The history of jazz through the music of those that aren't in the annals, part 1

The "JFK" Quintet – New Jazz 
Frontiers from Washington
A Cannonball Adderley Presentation
Riverside RLP 396, Made in New York, 1961

So why is it, that some jazz musicians are canonized, and others not? What, if any, are the criteria for canonization in jazz music? There's some existential "to be or not to be" questions for you to take into the new year. So what are some of the criteria? Talent, innovation, dedication, success, association, luck? And why do some have it, and others not, asks for a case by case analysis. While the "haves" category musicians can be picked and studied through the annals of jazz music, the "have-nots" you come across by chance. By browsing through piles of thrift store records for example. In the next two weeks I'll take a look at two ensembles that belong to the latter category. Have-nots is probably not  the right typification for the musicians that I picked have a lot going for them too. They're the "nearly-haves", or b-list characters of jazz music. The first nearly-haves is a group of college students from Washington, DC who formed in 1961 and called themselves The "JFK" Quintet. They made two albums; the one under the auspices of Cannonball Adderley is from 1961, and then there is the obscure Young Ideas from 62, both on Riverside. They supposedly did a third recording session for Riverside in 1963 but there is no information or details on this session except that drummer Joe Chambers replaced Carl "Mickey" Newman. 1963 is also the year the group parted ways, and Joe Chambers is the one musician from the group who went on into the jazz annals a-list as a sideman for a variety of jazz notorieties. But Chambers wasn't there when the "JFK" quintet actually made a record and tenor-sax man Andy White (usually Andrew White) is the one musician who came out from the original group to have a significant career in jazz. White, who earned a music degree from Howard, became known for his transcriptions of Coltrane solos. As a multi-instrumentalist he also recorded with Weather Report, Stevie Wonder, 5th Dimension as well as a score of his own led combos. Other members of The "JFK" Quintet were also students at Howard; Ray Codrington (trumpet) studied psychology, and pianist Harry Killgo was a mathematics major. Drummer Carl "Mickey" Newman was a X-ray technician, and bass player Walter Booker, Jr. had a B.S. in psychology from Morehouse College. Booker ended up in Cannonball Adderley's band, Newman didn't record beyond "JFK". Codrington had a long career in music and is still active on trumpet in The John Brown Quintet, while for Harry Killgo I couldn't find any references besides The "JFK" Quintet on line save for an obituary from 2010 that didn't mention music at all. The tune Cici's Delight to which you can listen to below is opening track of side b on the record New Jazz Frontier from Washington. Andrew White who wrote the tune that sounds vaguely familiar was 19 years old then. The otherwise immaculate record skips at the very end, and I think it's a lovely addition to the tune.

'Twas the day before Christmas

Que Bonita... La Cancion Peruana
Dirección: Mario Cavagnaro
Discos Sono Radio, S.E. 9475
Industria Peruana

I don't exactly know how the association happens but when I browsed through some boxes of "new" thrift store records from the past two months, to post about some music appropriate for Christmas, this Que Bonita... record was screaming at me: Me, me , me! There's no Feliz Navidad"" song to be found on it, there's no snow depicted on the record sleeve, and the lady smiling on it isn't exactly dressed at her Christmas best, yet it is her that seems to whisper "Merry Christmas" to me in that naughty but innocent kind of way. Or maybe it's that warm and homey smile, or the red stripes on the blanket, or just the festive potpourri style of music that emanated from the vinyl inside. That's it—when I was young my family played these Schlagerfestival records,  the German equivalent of the type of record that all Western countries in the1960s, 1970s, and 80s, and beyond seemed to have: a festive medley of popular songs and melodies performed by some of the most popular singers of the country. And they all came with that smiling young woman dressed in a bikini (or a bit more—or a bit less). In Holland we had Alle 13 Goed, Italy had the San Remo series, and in Peru... Que Bonita... La Cancion Peruana. This blog is no stranger to either popular or traditional music from Peru, and in the case of Que Bonita... the popular is pushed to the commercial cliff, where it almost crashed and dies. Almost... The collected stars that perform on this record include Jesus Vasquez, who got her own little chapter here on these pages. Each of the stars perform two or three songs on the record, and also perform as "The Choir of Stars" in a few others. To share with you today, the day before Christmas, I picked a section of the Poutpourrit de Valses comprising lado A that is performed by this Coro de Estrellas. It is called Alejandrina. Happy Holidays!!!

