American jazz alto saxophonist
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27 episodes with Cannonball Adderley
8 episodes with Cannonball Adderley
14 episodes with Cannonball Adderley
3 episodes with Cannonball Adderley
7 episodes with Cannonball Adderley
8 episodes with Cannonball Adderley
3 episodes with Cannonball Adderley
6 episodes with Cannonball Adderley
6 episodes with Cannonball Adderley
In this episode, host Steve Roby sits down with saxophonist and composer Nicole McCabe, co-leader of the genre-blending project Dolphin Hyperspace. Nicole shares her journey from growing up in Marin County, where she was inspired by both jazz and electronic music, to collaborating with bassist/producer Logan Kane. The conversation covers her musical influences (from Cannonball Adderley to Skrillex), the creative process behind Dolphin Hyperspace, and the stories behind tracks like "Minuscule Minnow" and "Mini Giraffe."Nicole also discusses her upcoming acoustic solo album "Color Theory" (produced by Jason Moran), the next Dolphin Hyperspace record "Echo Location," and her approach to live performance—especially in intimate venues like the Joe Henderson Lab at SFJAZZ.Featured topics:Blending jazz improvisation with electronic productionThe origins and evolution of Dolphin HyperspaceThe influence of Brazilian music and artists like Tom JobimLive performance dynamics and audience engagementUpcoming releases and collaborationsRelevant Links:Nicole McCabe's website: nicolemccabemusic.comDolphin Hyperspace on Bandcamp: Bandcamp (search "Dolphin Hyperspace" for direct link)SFJAZZ tickets: sfjazz.orgNicole's music on streaming platforms: Available on all major servicesFollow Nicole on Instagram: (Check her website for the latest social links)Upcoming Show:Dolphin Hyperspace at the Joe Henderson Lab, SFJAZZ CenterFriday, October 17th — Shows at 7:00 PM & 8:30 PMTickets: sfjazz.orgThanks for listening to Backstage Bay Area!
Cannonball would have turned 97 this month were he still with us. His records were some of the first I collected - there are so many and so varied, his dedication to recording live sets for his albums and playing with countless amazing musicians, infusing politics into his music and his "raps" in-between songs, is all legendary. I had not realized until now that all of this was done in such a short amount of time - he passed away at the age of 46, one year younger than I am now. To have played and recorded with the legends (Miles et al) then go on to create a massive discography and universe of his own music - along with his brother Nat - is an astonishing feat. Salute!
Saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (born September 15, 1928) and his cornet-playing brother Nat (born November 25, 1931) co-led a popular jazz combo for many years in the 1960s and 70s. While Nat composed much of the music for the group, Cannonball's galvanic, pyrotechnic alto saxophone playing was the big draw. Indeed, from the time he arrived on the New York jazz scene in the 1950s, he set the town on fire with his incredible virtuosity and distinctive tone and attack. He was a key member of the great Miles Davis sextet alongside John Coltrane that recorded the classic album Kind of Blue. Plus, St. Michael's Jazz Fest returns for a second year of incredible jazz in Carlsbad Village this Saturday, September 27th! Headlining is New Orleans' own, the legendary Grammy Award-Winning Rebirth Brass Band, joined by Euphoria Brass Band, Gilbert Castellanos Latin Jazz Ensemble, Starsign, Chunky Hustle Brass Band, Sue Palmer Swing Orchestra, and more. Free to the public and held outside on the campus lawn of St. Michael's by-the-Sea in Carlsbad. Learn more and consider volunteering or donating: https://www.stmichaelsjazzfest.org/
Christian Zyp interviews Maura Smith (director) about the documentary STEVE SCHAPIRO: BEING EVERYWHERE. See it as part of the Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF) Sunday September 28, 2025 @ 3:00 PM at the Landmark City Centre Cinemas downtown. Maura Smith will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.STEVE SCHAPIRO: BEING EVERYWHERE focuses on the fascinating story of a photographer and photojournalists' entire career in his own gentle and humble words. Steve Schapiro is famous for documenting the Civil Rights Movement and providing America with iconic images to magnify the voices of James Baldwin, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis among others. Schapiro also took some of the most classic photographs of Andy Warhol, Muhammad Ali, David Bowie, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, and countless more.EIFF Website: edmontonfilmfest.com/schedule/INSTAGRAM: @steveschapirobeingeverywhereSTEVE SHAPIRO WEBSITE: www.steveschapiro.com/index
Send us a textIf someone had told us a few years ago that we'd be talking to one of our favorite and - in our humble opinion - one of the best guitarists in the world right now, we probably wouldn't have believed it.J.D. Simo is one of those guitarists you might not have heard of… but definitely should! A super friendly guy with a cool beard and a Telecaster in hand, a walking encyclopedia of music history, always busy and never one to say “no” to a new challenge - he's a true musical legend of Nashville.As a guitarist, songwriter and producer/engineer, Simo has worked with the likes of Jack White (Beyoncé Lemonade sessions), Phil Lesh, James McCartney, Tommy Emmanuel, David Kahne, Cowboy Jack Clement, Dave Cobb, Paul Worley, George Porter, Anson Funderburgh, Peter Collins, Joe Bonamassa, Chris Isaak, Samantha Fish and Baz Luhrmann on the soundtrack and score of the Elvis and upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic (Springsteen. Deliver Me From Nowhere). He is a former member of the Don Kelley Band (2007–2012), the historic house band at Robert's Western World in Nashville, Tennessee. He was also a member of the psychedelic rock band SIMO from 2012–2018 and has released four solo albums to date. His record Songs from The House of Grease made it to our top albums of 2023.Be sure to check out our interview with JD, where he talks about his musical journey, touring plans with Chris Isaak and Luther Dickinson, and much more.podcast jingle: Łukasz WojciechowskiYou can listen to this episode here: https://tiny.pl/1xn9xg07Spotify link:YouTube: https://tiny.pl/rt6dhj-8 We also encourage you to follow our profile on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/PickPlease/and on Instagram - https://tiny.pl/cxk21We would be grateful for your support on Patronite (special bonuses for our patrons!): https://tiny.pl/r8yq62q5LINKS:J.D. SIMO:FB - https://tiny.pl/c6t-mjmqInstagram - https://tiny.pl/yw8t1f8zYoutube - https://tiny.pl/rtqm_kf7Official website - https://simo.fm/J.D. SIMO on SPOTIFY / TIDAL:Spotify - https://tiny.pl/vkm5nqqyTidal - https://tiny.pl/skgvk3krSIMO - https://tiny.pl/m_256npxJ.D. Simo & Luther Dickinson - Do The Rump! - https://tiny.pl/n2ptg-3qJ.D. Simo - Song From The House of Grease - https://tiny.pl/wn49tELVIS (Soundtrack) - https://tiny.pl/h3brs90yThis is J.D. Simo Playlist - https://tiny.pl/k1wp_3r5Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere - https://tiny.pl/6pfy155sDon Kelley Band - https://tiny.pl/ys-x8wsnMUSIC/ARTISTS recommended and listened by J.D. these days (some of many :p): Kenny Burrell (especially first album), Wes Montgomery, Grant Green (especially funk stuff from the late 60`s and early 70`s), Harold Vick, Cannonball Adderley, Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter (“Adam`s Apple”, “Juju”), Rachmaninov, Claude Debussy, Chopin, Lightnin` Hopkins, Rev. Gary Davis, Lonesome Sundown, Frankie Lee Sims, Slim Harpo, Lightnin` Slim, Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, Jimmy Bryant, Ronnie Hawkins, Hank Marvin (The Shadows), Chris Isaak, Duane Eddy,
Dibbern, Simonetta www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Studio 9
Cannonball Adderley is one of my biggest jazz heroes and in this episode we're taking a look into how he's helped me with all aspects of my playing, not just jazz and improvisation. Find and trust a process that works for you, and then get into great habits like consistency, listening, and repetition. I have also found throughout the decades of working on all music, that the less I expect in terms of results, the more I end up achieving. It's so easy to get sucked into that vortex of impatience when you first start working on something new. But trusting the process, letting it come to you rather than forcing the issue, and being okay with it not sounding or feeling that great right away are all key elements of what is going to help you succeed. Iconic Lines could be a great place to start if you're into material like this. Even if you're not, it could be the challenge and the discipline you've been looking for to take your daily routine in a new a more productive direction. Get ready for new music tonight at midnight with the release of the new album “Found” available on all streaming platforms!More soon, Janek Get full access to Janek's Newsletter at janekgwizdala.substack.com/subscribe
Erratum: At one point here I say “Cannonball Adderley” when I mean “Nat Adderley”. This episode is part of Pledge Week 2025. For five days this week, I will be posting old Patreon bonus episodes to the main feed to encourage people to subscribe to my Patreon. If you want more of these, and only if you can afford it, subscribe for $1 a month at patreon.com/andrewhickey . Whether you do or not, I hope you enjoy this one. (more…)
The Artist mourns the passing of Toothpick Vic. Your Huckleberry thinks he could have managed the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers. Mex's mom goes missing, but he still finds time to resume an old, smelly hobby...
