Gerald Wilson ~ American jazz trumpetist, band leader and arranger from the 1940's on. Played with Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson, Clark Terry, Richard Grove Holmes, Joe Pass, Roy Ayers, Wynton Marsalis ~ 96
GERALD WILSON ~ "MILESTONES";
Joe Sample ~ American jazz pianist/composer with Fusion bands The Modern Jazz Sextet and The Crusaders, also played with Miles Davis, George Benson, Jimmy Witherspoon, B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, The Supremes, Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, B. B. King, Joe Cocker, Minnie Riperton and Anita Baker., and songwriter ("One Day I'll Fly Away", "Street Life") ~ 75
THE CRUSADERS ON DON KIRSHNER'S ROCK CONCERT;
Kenny Wheeler ~ Canadian Jazz trumpet player and band leader from the 1960's on w/ Anthony Braxton, Keith Jarrett, Derek Bailey, Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz, John Dankworth ~ 84
KENNY WHEELER GROUP ~ "EVERYBODY'S SONG BUT MY OWN";
Milton Cardona ~ Puerto Rican Jazz conga jazz player ~ 69
Jackie Cain ~ Vocalist with 1950's Jazz/Pop vocal duo Jackie and Roy ~ 86
JACKIE AND ROY ~ "THE WORD"
Dance Macabre
Tuesday 30 September 2014
Tuesday 23 September 2014
Cosimo Matassa and Bob Crewe
This past week two important songwriters, producers and record label owners of the 1950's and sixties died.
FATS DOMINO ~ "AIN'T THAT A SHAME";
Comsimo Matassa was a New Orleans record producer who started his own J&M Studios in the back of his family's food market in 1945 while he was only eighteen, moving to a larger Cosimo Studios a decade later. His timing was impeccable as he became a force in the New Orleans R&B sound producing classic hit records by Little Richard, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Lee Dorsey, Dr John and Jimmy Clanton. Cosimo's records were noted for their focus on boogie-woogie rythms, barrelhouse piano and a horn section dubbed The New Orleans sound. Unlike other producers of the era such as Sam Phillips of Sun Records, Ahmet Ertegan and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton of Stax, George Goldner of Red Bird or the Chess Brothers, Matassa stuck with production and running his studio rather than starting his own label. The hits dried up in the sixties and Matassa retired from the music business in the 1980's to run his family's Matassa Market. British rocker Dave Edmunds would have a bigger hit version of Smiley Lewis's classic "I Hear You Knockin" in 1970. Matassa would be inducted into both the Rock & Roll and Blues Halls Of Fame and be awarded a lifetime achievement Grammy Award. He was 88.
LITTLE RICHARD ~ "LONG TALL SALLY";
DAVE EDMUNDS ~ "I HEAR YOU KNOCKIN";
If Cosimo Matassa was similar to other second generation immigrant record producers of the early rock era such as Ahmet Ertegan and Jerry Wexler, Sid Nathan and The Chess Brothers, Bob Crewe was an all-American hustler. The New Jersey born Crewe was blond, blue-eyed, and boyish, looking more like a teen idol than a record mogul and that's what he originally tried to be. Actually he originally started out as an artist and studied at the Parson School of Design in New York but he got the music bug and served in World War Two as a big band singer in the USO while still twenty. After the war he attempted a solo singing career with notable lack of success, eventually he decided to try his hand at songwriting and production teaming up with pianist Frank Slay. The always cocky Crewe managed to sweet talk Benny Goodman's bother into giving them the front money to start a record label on the basis of a four song demo and scored an immediate R&B hit with "Silhouettes" by a black Doo-Wop group called the Rays in 1957 which was quickly covered by the white Toronto group The Diamonds becoming and even bigger crossover hit. This success got Crewe and Slay a gig with Swan Records where they scored hits with Freddy Cannon. Crewe and Slay continued to work as hired guns for other labels with hits with Ben E King, Dee Dee Sharp and Lesley Gore.
THE FOUR SEASONS ~ "WALK LIKE A MAN";
Crewe really made his fortune when he once again started another label, Topix Records, to recorded a young and unsigned act, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons with whom he scored a series of massive hits in the early sixties including "Big Girls Don't Cry" "Sherry" and "Walk Like A Man". Crewe got to see Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons get a second life through the hit Broadway musical and movie "Jersey Boys".
THE FOUR SEASONS ~ "BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY";
In 1965 Crewe started up yet another label with DynoVoice Records. This time it would not be one shot label built to quickly promote a single artist or song but rather a real business with a real roster of stars. Girl Group The Toys were Crewe's answer to Phil Spector and his lush "Wall Of Sound", they scored hits with the elaborate "Lover's Concerto" and "Can't Get Enough Of You Baby" which was later covered by garage rockers ? & The Mysterions.