"Authentic" Spanish folk

Folk Songs of Spain, Vol. 3
Seeco, New York, CELP-450
Made in USA, 1960

The performers on this record are unnamed. Searching on-line for this record does not reveal the identities of the performers either, the record is listed as "Various Artists". Listening to the record it appears to me that all the "various" artists belong to the same group (or troupe). I believe only a handful musicians and an additional handful of chorus singers make up this group (I expect that also a handful of dancers are associated with the group), and the same people perform on every song on the record. The very same musicians that also play on Volume 1, and Volume 2, of the series released by American Seeco label, formed in 1943, specializing in Latin American music. In the liner notes I come across the word "authentic", which 90 times out of 100 means exactly the opposite. And here the use of "authentic" indeed confirms its suspect nature. These recordings are not "authentic" in the real sense of the word. The only thing authentic about this record is that the performers are real "Spanish" musicians. The very same musicians who play "authentic" music from the land of the Basques, the southern cities like Sevilla, Galicia, and Catalonia. I believe the musicians heard on these records are a performance group, possibly sponsored by the Spanish government, like a "National Ballet" touring the world. They were probably recorded for this record in New York City. The performers are professionals, very good in what they do, and all the songs are definately of high quality. But not authentic. The song I picked from this record is a bolero called El Parado. The bolero, of course, has become a world wide phenomenon through the gigantic success of the French composer Georges Bizet's take on the traditional Spanish dance. The inclusion of a recording of Bizet's Bolero in the film 10 in which Bo Derek makes love to the melody, didn't hurt the status of "one of the best known classical melodies" either. Bizet quotes the traditional Spanish melodies quite literal but I do believe that the group performing on the Seeco label takes as much back from Bizet as from their own tradition. That said I have to admit that I really like records like these. They often come with real great "authentic" photos from the old home-land.

Rosa Balistreri

Amore tu lo sai, la vita è amara
Back cover

Rosa Balistreri – Amore tu lo sai, 
la vita è amara
Cetra, LPP 184
Made in Turin, Italy, 1971

While Rosa Balistreri is not as generally known as, say Edith Piaf, locally in Sicily, and throughout Italy, she is as highly regarded by the people as any of the 'chanteuses' that acquired a world-wide recognition. What she has in common with some of the greatest European (female) folk singers, such as Piaf and Amália Rodrigues, is that she is of the people (meaning: grew up in poverty, had a life of hardship and sorrow, and eventually the triumph of the individual). Rosa Balistreri was born in 1927, grew up in a very much brutal, feudal Sicily. As an escape she began to sing Sicilian folk songs but it took her through many inhumane jobs and relationships before she was, at the age of 39, able to make a recording. Balistreri fled from Sicily to Florence in the 1960s, but moved back again in the 1970s. She died in Palermo in 1990.

I find it very strange that I never came across this singer, never in my 30+ years of interest in European folk music. While I have several records of musicians she's associated with, and even a Sicilian folk record or two (be it that of the celebratory tourist kind), I had never heard of Rosa Balistreri before.

The song below is called Mirrina and it's an agricultural song (and that's the extend to which I can translate the Italian liner notes).

'Twas the Season

Odetta: Christmas Spirituals
Vanguard, Stereolab, VSD-2079
Printed in U.S.A., 1960

The following text is from 'Tis the Season that I wrote for Berry's Top 100 in 2010. I was still in Ohio then and bought the Odetta record at the Family Store in Cleveland.

      'Tis the season for thrift stores to organize their records. Once a year the Christmas records are separated from the secular records. I enjoy this, it makes it easy, I only need to browse through a considerable smaller selection to try to find something I like than I do the rest of the year. So why did I browse through the bin with Christmas records the other day? God only knows but there she was, the embodiment of the Afro-American presence in the 60s folk scene in America: Odetta. A Christmas record indeed, the songs are all 'Negro-Spirituals' and most songs are about the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus. The song Virgin Mary Had One Son may very well end up in the Top 100 and become the first ever Christmas song in the Top 100 history. God bless Odetta. The album is called Odetta: Christmas Spirituals and was released by Vanguard.