If you were eagerly anticipating the next pun-named episode of Music of the Mat Remix, then your wait is over. Shawn Michaels came out to his entrance theme "Sexy Boy" for many years, but what if instead of kicking his opponents' heads off with Sweet Chin Music, he wailed away on a saxophone instead? Why, he'd be... just a saxy boy (saxy boyyyyyy). On this episode, Andrew and first-time guest Roomba from the VOW Discord play songs that have a saxophone part in them. Artists played include Billy Idol, Fela Kuti, Ween, Romeo Void, FEAR, Sisters of Mercy, Grace Kelly, Miles Davis w/ John Coltrane & Cannonball Adderley, and many more. Get ready to make 'em hot and make 'em shiver with the help of some awesome saxophone songs!Theme song: "Hemispheres" by Silent PartnerBluesky: @MusicoftheMat / @justandrewAll VOW podcasts, articles, previews, and reviews: VoicesofWrestling.comJoin the VOW Discord to discuss Music of the Mat and other shows/topics: VoicesofWrestling.com/DiscordDonate to Music of the Mat and other VOW podcasts: VoicesofWrestling.com/DonateAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
TOM HARRELL “ALTERNATE SUMMER” New York, November 28 & December 27, 2022Miramar (2), Alternate summer (2,3), Intermezzo (1)Tom Harrell (tp) Dayna Stephens (ts-1) Mark Turner (ts-2) Luis Perdomo (p,el-p,org) Charles Altura (g-3,el-g-3) Ugonna Okegwo (b) Adam Cruz (d) CHRIS CHEEK “KEEPERS OF THE EASTERN DOOR” New York, November 8 & 9, 2024Kino's canoe, Smoke rings, O sacrum convivium!, Keepers of the Eastern doorChris Cheek (ts,sop) Bill Frisell (g,elg) Tony Scherr (b) Rudy Royston (dr) CANNONBALL ADDERLEY “THEM DIRTY BLUES” New York, February 1, 1960; Chicago, IL, March 29, 1960Jeannine, Them dirty blues, Work songNat Adderley (cnt) Cannonball Adderley (as) Bobby Timmons / Barry Harris (p) Sam Jones (b) Louis Hayes (d) Continue reading Puro Jazz 04 de junio, 2025 at PuroJazz.
TOM HARRELL “ALTERNATE SUMMER” New York, November 28 & December 27, 2022Miramar (2), Alternate summer (2,3), Intermezzo (1)Tom Harrell (tp) Dayna Stephens (ts-1) Mark Turner (ts-2) Luis Perdomo (p,el-p,org) Charles Altura (g-3,el-g-3) Ugonna Okegwo (b) Adam Cruz (d) CHRIS CHEEK “KEEPERS OF THE EASTERN DOOR” New York, November 8 & 9, 2024Kino's canoe, Smoke rings, O sacrum convivium!, Keepers of the Eastern doorChris Cheek (ts,sop) Bill Frisell (g,elg) Tony Scherr (b) Rudy Royston (dr) CANNONBALL ADDERLEY “THEM DIRTY BLUES” New York, February 1, 1960; Chicago, IL, March 29, 1960Jeannine, Them dirty blues, Work songNat Adderley (cnt) Cannonball Adderley (as) Bobby Timmons / Barry Harris (p) Sam Jones (b) Louis Hayes (d) Continue reading Puro Jazz 04 de junio, 2025 at PuroJazz.
The jazz standard "All The Things You Are" has been performed countless times by master jazz vocalists, 30s big bands, bebop small groups, hard-bop combos, modern deconstructionists, and even soon-to-be Kings of Pop. On this episode, Kirk takes listeners through the history of the now-famous tune, from its humble Broadway origins all the way to his recording studio in Portland, where he and some friends recorded an all-new arrangement just for Strong Songs.Music/Lyrics: Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein IIVersions Featured:Broadway Original Cast Recording of "Very Warm for May," - 1939Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, feat. Jack Leonard, 1939Artie Shaw w/ Hellen Forrest, 1939Dizzy Gillespie w/ Charlie Parker, 1945Johnny Griffin w/ Hank Mobley, John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Art Blakey on A Blowing Session, 1957Ella Fitzgerald from Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook, 1963Michael Jackson, 1973Sonny Rollins w/ Coleman Hawkins from Sonny Meets Hawk!, 1963Bill Evans w/ Chuck Israels, bass, and Larry Bunker, drums at Shelly's Mane-Hole, 1963Keith Jarrett Trio, from Standards, Vol.1, 1983Brad Mehldau Trio, from Art of the Trio 4, 1999Jim Hall & Pat Metheney, 1999Strong Songs Version Featuring:Kirk Hamilton, tenor saxAndrew Oliver, keyboardScott Pemberton, guitarSam Howard, bassTyson Stubelek, drumsThe "All The Things You Are" Playlist:Spotify | Apple | YouTube MusicALSO REFERENCED/DISCUSSED:The Jazz Standards: A Guide To The Repertoire by Ted Gioia, 2012The terrific 99% Invisible episode about The Real Book“Autumn Leaves” by Joseph Kosma as recorded by Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis on Somethin' Else, 1958“Pennies From Heaven” by Johnston and Burke, recorded by Stan Getz with the Oscar Peterson Trio, 1957“Bye Bye Blackbird” by Henderson/Dixon, recorded by Miles Davis on ‘Round About Midnight, 1957“All Of Me” by Marks and Simons, played by Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano and Kenny Clarke, 1951“I Got Rhythm” by George Gershwin, recorded by Sonny Stitt on The Hard Swing, 1961Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C-Sharp Minor, performed by Jason Minnis, 2011“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John, 1973“Bird of Paradise,” recorded by Charlie Parker w/ Howard McGhee, Tpt. on The Complete Dial Recordings, Feb 1947“Prince Albert” recorded by Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (Mobley, Dorham, Watkins, Silver) live at Cafe Bohemia, 1955“Poinciana” by Simon/Bernier recorded by Amhad Jamal Live At The Pershing, 1958----LINKS-----
Send us a textCzym byłaby rozmowa o Blue Note Records bez choćby ogólnej analizy kilku kultowych nagrań z jej złotego okresu działalności? Inna sprawa, że nikt nie byłby w stanie nas słuchać przez 10 godzin o samych krążkach (:p), tym bardziej że już poczęstowaliśmy Was dwoma odcinka o historii tej wytwórni, więc ograniczyliśmy się do omówienia czterech naszych ulubionych krążków / winyli. Niezależnie od przedstawianych dzieł muzycznych, poprosiliśmy naszego przyjaciela i wielkiego pasjonata jazzu i bluesa - Piotra Łukasiewicz (radiowca, gospodarza audycji Jazz Czyli Blues w RadioJazz.FM) o gościnną wypowiedź w tym temacie. On też wybrał absolutną perłę :)I tym odcinkiem kończymy trylogię Pick Please Podcast o naszej ulubionej jazzowej wytwórni nagraniowej - Blue Note Records :) muzyka: Łukasz Wojciechowski (intro)Możecie odsłuchać ten odcinek tutaj: https://tiny.pl/1xn9xg07Link do Spotify: Youtube: Zachęcamy też do śledzenia naszego profilu na Facebooku - https://www.facebook.com/PickPlease/oraz Instagramie - https://tiny.pl/cxk21Będziemy wdzięczni za wsparcie nas na Patronite (specjalne bonusy dla naszych patronów!): https://tiny.pl/r8yq62q5LINKOWNIA:Podstawowe info o BNR:Wikipedia (o wytwórni) - https://tiny.pl/0c3qyx0vStrona oficjalna wytwórni - https://tiny.pl/8z5-v5w2Styl Blue Note Records - https://tiny.pl/jbzsfg95Jazzpress.pl (o “Somethin` Else”) - https://tiny.pl/14rck0hqWykonawcy:Lee Morgan - https://tiny.pl/hb_tpbkyJohn Coltrane - https://tiny.pl/1-nppfw3Miles Davis - https://tiny.pl/hqk_m3wzArt Blakey - https://tiny.pl/99qg7bc0The Jazz Messengers - https://tiny.pl/5jm_wsssKenny Burrell - https://tiny.pl/crf6bgrgMUZYKA:PŁYTY:John Coltrane - Blue Train (1958) - https://tiny.pl/xdncs67nArt Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Moanin' (1959) - https://tiny.pl/2wn8133xCannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else (1958) - https://tiny.pl/f_p0jpxqKenny Burrell - Midnight Blue (1963) - https://tiny.pl/mss8j_bwLee Morgan - Search For The New Land (1966) - https://tiny.pl/nq9xb10rProfile (social media) audycji Jazz Czyli Blues:Facebook - https://tiny.pl/5n4699vyInstagram - https://tiny.pl/cbw-5hgyRadioJazz.Fm (online player)- https://tiny.pl/jbrrqk3vFILM DOKUMENTALNY DO POLECENIA:“I Called Him Morgan” (trailer) - https://tiny.pl/2x9spcqw
durée : 00:59:08 - Banzzaï du vendredi 02 mai 2025 : Mystères - rediffusion - par : Nathalie Piolé - Que signifie "Azule Serape" ? Quel bruit font les gazons d'été ? Qu' y a-t'il derrière le muret ? Ce soir, on aime les mystères...
