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Philip Kives of K-tel – the man who invented the compilation album | Music | The Guardian

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** Philip Kives of K-tel – the man who invented the compilation album
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By applying the principle of pile ’em high, sell ’em cheap to music, Philip Kives revolutionised the industry
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Philip Kives … No space for indulgence. Photograph: Wayne Glowacki/AP

Eamonn Forde (http://www.theguardian.com/profile/eamonnforde)

Friday 29 April 2016 08.17 EDTLast modified on Friday 29 April 2016 08.18 EDT
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While not as celebrated as someone like Ahmet Ertegun, the urbane force behind Atlantic Records, K-tel founder Philip Kives still had a profound effect on the record business – an industry that he, by his own admission, entered by accident.

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The marketing and sales techniques pioneered in the 1960s by Kives, who died on Thursday at the age of 87 (http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/28/philip-kives-ktel-infomercial-dies-87) , might seem crude and simplistic viewed from a half-century’s distance. But they remain part of the DNA of record label marketing departments today.

He is hailed as having invented the infomercial, producing a live, five-minute TV ad for a Teflon non-stick frying pan. The product might not have been great – “Unfortunately, tephlon was a new product, and the tephlon peeled off the fry pan leaving a lot of tephlon-coated eggs,” he explained on his company’s website – but the format stood him in good stead when he diversified from homeware and into music in 1966.
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Like every self-made millionaire, his background is essential as a lens through which to understand his business philosophies. Born in early 1929 in Oungre, a hamlet with a population of about 200 in west-central Canada, Kives was shaped by the Great Depression that hit soon after his birth and defined the next decade. At the age of eight, he started trapping weasels and selling their fur. It was, he says, “my first entrepreneurial venture”. It could also be, if we are being ungenerous, the single greatest metaphor for the record business he was to upend three decades later.

Towards the end of 1966, he put out K-tel’s first record – 25 Country Hits. At the time, the idea of a multi-artist compilation was a rarity, because record companies were not keen to have their artists on the same LP as artists signed to competitors. “I didn’t look upon it as a long-term deal,” said Kives. “I looked upon it as a one-time product.” This was the logic of the huckster – try something, if it doesn’t work, try something else. But it did work and the follow up, 25 Polka Greats, sold half a million copies in North America and a new type of product had made its mark on the record business. “Record companies in those days didn’t know what compilation albums were,” he said. “They had vast catalogues of music they didn’t know what to do with.” They soon learned.
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Few were the households in the 1970s that didn’t have some sort of K-tel release propped up beside the stereo in a manner that makes the supposed ubiquity of an act like Adele today pale in comparison. By 1981, K-tel had moved beyond compiling other labels’ music and created the Hooked on Classics album, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra doing souped-up versions of well-known classical pieces. It had Kives’s fingerprints all over it. Some would argue it was a crass dumbing down of high art; Kives would argue it was about making previously inaccessible music available to the masses.

His approach to sales was unapologetically mainstream. The marketing language was simple and unswerving at a time when, as illustrated by Mad Men, the advertising industry was attempting to elevate itself to a level of erudition and sophistication that perhaps it didn’t quite deserve. For Kives, the sales message should have no space for indulgence or purple prose.
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The voiceover for the TV ad for his Best of Hooked on Classics album (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPhNrFcivbY) demonstrates this perfectly. “Over 100 classical favourites, the smash hit single, the best from the original album, the best from Can’t Stop the Classics, the best from Journey Through the Classics,” it breathlessly booms. “But hurry! Snap up one of the first 30,000 LPs and get the Hooked on Christmas single free.” Populist, direct and promising a reward for the quickest to open their wallets.

And it worked. The original Hooked on Classics sold 10m copies and Kives claimed that K-tel had sold half a billion records by the mid 1980s. This, however, was when the wheels started to come off his business. Certainly not helped by selling the massively misjudged Minipops albums featuring young children (http://popcultureaddict.com/music-3/the-controversial-rise-and-fall-of-the-mini-pops/) , the company had overreached itself and by 1984 had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after running up losses of $60m (£41m). It was eventually rescued by the appointment of a new CEO, Mickey Elfenbein, but the label’s glory days were now gone.
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Ironically this was an era that was seeing the first stirrings of the CD and Now That’s What I Call Music (http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/09/how-we-made-now-thats-what-i-call-music) , a series that had clearly listened attentively to K-tel. These were to dramatically swell the record industry’s coffers over the next 15 years but K-tel was effectively out of the game when the real gold rush happened.

