Author: Sal Cataldi

Innovations of Jazz’s Small Swing Groups of the 1940s-1960s Explored in New Book “Jazz with a Beat”

It was equal parts the lingering Depression economy and the wholesale enlistment of musicians during WWII that ended the Big Band era of jazz. What emerged in its wake were radically downsized swing ensembles that took one of two roads at this fork in the developmental history of jazz. The first was the crowd-pleasing, danceable sounds of artists like Louis Jordan and Illinois Jacquet, something that would lead to the emergence of R&B and rock-n-roll. The second was a more challenging idiom typified by frenetic tempos and advanced harmonic structures. It was a genre pioneered by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and a handful of others at late night jam sessions at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem – the fiercely virtuosic and intellectually-rich genre called bebop.

In his new book, Jazz with A Beat (SUNY Press), Tad Richards provides an exhaustively-researched but eminently readable look at this under-explored and under-appreciated flavor of small group/post-Big Band swing, and the new styles it would birth.

Still cooking on several burners at 84 years of age, Richards is a true Hudson Valley original. He is author of more than three dozen books, a much-published poet and journalist, visual artist and sometimes songwriting partner of local legends like John Hall of the band Orleans. Tad was even the screenwriter of two soft-core sex comedies of the ‘70s that are now considered cult classics, The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington and The Cheerleaders!

But Richards may be best known for his long-running role as Artistic Director and President of Opus 40, the famed sculpture park/renowned earth artwork singlehandedly built by his stepfather, Harvey Fite. Tad came to Opus 40 in 1944 when his mother married Fite. After Fite and his mother passed, Tad and his wife ran the park, from 1987 through their retirement in 2018. For three decades, Richards also worked to present some of the most memorable concerts in the Hudson Valley at Opus 40. They included the dramatic performance by jazz great Sonny Rollins captured in the documentary, Saxophone Colossus. You can read my feature on this legendary event here.

With the move to small groups, jazz soloists came to the fore. Most notable was tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet, a Texas virtuoso who set the template for “honking” soloing on “Flying Home,” first with Lionel Hamptons’ band and later with his own ensemble. Unlike in large bands, in these compact quintets and sextets, there was no music being read on stage; the magic was made when soloists like Jacquet cut loose and fired up the audience. There’s also a lengthy look at the career of Louis Jordan, a man widely regarded, and noted in his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, as the “Father of Rhythm & Blues.” Jordon and his Tympani Five were huge stars in the 1940s and 1950s, thanks to a string of hits including “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie,” “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” and “Saturday Night Fish Fry.” The latter was one of the first tunes to feature the word “rocking” in its chorus, and a distorted electric guitar as well. Jordon’s “jump blues” style and captivating stage demeanor would be a huge influence on rock-n-roll’s first superstar, Chuck Berry.

Richards’ investigation largely focuses on the influence small band swing had on the development of R&B and proto rock-n-roll in the fertile music scene around Central Avenue in Los Angeles. A host of small independent record labels fueled this evolution. Jump blues tunes like Joe Liggins’ “The Honeydripper” (1945) and Wynonie Harris’s “Good Rockin’ Tonight” (1947) are often credited as the first true rock-n-roll songs. Schooled musicians like Big Jay McNeely, who could’ve pursued more challenging bebop, went for more mainstream R&B styles. His over-the-top soloing and stage antics are best captured on “The Deacon’s Hop,” maybe the most sax-honking-ist song of all-time and a #1 R&B hit (1949). According to the book, McNeely was playing a raucous gig in Berlin on November 9, 1989, the night the famous wall came down. Coincidence?

Richards’ journey continues to connect the dots to other music scenes across America. He addresses everything from Dave Bartholomew’s early works with Fats Domino and Little Richard in New Orleans to the Xerox copy works of white artists like Bill Haley’s and his “Rock Around the Clock.” White artists like Haley and Elvis would strike gold mining the styles, sounds and even many songs composed and first recorded by early R&B and jump blues practitioners.

