A buddy and I were recently discussing the notion that there was NO way Fred Astaire could succeed in today's entertainment world. A stylish man with that much grace? No way. I am adamant about this. And it is a real shame as Astaire was SO talented and such an amazing artist. No he wasn't just an artist, he was an absolute artistic force. Just dig this 1958 television special.
The clips do a good job of laying out the details, so I will be brief. This was originally broadcast nationwide on NBC-TV on October 17, 1958. I was recorded, in color, on videotape (an early use color videotape, I should add) in Burbank, Calif. at NBC-TV's Color City Studios. Color TV had been in development since the late-1940s (the first color CRT patent application was dated 1947) and introduced to the consumer market in 1954. Almost needless to say, this was the early days of the medium and very few viewers were able to see this entertainment special as it was intended. It would be another 3 years before Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color special in September 1961 would really gave the market a push. In spite of the challenges, An Evening with Fred Astaire enjoyed impressive ratings and was the recipient of several Emmy awards.
Now scroll back up to the top of this entry, sit back, and enjoy all 5 parts of the show (complete with original commercials)!
Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, July 1952 at Radio Recorders, Hollywood, photo by Esther Bubley
Today, Wednesday, August 29, 2012 marks the 92nd anniversary of the birth of the great Charlie Parker. Fortunately, there continues to be a tremendous amount of interest in (perhaps) the greatest modern jazz musician of the 20th Century.
Charlie Parker, Harry Babasin, Chet Baker, Helen Carr, Donn Trenner (at the piano, obscured), at The Tiffany Club, LA, May 1952, photo by William Claxton
I had planned on using the top photo of Bird in the recording studio for what was eventually released as the first of Norman Granz' Jam Session LPs on Mercury Records, but this post covered the photo end of the topic much better than I could. By the way 4 sides were recorded that July day (actual date unknown) at Radio Recorders - and by sides I mean sides: each tune took up the entire side of a 33 1/3 RPM 12-inch disc.
I will also direct you to the above. This excellent 60-minute BBC documentary is both a great place to start for beginning Bird watchers as well as fans like myself who have already devoured a fair amount of info on the subject matter. Thanks to Marc over at JazzWax for originally bringing this to my attention.
Finally, WKCR in New York is in the middle of their annual 72-hour back-to-back Lester Young/Charlie Parker birthday broadcast. If you jump now, you may still catch it. Otherwise, mark your calendars for next year, browse around their programming schedule, and maybe kick down a little cash if you can afford to do so.
This week's post features more Brooks Brothers print advertising to compliment one of my earlier entries, which can be found here. The top image is a very rare color print ad spotlighting some more casual items and is presented in stark contrast to the second image, that of a dinner jacket. The third image shows remarkably clean lines, clearly illustrating that the "Brooks Brothers Look" was well defined by 1952.
For kicks, I've also included a cartoon from the New Yorker from the same year. It too is fairly timeless. Just ask my wife.
Addenda & Errata: in my profile of Alvin Lustig and JBL some weeks back, I mistakenly identified James B. Lansing as an Italian-American. Thanks to a very nice email that I received from one of Lansing's granddaughters, I know now that he was German-American. Thank you Ms. Quintero for your kind words and for taking the time to correct the facts.
Jazz Scene U.S.A. was a 1962 television series of 26 episodes hosted by the late, great vocalist/composer/performer/activist Oscar Brown, Jr. The series was produced by critic and sometime pianist/songwriter Leonard Feather. More significant was executive producer Steve Allen, a fellow who contributed greatly to promoting jazz music in the mainstream in the 1950s. Filmed in Los Angeles, at CBS ultra-modern Television City facility (at the time, only 10 years old) on Fairfax, it featured mainly West Coast-based working combos as one might expect. But due to LA's role as a major stop for touring acts, several Midwest and East Coast combos put in appearances.
CBS Television City, 1958
Some time in the mid-1990s, a handful of episodes from the series were released on videocassette. They were an absolute revelation. The performances were top notch, the set and back-drop was stylishly modern (thanks to ex-Twilight Zone art director Robert Tyler Lee) and Brown unbelievably cool. Each act would play their own version of the show's theme tune as an intro/outro and the credits were set against shots of the Sunset Strip. In many ways the show was a riff on and a refinement upon Stars of Jazz, another LA production which ran from 1956 until 1958. It both musically and visually evoked the earlier show, although to the best of my knowledge the two do not share any of the same production personnel. The latter program went almost as quickly as it came and apart from the few episodes officially released posthumously, it had seemed to have eluded the YouTube phenomenon.
