beginning and end of the program.

Ben Webster was nicknamed “The Brute” due both to his sometimes tempestuous temperament and also for his vigorous power on the tenor saxophone.  But he was “The Beautiful” as well, with a personal sensitivity within his soul, and an elegant, romantic approach on the softer numbers, projecting  a breathy tone with “air to spare”.
Webster (1909-1973), coming out of Kansas City,  was already recognized as one of the original  saxophone giants by the late 1930s.  But when he joined Duke Ellington’s famous orchestra in 1940 his career reached a higher plateau, immortalized as the soloist on many Ellington/Strayhorn masterpieces such as “Cottontail” and “Raincheck”.
Webster left Ellington in 1943 and pursed a career as a “single”, fronting many small groups in various styles.  In that regard Ben made many notable and powerful recordings, albeit not as famously remembered.  In 1948 he briefly rejoined Ellington, although the orchestra did not make any studio records during that period. In 1949 Ben returned to Kansas City and participated in some fine bluesy activity.
Accordingly, this five hour program features a varied presentation of tasty music touching on these aspects of his career.
originally broadcast December 21, 2025