Several weeks ago I mentioned to my friend, Nick Rossi, that I planned to do a feature on Arv Garrison. I had heard Arv’s name mentioned during the recent slew of radio broadcast specials devoted to the celebration of Charlie Parker’s centenary. Arv Garrison’s electric guitar can be heard on three of Parker’s first sessions […]
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1954
Los Angeles in the mid 1950’s was a jazz lovers paradise. A snapshot of January 1954 provides an example. Billie Holiday was ending her current engagement at Tiffany Club, Bud Powell was opening at The Haig, Chet Baker and Russ Freeman were at Zardi’s, Nat “King” Cole was at Ciro’s, June Christy was at Trianon […]
Continue ReadingWorld Pacific 1957 New York Sessions
This research originally appeared in the Dutch discography journal, Names & Numbers, No. 82, July 2017, in slightly different form and content. The January 23, 1958, issue of Down Beat published a notice in the opening “strictly ad lib” New York column that summarized a series of recording sessions that took place in December, 1957, […]
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1953 – Part Two
The Tiffany Club opened the last half of 1953 with The Ink Spots plus comedian “Slappy” White.
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1953 – Part One
Tiffany Club had a stellar lineup during the first six months of 1953 – Nat “King” Cole – Billie Holiday – George Shearing – Dinah Washington – Johnny Hodges – Earl Bostic and others.
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1952 – Part Two
The Nat “King” Cole Trio opened at Tiffany Club on July 3, 1952. This was Cole’s fifth appearance at the remodeled Tiffany Club. Previous dates included December 1950; July, August and December of 1951. King Cole Trio Isn’t Dead, Beams Feather! Los Angeles—The King Cole trio, no matter what the publicity stories and the […]
Continue ReadingBobby Troup on Record, 1948-1955
Bobby Troup’s songwriting career began with “Daisy Mae” that was picked up by Sammy Kaye and retitled “Daddy.” When Nat “King” Cole recorded “Route 66” Troup’s songwriting career was firmly established.
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1952 – Part One
Chuck Landis budgeted over one hundred thousand dollars for talent in his Tiffany Club in 1952.
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1951/1952
Chuck Landis featured Sharkey Bonano, Nat “King” Cole, Helen Humes, Benny Carter, the Billy Williams Quartette, Jay Johnson,and Dorothy Doengan at his Tiffany Club in the latter half of 1951.
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1950/1951
The Tiffany Club began to present top drawer jazz artists in the early 1950s like Art Tatum, Dave Brubeck, George Shearing, and Nat King Cole.
Continue ReadingJohnny Mandel – I Want To Live!
The producer of I Want To Live, Walter Wanger, and the featured jazz artist in the film, Gerry Mulligan, shared a common past. They both served jail time at the Sheriff’s Honor Farm in Castaic, forty miles north of Los Angeles. Wanger served three months in the summer of 1952 for shooting and wounding a Hollywood agent that he suspected of having an affair with his wife, actress Joan Bennett. Mulligan served four months in the fall of 1953 on drug charges following his arrest at The Haig earlier that spring while he and Chet Baker were performing at the club.
Continue ReadingJazz Cabaret
The club space at 5510 Hollywood Boulevard was vacant for nearly a year after Maynard Sloate closed Jazz City. It gained new life in February of 1958 when Carl Greene opened Jazz Cabaret.
Continue ReadingJohnny Mandel & Dick Bock
Johnny Mandel had a noteworthy role in the early success of Dick Bock’s Pacific Jazz label. From February of 1954 until August of 1958 Mandel’s composing/arranging hand embellished eleven albums.
Continue ReadingThe Jazz Workshop Redux
Rod Levitt was a trombonist and commercial arranger who occasionally worked with Gil Evans in the ’60’s. His charts from his mid:1960’s recordings for RCA, make full use of the experimental ideas that the “Birth of the Cool” crowd had ushered in years before.
Continue ReadingJack Lewis / East Coast
Jack Lewis produced the RCA Victor Jazz Workshop series of albums while head of A&R in New York.
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