Jordan and Alex avoided showering for days to dive into one of the enduring artifacts of San Francisco’s heady heyday: Big Brother and the Holding Company’s 'Cheap Thrills,' or as everyone knows it, “Janis Joplin’s first album.” The pair swap places for once as Jordan passionately reels off hate for Big Brother, whom Alex allows are “fine.” Along the way they’ll digress into The Evil That Men Do (particularly Albert Grossman and Clive Davis), Alex’s favorite Lou Reed vocal ever, why Cannonball Adderley was the best foil Miles Davis ever had, and Paul McCartney's weird musical moment with Steve "The Joker" Miller during the final days of the Beatles. And of course, they’ll be waxing poetic about sweet Janis, one of the Sixties’ saddest (and most joyful) figureheads. Too Much Information: Let’s Full-Tilt Boogie away Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues oh my god why did we start talking like that. Support your friendly neighborhood TMI Guys here! https://ko-fi.com/toomuchinformationpodcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
When he isn't touring the country as a member of the free jazz collective ‘The Music Quintet' Coleman Rose makes time as a performer and composer in the Sonny Rollins Ensemble at Oberlin College. Well equipped to live and work in both free and traditional jazz, Coleman showcases the latter here in this sextet featuring works by Wayne Shorter, Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane. Featuring Coleman Rose on Tenor Sax, Chris Coles on Alto Sax, Mitchell Galligan on Hammond B3, Tommy Lehman on Trumpet, Tim Picard on Guitar, and Ori Jossell on drums, and from a sold out performance from March 29th, 2024, it's the Coleman Rose Sextet – Live at the Bop Stop.
THELONIOS MONK TRIO “THE COMPLETE BLUE NOTE RECORDINGS OF THELONIOUS MONK”: New York, October 24, 1947Ruby my dear, Well you needn't, April in Paris, Off minorThelonious Monk (p) Gene Ramey (b) Art Blakey (d) New York, November 21, 1947In walked Bud, ‘Round midnight George Tait (tp) Sahib Shihab (as) [aka Edmund Gregory (as) ] Thelonious Monk (p) Bob Paige (b) Art Blakey (d) DUKE ELLINGTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA “MASTERPIECES BY ELLINGTON” New York, December 18, 1950Mood indigo (yl vcl)Nelson Williams, Andrew “Fats” Ford Harold Baker, Ray Nance William Anderson (tp) Mercer Ellington (flugelhorn) Lawrence Brown, Quentin Jackson (tb) Tyree Glenn (tb,vib) Jimmy Hamilton (cl,ts) Johnny Hodges (as) Russell Procope (as,cl) Paul Gonsalves (ts) Duke Ellington Billy Strayhorn (p) Wendell Marshall (b) Sonny Greer (d) Yvonne Lanauze (vcl) MILES DAVIS QUINTET “THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA RECORDINGS: MILES DAVIS & JOHN COLTRANE”: ‘Round About Midnight, New York, October 26, 1955 Ah-leu-chaMiles Davis (tp) John Coltrane (ts) Cannonball Adderley (sa) Red Garland (p) Paul Chambers (b) Philly Joe Jones (d) Milestones, New York, February 4, 1958 MilestonesMiles Davis (tp) Cannonball Adderley (as) John Coltrane (ts) Red Garland (p) Paul Chambers (b) Philly Joe Jones (d) Kind of Blue – New York, March 2, 1959 Blue in greenMiles Davis (tp) John Coltrane (ts) Bill Evans (p) Paul Chambers (b) Jimmy Cobb (d) Continue reading Puro Jazz 03 de junio, 2024 (Repetición) at PuroJazz.
A playlist starting with the great Cannonball Adderley and concluding with honoring the late pioneer of Acid Jazz, Roy Ayers. Playlist Artist ~ Name ~ Album Cannonball Adderley Quintet ~ Arriving Soon ~ The Quintet Plus Cannonball Adderley ~ One For Daddy-O ~ Somethin' Else Sphere ~ Dual Force ~ Sphere: Live On Tour ARTEMIS ~ Footprints ~ ARBORESQUE Mackenzie Leighton ~ Pm/Am ~ I Remember Andrew Wilcox ~ Old Devil Moon ~ Dear Mr. Hill Out Of/Into ~ Gabaldon's Glide ~ Motion I Roy Ayers Ubiquity ~ Everybody Loves the Sunshine ~ Everybody Loves the Sunshine
En este episodio hemos escuchado a Bill Laurence and The Untold Orchestra;Sex Magick Wizards;Cannonball Adderley;Charles Lloyd;Dúo Lupino;Sultan Stevenson;Circles 44;Benjamin Lackner.
El 11 de febrero de 1941 nacía, en la ciudad brasileña de Niterói, Sergio Mendes que al frente de su Brasil ´66 triunfó en Estados Unidos con grabaciones de 'Mas que nada', 'Going out of my head', 'Night and day', 'The look of love', 'So many stars', 'The fool on the hill' o 'Scarborough fair'. Antes, en el Río de Janeiro del samba jazz, a principios de los años sesenta, ya se había ganado fama como pianista y arreglista desde su primer disco 'Dance moderno' ('Outra vez', 'Disa', 'Oba-lá-lá'), con el sexteto Bossa Rio ('Ela é carioca', 'Primitivo', 'Nanã'), y acompañando al saxofonista de jazz Cannonball Adderley con el Bossa Rio en 'Batida diferente' o 'Joyce´s samba'. También le escuchamos tocando nuestra sintonía en su disco 'Horizonte aberto' y 'Mas que nada' grabada con wil.I.am y The Black Eyed Peas. Escuchar audio
durée : 00:59:16 - Fables - par : Nathalie Piolé -
durée : 00:59:31 - Pour le meilleur - par : Nathalie Piolé -
In light of Janis Stockhouse's unexpected death at the tail end of 2024, we're re-posting Kirk's 2019 interview with her for anyone who might want to listen to it.Janis started teaching at North high school in Bloomington, Indiana, in the early 1980s. It was a time when "jazz education" as a concept was still a relatively new thing. She retired 38 years later, having grown the North band program into a well-known Midwest institution, winning countless awards at festivals around the world and regularly turning out graduates who would go on to become professional musicians, as well as many others who would simply have a lifelong love of music.On this episode she tells the story of starting out at North and developing the program, along with her thoughts on how to get students to practice, which composers she prefers for student groups, women in jazz, funding for the arts, and some good old-fashioned album recommendations.REFERENCED ON THIS EPISODE:Janis's 2004 book Jazzwomen: Conversations With Twenty-One Musicians, which she co-wrote with Wayne Enstice - there are used copies on Amazon, and you should really track down a copy and read itThe late great jazz legend David Baker, whose NYT obituary captured at least some of his legacy: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/arts/music/david-baker-who-helped-bring-jazz-studies-into-the-academy-dies-at-84.htmlMUSIC ON THIS EPISODE:"IU Swing Machine" by David Baker as played by the 2016 IU Celebration Big Band"Don't Get Sassy" by the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis big band"Hang Gliding" by Maria Schneider from Alegresse"Bright Eyes" as played by the Bill Holman big band"Take the 'A' Train" by Billy Strayhorn as performed by the Duke Ellington orchestra"Vol. 6: All 'Bird' - Now's The Time" Play-A-Long by Jamey Aebersold (featuring Kenny Barron and Ron Carter(!!))"Laugh, Clown, Laugh" by Abbey Lincoln from Abbey Is Blue, 1959"Song Patrol" by Jane Ira Bloom from Early Americans, 2016"Lingala" by the SF Jazz Collective from their 2005 self-titled album"So What" and "Flamenco Sketches" by Miles Davis from Kind of Blue, 1959"My Favorite Things" as performed by John Coltrane on My Favorite Things, 1966"Mercy Mercy Mercy" by Josef Zawinul as performed by the Cannonball Adderley quintet on Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, 1966OUTRO SOLOIST: BJ CORDThis episode's outro soloist is BJ Cord, a fellow Bloomington North graduate and fantastic trumpet player based in Portland. BJ works at Monette trumpets making some of the most beautiful horns in the world, and is a regular presence on their Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monettetrumpets
Grabaciones de bossa nova publicadas en las últimas décadas por el sello Blue Note: el saxofonista Ike Quebec ('Blue samba', 'Favela'), el saxofonista Cannonball Adderley con The Bossa Rio Sextet ('O amor em paz', 'Batida diferente'), el guitarrista Grant Green ('Corcovado'), el saxofonista Joe Henderson ('Blue bossa'), los cantantes Bobby McFerrin, ('Blue bossa'), Peggy Lee ('A little boat'), Blossom Dearie ('Quiet nights of quiet stars') y Jackie Allen ('Dindi') y el flautista y saxofonista Charlie Rouse ('Samba de Orfeu').Escuchar audio
For New Year's Eve, tonight's show includes: Artie Shaw & His Orchestra, Begin the Beguine Benny Goodman, Let's Dance Jerry Gray, The Anvil Chorus Ella Fitzgerald, Night and Day Arnett Cobb, Ray Bryant, Party Time Duke Ellington, Satin Doll Erroll Garner, How Could You Do A Thing Like That To Me Mel Tormé, Let's Face the Music and Dance Peggy Lee, Fever Machito with Cannonball Adderley, Congo Mulence Helen Humes, Bill Bailey Louis Prima & Keely Smith, All Night Long Ben Webster & Johnny Hodges, Waiting on The Champagne Winifred Atwell, Slaughter On 10th Ave Sidney Bechet, I Get a Kick Out of You Duke Ellington, Rhapsody in Blue Pete Fountain, Marching 'Round the Mountain Guy Lombardo, Auld Lang Syne
Estudios Radio AM 750 Alejandro Dolina, Patricio Barton, Gillespi Introducción • Entrada0:02:17 • Cuentos cantados: un recuerdo musical de la madre de Dolina0:07:40 Segmento Inicial • La basura: ¿qué hacer con ella?0:10:50 • Oyentes0:51:15 Segmento Dispositivo • La inmortalidad0:58:23 • "¿Qué me pasa? ¿Dónde estoy?" ♫ (Cecilia Milone y Alejandro Dolina) Radiocine, 2002 1:10:38 Segmento Humorístico • Comportamiento correcto en la Ópera1:13:17 Sordo Gancé / Trío Sin Nombre • Presentación1:31:15 • "La Rueda Mágica" ♫ (Fito Páez, El Amor Después Del Amor, 1992) • "Ay De Mí!" ♫ (Sebastián Piana/Homero Manzi) Canta Corsini, Guitaras Maciel/Pagés/Pesoa. • "Fields Of Gold" ♫ (Sting, Ten Summoner's Tales, 1993) Canta Eva Cassidy, 1996. • "Las Hojas Muertas (Les Feuilles mortes)" ♫ (Joseph Kosma/Jacques Prévert, 1945) Yves Montand, Irène Joachim en Les Portes de la Nuit, 1946. Nat King Cole, 1955. Roger Williams con orquesta de Glen Osser, 1955. Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis & Art Blakey, 1958. • "El Cumbanchero" ♫ (Rafael Hernández Marín, El Jibarito, 1943) Compay Quinto, 1968.