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For Kives, music was just another product like the Patty Stacker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYqMEF8I7qk) , the Bottle Cutter, the Veg-o-Matic food cutter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JD3OzFmO_A) and the Miracle Brush (the latter his biggest success, with sales of 28m). While artists might bristle at the idea of being sold in the same way as a tool for chopping vegetables or cleaning suede, for Kives it was still the boardwalk and he was gripped by the thrill of sell, sell, sell.

Today, marketing executives like to regard themselves as super-sophisticated, guiding what they do with endless data, market research and analysis; but they are still working on many of the same principles that Kives perfected half a century ago. Except he was arguably much closer to the audience, understood them better and respected them more.

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Philip Kives of K-tel – the man who invented the compilation album | Music | The Guardian

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http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/apr/29/philip-kives-k-tel-compilation-album?CMP=share_btn_fb#_=_

** Philip Kives of K-tel – the man who invented the compilation album
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Global Flavors and Asides to Obamas at White House Jazz Gala – The New York Times

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/arts/music/international-jazz-day-white-house-concert.html?_r=0

** Global Flavors and Asides to Obamas at White House Jazz Gala
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By NATE CHINEN (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/nate_chinen/index.html) APRIL 30, 2016
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Herbie Hancock and Aretha Franklin performed on Saturday at the International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert. Zach Gibson/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — A few songs into the fifth International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert, on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday night, a pointedly multicultural coalition took the stage. Chucho Valdés (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/arts/music/chucho-valdes-the-pianist-reflects-on-irakere-and-his-career.html) on piano (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/arts/music/chucho-valdes-the-pianist-reflects-on-irakere-and-his-career.html) and Paquito D’Rivera on clarinet formed an eminent Cuban contingent. India had an ambassador in the tabla master Zakir Hussain. West Africa was represented by the Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke, while Australia’s envoy was the trumpeter James Morrison. On bass was Ben Williams, from the Michigan Park neighborhood here.

They played “Con Poco Coco,” a descarga recorded in the early 1950s by Mr. Valdés’s father, Bebo. Beyond that, this virtuoso assembly embodied a central ideal behind the concert, an edited version of which was broadcast on ABC on Saturday night and will be streaming on jazzday.com (http://jazzday.com/) for the rest of this month. As the centerpiece of International Jazz Day — presented by Unesco (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations_educational_scientific_and_cultural_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org) , the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — the event was a show of musical kinship across every kind of border.

At the same time, it was a gala jazz concert at the White House, only the third of its kind: For precedent, you would have to look back to the administrations of Jimmy Carter (in 1978) and Bill Clinton (in 1993). And it had all due pageantry and production value, befitting the official stature of a music that President Obama characterized, in his welcoming remarks, as “driven by an unmistakably American spirit.”

He added: “It is, in so many ways, the story of our nation’s progress: Born out of the struggle of African-Americans yearning for freedom. Forged in a crucible of cultures — a product of the diversity that would forever define our nation’s greatness.” He put no particular emphasis on the word “diversity,” but it rang through the program, which featured not only a preponderance of jazz artists but also Aretha Franklin, Buddy Guy and Sting.

Herbie Hancock — the pianist, Unesco good-will ambassador and chairman (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/arts/music/herbie-hancock-is-the-emissary-of-an-art-form.html) of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, the lead organization behind the event — cropped up a handful of times in the show, typically as an accompanist or a catalyst. (The musical director was John Beasley; the producer was Michelle Day.) Mr. Hancock was part of the blue-chip accompaniment for Sting, who brought sinewy composure to his jazz-influenced song “Sister Moon.” Later Mr. Hancock led an impromptu-feeling memorial tribute to Prince, a medley that briefly featured the rapper Rapsody and culminated, stirringly, in Ms. Franklin’s leading a singalong of “Purple Rain.”
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The presumed taste of a network television audience could have played some role in the heavy quotient of vocalists. Ms. Franklin opened the concert in magisterial yet low-key form, giving Leon Russell’s “A Song for You” the flickering rubato and somber purpose of an offertory. (By “you” she seemed to mean President Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama; “I will be sad to see you go,” she declared before starting into the song.)