THE TOYS ~ "LOVERS CONCERTO";
Aside I could resist adding; I once did an interview with ? wherein he insisted that he had actually wrote that song in spite of the undeniable fact that the Toys version was clearly recorded first. Then again ? also claimed he was regularly contacted by UFO's so whatever.
? & THE MYSTERIANS ~ "CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF YOU BABY";
Besides the Toys there were other lush Phil Specter wall-of-sound records from lesser known artists including Karyn Mann who's single "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" (which Crewe co-wrote) was not especially memorable until transplanted Anglo-American group The Walker Brother scored a massive hit with their even more lush version. Crewe even managed to finally score a moderate hit under his own name with a rather cheesy lounge instrumental called "Music To Watch Girls By" followed up with the theme from the Jane Fonda sci-fi movie "Barbarella".
THE WALKER BROTHERS ~ "THE SUN AIN'T GONNA SHINE ANYMORE";
From the more straight ahead rock & roll side there was Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels who scored a series of classic soul-garage rockers like "Jenny Take A Ride" (which Crewe co-wrote), "Sock It to Me" (ditto), "Devil With A Blue Dress" and "Little Latin Lupe Lou". Another Detroit garage band was The Rationals with a blistering cover of The Kinks "I Need You".
MITCH RYDER & THE DETROIT WHEELS ~ "CC RIDER/JENNY TAKE A RIDE";
Crewe wound down DynoVoice in 1968 as it became tougher for indie record to compete with the majors. After taking some time off he was back in the 1970's with disco hits by Disco Tex and his Sexolettes and LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade" (which he again co-wrote) and Frankie Valli. A near fatal car crash sent him into semi-retirement later in the decade. Crewe would return to his first love as an artist and sculpture and had his work praised by Andy Warhol. Crew died at age of 83
MITCH RYDER & THE DETROIT WHEELS ~ "SOCK IT TO ME";
THE RATIONALS ~ "LEAVING HERE" & "RESPECT";
FATS DOMINO ~ "AIN'T THAT A SHAME";
Comsimo Matassa was a New Orleans record producer who started his own J&M Studios in the back of his family's food market in 1945 while he was only eighteen, moving to a larger Cosimo Studios a decade later. His timing was impeccable as he became a force in the New Orleans R&B sound producing classic hit records by Little Richard, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Lee Dorsey, Dr John and Jimmy Clanton. Cosimo's records were noted for their focus on boogie-woogie rythms, barrelhouse piano and a horn section dubbed The New Orleans sound. Unlike other producers of the era such as Sam Phillips of Sun Records, Ahmet Ertegan and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton of Stax, George Goldner of Red Bird or the Chess Brothers, Matassa stuck with production and running his studio rather than starting his own label. The hits dried up in the sixties and Matassa retired from the music business in the 1980's to run his family's Matassa Market. British rocker Dave Edmunds would have a bigger hit version of Smiley Lewis's classic "I Hear You Knockin" in 1970. Matassa would be inducted into both the Rock & Roll and Blues Halls Of Fame and be awarded a lifetime achievement Grammy Award. He was 88.
LITTLE RICHARD ~ "LONG TALL SALLY";
DAVE EDMUNDS ~ "I HEAR YOU KNOCKIN";
If Cosimo Matassa was similar to other second generation immigrant record producers of the early rock era such as Ahmet Ertegan and Jerry Wexler, Sid Nathan and The Chess Brothers, Bob Crewe was an all-American hustler. The New Jersey born Crewe was blond, blue-eyed, and boyish, looking more like a teen idol than a record mogul and that's what he originally tried to be. Actually he originally started out as an artist and studied at the Parson School of Design in New York but he got the music bug and served in World War Two as a big band singer in the USO while still twenty. After the war he attempted a solo singing career with notable lack of success, eventually he decided to try his hand at songwriting and production teaming up with pianist Frank Slay. The always cocky Crewe managed to sweet talk Benny Goodman's bother into giving them the front money to start a record label on the basis of a four song demo and scored an immediate R&B hit with "Silhouettes" by a black Doo-Wop group called the Rays in 1957 which was quickly covered by the white Toronto group The Diamonds becoming and even bigger crossover hit. This success got Crewe and Slay a gig with Swan Records where they scored hits with Freddy Cannon. Crewe and Slay continued to work as hired guns for other labels with hits with Ben E King, Dee Dee Sharp and Lesley Gore.