Send us your thoughts! As a finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2020, winner of the Rising Star category in the 2019 British Jazz Awards and three-time nominee in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, Alex is known to be one of the most in-demand and versatile saxophonists to have emerged on the British jazz scene.Praised for her intelligent ear for harmony and a deep knowledge of repertoire across a broad spectrum of styles, Alex's sound is steeped in the tradition of bebop. Her total respect for the heritage of the music can be heard in a fiery, melodic approach inspired by the likes of Phil Woods, Cannonball Adderley and Vincent Herring. As a bandleader, Alex's quartet features some of the UK's finest musicians: David Newton, Dave Green and Steve Brown. In summer 2022, she released her latest album “Only A Year” and since then, her quartet have toured extensively around the country, appearing at jazz clubs and festivals including Swanage Jazz Festival and Scarborough Jazz Festival.Crown Lane StudioDiscover South London's hidden gem for musicians. Crown Lane Studio is a stunning multiroom complex.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show
Estudios Radio AM 750 Alejandro Dolina, Patricio Barton, Gillespi Introducción • Entrada0:01:50 Segmento Inicial • Cómo triunfar en un concurso de preguntas y respuestas0:10:02 • Oyentes0:39:27 Segmento Dispositivo • El destino de los papeles de Shelley0:48:23 "Me alegro de que lo haya encontrado. Un poco de orgullo me llevó a esconderlo apenas. El cuaderno le pertenece." • "Corazón de Papel" ♫ (Canta Gardel, 1930) Cátulo Castillo/A.J. Franco. Segmento Humorístico • Parques de diversiones en los Estados Unidos1:06:48 Sordo Gancé / Manuel Moreira • Presentación1:26:05 • "El Adiós de Gabino Ezeiza" ♫ (Héctor Pedro Blomberg/Enrique Maciel) Canta Corsini, 1933. Suma Paz, 1962. • "Maria Ninguém" ♫ (Carlos Lyra/João Gilberto, Chega de Saudade, 1959) Cliff Richard, 1963. • "Las Hojas Muertas (Les Feuilles mortes)" ♫ (Joseph Kosma/Jacques Prévert, 1945) Yves Montand, Irène Joachim en Les Portes de la Nuit, 1946. Nat King Cole, 1955. Roger Williams con orquesta de Glen Osser, 1955. Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis & Art Blakey, 1958. • "Blue Monk" ♫ (Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Monk Trio, 1954) • "Carla" ♫ (Palito Ortega, año 1964) Palito Ortega/Ricardo Lew.
durée : 00:59:22 - Odyssée musicale - par : Nathalie Piolé -
There's hope in music. And if we need something to carry us forward over the coming years it's hope. So we'll take all we can get with all the music we can get. This week's Deeper Roots show takes us through a blend of genres, making a free form journey across the landscape of America's music from the past century. We'll bring you Cannonball Adderley right alongside Hank Thompson and The Neville Brothers, The Doors, Patsy Cline and Mink Deville to start. Dave Stroud's done some scouring through those dusty digital archives for well- (and little-) known gems with stories and ballads. He'll be taking you to where country meets soul, jazz meets boogie woogie and where there's an unlikely fusion of reggae, folk, and zydeco. Topics include wedding days, jiggers of gin, honeydrippers, and the topic of Texas and some big blue diamonds. Tune in this week. Take your mind off the grifters and haters that have polluted the pond.
Michael Wolff, a renowned jazz pianist, composer and bandleader known for his virtuoso performances and innovative style. After leaving music school early to join the Latin-jazz great Cal Yader's band in the early '70s, he spent the next two decades gigging and recording extensively. Michael can be heard on over 21 recordings with a veritable hall of fame ranging from Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Nancy Wilson (he was her musical director), Sheila E, Christian McBride, Tony Williams, and more. He has performed with and conducted over 25 symphony orchestras worldwide and also had a five-year tenure as the musical director of the high energy house band on Arsenio Hall's groundbreaking late-night talk show. This journey led to him accompanying saxophonist and Presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992. His newest album, MEMOIR is a stunning collection of 11 tracks, a mixture of moods, beautifully and elegantly played with his frequent trio partners, stellar musicians Alan Mednard, and Ben Allison. His newest album release is especially noteworthy because it is miraculous he is alive after a brutal battle with a misdiagnosed form of cancer that had him at death's door. But he's back making incredible music! #jazzmusic #jazz #jazzmusician #jazzpiano #piano #cancersurvivor #memoir #newalbum #newmusic #newrelease #neworleans #chicago #newyork #losangeles #arsenohall
Michael Wolff, a renowned jazz pianist, composer and bandleader known for his virtuoso performances and innovative style. After leaving music school early to join the Latin-jazz great Cal Yader's band in the early '70s, he spent the next two decades gigging and recording extensively. Michael can be heard on over 21 recordings with a veritable hall of fame ranging from Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Nancy Wilson (he was her musical director), Sheila E, Christian McBride, Tony Williams, and more. He has performed with and conducted over 25 symphony orchestras worldwide and also had a five-year tenure as the musical director of the high energy house band on Arsenio Hall's groundbreaking late-night talk show. This journey led to him accompanying saxophonist and Presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992. His newest album, MEMOIR is a stunning collection of 11 tracks, a mixture of moods, beautifully and elegantly played with his frequent trio partners, stellar musicians Alan Mednard, and Ben Allison. His newest album release is especially noteworthy because it is miraculous he is alive after a brutal battle with a misdiagnosed form of cancer that had him at death's door. But he's back making incredible music! #jazzmusic #jazz #jazzmusician #jazzpiano #piano #cancersurvivor #memoir #newalbum #newmusic #newrelease #neworleans #chicago #newyork #losangeles #arsenohall
Del disco 'Bossa nova U.S.A.' (1963), del Dave Brubeck Quartet, 'Bossa nova U.S.A', 'Cool wind', 'Tender heart' y 'The trolley song'; del disco 'Cannonball´s bossa nova' (1963), del saxofonista Cannonball Adderley, 'Clouds', 'Batida diferente', 'Joyce´s samba' y 'O amor em paz'; del disco 'Collaboration' (1964), de The Modern Jazz Quartet con Laurindo Almeida, 'One note samba' y 'Foi a saudade'; del disco 'Do the bossa' (1964), del flautista Herbie Mann, 'Menina feia' y 'Deve ser amor' y, del disco recopilatorio 'Bossa nova years', del saxofonista y flautista Bud Shank, con grabaciones realizadas entre 1962 y 1965, 'Silk stop' e 'Ilusão'. Escuchar audio
durée : 00:59:20 - Tous à la sieste - par : Nathalie Piolé - Ce soir, notre corps et nos oreilles répondent très fort ... à l'appel de la sieste !
durée : 00:59:24 - Tombe la nuit - par : Nathalie Piolé -
Welcome to SUPERSTARS WEEK! This week I'm rebroadcasting my interviews with five Superstars: Judy Collins, Al Kooper, David Amram, Ron Carter and Oscar Hammerstein II. Ron Carter is “the Maestro”, the world's most renowned bassist. He's the most recorded bassist in jazz history and a 3x Grammy winner. He's played with everyone from Cannonball Adderley to Thelonious Monk to Roberta Flack and of course with Miles Davis. He was in Miles' quintet in the mid-60s along with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams - one of the greatest bands ever. He's on the faculty of Juilliard and Berklee and has been honored with cultural awards by France and Japan.My featured song is my version of the classic song “All Blues” from my 1994 album Child's Play by The Robert Miller Group. ---------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!For more information and other episodes of the podcast click here. To subscribe to the podcast click here.To subscribe to our weekly Follow Your Dream Podcast email click here.To Rate and Review the podcast click here.“Dream With Robert”. Click here.—----------------------------------------“THE GIFT” is Robert's new single featuring his song arranged by Grammy winning arranger Michael Abene. Praised by David Amram, John Helliwell, Joe La Barbera, Tony Carey, Fay Claassen, Antonio Farao, Danny Gottlieb and Leslie Mandoki.Click HERE for all links.—-------------------------------------“LOU'S BLUES” is Robert's recent single. Called “Fantastic! Great playing and production!” (Mark Egan - Pat Metheny Group/Elements) and “Digging it!” (Peter Erskine - Weather Report)!Click HERE for all links.—----------------------------------------“THE RICH ONES”. Robert's recent single. With guest artist Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears) on flugelhorn. Click HERE for all links.—---------------------------------------“MILES BEHIND”, Robert's debut album, recorded in 1994, was “lost” for the last 30 years. It's now been released for streaming. Featuring Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears), Anton Fig (The David Letterman Show), Al Foster (Miles Davis), Tim Ries (The Rolling Stones), Jon Lucien and many more. Called “Hip, Tight and Edgy!” Click here for all links.—--------------------------------------“IT'S ALIVE!” is Robert's latest Project Grand Slam album. Featuring 13 of the band's Greatest Hits performed “live” at festivals in Pennsylvania and Serbia.Reviews:"An instant classic!" (Melody Maker)"Amazing record...Another win for the one and only Robert Miller!" (Hollywood Digest)"Close to perfect!" (Pop Icon)"A Masterpiece!" (Big Celebrity Buzz)"Sterling effort!" (Indie Pulse)"Another fusion wonder for Project Grand Slam!" (MobYorkCity)Click here for all links.Click here for song videos—-----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with Ron at:www.roncarterjazz.com Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com
CANNONBALL ADDERLEY “PARIS 1960” Paris, France, November 25, 1960Bohemia after dark, JeannineNat Adderley (cnt) Cannonball Adderley (as) Victor Feldman (p) Sam Jones (b) Louis Hayes (d) JOHN COATES, JR. “PORTRAIT” New York, November 17, 1955 & April 23, 1956 (1)Let's get lost, Love is the sweetest thing, Coates oats (1)John Coates, Jr. (p) Wendell Marshall (b) Kenny Clarke (d) OLIVER NELSON, f/ KENNY DORHAM “MEET OLIVER NELSON” Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 30, 1959Jams and jellies, Passion flower, Booze blues babyKenny Dorham (tp) Oliver Nelson (ts) Ray Bryant (p) Wendell Marshall (b) Art Taylor (d) Continue reading Puro Jazz 22 de agosto, 2024 at PuroJazz.