The jazz singers mostly tackled standards from their working repertory, delivering quick distillations of their personae: regal and exhortative for Dianne Reeves; cool yet come-hither for Diana Krall; jittery but suave for Jamie Cullum; and wily and pliable for Al Jarreau. Kurt Elling and Dee Dee Bridgewater, who share a crackling brand of showmanship, traded verses on the bedrock blues “St. James Infirmary,” in a version that began with a fanfare by the United States Army Herald Trumpets and included a smartly blaring solo by Trombone Shorty.

Despite the crush of singers, it was possible for an instrumentalist to make a potent impression. The trumpeter Terence Blanchard was slashingly fierce on “Straight Up and Down,” a vintage postbop churner by the pianist Chick Corea, who led a rhythm team with Christian McBride on bass and Brian Blade on drums. The guitarist Pat Metheny sounded at once relaxed and expeditionary on his fluttering anthem “Minuano,” delivered with an assist from Ms. Reeves.

Another guitarist, John McLaughlin, delivered a ripping solo on “Spanish Key,” from Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew,” which felt stifled by time constraints but had all the right firepower: Mr. Hussain on tabla, Mr. Blanchard on trumpet, Mr. Corea on synthesizer, Marcus Miller on bass and Wayne Shorter on soprano saxophone.

Mr. Shorter also took part in a chamber deconstruction of his impressionistic standard “Footprints,” with Esperanza Spalding on bass (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/arts/music/set-list-esperanza-spalding-introduces-fans-to-emily.html) and Joey Alexander on piano. It flowed like water along a creek bed, burbling with inquisitive interplay — a transporting experience in just four minutes, and the most purely musical exchange of the concert. (Mr. Alexander is 12 (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/arts/music/joey-alexander-an-11-year-old-jazz-sensation-who-hardly-clears-the-pianos-sightlines.html) , which is usually the first thing to know about him. He made that fact a distant afterthought.)

A few moments seemed conceived with the president and first lady in mind. Mr. Guy, one of a handful of artists who had already made at least one indelible appearance at the White House (https://youtu.be/y-jSaBg9_M4) , hungrily tore apart “Meet Me in Chicago,” as if to hint not only at the Obama family’s past but also its possible future. And Hugh Masekela, the South African fluegelhorn player, performed “Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela),” a defiant, exuberant cry of protest for one of the president’s acknowledged heroes. The power of that gesture, in this setting, hasn’t ebbed.

But Mr. Masekela also underscored the concert’s conviction — articulated at one point by Irina Bokova, Unesco’s director-general — that jazz is now a global art. It’s a departure from the rhetoric that typically surrounds any mingling of jazz and state, a parable of democracy and American exceptionalism. Despite its nods to the past and concessions to popular taste, this was a concert less concerned with the conditions that made jazz possible and more interested in what jazz’s influence and example might yet make possible today.

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Global Flavors and Asides to Obamas at White House Jazz Gala – The New York Times

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/arts/music/international-jazz-day-white-house-concert.html?_r=0

** Global Flavors and Asides to Obamas at White House Jazz Gala
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Herbie Hancock and Aretha Franklin performed on Saturday at the International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert. Zach Gibson/The New York Times

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Global Flavors and Asides to Obamas at White House Jazz Gala – The New York Times

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/arts/music/international-jazz-day-white-house-concert.html?_r=0

** Global Flavors and Asides to Obamas at White House Jazz Gala
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Herbie Hancock and Aretha Franklin performed on Saturday at the International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert. Zach Gibson/The New York Times

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The Queen and the royal family’s love of jazz

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/the-queen-and-the-royal-familys-love-of-jazz/

** The Queen and the royal family’s love of jazz
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Queen Elizabeth II talks to jazz master Duke Ellington at a private reception in Leeds in 1958 Queen Elizabeth II talks to jazz master Duke Ellington at a private reception in Leeds in 1958 CREDIT: PA
* Martin Chilton (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/martin-chilton/) , culture editor