So it was with great surprise that I stumbled across Barney Kessel's appearance in it's entirety on the 'Tube. As far as I know, it has not been issued since it originally aired in 1962. Yes, that is onetime Charlie Parker-sideman Stan Levey on drums, plus LA-mainstay Buddy Woodson on bass. So sit back, stream the sound through a decent pair of speakers, and (as OBJ would say) dig...
Out to Lunch by Eric Dolphy, 1964, cover photo and design by Reid Miles
Well as my wife likes to say, I've gone done did it. 'Overbooked myself this week, which is my excuse for this weak-of-content entry. So sit back and enjoy reedman Eric Dolphy's sole session as bandleader for Blue Note Records. Dolphy has long been my favorite "free jazz" musician, which is probably a good topic for another day. 'Be back soon.
In a previous weblog entry, I quoted Charles Eames in saying "Eventually, everything connects." The concept is a favorite of mine and if you are a regular reader here, you will have seen that I often have been able to weave my various interests into the some sort of over-arching narrative. Today's entry is no exception, but designer Alvin Lustig makes such pursuits easy. Over the course of his brief 40 years on this planet, he was involved with books, magazines, interiors, architecture, furniture, industrial design, and company branding/identity. Born in Denver, Colorado he spent much of his early career in Los Angeles (with the exception of a brief spell as a student of Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin) before moving to New York City at age 29 to work as the Director of Visual Research for Look magazine, then in its ascension. A year later he began teaching. By the end of 1946 he returned to Los Angeles and opened up his own studio where he tried to eek out a living until he was forced to move back to New York in 1951. As a result of diabetes, Lustig lost his sight in 1954 and he died a year later due to complications around that disease.
Jim Lansing Signature Speakers brochure by Alvin Lustig, 1950 (front)
One of Lustig's clients during his second tenure in Los Angeles was the fledgling James B. Lansing Sound. The story of legendary amplified sound pioneer James Bullough Lansing (born James Martini, making him a suspected Italian-American. Cough.) is rather complicated, but in short he began to manufacture loudspeaker in LA in 1927 as the Lansing Manufacturing Company. After his business partner was killed in a plan crash, Lansing's company floundered was was purchased by Altec in 1941. Lansing was contracted with the company through 1946, but parted ways before that contract expired. James B. Lansing Sound, Inc. was founded in 1946, although Lansing again struggled to keep the company afloat and took his own life on his ranch in San Marcos, California just north of San Diego in the Autumn of 1949. Control of the company reverted to Vice President Bill Thomas who was able to parlay the company's sound innovations into a successful business. The company changed it's brand name to JBL in 1955 to settle its ongoing disputes with Altec Lansing. Fast forward fifty-seven years later and the name JBL is known the world-over.
Jim Lansing Model 375 label detail, early-1950s
As part of this chaotic transition, Thomas and James Lansing Sound, Inc. engaged Lustig to assist them with re-branding their company. Unfortunately, there is very little documented information about when Lustig was contracted for the work, but one may assume that it may very well have happened after Lansing's death. Similarly, little is known about the depth of his engagement and how much it increased in scope after his association. What is known, is that by mid-1950 Lustig had overhauled the company's brand identity. That year's brochure was a beautiful example of postwar California modernist graphic design and is a unique item in Lustig's portfolio. It also introduced a logo hallmark (the "Jim Lansing" sans serif font contrasted with the "L" script) that would grace most of Lansing's speakers through the 1955.
Jim Lansing D-175 speaker driver decal detail, early-1950s
Jim Lansing by Ampex logo variation, early-1950s
In additional to the graphic design work, Lustig's scope of services included design consulting with their speaker enclosures, namely the C34 through C39 series. Again, details are illusive in terms of his exact contributions and the Internet is teeming with vintage-JBL enthusiasts who are more than happy to share their knowledge and educated guesses. But after taking one look at the speaker enclosures from this time period, it is easy to speculate about Lustig's input.
JBL C39 Harlan speaker enclosure, 1956
Lustig's association with the soon-to-be-JBL was obviously brief. The company introduced very little to it's branding until the mid-1950s transition and Lustig's move to New York, followed by his death meant that there was little future for the partnership. What he did do is very successfully transition the branding of the company to something very cutting-edge and modern: a graphic representation of the products the company was becoming known for. By mid-decade, JBL was being mentioned in Life magazine and the rest, as it's been said, is history.