Supposedly, the apocalypse will be rung in with horns. But they won't be horns like this, unless the rapture is truly rapturous. The 2010s showcased Moon Hooch's evolution from studious Jazz disciples to rave-inducing dance barons. Using a “reverse DJ” set up, they filter their saxes, vocoders and another set of mad brass weapons that would make Cannonball Adderley smile, through Ableton, playing EDM with Jazz instruments. And that crazed euphoria has translated well in their live shows and songs. At their best, Moon Hooch create a hallucinatory, out of body experience. So, listen to our interview with them, read our blurb on their break through single “Number 9” and see why they're the best of the 10s. “I don't think I'm looking for anything other than my own surrender. ” — Wenzl Mcgowen
CANNONBALL ADDERLEY / BILL EVANS “KNOW WHAT I MEAN?” New York, January – March, 1961Waltz for Debby, Goodbye, Know what I mean ?Cannonball Adderley (as) Bill Evans (p) Percy Heath (b) Connie Kay (d) STEVE NELSON “BROTHERS UNDER THE SUN” New York, December 9, 2016The more I see you, Soul-Leo, It never entered my mindSteve Nelson (vib) Danny Grissett (p) Peter Washington (b) Lewis Nash (d) STEVE LACY “EVIDENCE” Englewood Cliffs, NJ, November 14, 1961Evidence, Let's cool one, San Francisco holidayDon Cherry (tp) Steve Lacy (sop) Carl Brown (b) Billy Higgins (d) Continue reading Puro Jazz 08 de agosto, 2024 at PuroJazz.
Episode 109- Join Host Troy Saunders as he converses with the smooth, jazzy, multi genre vocalist and songwriter the incredible Roderick Harper. The Keeper Of The Love Song.In the this episode Roderick and Troy take a trip through Roderick's catalog from 1999 to present. Starting with his first offering "Beautiful Beginnings". A well sung collection of jazz and blues classics. Roderick has a sound that uniquely his own and transcends all genres. Troy chose to highlight the song "Moonlight" off of this album. Roderick tell the audience about attending college in Louisiana, working with the great Ellis Marsalis and how it led him to this recording.Roderick also has the knack of reinterpreting a song. One example of this appeared on his next album "The Essence of Roderick Harper" where he jazzed up Sade's "Stronger Than Pride". A total joy to listen to. Roderick explained the making of this album with the great Nicolas Payton, while living in Chicago.After a 15 year hiatus, to raise a family, Roderick reemerges with "Perfect Imperfections". Recently divorced, Roderick returns to New Orleans. He tells his story of reinvention and discovery. Troy and Roderick play "Never Will I Marry" a Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley classic. A song that is dear to Roderick for many reasons. Other gems played and discussed include "Look What I Got" from his "Evolving" album. "Hearts Desire" from his first R&B offering "Back To Love". The later album spawned 3 top 5 hits on the UK R&B Charts.Of course they discuss Roderick's epic "2702" album, produced by the incomparable Jamison Ross. This album is truly a masterpiece and a favorite by both Roderick and Troy. To date its Roderick's most popular album. Reaching the #4 slot on the Amazon UK chart. Troy's chose to highlight two songs off of this album "Slice Of Life" and "Genuine".The musical journey brought the listener to his latest project "Back To Love Vol.2 (Journey To Love)" a new collection of R&B gems featuring hits "Unforgettable" and "Eternal Love" with more to follow. Troy started the episode by highlighting "Love Is In the Air" and ended it with "Unforgettable" and Roderick's remarkable remake of Major Harris/ Luther Vandross's "Love Won't Let Me Wait" This is a wonderful episode of great music, stories of discovery, reinvention and wonderful conversation. If you love a good slow jam with mellow Jazz and R&B infused vocals, this is one you won't want to miss.Listen and subscribe to the BAAS Entertainment Podcast on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Podchaser, Pocket Casts and TuneIn. “Hey, Alexa. Play the BAAS Entertainment Podcast.”
This week Joe is featuring Saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley from his 1963 Riverside Records recording, titled “Jazz Workshop Revisited.”
Welcome to Live From Progzilla Towers Edition 520. In this All Requests edition we heard music by Van Der Graaf Generator, Amarok, Dog Unit, David Shire, Cannonball Adderley, Intergalactic Touring Band, Flash, Utopia, Bad Omens, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Cake, Seven Reizh, Gong, Casiopea, Nuclear Power Trio, Sungazer, Orlando Weeks, Globular, Richard Wright, Sigur Rós, Riverside, Brian Eno & Spock's Beard.
The record store day madness continues as the boys take two Cannonball Adderley air-shots from France for a spin. Whether he's Poppin in Paris or Burning in Bordeaux, the listener can hear Adderley's group transitioning from the sixties to the seventies, even if things get bumpy from time to time. To put the great alto saxophone player's creativity into context, two of his more surprising releases on Capitol Records also get a look in. Once you've heard the man's stone classics, here's something else for you to try. Cannonball Adderley: ACCENT ON AFRICA; QUINTET WITH ORCHESTRA; BURNIN' IN BOURDEAUX; POPPIN' IN PARIS.
Don Randi is a keyboard player, bandleader, longtime nightclub owner (no easy feat in L.A.) and a veteran of one of the most prolific and successful group of Los Angeles studio session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew.He began his career as a professional pianist and keyboard player in 1956, gradually establishing a reputation as a leading session musician. In the early 1960s, he was a major contributor, as musician and arranger, to producer Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound". He also played piano on "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," by Nancy Sinatra, and The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations". He's played on over three hundred hit records, working with musicians such as The Ronettes, Darlene Love, Linda Ronstadt, Quincy Jones, Cannonball Adderley, Herb Alpert, Neil Diamond, The Jackson 5, James Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Zappa and many, many more!He appeared on, and wrote for, many motion picture and television soundtracks, commercials and pop albums during the 1960s and 1970s. He also recorded albums of piano jazz music under his own name and as the leader of a trio with Leroy Vinnegar and Mel Lewis. These included Feelin' Like Blues (1960), Where Do We Go From Here (1962), Last Night (1963), and Love Theme From "Romeo And Juliet" (1968).In 1970, he opened the Baked Potato Jazz Club, and formed his own group, Don Randi and Quest, as the house band. The band have subsequently recorded over 15 albums and were nominated for a Grammy in 1980 for the album New Baby.In 2008, as a member of the "Wrecking Crew", Randi was inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk.Source: https://www.last.fm/music/Don+Randi/+wikiSource: https://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/Source: https://www.thebakedpotato.com/Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.Support the Show.
On this episode: Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra (Beiderbecke), Singin' The Blues Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Red Norvo, Hank Jones, Sleepwalker Boogie Art Pepper, Jazz Me Blues Milt Jackson, Sermonette Ron Carter, Eric Dolphy And Mal Waldron, Bass Duet Machito with Cannonball Adderley, Congo Mulence Dave Brubeck/Tony Bennett, That Old Black Magic Ray Bryant(p), Walter Booker Jr.(b) & Freddie Waits(ds), Gotta Travel On Ray Charles, Sidewinder Joni James, Just One Of Those Things Herbie Mann, Never Ending Song of Love (LP Version) Earl "Fatha" Hines, Pretty Baby The Crusaders, Double Bubble Wynton Marsalis, New Orleans Bump
This is a special edition of Mondo Jazz focusing on soon-to-be collector's items which were released on the occasion of the first Record Store Day of 2024. The playlist features Cannonball Adderley [pictured]; Omar Sosa, NDR Big Band; Bill Evans; Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy; and Yusef Lateef. Detailed playlist at https://spinitron.com/RFB/pl/18910139/Mondo-Jazz [up to "Yusef's Mood"]. Photo credit: Roberto Polillo. Happy listening!