21 APRIL 2016 • 12:50PM
When the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited a jazz workshop in July 2014, which was part of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, they were following in a long tradition of British royalty demonstrating their enthusiasm for jazz.
Buckingham Palace itself was named as a “significant British jazz location” in 2009 and given a (Kind of) Blue plaque – it was the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue album (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/don-cheadle-life-of-miles-davis-is-a-touchstone-story/) – in recognition of being the venue that hosted the first jazz performance before a head of state. That was in 1919, when the Original Dixieland Jazz Band played a command performance for King George V.
George V (Prince Charles’s great-grandfather) cried out his approval during the tune Tiger Rag, and he must have enjoyed the experience because jazz musicians, including Sidney Bechet (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11250988/Sidney-Bechet-awarded-blue-plaque.html) and Louis Armstrong (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/8720527/Louis-Armstrong-His-genius-lives-on.html) , were invited back to the palace several times during his reign. The king was particularly taken with Bechet’s composition Characteristic Blues. Bechet, incidentally, also gave music lessons to Charles Henry Maxwell Knight, a future British spy who was apparently the inspiration for the character M in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels.
The king was also wowed by trumpeter Armstrong, who dedicated one song to him with the words: “This one’s for you, Rex.”
Sidney Bechet was a favourite of the royal family Sidney Bechet was a favourite of the royal family CREDIT: REX FEATURES

In an interview in 1955, Armstrong recalled: “The biggest laugh about me and the king was when I was playing the tune (I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead) You Rascal You for him in 1932 and I hollered: ‘This one’s for you, Rex – that’s what I called him ‘Rex’.
Asked; “Was the King a ‘cat’?”, Armstrong replied: “He’s got to be or I wouldn’t call him Rex. You see when you’re a cat you appreciate your nickname.”
Armstrong didn’t add that it was a New Orleans tradition, perhaps jokey, to call the white king of the Mardi Gras, ‘Rex’.
Hiring black entertainers was nothing new for our royal family. Minstrel Billy Kersands (dancing with a mouthful of billiard balls), and tap dancer Juba, had performed for Queen Victoria and Bert Williams taught Edward VII how to do the “cakewalk dance” on the lawns of Buckingham Palace. But it was George V’s son, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII and the Duke of Windsor) who was perhaps the most ardent jazz royal. This was a time when black musicians, most of them playing jazz, were all the rage among London’s rich and beautiful rich set.
His affection for jazz had started when he became an ardent fan of American cabaret singer Florence Mills – she sang risqué songs such as I’m Cravin’ For That Kind of Love – when she toured the UK with her revue, Blackbirds in the mid-Twenties. The Prince of Wales often went to see jazz concerts with his younger brother The Prince George (Duke of Kent), who had an affair with the singer.
Read: The best jazz albums of 2016 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/the-best-jazz-albums-of-20160/)
The Prince of Wales seems to have been more interested in the music and he fancied himself as a drummer, too. He ended up playing drums (rather poorly, one imagines) during a concert by Grenada-born singer and pianist Leslie Hutchinson at a party thrown by Lord Beaverbrook. He also became friends with Duke Ellington (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/9869532/Duke-Ellington-celebrated-at-new-UK-jazz-festival.html) in the early Thirties, and it was a friendship that lasted the rest of his life. After the Prince (then King Edward VIII) abdicated to marry American Wallis Simpson, he moved to New York and would often invite the Ellington Orchestra to perform at charity events for which he was a patron.
The Queen at the unveiling of the Oscar Peterson statue in Ottawa in 2010. The jazz great had died three years before The Queen at the unveiling of the Oscar Peterson statue in Ottawa in 2010. The jazz great had died three years before CREDIT: DEPARTMENT OF CANADIAN HERITAGE

Ellington also maintained contact with the royals back in the UK. When Ellington and his orchestra played a concert at the Leeds Festival in England in 1958, Queen Elizabeth was taken with the music and Ellington was invited to Buckingham Palace to meet her. He told the Queen that “something musical will come from this”, and so it did. He subsequently composed a suite of six songs which he dedicated to the Queen. One of them, a solo piece for the piano called A Single Petal of a Rose, was written about their meeting. Back in America, in April 1959, he recorded the set at his own expense and had only one pressing made, which he sent as a gift to the Queen.
The Queen Mother also enjoyed jazz and would make a point of attending dances at the University of London (where she was Chancellor) when there was a band playing jazz. She even did so in November 1969, whe the Swing Kings were playing, as a detour on her way to 21st birthday celebrations for Prince Charles.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall attended a jazz concert by StephanieTrick as part of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall attended a jazz concert by StephanieTrick in 2014 as part of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival CREDIT: PA