Jim Lansing Signature Speakers brochure by Alvin Lustig, 1950 (rear)
What is There to Say? by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Columbia CL-1307, 1959
One of my favorite Gerry Mulligan LPs is What is There to Say? released by Columbia in 1959. Recorded over 3 sessions in December 1958 and 1 in January of 1959 at Columbia's famed 30th Street Studios in New York City, it manages simultaneous subtlety and a strong undercurrent of swing. Plus the fidelity of the recording is beautiful. To my ears, it's the realization of what Mulligan set out to accomplish with his piano-less quartet back in LA at the beginning of the decade with trumpeter Chet Baker and drummer Chico Hamilton. I personally prefer Art Farmer to Baker. Art has that West Coast tone - a compliment and a reflection of Farmer's 10+ years in LA playing alongside such wonderful musicians as Wardell Gray and Hampton Hawes - and lyricism but more chops than Chet. I do miss Chico, but that is no reflection on David Bailey - I just love Chico. Underneath is all is the great Bill Crow on bass.
Art Farmer, Gerry Mulligan, Dave Bailey, and Bill Crow recording What is There to Say?
This particular line-up was a gigging combo who stayed intact for just over a year. In fact, the live debut of the group was in July 1958 at the Newport Jazz Festival, which I spent some time talking about a few weeks ago. Crow's association with Gerry does go much deeper than these 12 months as Jazz Profiles details with Crow here. And although I ran this clip in my aforementioned post above, let's take another look at the Mulligan Quartet at Newport on July 6, 1958.
"As Catch Can" by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet
Crow has a great online presence. Not only does he manage an excellent site full of photos and anecdotes, but he actively contributes to many of the discussions on various weblogs that have captured the interest of us jazz fans. Active on the New York scene since 1950, his discography alone is pretty staggering and reads like a who's who of post-war jazz in the United States. As a historian, he has made a major contribution via his essential Jazz Anecdotes (1991) oral history. And if that was not enough, he was the subject of one of the most iconic photographs in jazz.
Bill Crow, New York City by Dennis Stock, 1958
Crow was gracious enough with his time to answer a few questions for me about Chuck Wayne and "Solar" a couple of weeks ago. He then shifted his focus to my Jazz on Summer's Day profile pointing out a few things to me via email that I had either overlooked in my short piece or simply did not know!
With his permission, I thought I would share some of his comments:
You know, a lot of credit for Jazz on a Summer's Day should go to the guy Stern hired to shoot and edit that film for him: George Avakian's brother Aram. I knew him as Al. He was an experienced editor and cinematographer, and he and another cameraman shot the footage at Newport.
Indeed. In fact Aram Avakian is rightfully credited as co-director on the film. Before ...Summer's Day he had worked as an editor on Edward R. Murrow's "See It Now" television series and after worked with such directors as Francis Ford Coppola and Arthur Penn. He led an interesting life, graduating from Yale, serving in the Navy, living in Paris, and eventually becoming the chairman of the film studies program at State University New York, College of Purchase. Compared to Bert Stern's credits alone, one can see how essential Avakian was.
Crow continues, specifically about the footage shot for ...Summer's Day:
They were restricted to two camera locations specified by the Festival, so they were limited to panning and zooming at the concerts. They went up early and shot some local color, including the yacht races. But when it got dark, there was no lighting on the audience, so they couldn't get any reaction shots to the nighttime performers. Al's solution was to throw a party a week or so later, restricting the attendees to people who didn't perform at Newport. (My wife went without me.) Al showed the rough footage of the concert to the partygoers and filmed their reactions as though they were at Newport that night. With good editing, it came out just fine.
Jazz on a Summer's Day still, 1958
Now this is quite a revelation! I had previously read that at least one performance had to be re-filmed for the movie - specifically the Chico Hamilton Quintet segment - as they had some trouble with the lighting at night, but this is something that I had not seen documented elsewhere. Of course, it is going to take some of that old willing suspension of disbelief from now on but it is a fascinating component of this great musical document. It in no way diminishes the achievement of the film, but simply adds another dimension.
Thank you very much for your time Bill. I am honored to have you contribute to these pages.
Posts