“Jazz with a Beat” is a deeply informative yet easily digestible trip back to the days when jazz explored new beats and ferocity, ones that were perhaps the truest and deepest roots of modern day R&B and rock.

March 5, 2024
The Elusive Sly Stone Pens A Sly Autobiography

Music critics love to belatedly elevate the contributions of the brilliant burnouts. Syd Barrett, Roky Erikson and their ilk continue to be swaddled in accolades far exceeding the breadth of their slim catalogs and performance on the charts. And as great as the prematurely faded innovators above may have been, none can hold a candle to the impact and influence made – in his time and through to today – by Sylvester Stewart, aka, Sly Stone.

Cover art for Sly Stone’s Autobiography

As the songwriter and front man of Sly and the Family Stone, Stewart created many of the most memorable anthems of the ‘60s and ‘70s. They included Billboard chart-toppers like “Everyday People,” “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Dance to the Music,” “Stand!,” “Higher,” “Family Affair,” “If You Want Me to Stay” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).” Sly was also one of the era’s most electrifying and engaging performers. He and his band literally stole the show at Woodstock ‘69 and he is still the only musician to be married onstage during a concert at Madison Square Garden! Importantly, he was also leader of the first fully integrated pop group – one that included black, white, male and female members. And his unique melding of pop, soul and rock inspired legions of his contemporaries and their descendants – from Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock’s forays into rock-jazz fusion to Prince, P-Funk, The Roots, Macy Gray and so many more psychedelic soulsters. But after a rapid rise and few short years atop the charts, Sly spent decades in the grips of an addiction that bankrupted him and his once limitless musical wellspring.

Now, Sly is relating the ups and downs of his star-crossed life in a memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again) (Macmilliam/Auwa Books). Written with Ben Greenman, the New Yorker Magazine writer who worked on the memoirs of George Clinton and Brian Wilson, the book provides an always vivid, sometimes humorous/sometimes truly terrifying trek through his remarkable career and the dark decades that followed.

One of the most interesting parts of the book is his rise to stardom, from his childhood days performing in church with his siblings as The Stewart Four to his first brush with local fame with his teenage doo-wop group, The Viscaynes. Stewart’s artistry definitely benefited from his study of Piston’s bible on harmony, counterpoint and orchestration while at Vallejo Jr. College. He would then go off to a 12-week radio course and become a popular DJ at KSOL and later KYA-Radio in the Bay Area. Interestingly, he credits his on-air chatter style to Lord Buckley and his bebop-inspired comic oratory on the life of Jesus, “The Nazz.” While at KYA, he meets Tom Donahue and joins his Autumn Records as a producer. Here he will hone his musical chops and pop sensibility producing records like The Beau Brummel’s smash hit “Laugh Laugh,” Billy Preston’s “The Wildest Organ in Town” and Grace Slick and The Great Society’s early versions of “Someone to Love” and “White Rabbit.”

While working as a late-night DJ, Sly will put together and hone his Family Stone during long standing residencies at clubs in Redwood City and later Las Vegas. After disappointing sales for their 1967 debut album, “A Whole New Thing,” Sly and the Family Stone will begin to hit with 1968’s Dance to the Music. With their 1969 album Stand!, the band would score a #1 single with “Everyday People,” followed by the #2 single, “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” the latter released in anticipation of their performance at Woodstock ‘69. At Woodstock, Sly and band hit the stage at 3:30 a.m. to wake up the crowd and the film crew which wasn’t quite ready and missed some of the early part of their sizzling set.

Sly’s vicious descent begins when drugs enter the picture, an affliction he will not kick until the COVID-19 era. He says he is introduced to cocaine while recording their debut album in NYC, while also playing a residency at the Electric Circus. But his life truly begins to go off the rails with his move from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. His motto is “Gun in the House, Gun in the Car,” and he also always travels with a violin case full of coke and other illicit substances. He will begin to miss shows (less than as reported by other sources according to Sly) and the band’s live rep and financial fortunes will suffer. His life will really begin to unravel further when PCP (angel dust) enters the picture. With his move to the former mansion of another legendary musician/druggie, John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas, Sly spends days coked-out in its recording studio, tracking and overdubbing to the point where the tape is in danger of losings its magnetism and music. Here, even in his drugged-out degeneracy, Sly will continue to innovate, including pioneering the use of rhythm machines on tracks like “Family Affair.”

