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Kenny Wheeler Quintet -By Myself
Kenny Wheeler Big Band – Part V – Know Where You Are
From Music for Large and Small Ensembles: ECM 1415/16 [Buy]

So here’s the start of a Kenny Wheeler series. I could easily say too much about Mr Wheeler, so I’ll try to say very little and let people just listen to the man’s music.

To kick off, here’s two tracks off his 1990 big band/small band double set Music for Large and Small Ensembles. Recorded in London and Oslo, musicians include Dave Holland (b), Peter Erskine (d), John Abercrombie (g) and John Taylor (p) – and that’s just the core quartet ! This one is for Taxi Driver and Molo.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra – Moments in Heaven
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra – 花ふぶき～愛だろ、愛っ。～

From Best (1989-1997): Epic Records ESCL 2333 [Buy]

Another discovery from my trip to Japan last year. Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. The name says it all really. They play everything from ska “standards” like Caravan through to funk with Bernard Purdie and the Sesame Street theme. They’ve been doing it since 1985, perform all around the world, have their own Wikipedia entry and sound like they’re still having the time of their lives.

TrinityRoots – Aotearoa
From Home, Land and Sea: Independent TR03 [Buy]

Mike Nock Trio – Land of the Long White Cloud
From Ondas: ECM 1220 [Buy]

N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra – Aotearoa Overture
Available on N.Z. Composers: Continuum CCD 1073 [Buy]

Today (25th April) is ANZAC Day, a public holiday both here in New Zealand and in Australia, a commemoration of the sacrifice of NZ and Australian soldiers in war. Us kiwis in particular seem to shun extrovert nationalism and jingoism, so this holiday is also one of the few times when New Zealanders conciously consider matters of national identity.

So today I’ve posted three pieces which are reflections by New Zealanders on our country and our place in its landscape. All three refer to Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand. Aotearoa is generally translated in English as “Land of the Long White Cloud”.

TrinityRoots was one of the most important bands in New Zealand’s recent musical history, splitting up earlier this year. Their song Aotearoa is from their 2004 album Home, Land and Sea.

Mike Nock is probably New Zealand’s most well-known jazz export. Now based in Sydney, he spent time as pianist for Yusef Lateef during 25 years playing in the US. Land of the Long White Cloud was recorded in Oslo for ECM in 1981, with Eddie Gomez on bass and Jon Christensen on drums.

Composer Douglas Lilburn was one of the first composers in the classical/symphonic arena to attempt to express New Zealand identity in his compositions. Aotearoa Overture was written in 1940 to mark the centennial of the founding document of New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi.

Betty Carter Quartet – I’m All Smiles
From Feed the Fire: Verve/Bet-Car 523 600-2 [Buy]

Betty Carter Sextet – East of the Sun
From I’m Yours, You’re Mine: Verve/Bet-Car 533 182 [Buy]

While Carter continued to pull young talent into her bands, nurturing some of the major voices of today’s American straightahead scene, some of her finest moments occurred at the head of an all-star band. In the late summer of 1993, Betty Carter toured Europe with Jack deJohnette, Dave Holland and Geri Allen. The band was caught on tape at the Royal Festival Hall in London on October 30, 1993, and the recording was released on Verve as Feed the Fire.

Betty Carter Quintet – That Sunday, That Summer
Betty Carter Quintet – Just Like the Movies (Time)
From Look What I Got: Verve/Bet-Car 835-661-2 [Buy]

In 1988, Betty Carter won a Grammy for her first album on Verve, Look What I Got: a perhaps surprising accolade from the pop music industry for a singer who remained “challenging” to the general public throughout her career.

Both these songs are taken from this album, easily one of the finest studio efforts from Carter’s career, including one of Carter’s own compositions, Just Like the Movies, a determinedly contemporary ballad, (“Circling the globe/on a plane without end/trying to go to sleep/the possibility’s slim“).

Many of the young players in Carter’s bands have gone on to establish significant careers in jazz. On this record alone we hear Benny Green and Stephen Scott on piano, Ira Coleman on bass and Winard Harper and Lewis Nash on drums. Don Braden supplies tenor saxophone on both songs.

Betty Carter Quartet – Surrey With the Fringe on Top
From Betty Carter at the Village Vanguard: Verve 519 851-2 [Buy]

Betty Carter and Carmen McRae – Sometimes I’m Happy
From The Carmen McRae – Betty Carter Duets: Verve 314 529 579-2 [Buy]

Most music is best experienced live, and by the sounds of these recordings, a Betty Carter gig would have been something not to miss ! A pity that I was either not yet born or still running around in short pants when Ms Carter was performing….

Two contrasting performances from nearly twenty years apart, and two coasts – Surrey with the Fringe on Top recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1970 when Betty Carter was launching her own indepdendent record label, and Sometimes I’m Happy from a superlative album of live duets with Carmen McRae recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco in January 1987.

Betty Carter and the Gigi Gryce Orchestra – Let’s Fall in Love
Betty Carter and the Ray Bryant Trio – Thou Swell
From Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant: Columbia CK64936 [Buy Here]

Here’s the first of a series of multi-part musical profiles that I’m putting together. I’m planning something similar for Kenny Wheeler, possibly Mingus too, but the 4 parts of Betty Carter material was ready first. Hope people enjoy the next few posts!

Although perhaps not as ingrained in the popular imagination as Fitzgerald-Vaughn-Holiday, Betty Carter (1930-1998) is without doubt one of the great voices and personalities of American jazz, and indeed some have called her the truest “jazz” to emerge singer since the Second World War.

Born in Flint, Michigan in 1930 Lorraine Carter studied piano as a child, but her professional singing career began in earnest at the age of 18, touring with the Lionel Hampton band. She was noted early on as a skilled scat singer. Although she did not particularly appreciate the stage moniker “Betty BeBop” bestowed by Hampton, scat, (in its broadest sense encompassing wordless vocal improvisation over a song’s chord changes), would remain a key weapon in Carter’s formidable musical arsenal throughout her life as a performer.

La Bottine Souriante – Le Medley des Éboulements
La Bottine Souriante – Yoyo-Verret
From Xième/Rock & Reel: Productions Mille-Pattes/EMI 8 47446 2

Bon, un blog bilingue, ce qui convient à cette flirtation avec la musique québecoise. (English version can be found below). La Bottine Souriante, un groupe de musiciens du Canada francophone, qui depuis plus que 20 ans maintenant prend comme point de départ la vaste patrimoine des folklores québecois, acadien and celtiques, des chansons et des réels. Ils y ajoutent un brin de jazz tendance Nouvelle-Orléans, des cuivres, une bonne cuillère d’humour et un savoir-faire irréprochable. Un projet plutôt réussi, selon moi.

Deux morceaux donc, selectionnés du disque « Xième » de 1998 (retitré Rock & Reel pour les marchés d’outre-Québec).

Byron Lee and the Dragonaires – Sunjet Jump Up
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires – Love Me Forever
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires – Wings of a Dove
From 45 rpm singles – The Blues Busters 2001, 2002, 2003

We finish this series of “Carribean Mondays” with a triple whammy from Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. Born in 1935 to an afro-Jamaican mother and Chinese father, Byron Lee is one of the many legends of Jamaican music, a consummate performer and astute businessman, and was probably the most internationally recognised star of Jamaican music in the 1960s.

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – Cheek to Cheek
From Ella and Louis: Verve 825 373-2 [Buy]

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket
From Ella and Louis Again: Verve 825 734-2 [Buy]

It’s been one of those weeks. Here’s some classic therapy.