Elizabeth’s sister Margaret was also a jazz fan. She would sometimes go to Ronnie Scott’s club in London, and would frequently drop in to see late sets by George Melly and John Chilton’s (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12176946/John-Chilton-jazz-musician-obituary.html) Feetwarmers. At a Melly concert in the early Eighties, incidentally, Princess Diana danced with David Bowie to a Fats Waller song.
Margaret also maintaned the tradition of British royals seeing Armstrong perform, including at London’s Empress Hall in 1956. Armstrong, in turn, maintained his habit of being jocular about the royal family, telling the British press: “Your Princess Margaret is one hip chick.”
Fast-forward four decades and Margaret’s nephew, Charles, was in Scotland to hear how band’s such as Artscape’s Youth Band, a South African group comprising youngsters from the townships of Cape Town, are keeping jazz alive in the grand tradition of a Duke (Ellington) a Count (Basie) and a King (Oliver).
Charles and Camilla joined Jools Holland for a concert by renowned pianist Stephanie Trick at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival. Holland said: “It’s great that the royal couple have come here to shine a light today, because it will draw attention from all over the place to the fact that the jazz festival is on and it’s one of the best jazz festivals in the world. Their interest and them coming today will expand that everywhere.”
It’s fitting that one of the tunes being played at a special gala concert to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday will be Alexander’s Ragtime Band, a song heard at Buckingham Palace more than a century ago.

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May 1, 2016 / No Comments / More

The Queen and the royal family’s love of jazz

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/the-queen-and-the-royal-familys-love-of-jazz/

** The Queen and the royal family’s love of jazz
————————————————————
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May 1, 2016 / No Comments / More

The Queen and the royal family’s love of jazz

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/the-queen-and-the-royal-familys-love-of-jazz/

** The Queen and the royal family’s love of jazz
————————————————————
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A Rare Jazz Find

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Today I was out and about when I bumped into a neighbor here in Warwick, NY, an old timer who just sold his house.

He’s a jazz collector and has amazing collection of signed jazz lp’s.

His son, who’s a music teacher and also a jazz collector, found this Sonny Stitt Delmark LP on Ebay for $10.

Crushed inside the lp jacket was the inner sleeve which he literally had to piece back together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Pretty amazing!

Check out the slide show
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=fuyrB_rqUEQ (https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=fuyrB_rqUEQ)

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April 30, 2016 / No Comments / More

A Rare Jazz Find

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
Today I was out and about when I bumped into a neighbor here in Warwick, NY, an old timer who just sold his house.

He’s a jazz collector and has amazing collection of signed jazz lp’s.

His son, who’s a music teacher and also a jazz collector, found this Sonny Stitt Delmark LP on Ebay for $10.

Crushed inside the lp jacket was the inner sleeve which he literally had to piece back together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Pretty amazing!

Check out the slide show
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=fuyrB_rqUEQ (https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=fuyrB_rqUEQ)

HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

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Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA

April 30, 2016 / No Comments / More

A Rare Jazz Find

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
Today I was out and about when I bumped into a neighbor here in Warwick, NY, an old timer who just sold his house.

He’s a jazz collector and has amazing collection of signed jazz lp’s.

His son, who’s a music teacher and also a jazz collector, found this Sonny Stitt Delmark LP on Ebay for $10.

Crushed inside the lp jacket was the inner sleeve which he literally had to piece back together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Pretty amazing!

Check out the slide show
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=fuyrB_rqUEQ (https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=fuyrB_rqUEQ)

HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

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Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
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April 30, 2016 / No Comments / More

A Rare Jazz Find

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
Today I was out and about when I bumped into a neighbor here in Warwick, NY, an old timer who just sold his house.

He’s a jazz collector and has amazing collection of signed jazz lp’s.

His son, who’s a music teacher and also a jazz collector, found this Sonny Stitt Delmark LP on Ebay for $10.

Crushed inside the lp jacket was the inner sleeve which he literally had to piece back together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Pretty amazing!