Sly’s life in LA is bedlam, with a litany of dangerous hangers-on wired to the gills. His pitbull will attack his young son but is not put down until after he literally rapes and kills Sly’s pet baboon (Sly does the job tearfully, with one of his many guns). The breakup of his band is also filled with threats of assassinations and car bombings.

After the hits stop coming, Stewart will endure decades of darkness and loss. The IRS will take his Bel-Air mansion and he will sell his song catalog to Michael Jackson to make ends meet. There will be many tries at rehab and he will periodically be brought back into music, with middling success, by George Clinton and longtime friend Bobby Womack. There will be arrests for missed child support payments, drug busts, more repossessed homes and frank discussion of his bizarre re-appearances at Coachella and The Grammy Honors. Sly will try valiantly to hold on to one thing through it all – his beloved mobile home where he continues to work on songs that few will hear.

There is so much here, stuff that is frankly very tough to bear. Sly lays out his truth as best he can remember but it may not be the complete story, as it is only his viewpoint. Much more can be found in Joel Selvin’s Sly and The Family Stone: An Oral History. An expanded edition of the book was released in 2023 and which I reviewed here. In it, more than 40 of Sly’s band members, friends and family tell the story in all its early glory and latter-day gory, offering a complement to Sly’s own recollections and opinions.

My one regret is that Sly didn’t spend more time dissecting his music. Stewart was one of the truly great innovators of the halcyon days of ‘60s and ‘70s music, someone whose spirit and sonic DNA is, much like The Beatles, a huge influence on all that came after. He was a pioneer in the fusing of once disparate musical genres, a man who crafted chart-ready hooks and lyrics with life affirming messages, a producer who made smart use of the latest music technologies and his bandmate’s talents. He was also a m*therf*cker of a singer, keyboardist and guitarist, as well as a fashion icon who got no less than Miles Davis out of his uber conservative Brooks Brothers suits and into leather pants, fringed vest and oversized sunglasses.

While it is good to hear from the elusive Sly after decades away from the spotlight, his most resonate contributions remain the many fine albums he created in the prime of his career, masterworks you should spend hours marinating in as you read his life story.

February 28, 2024
Alice Coltrane’s Spirited 1971 Performance at Carnegie Hall to Be Released

In 1971, harpist/pianist Alice Coltrane performed at Carnegie Hall for a special gala benefiting the Integral Yoga Institute. Backed by an all-star group of musicians, Coltrane delivered a captivating set which will now be available in its entirety for the very first time.

On March 22, Alice Coltrane – The Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!), will finally bring the complete document of Coltrane’s Carnegie Hall performance to fans worldwide.

Held four years after John Coltrane’s untimely passing and recorded by Impulse!, this deeply spiritual performance marked Alice’s first as a leader at Carnegie Hall. The concert arrived at a pivotal moment in both Coltrane’s musical career and her spiritual journey. She had just released her fourth solo album, the universally acclaimed Journey in Satchidananda, and had deepened her spiritual quest over a five-week trip to India. Her band that night added two members from her teacher/guru Satchidananda’s circle — Kumar Kramer and Tulsi Reynolds, playing harmonium and tamboura, respectively. They provided a distinctly Eastern flavor to a large jazz ensemble largely comprised of collaborators with her late great husband, sax giant John Coltrane. The group included legendary saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp, bassists Jimmy Garrison and Cecil McBee and drummers Ed Blackwell and Clifford Jarvis.

Coltrane’s set began with two transcendental tunes from the recently-released Journey in Satchidananda, the title track and “Shiva-Loka.”