GGACP celebrates the 40th anniversary of the release of "This Is Spinal Tap"(March 2, 1984) by revisiting this 2016 interview with Emmy-nominated actor-writer and Oscar-nominated musician Michael McKean. In this episode, Michael looks back on his days in the sketch troupe The Credibility Gap, recalls his brief stint at "Saturday Night Live," reveals the amusing origin of Lenny and Squiggy and praises the improvisational cinema of Christopher Guest. Also, Norm Macdonald loses his cool, Spinal Tap meets Joe Franklin, Rod Steiger channels "Il Duce" and Michael and Gilbert compare life mask collections. PLUS: Remembering Zacherle! The genius of Richard Libertini! "Abbott and Costello Go to Mars"! Cannonball Adderley buys the farm! And "The Square, Square World of Dick Conti"! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This show starts with one of my favorite recordings with the vocals of Nancy Wilson and the alto sax of Cannonball Adderley. Next up is a new recording from tenor saxman, Wayne Escoffery. A sampling of Classic LPs from Young, Shorter and Chick to follow. We also say goodbye to composer/arranger/pianist Carla Bley. Playlist Artist ~ Name ~ Album Cannonball Adderley & Nancy Wilson ~ Save Your Love for Me ~ Nancy Wilson & Cannonball Adderley Cannonball Adderley & Nancy Wilson ~ Unit 7 ~ Nancy Wilson & Cannonball Adderley Wayne Escoffery ~ Idle Moments ~ Like Minds Wayne Escoffery ~ Rivers of Babylon (feat. Gregory Porter) ~ Like Minds Larry Young ~ The Moontrane ~ Unity Wayne Shorter ~ Witch Hunt ~ Speak No Evil Charlie Haden, Carla Bley ~ The Ballad of the Fallen ~ The Ballad of the Fallen Chick Corea ~ Straight Up and Down ~ Tone's for Joan's Bones
Episode 168 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Say a Little Prayer”, and the interaction of the sacred, political, and secular in Aretha Franklin's life and work. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-five-minute bonus episode available, on "Abraham, Martin, and John" by Dion. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by Aretha Franklin. Even splitting it into multiple parts would have required six or seven mixes. My main biographical source for Aretha Franklin is Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz, and this is where most of the quotes from musicians come from. Information on C.L. Franklin came from Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America by Nick Salvatore. Country Soul by Charles L Hughes is a great overview of the soul music made in Muscle Shoals, Memphis, and Nashville in the sixties. Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom is possibly less essential, but still definitely worth reading. Information about Martin Luther King came from Martin Luther King: A Religious Life by Paul Harvey. I also referred to Burt Bacharach's autobiography Anyone Who Had a Heart, Carole King's autobiography A Natural Woman, and Soul Serenade: King Curtis and his Immortal Saxophone by Timothy R. Hoover. For information about Amazing Grace I also used Aaron Cohen's 33 1/3 book on the album. The film of the concerts is also definitely worth watching. And the Aretha Now album is available in this five-album box set for a ludicrously cheap price. But it's actually worth getting this nineteen-CD set with her first sixteen Atlantic albums and a couple of bonus discs of demos and outtakes. There's barely a duff track in the whole nineteen discs. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick warning before I begin. This episode contains some moderate references to domestic abuse, death by cancer, racial violence, police violence, and political assassination. Anyone who might be upset by those subjects might want to check the transcript rather than listening to the episode. Also, as with the previous episode on Aretha Franklin, this episode presents something of a problem. Like many people in this narrative, Franklin's career was affected by personal troubles, which shaped many of her decisions. But where most of the subjects of the podcast have chosen to live their lives in public and share intimate details of every aspect of their personal lives, Franklin was an extremely private person, who chose to share only carefully sanitised versions of her life, and tried as far as possible to keep things to herself. This of course presents a dilemma for anyone who wants to tell her story -- because even though the information is out there in biographies, and even though she's dead, it's not right to disrespect someone's wish for a private life. I have therefore tried, wherever possible, to stay away from talk of her personal life except where it *absolutely* affects the work, or where other people involved have publicly shared their own stories, and even there I've tried to keep it to a minimum. This will occasionally lead to me saying less about some topics than other people might, even though the information is easily findable, because I don't think we have an absolute right to invade someone else's privacy for entertainment. When we left Aretha Franklin, she had just finally broken through into the mainstream after a decade of performing, with a version of Otis Redding's song "Respect" on which she had been backed by her sisters, Erma and Carolyn. "Respect", in Franklin's interpretation, had been turned from a rather chauvinist song about a man demanding respect from his woman into an anthem of feminism, of Black power, and of a new political awakening. For white people of a certain generation, the summer of 1967 was "the summer of love". For many Black people, it was rather different. There's a quote that goes around (I've seen it credited in reliable sources to both Ebony and Jet magazine, but not ever seen an issue cited, so I can't say for sure where it came from) saying that the summer of 67 was the summer of "'retha, Rap, and revolt", referring to the trifecta of Aretha Franklin, the Black power leader Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (who was at the time known as H. Rap Brown, a name he later disclaimed) and the rioting that broke out in several major cities, particularly in Detroit: [Excerpt: John Lee Hooker, "The Motor City is Burning"] The mid sixties were, in many ways, the high point not of Black rights in the US -- for the most part there has been a lot of progress in civil rights in the intervening decades, though not without inevitable setbacks and attacks from the far right, and as movements like the Black Lives Matter movement have shown there is still a long way to go -- but of *hope* for Black rights. The moral force of the arguments made by the civil rights movement were starting to cause real change to happen for Black people in the US for the first time since the Reconstruction nearly a century before. But those changes weren't happening fast enough, and as we heard in the episode on "I Was Made to Love Her", there was not only a growing unrest among Black people, but a recognition that it was actually possible for things to change. A combination of hope and frustration can be a powerful catalyst, and whether Franklin wanted it or not, she was at the centre of things, both because of her newfound prominence as a star with a hit single that couldn't be interpreted as anything other than a political statement and because of her intimate family connections to the struggle. Even the most racist of white people these days pays lip service to the memory of Dr Martin Luther King, and when they do they quote just a handful of sentences from one speech King made in 1963, as if that sums up the full theological and political philosophy of that most complex of men. And as we discussed the last time we looked at Aretha Franklin, King gave versions of that speech, the "I Have a Dream" speech, twice. The most famous version was at the March on Washington, but the first time was a few weeks earlier, at what was at the time the largest civil rights demonstration in American history, in Detroit. Aretha's family connection to that event is made clear by the very opening of King's speech: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Original 'I Have a Dream' Speech"] So as summer 1967 got into swing, and white rock music was going to San Francisco to wear flowers in its hair, Aretha Franklin was at the centre of a very different kind of youth revolution. Franklin's second Atlantic album, Aretha Arrives, brought in some new personnel to the team that had recorded Aretha's first album for Atlantic. Along with the core Muscle Shoals players Jimmy Johnson, Spooner Oldham, Tommy Cogbill and Roger Hawkins, and a horn section led by King Curtis, Wexler and Dowd also brought in guitarist Joe South. South was a white session player from Georgia, who had had a few minor hits himself in the fifties -- he'd got his start recording a cover version of "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor", the Big Bopper's B-side to "Chantilly Lace": [Excerpt: Joe South, "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor"] He'd also written a few songs that had been recorded by people like Gene Vincent, but he'd mostly become a session player. He'd become a favourite musician of Bob Johnston's, and so he'd played guitar on Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme albums: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "I am a Rock"] and bass on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, with Al Kooper particularly praising his playing on "Visions of Johanna": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Visions of Johanna"] South would be the principal guitarist on this and Franklin's next album, before his own career took off in 1968 with "Games People Play": [Excerpt: Joe South, "Games People Play"] At this point, he had already written the other song he's best known for, "Hush", which later became a hit for Deep Purple: [Excerpt: Deep Purple, "Hush"] But he wasn't very well known, and was surprised to get the call for the Aretha Franklin session, especially because, as he put it "I was white and I was about to play behind the blackest genius since Ray Charles" But Jerry Wexler had told him that Franklin didn't care about the race of the musicians she played with, and South settled in as soon as Franklin smiled at him when he played a good guitar lick on her version of the blues standard "Going Down Slow": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Going Down Slow"] That was one of the few times Franklin smiled in those sessions though. Becoming an overnight success after years of trying and failing to make a name for herself had been a disorienting experience, and on top of that things weren't going well in her personal life. Her marriage to her manager Ted White was falling apart, and she was performing erratically thanks to the stress. In particular, at a gig in Georgia she had fallen off the stage and broken her arm. She soon returned to performing, but it meant she had problems with her right arm during the recording of the album, and didn't play as much piano as she would have previously -- on some of the faster songs she played only with her left hand. But the recording sessions had to go on, whether or not Aretha was physically capable of playing piano. As we discussed in the episode on Otis Redding, the owners of Atlantic Records were busily negotiating its sale to Warner Brothers in mid-1967. As Wexler said later “Everything in me said, Keep rolling, keep recording, keep the hits coming. She was red hot and I had no reason to believe that the streak wouldn't continue. I knew that it would be foolish—and even irresponsible—not to strike when the iron was hot. I also had personal motivation. A Wall Street financier had agreed to see what we could get for Atlantic Records. While Ahmet and Neshui had not agreed on a selling price, they had gone along with my plan to let the financier test our worth on the open market. I was always eager to pump out hits, but at this moment I was on overdrive. In this instance, I had a good partner in Ted White, who felt the same. He wanted as much product out there as possible." In truth, you can tell from Aretha Arrives that it's a record that was being thought of as "product" rather than one being made out of any kind of artistic impulse. It's a fine album -- in her ten-album run from I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You