Check out the slide show
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=fuyrB_rqUEQ (https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=fuyrB_rqUEQ)

HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

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April 30, 2016 / No Comments / More

Sarah Vaughan Stamp Dedicated at NCCU Jazz Festival

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http://www.nccu.edu/news/index.cfm?id=4CA5D029-15C5-F8D8-3A50E41D54FA5EA6

** Sarah Vaughan Stamp Dedicated at NCCU Jazz Festival
————————————————————
(From L to R) Ms. Debra Wiggins-Wooten, Post Office Operations Manager; Dr. Johnson O. Akinleye, NCCU Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Dr. Ira T. Wiggins, Director of NCCU Jazz Studies
Published: Tuesday, April 26, 2016

The U.S. Postal Service dedicated the newly released Sara Vaughan postage stamp at North Carolina Central University’s 26th Annual Jazz Festival on April 15, 2016.
During the event, Debra Wiggins-Wooten, post office operations manager, dedicated the commemorative stamp in honor of renown jazz singer Sarah Vaughan. It was the first such dedication to take place in North Carolina.
The stamp bears an image of a Bart Forbes oil painting based on a 1955 photograph by Hugh Bell of Vaughan in performance.
Vaughan, a Grammy- and Emmy-winning singer often called “The Divine One” or “Sassy,” joins the ranks of musical greats who are part of the postal service’s Music Icons stamp series. Vaughn is a member of the Jazz Hall of Fame and the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, she recorded with jazz artists such as Zoot Sims, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Don Cherry and J.J. Johnson. She is best known for her hits “Misty,” “Broken-Hearted Melody” and “Send in the Clowns.” Her songs ”Mr. Wonderful” and ”Broken-Hearted Melody” became title music for Broadway shows.
Vaughn’s voice range was more than three octaves and did not diminish with time; she sang with operatic virtuosity her entire five-decade career. Vaughn died of lung cancer in 1990 at 66.
The Sarah Vaughan stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp, which will always be equal to the current first-class mail single-ounce rate. The stamps are available for purchase at usps.com/stamps, or at the Postal Store usps.com/shop, by calling 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724) and at post offices nationwide.

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April 28, 2016 / No Comments / More

Sarah Vaughan Stamp Dedicated at NCCU Jazz Festival

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http://www.nccu.edu/news/index.cfm?id=4CA5D029-15C5-F8D8-3A50E41D54FA5EA6

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April 28, 2016 / No Comments / More

Sarah Vaughan Stamp Dedicated at NCCU Jazz Festival

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http://www.nccu.edu/news/index.cfm?id=4CA5D029-15C5-F8D8-3A50E41D54FA5EA6

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April 28, 2016 / No Comments / More

Howard Berg, R.I.P.

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I received an email from Rich Lagerman informing me of the passing of Howard Berg. Howard hosted the Bash from 2005 through 2007.

The funeral is Thursday, April 28 at the James O. Bradley Funeral Home in Penndel, PA. Further information at
http://www.jamesobradley.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=3677303&fh_id=12740

Sincerely,
Art Zimmerman

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April 27, 2016 / No Comments / More

Howard Berg, R.I.P.

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/

I received an email from Rich Lagerman informing me of the passing of Howard Berg. Howard hosted the Bash from 2005 through 2007.

The funeral is Thursday, April 28 at the James O. Bradley Funeral Home in Penndel, PA. Further information at
http://www.jamesobradley.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=3677303&fh_id=12740

Sincerely,
Art Zimmerman

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Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
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April 27, 2016 / No Comments / More

Howard Berg, R.I.P.

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/

I received an email from Rich Lagerman informing me of the passing of Howard Berg. Howard hosted the Bash from 2005 through 2007.

The funeral is Thursday, April 28 at the James O. Bradley Funeral Home in Penndel, PA. Further information at
http://www.jamesobradley.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=3677303&fh_id=12740

Sincerely,
Art Zimmerman

HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

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April 27, 2016 / No Comments / More

Book Review: How to Listen to Jazz. By Ted Gioia | The Economist

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http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21697207-how-distinguish-good-jazz-bad-steps-heaven?frsc=dg%7Ca

** Steps to heaven
————————————————————

How to Listen to Jazz. By Ted Gioia. Basic Books; 272 pages; $24.99 and £16.99.

JAZZ is not a popular art-form. To its many detractors, it amounts to little more than pretentious noodling, based as it is largely on improvisation. To others, it is simply mystifying. How can an entire genre be made up of playing, again and again, variants of show tunes that were mostly composed in the 1930s and 1940s?