The live version of the title tune is the perfect scene setter. It begins with a hypnotic riff by the bass duo of Garrison and McBee, followed by celestial waves of harmonic washes from Coltrane’s harp. Sanders follows with a wonderful flute solo, with hummed and vocalized harmony, before Shepp brings it home with a bluesy, chromatic excursion on his piercing soprano sax. “Shiva-Loka” is another one chord modal romp which gets deeper with each passing minute.. It is underpinned by a repetitive riff which seems a tribute/lift to/from John Coltrane’s “Equinox.” Alice’s harp casts a heavenly backdrop for a skronking sax solo by Sanders and then a thunderous drum duet.

The remaining two tracks, “Africa” and “Leo,” are covers of latter-day classics by her husband John. For these long journeys, Alice is at the piano providing chordal colors and the occasional solos. “Africa” stretches out to 27+ minutes, with another explosive drum duet, bass solos and plenty of frenzied soloing by Sanders and Shepp in the Trane tradition– a sound that closely captures what John and his crew were conjuring on latter-day recordings like “Live in Japan.”

This year Impulse! and Verve Label Group have partnered with The John & Alice Coltrane Home to launch the “Year of Alice,” a year-long celebration of Alice Coltrane’s profound work. At the center of the celebration are Coltrane’s groundbreaking recordings for Impulse!, and the label will be working in tandem with The John & Alice Coltrane Home for varied activations throughout the year. To kick off the year-long celebration, there will be special night of performers and speakers that include Ravi Coltrane, Michelle Coltrane, Brandee Younger and more at the legendary Birdland on February 22.

To learn more, visit ververecords.com

Pre-order the album HERE.

February 10, 2024
Rock Drum Superstar Jim Gordon’s Tragic Spiral Chronicled in New Bio

Rock music is a universe with no shortage of tragic stories. There are the overnight leaps up the ladder of fame followed by Icarus-like flameouts. There are the legendary overdoses and suicides of Jimi, Janis, Kurt and the rest of the “27 Club.” Add to this stars like Eddie Cochrane, Marc Bolan and Duane Allman who met their ends behind the wheel. And, of course, there’s no shortage of luminaries like Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Jim Croce, Randy Rhodes and Lynyrd Skynyrd who spun off the mortal coil when their planes fell out of the sky.

But none may be as horrifying and seemingly inevitable as that Jim Gordon. Gordon was perhaps the most recorded hitmaking drummer during the Sixties and Seventies. He was a legend whose career ended with the unthinkable, when the voices in his head triggered by his life-long battle with schizophrenia led him to stab his mother to death.

Drums & Demons

Since that tragedy in June 1983, Gordon has been largely written out of the rock’s history books – the devil whose name shall never be spoken. But now comes publication of Drums & Demons: The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon (Diversion Books). With it, one of rock’s greatest journalists, the inimitable Joel Selvin, provides the first comprehensive view of Gordon’s vast musical achievements and a harrowing yet empathetic appraisal of the most treacherous of mental illnesses which brought him down.

Gordon was a Southern California-born golden child, one whose outsized talent earned him a spot amongst the legendary Wrecking Crew, the super talented corps of studio musicians who played on pretty much every hit to come out of Los Angeles studios in the Sixties and Seventies. It’s Gordon who keeps the beat and/or adds memorable percussive hooks to The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” and “Heroes and Villains,” The Monkees’ “Mary, Mary,” Sonny & Cher’s “The Beat Goes On,” Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” and “Gentle On My Mind,” Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poney’s “Different Drum,” Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talkin’,” Buffalo Springfield’s “Expecting to Fly,” “Mason Williams’ “Classical Gas,” CSN’s “Marrakesh Express,” Tiny Tim’s “Tiptoe Thru the Tulips” and dozens more. The barely out of his teen’s drummer would play three sessions a day, six days a week for about five years running before tiring of the studio grind and grasping a share of the spotlight as a part of some of most high-profile ensembles of the day.