through Amazing Grace there's not a bad album and barely a bad track -- but there's a lack of focus. There are only two originals on the album, neither of them written by Franklin herself, and the rest is an incoherent set of songs that show the tension between Franklin and her producers at Atlantic. Several songs are the kind of standards that Franklin had recorded for her old label Columbia, things like "You Are My Sunshine", or her version of "That's Life", which had been a hit for Frank Sinatra the previous year: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "That's Life"] But mixed in with that are songs that are clearly the choice of Wexler. As we've discussed previously in episodes on Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, at this point Atlantic had the idea that it was possible for soul artists to cross over into the white market by doing cover versions of white rock hits -- and indeed they'd had some success with that tactic. So while Franklin was suggesting Sinatra covers, Atlantic's hand is visible in the choices of songs like "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "96 Tears": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "96 Tears'] Of the two originals on the album, one, the hit single "Baby I Love You" was written by Ronnie Shannon, the Detroit songwriter who had previously written "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Baby I Love You"] As with the previous album, and several other songs on this one, that had backing vocals by Aretha's sisters, Erma and Carolyn. But the other original on the album, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)", didn't, even though it was written by Carolyn: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)"] To explain why, let's take a little detour and look at the co-writer of the song this episode is about, though we're not going to get to that for a little while yet. We've not talked much about Burt Bacharach in this series so far, but he's one of those figures who has come up a few times in the periphery and will come up again, so here is as good a time as any to discuss him, and bring everyone up to speed about his career up to 1967. Bacharach was one of the more privileged figures in the sixties pop music field. His father, Bert Bacharach (pronounced the same as his son, but spelled with an e rather than a u) had been a famous newspaper columnist, and his parents had bought him a Steinway grand piano to practice on -- they pushed him to learn the piano even though as a kid he wasn't interested in finger exercises and Debussy. What he was interested in, though, was jazz, and as a teenager he would often go into Manhattan and use a fake ID to see people like Dizzy Gillespie, who he idolised, and in his autobiography he talks rapturously of seeing Gillespie playing his bent trumpet -- he once saw Gillespie standing on a street corner with a pet monkey on his shoulder, and went home and tried to persuade his parents to buy him a monkey too. In particular, he talks about seeing the Count Basie band with Sonny Payne on drums as a teenager: [Excerpt: Count Basie, "Kid From Red Bank"] He saw them at Birdland, the club owned by Morris Levy where they would regularly play, and said of the performance "they were just so incredibly exciting that all of a sudden, I got into music in a way I never had before. What I heard in those clubs really turned my head around— it was like a big breath of fresh air when somebody throws open a window. That was when I knew for the first time how much I loved music and wanted to be connected to it in some way." Of course, there's a rather major problem with this story, as there is so often with narratives that musicians tell about their early career. In this case, Birdland didn't open until 1949, when Bacharach was twenty-one and stationed in Germany for his military service, while Sonny Payne didn't join Basie's band until 1954, when Bacharach had been a professional musician for many years. Also Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet bell only got bent on January 6, 1953. But presumably while Bacharach was conflating several memories, he did have some experience in some New York jazz club that led him to want to become a musician. Certainly there were enough great jazz musicians playing the clubs in those days. He went to McGill University to study music for two years, then went to study with Darius Milhaud, a hugely respected modernist composer. Milhaud was also one of the most important music teachers of the time -- among others he'd taught Stockhausen and Xenakkis, and would go on to teach Philip Glass and Steve Reich. This suited Bacharach, who by this point was a big fan of Schoenberg and Webern, and was trying to write atonal, difficult music. But Milhaud had also taught Dave Brubeck, and when Bacharach rather shamefacedly presented him with a composition which had an actual tune, he told Bacharach "Never be ashamed of writing a tune you can whistle". He dropped out of university and, like most men of his generation, had to serve in the armed forces. When he got out of the army, he continued his musical studies, still trying to learn to be an avant-garde composer, this time with Bohuslav Martinů and later with Henry Cowell, the experimental composer we've heard about quite a bit in previous episodes: [Excerpt: Henry Cowell, "Aeolian Harp and Sinister Resonance"] He was still listening to a lot of avant garde music, and would continue doing so throughout the fifties, going to see people like John Cage. But he spent much of that time working in music that was very different from the avant-garde. He got a job as the band leader for the crooner Vic Damone: [Excerpt: Vic Damone. "Ebb Tide"] He also played for the vocal group the Ames Brothers. He decided while he was working with the Ames Brothers that he could write better material than they were getting from their publishers, and that it would be better to have a job where he didn't have to travel, so he got himself a job as a staff songwriter in the Brill Building. He wrote a string of flops and nearly hits, starting with "Keep Me In Mind" for Patti Page: [Excerpt: Patti Page, "Keep Me In Mind"] From early in his career he worked with the lyricist Hal David, and the two of them together wrote two big hits, "Magic Moments" for Perry Como: [Excerpt: Perry Como, "Magic Moments"] and "The Story of My Life" for Marty Robbins: [Excerpt: "The Story of My Life"] But at that point Bacharach was still also writing with other writers, notably Hal David's brother Mack, with whom he wrote the theme tune to the film The Blob, as performed by The Five Blobs: [Excerpt: The Five Blobs, "The Blob"] But Bacharach's songwriting career wasn't taking off, and he got himself a job as musical director for Marlene Dietrich -- a job he kept even after it did start to take off. Part of the problem was that he intuitively wrote music that didn't quite fit into standard structures -- there would be odd bars of unusual time signatures thrown in, unusual harmonies, and structural irregularities -- but then he'd take feedback from publishers and producers who would tell him the song could only be recorded if he straightened it out. He said later "The truth is that I ruined a lot of songs by not believing in myself enough to tell these guys they were wrong." He started writing songs for Scepter Records, usually with Hal David, but also with Bob Hilliard and Mack David, and started having R&B hits. One song he wrote with Mack David, "I'll Cherish You", had the lyrics rewritten by Luther Dixon to make them more harsh-sounding for a Shirelles single -- but the single was otherwise just Bacharach's demo with the vocals replaced, and you can even hear his voice briefly at the beginning: [Excerpt: The Shirelles, "Baby, It's You"] But he'd also started becoming interested in the production side of records more generally. He'd iced that some producers, when recording his songs, would change the sound for the worse -- he thought Gene McDaniels' version of "Tower of Strength", for example, was too fast. But on the other hand, other producers got a better sound than he'd heard in his head. He and Hilliard had written a song called "Please Stay", which they'd given to Leiber and Stoller to record with the Drifters, and he thought that their arrangement of the song was much better than the one he'd originally thought up: [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Please Stay"] He asked Leiber and Stoller if he could attend all their New York sessions and learn about record production from them. He started doing so, and eventually they started asking him to assist them on records. He and Hilliard wrote a song called "Mexican Divorce" for the Drifters, which Leiber and Stoller were going to produce, and as he put it "they were so busy running Redbird Records that they asked me to rehearse the background singers for them in my office." [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Mexican Divorce"] The backing singers who had been brought in to augment the Drifters on that record were a group of vocalists who had started out as members of a gospel group called the Drinkard singers: [Excerpt: The Drinkard Singers, "Singing in My Soul"] The Drinkard Singers had originally been a family group, whose members included Cissy Drinkard, who joined the group aged five (and who on her marriage would become known as Cissy Houston -- her daughter Whitney would later join the family business), her aunt Lee Warrick, and Warrick's adopted daughter Judy Clay. That group were discovered by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, and spent much of the fifties performing with gospel greats including Jackson herself, Clara Ward, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. But Houston was also the musical director of a group at her church, the Gospelaires, which featured Lee Warrick's two daughters Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick (for those who don't know, the Warwick sisters' birth name was Warrick, spelled with two rs. A printing error led to it being misspelled the same way as the British city on a record label, and from that point on Dionne at least pronounced the w in her misspelled name). And slowly, the Gospelaires rather than the Drinkard Singers became the focus, with a lineup of Houston, the Warwick sisters, the Warwick sisters' cousin Doris Troy, and Clay's sister Sylvia Shemwell. The real change in the group's fortunes came when, as we talked about a while back in the episode on "The Loco-Motion", the original lineup of the Cookies largely stopped working as session singers to become Ray Charles' Raelettes. As we discussed in that episode, a new lineup of Cookies formed in 1961, but it took a while for them to get started, and in the meantime the producers who had been relying on them for backing vocals were looking elsewhere, and they looked to the Gospelaires. "Mexican Divorce" was the first record to feature the group as backing vocalists -- though reports vary as to how many of them are on the record, with some saying it's only Troy and the Warwicks, others saying Houston was there, and yet others saying it was all five of them. Some of these discrepancies were because these singers were so good that many of them left to become solo singers in fairly short order. Troy was the first to do so, with her hit "Just One Look", on which the other Gospelaires sang backing vocals: [Excerpt: Doris Troy, "Just One Look"] But the next one to go solo was Dionne Warwick, and that was because she'd started working with Bacharach and Hal David as their principal demo singer. She started singing lead on their demos, and hoping that she'd get to release them on her own. One early one was "Make it Easy On Yourself", which was recorded by Jerry Butler, formerly of the Impressions. That record was produced by Bacharach, one of the first records he produced without outside supervision: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler, "Make it Easy On Yourself"] Warwick was very jealous that a song she'd sung the demo of had become a massive hit for someone else, and blamed Bacharach and David. The way she tells the story -- Bacharach always claimed this never happened, but as we've already seen he was himself not always the most reliable of narrators of his own life -- she