THE FOUR SEASONS ~ "WALK LIKE A MAN";
Crewe really made his fortune when he once again started another label, Topix Records, to recorded a young and unsigned act, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons with whom he scored a series of massive hits in the early sixties including "Big Girls Don't Cry" "Sherry" and "Walk Like A Man". Crewe got to see Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons get a second life through the hit Broadway musical and movie "Jersey Boys".
THE FOUR SEASONS ~ "BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY";
In 1965 Crewe started up yet another label with DynoVoice Records. This time it would not be one shot label built to quickly promote a single artist or song but rather a real business with a real roster of stars. Girl Group The Toys were Crewe's answer to Phil Spector and his lush "Wall Of Sound", they scored hits with the elaborate "Lover's Concerto" and "Can't Get Enough Of You Baby" which was later covered by garage rockers ? & The Mysterions.
THE TOYS ~ "LOVERS CONCERTO";
Aside I could resist adding; I once did an interview with ? wherein he insisted that he had actually wrote that song in spite of the undeniable fact that the Toys version was clearly recorded first. Then again ? also claimed he was regularly contacted by UFO's so whatever.
? & THE MYSTERIANS ~ "CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF YOU BABY";
Besides the Toys there were other lush Phil Specter wall-of-sound records from lesser known artists including Karyn Mann who's single "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" (which Crewe co-wrote) was not especially memorable until transplanted Anglo-American group The Walker Brother scored a massive hit with their even more lush version. Crewe even managed to finally score a moderate hit under his own name with a rather cheesy lounge instrumental called "Music To Watch Girls By" followed up with the theme from the Jane Fonda sci-fi movie "Barbarella".
THE WALKER BROTHERS ~ "THE SUN AIN'T GONNA SHINE ANYMORE";
From the more straight ahead rock & roll side there was Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels who scored a series of classic soul-garage rockers like "Jenny Take A Ride" (which Crewe co-wrote), "Sock It to Me" (ditto), "Devil With A Blue Dress" and "Little Latin Lupe Lou". Another Detroit garage band was The Rationals with a blistering cover of The Kinks "I Need You".
MITCH RYDER & THE DETROIT WHEELS ~ "CC RIDER/JENNY TAKE A RIDE";
Crewe wound down DynoVoice in 1968 as it became tougher for indie record to compete with the majors. After taking some time off he was back in the 1970's with disco hits by Disco Tex and his Sexolettes and LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade" (which he again co-wrote) and Frankie Valli. A near fatal car crash sent him into semi-retirement later in the decade. Crewe would return to his first love as an artist and sculpture and had his work praised by Andy Warhol. Crew died at age of 83
MITCH RYDER & THE DETROIT WHEELS ~ "SOCK IT TO ME";
THE RATIONALS ~ "LEAVING HERE" & "RESPECT";
Monday 22 September 2014
Two CIUT Host/DJ's; Nik Beat and Reiner Schwartz
Two DJ's from CIUT died this past month. Reiner Schwartz was a fixture in the FM dial in Toronto from the time FM went on the air in the late sixties with CHUM FM. That's when CHUM FM was known for it's free-format mix of album long psychedelic tracks, free jazz, fusion and blues. Reiner later made his way to CFNY and became the last program director before they became "The Edge" and started sucking. He was coaxed out of retirement last year to come to CIUT where he hosted an open format show on Sunday afternoons. He was already in poor health and died of various complications. He was almost a parody of a classic FM DJ but in a good way; laidback, friendly, unpretentious and endlessly curious about music.
Nik Beat (real name Mike Beary) was a well known figure on the poetry and spoken word scene in Toronto, hosting "Howl" Tuesday nights on CIUT for twenty years. He championed local writers. poets, zinesters, spoken word artists and musicians who he had on his show over the years. He died suddenly of a stroke the night after doing his show and going to an after party with the Black Keys. He was 58.
I frankly barely knew him yet he when I got my show on CIUT in 2009 he was one of the first to send congrats. He will be missed on the scene. The show "Howl" will continue to air on CIUT Tuesdays with co-host Nancy Burris. Expect a tribute this week.
NIK BEAT AND LINDA MERCER LIVE ON CIUT 2009;
Nik Beat (real name Mike Beary) was a well known figure on the poetry and spoken word scene in Toronto, hosting "Howl" Tuesday nights on CIUT for twenty years. He championed local writers. poets, zinesters, spoken word artists and musicians who he had on his show over the years. He died suddenly of a stroke the night after doing his show and going to an after party with the Black Keys. He was 58.
I frankly barely knew him yet he when I got my show on CIUT in 2009 he was one of the first to send congrats. He will be missed on the scene. The show "Howl" will continue to air on CIUT Tuesdays with co-host Nancy Burris. Expect a tribute this week.
NIK BEAT AND LINDA MERCER LIVE ON CIUT 2009;
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