Through his association with another Wrecking Crew alum, pianist/bandleader Leon Russell, Gordon would jump into the spotlight as a part of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen, touring and recording with both the British singer and then Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. Through his work with D&B, Gordon would come into the orbit of their guesting guitarists, George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Gordon would soon find himself recording with the former Beatle on his monumental solo debut, All Things Must Pass, and as a part of Clapton’s new band, Derek & The Dominoes.

It is with the wild and wooly short history of Derek & The Dominoes that Gordon experienced his greatest highs and disappointments. By this time, Gordon is self-medicating, as is the whole band, with mighty doses of heroin, cocaine and alcohol. The compositional high point of his career comes with the use of “his” gorgeous piano piece as the instrumental coda to the title tune of the band’s only album, “Layla.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c06AKXysKQY

Though Gordon would claim sole writing credit, the piano piece was actually composed with his onetime girlfriend from the Mad Dogs days, singer Rita Coolidge. It is with Coolidge where the demon in Gordon makes its first appearance before the rock glitterati, when the six-foot-four-inch drummer punches her out without warning, causing her to get a restraining order. Later while living in Clapton’s mansion during the Dominoes days, Gordon’s behavior would echo that of his ultimate undoing. In this incident, he would chase his then girlfriend, onetime Beatles’ “Gal Friday” Chris O’Dell, with a butcher knife before being interrupted (and saved?) by the arrival of Clapton’s manager Robert Stigwood. After the Dominoes’ debut album and tour, Clapton would have a falling out with Gordon, seeking to replace him with his original choice for drummer, Jim Keltner. Interestingly, he was also considering adding another guitarist to the lineup, the then 16-year-old Santana/Journey axe man-to-be Neil Schon. With the breakup of Derek and the Dominoes, Gordon would briefly join Traffic during their “Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” era before returning to Los Angeles and more session work.

Back in the comfort of the studios, Gordon would continue to be the first choice session drummer for a host of A-list producers and artists. It’s Gordon who is driving disparate hits like Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman,” Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” Seals & Crofts’ “Summer Breeze,” Tom Waits’ “Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night,” Halls & Oates’ “Rich Girl” and Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” With the Hues Corporation’s “Rock the Boat,” he sets the template for the disco beat that would seemingly be on every record a few years later. And with “Apache” by The Incredible Bongo Band, Gordon created one of the foundational beats in hip hop, a break sampled by everyone from DJ Herc and The Sugarhill Gang to Jay-Z, Nas and Kayne West. Gordon’s musicianship would even earn high-praise from rock’s toughest taskmaster, Frank Zappa. FZ raved over his playing with his big band touring ensemble, The Grand Wazoo, and on “Apostrophe,” a heavy rock jam which paired Gordon with ex-Cream bassist Jack Bruce.

The most difficult and eye-opening part of Selvin’s book is his recounting of Jim Gordon’s long struggle with schizophrenia. As time went on, Gordon was increasingly tormented by a “Greek chorus” of voices in his head. The voices, led by his mother Osa, would criticize his weight, tell him when and when not to eat, to exercise, to drink water etc. Ultimately they would tell him what sessions to take and which to blow off. For years, Gordon kept this struggle to himself and would seek to silence the voices with drugs and alcohol. He would look for help, check in and out of hospitals, begin to take and then throw away his medication, all in an increasingly vicious cycle.

By the end, Jim Gordon is reduced to playing in a dive bar in Santa Monica. The voices in his head tell him his mother is evil and that she may even have been involved with the deaths of singer Karen Carpenter and Hollywood Squares’ star Paul Lynde (!!). The voices would make him gather up and throw his massive collection of gold records in the trash, then immediately retrieve them. This is something that would transpire ten times a day. When his mother decides to move away from Los Angeles, tragedy strikes. To Gordon, it is not about killing her; it’s about silencing the loudest and more persistent voice taunting him. Denied the right to an insanity defense, Gordon would remain incarcerated until his death in March 2023.

Selvin makes you feel this horrible descent, step-by-step down the staircase of madness. The slow grind helps us to understand the unthinkable patterns in his mind and his actions. In the end, Selvin makes us hate the disease more than the man and his actions which is a mighty accomplishment.

January 9, 2024