Ted Gioia understands why people find jazz so esoteric. The problem, as he sees it, is that no one has ever bothered to explain what “good” or “bad” jazz really is. Critics hold strong opinions on whether Charlie Parker or John Coltrane is the better saxophonist, but rarely do they explain “what they [are] listening for”. Mr Gioia’s job is to teach jazz-lovers how to assess the music and persuade sceptics to give jazz a go.

Mr Gioia has produced a fascinating book. He takes the reader through the most important ingredients of jazz, explaining, for instance, how “swing” is more than syncopated, finger-tapping rhythm. A bass-player and drummer who sound comfortable in each other’s company is one sure sign of swing. (Listen to Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison, playing with Coltrane, for instance.) Unlike amateur outfits that feel the need to overplay, the best groups can swing without playing many notes. In Keith Jarrett’s trio, the pianist goes for long stretches without even using his left hand, but the listener barely notices until it reappears, upon which it makes the music sound even richer.

Most useful to the uninitiated, the book provides tips on what good improvisation really means. Bad players tend to rely heavily on a small number of rhythmic and harmonic patterns in their phrases—licks containing a certain number of notes, for instance, or a tendency to begin or end their phrases at a certain place in the bar. Listen to such an improviser for more than a minute or so, and “even novice listeners will perceive an inescapable monotony,” says Mr Gioia. The best players, including Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis (pictured), never fall into such traps, however.

In his enthusiasm, Mr Gioia’s analysis of improvisation sometimes veers into abstraction. Take his discussion of what he calls “intentionality”, which he says is another crucial element of good soloing. He defines this as “a musical phrase that reveals the total commitment of the improviser”—hardly an illuminating description. Yet read the book within easy access of a music-streaming service or YouTube, and Mr Gioia’s commentary suddenly feels much more useful. A middling trumpeter (say, one in a student band) appears to struggle against the music, and will finish a phrase upon running out of breath. Davis’s phrases on the trumpet, by contrast, have a clear beginning, middle and end. No note is wasted and the accompanists seem to work around him. (For an excellent example of this, see his opening solo in “Spanish Key”, recorded in 1969.)

Mr Gioia also delves into musical theory, in a way that will help both jazz neophytes and experts understand what they are listening to. The best jazz musicians do not worry much about producing clearly defined notes (the do-re-mi system that structures Western classical music). Instead they look to make particular sounds—bending notes and creating unusual timbres—which is a consequence of the heavy African influence on jazz. The emphasis on sound over notes is especially pronounced in Coltrane’s late work.

Alongside the tips for listening, Mr Gioia’s book gives a helpful overview of how jazz has evolved since its beginnings in turn-of-the-century New Orleans. Buddy Bolden, a cornet-player in the Big Easy of whose music there are no recordings, is credited by many with inventing “jass”. Like the rest of the book, the majority of this discussion focuses on long-dead musicians (many of whom met untimely ends thanks to debilitating drug habits). As if to compensate for the book’s backward-looking bias, at the end the author lists 150 contemporary jazzists “who deserve your attention”.

“How to Listen to Jazz” is not a long book, but it emphasises a beautiful point about the genre, a point that applies to no other sort of music. When you see a live performance, you may be watching a 60-year-old musician playing a 100-year-old piece; but what is produced on stage has never been, and will never be, played again. Jazz is undoubtedly struggling, but as an introduction to why its remaining fans are so devoted, Mr Gioia could not have done a better job. Through him, jazz might even find new devotees.

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April 26, 2016 / No Comments / More

Book Review: How to Listen to Jazz. By Ted Gioia | The Economist

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http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21697207-how-distinguish-good-jazz-bad-steps-heaven?frsc=dg%7Ca

** Steps to heaven
————————————————————

How to Listen to Jazz. By Ted Gioia. Basic Books; 272 pages; $24.99 and £16.99.

HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

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April 26, 2016 / No Comments / More

Book Review: How to Listen to Jazz. By Ted Gioia | The Economist

http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/

http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21697207-how-distinguish-good-jazz-bad-steps-heaven?frsc=dg%7Ca

** Steps to heaven
————————————————————

How to Listen to Jazz. By Ted Gioia. Basic Books; 272 pages; $24.99 and £16.99.

HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

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April 26, 2016 / No Comments / More

R.I.P. Billy Paul Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right – YouTube

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypiLUifzT4o

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April 25, 2016 / No Comments / More

R.I.P. Billy Paul Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right – YouTube

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypiLUifzT4o

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April 25, 2016 / No Comments / More

R.I.P. Billy Paul Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right – YouTube

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypiLUifzT4o

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April 25, 2016 / No Comments / More

R.I.P. Billy Paul Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right – YouTube

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypiLUifzT4o

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April 25, 2016 / No Comments / More

‘Me and Mrs. Jones’ Singer Billy Paul Dies at Age 80 – The New York Times

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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/04/24/arts/ap-us-obit-billy-paul.html?_r=0

** ‘Me and Mrs. Jones’ Singer Billy Paul Dies at Age 80
————————————————————

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSAPRIL 24, 2016, 11:12 P.M. E.D.T.
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Billy Paul, center, a jazz and soul singer, in 2008. He was one of many singers who found success with the writing and producing team of Leon Huff, left, and Kenneth Gamble. Earl Gibson III/Associated Press

Billy Paul, a jazz and soul singer best known for the No. 1 hit ballad and “Philadelphia Soul” classic “Me and Mrs. Jones,” died on Sunday at his home in Blackwood, N.J. He was 80.

His co-manager, Beverly Gay, said he had recently learned he had pancreatic cancer.

Known by his beard and large glasses, Paul was one of many singers who found success with the writing and producing team of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, whose Philadelphia International Records also released music by the O’Jays, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, and Lou Rawls.

“Me and Mrs. Jones” was an extramarital confession and a characteristic Gamble and Huff production, setting Paul’s thick tenor against a lush and sensuous arrangement. Many fans best remember the moment when Paul’s otherwise subtle vocals jump as they reach the title words, stretching out “Me” and “And” into multiple syllables and repeating “Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones.” (Paul himself was married to the same woman for decades).
Billy Paul’s, “Me And Mrs. Jones”

Paul’s voice made him “one of the great artists to come out of Philly and to be celebrated worldwide,” Gamble and Huff said in a statement late Sunday.

“Our proudest moment with Billy was the recording of the salacious smash ‘Me and Mrs. Jones.’ In our view, it is one of the greatest love songs ever recorded,” they said.
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The song was one of the top singles of 1972 and brought Paul a Grammy (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/g/grammy_awards/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) the following year for best male rhythm ‘n blues performance, with runners-up including Ray Charles and Curtis Mayfield. Paul remained identified with the song for the rest of his life.

Paul continued to perform live until he fell ill and his manager said he had been lining up numerous appearances at the time of his death. Among his favorites in concert was a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain.” (Prince died last Thursday).

He was born Paul Williams but later agreed to his manager’s suggestion that he change his name to Billy Paul to avoid confusion with songwriter Paul Williams and other musicians with the same name. A Philadelphia native, he sang much his life, performing with such jazz stars as Charlie Parker and Dinah Washington and being featured on a handful of singles while still in his teens.

Paul was drafted into the military in his early 20s, and found himself on the same base in Germany with a couple of famous show business names, Elvis Presley and Gary Crosby, Bing Crosby’s son.

“We said we’re going to start a band, so we didn’t have to do any hard work in the service,” he told bluesandsoul.com (http://bluesandsoul.com/) in 2015. “We tried to get Elvis to join but he wanted to be a jeep driver. So me and Gary Crosby, we started it and called ourselves the Jazz Blues Symphony Band.”

By the mid-1960s, the Beatles had inspired him to incorporate more rhythm ‘n blues into his singing and he had found a new home for his recordings after meeting Gamble at a Philadelphia music shop. His early albums with Gamble and Huff, including “Ebony Woman” and “Going East,” sold modestly, before “Me and Mrs. Jones” briefly made him a superstar.

Paul faced numerous obstacles following his biggest hit. Radio stations resisted his more socially conscious follow-up song, “Am I Black Enough for You” and the Rev. Jesse Jackson was among those who objected to the explicit “Let’s Make a Baby.”

Years later, Paul sued Gamble and Huff and other industry officials over unpaid royalties and was awarded $500,000 by a Los Angeles jury in 2003.

Paul is survived by his wife, Blanche Williams, with whom he had two children. Although he endured many difficult moments with Gamble and Huff, he would look back on those years as a lost golden age.
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“It was like a family full of music,” he told bluesandsoul.com. “It was like music round the clock, you know. And I reminisce and I still wish those days were here.”

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