got so angry she complained to them, and said "Don't make me over, man!" And so Bacharach and David wrote her this: [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Don't Make Me Over"] Incidentally, in the UK, the hit version of that was a cover by the Swinging Blue Jeans: [Excerpt: The Swinging Blue Jeans, "Don't Make Me Over"] who also had a huge hit with "You're No Good": [Excerpt: The Swinging Blue Jeans, "You're No Good"] And *that* was originally recorded by *Dee Dee* Warwick: [Excerpt: Dee Dee Warwick, "You're No Good"] Dee Dee also had a successful solo career, but Dionne's was the real success, making the names of herself, and of Bacharach and David. The team had more than twenty top forty hits together, before Bacharach and David had a falling out in 1971 and stopped working together, and Warwick sued both of them for breach of contract as a result. But prior to that they had hit after hit, with classic records like "Anyone Who Had a Heart": [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Anyone Who Had a Heart"] And "Walk On By": [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "Walk On By"] With Doris, Dionne, and Dee Dee all going solo, the group's membership was naturally in flux -- though the departed members would occasionally join their former bandmates for sessions, and the remaining members would sing backing vocals on their ex-members' records. By 1965 the group consisted of Cissy Houston, Sylvia Shemwell, the Warwick sisters' cousin Myrna Smith, and Estelle Brown. The group became *the* go-to singers for soul and R&B records made in New York. They were regularly hired by Leiber and Stoller to sing on their records, and they were also the particular favourites of Bert Berns. They sang backing vocals on almost every record he produced. It's them doing the gospel wails on "Cry Baby" by Garnet Mimms: [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms, "Cry Baby"] And they sang backing vocals on both versions of "If You Need Me" -- Wilson Pickett's original and Solomon Burke's more successful cover version, produced by Berns: [Excerpt: Solomon Burke, "If You Need Me"] They're on such Berns records as "Show Me Your Monkey", by Kenny Hamber: [Excerpt: Kenny Hamber, "Show Me Your Monkey"] And it was a Berns production that ended up getting them to be Aretha Franklin's backing group. The group were becoming such an important part of the records that Atlantic and BANG Records, in particular, were putting out, that Jerry Wexler said "it was only a matter of common decency to put them under contract as a featured group". He signed them to Atlantic and renamed them from the Gospelaires to The Sweet Inspirations. Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham wrote a song for the group which became their only hit under their own name: [Excerpt: The Sweet Inspirations, "Sweet Inspiration"] But to start with, they released a cover of Pops Staples' civil rights song "Why (Am I treated So Bad)": [Excerpt: The Sweet Inspirations, "Why (Am I Treated So Bad?)"] That hadn't charted, and meanwhile, they'd all kept doing session work. Cissy had joined Erma and Carolyn Franklin on the backing vocals for Aretha's "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You"] Shortly after that, the whole group recorded backing vocals for Erma's single "Piece of My Heart", co-written and produced by Berns: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] That became a top ten record on the R&B charts, but that caused problems. Aretha Franklin had a few character flaws, and one of these was an extreme level of jealousy for any other female singer who had any level of success and came up in the business after her. She could be incredibly graceful towards anyone who had been successful before her -- she once gave one of her Grammies away to Esther Phillips, who had been up for the same award and had lost to her -- but she was terribly insecure, and saw any contemporary as a threat. She'd spent her time at Columbia Records fuming (with some justification) that Barbra Streisand was being given a much bigger marketing budget than her, and she saw Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, and Dionne Warwick as rivals rather than friends. And that went doubly for her sisters, who she was convinced should be supporting her because of family loyalty. She had been infuriated at John Hammond when Columbia had signed Erma, thinking he'd gone behind her back to create competition for her. And now Erma was recording with Bert Berns. Bert Berns who had for years been a colleague of Jerry Wexler and the Ertegun brothers at Atlantic. Aretha was convinced that Wexler had put Berns up to signing Erma as some kind of power play. There was only one problem with this -- it simply wasn't true. As Wexler later explained “Bert and I had suffered a bad falling-out, even though I had enormous respect for him. After all, he was the guy who brought over guitarist Jimmy Page from England to play on our sessions. Bert, Ahmet, Nesuhi, and I had started a label together—Bang!—where Bert produced Van Morrison's first album. But Bert also had a penchant for trouble. He courted the wise guys. He wanted total control over every last aspect of our business dealings. Finally it was too much, and the Erteguns and I let him go. He sued us for breach of contract and suddenly we were enemies. I felt that he signed Erma, an excellent singer, not merely for her talent but as a way to get back at me. If I could make a hit with Aretha, he'd show me up by making an even bigger hit on Erma. Because there was always an undercurrent of rivalry between the sisters, this only added to the tension.” There were two things that resulted from this paranoia on Aretha's part. The first was that she and Wexler, who had been on first-name terms up to that point, temporarily went back to being "Mr. Wexler" and "Miss Franklin" to each other. And the second was that Aretha no longer wanted Carolyn and Erma to be her main backing vocalists, though they would continue to appear on her future records on occasion. From this point on, the Sweet Inspirations would be the main backing vocalists for Aretha in the studio throughout her golden era [xxcut line (and when the Sweet Inspirations themselves weren't on the record, often it would be former members of the group taking their place)]: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Ain't Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)"] The last day of sessions for Aretha Arrives was July the twenty-third, 1967. And as we heard in the episode on "I Was Made to Love Her", that was the day that the Detroit riots started. To recap briefly, that was four days of rioting started because of a history of racist policing, made worse by those same racist police overreacting to the initial protests. By the end of those four days, the National Guard, 82nd Airborne Division, and the 101st Airborne from Clarksville were all called in to deal with the violence, which left forty-three dead (of whom thirty-three were Black and only one was a police officer), 1,189 people were injured, and over 7,200 arrested, almost all of them Black. Those days in July would be a turning point for almost every musician based in Detroit. In particular, the police had murdered three members of the soul group the Dramatics, in a massacre of which the author John Hersey, who had been asked by President Johnson to be part of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders but had decided that would compromise his impartiality and did an independent journalistic investigation, said "The episode contained all the mythic themes of racial strife in the United States: the arm of the law taking the law into its own hands; interracial sex; the subtle poison of racist thinking by “decent” men who deny they are racists; the societal limbo into which, ever since slavery, so many young black men have been driven by our country; ambiguous justice in the courts; and the devastation in both black and white human lives that follows in the wake of violence as surely as ruinous and indiscriminate flood after torrents" But these were also the events that radicalised the MC5 -- the group had been playing a gig as Tim Buckley's support act when the rioting started, and guitarist Wayne Kramer decided afterwards to get stoned and watch the fires burning down the city through a telescope -- which police mistook for a rifle, leading to the National Guard knocking down Kramer's door. The MC5 would later cover "The Motor City is Burning", John Lee Hooker's song about the events: [Excerpt: The MC5, "The Motor City is Burning"] It would also be a turning point for Motown, too, in ways we'll talk about in a few future episodes. And it was a political turning point too -- Michigan Governor George Romney, a liberal Republican (at a time when such people existed) had been the favourite for the Republican Presidential candidacy when he'd entered the race in December 1966, but as racial tensions ramped up in Detroit during the early months of 1967 he'd started trailing Richard Nixon, a man who was consciously stoking racists' fears. President Johnson, the incumbent Democrat, who was at that point still considering standing for re-election, made sure to make it clear to everyone during the riots that the decision to call in the National Guard had been made at the State level, by Romney, rather than at the Federal level. That wasn't the only thing that removed the possibility of a Romney presidency, but it was a big part of the collapse of his campaign, and the, as it turned out, irrevocable turn towards right-authoritarianism that the party took with Nixon's Southern Strategy. Of course, Aretha Franklin had little way of knowing what was to come and how the riots would change the city and the country over the following decades. What she was primarily concerned about was the safety of her father, and to a lesser extent that of her sister-in-law Earline who was staying with him. Aretha, Carolyn, and Erma all tried to keep in constant touch with their father while they were out of town, and Aretha even talked about hiring private detectives to travel to Detroit, find her father, and get him out of the city to safety. But as her brother Cecil pointed out, he was probably the single most loved man among Black people in Detroit, and was unlikely to be harmed by the rioters, while he was too famous for the police to kill with impunity. Reverend Franklin had been having a stressful time anyway -- he had recently been fined for tax evasion, an action he was convinced the IRS had taken because of his friendship with Dr King and his role in the civil rights movement -- and according to Cecil "Aretha begged Daddy to move out of the city entirely. She wanted him to find another congregation in California, where he was especially popular—or at least move out to the suburbs. But he wouldn't budge. He said that, more than ever, he was needed to point out the root causes of the riots—the economic inequality, the pervasive racism in civic institutions, the woefully inadequate schools in inner-city Detroit, and the wholesale destruction of our neighborhoods by urban renewal. Some ministers fled the city, but not our father. The horror of what happened only recommitted him. He would not abandon his political agenda." To make things worse, Aretha was worried about her father in other ways -- as her marriage to Ted White was starting to disintegrate, she was looking to her father for guidance, and actually wanted him to take over her management. Eventually, Ruth Bowen, her booking agent, persuaded her brother Cecil that this was a job he could do, and that she would teach him everything he needed to know about the music business. She started training him up while Aretha was still married to White, in the expectation that that marriage couldn't last. Jerry Wexler, who only a few months earlier had been seeing Ted White as an ally in getting "product" from Franklin, had now changed his tune -- partly because the sale of Atlantic had gone through in the meantime. He later said “Sometimes she'd call me at night, and, in that barely audible little-girl voice of hers, she'd tell me that she wasn't sure she could go on. She always spoke in generalities. She never mentioned her husband, never gave me specifics of who was doing what to whom. And of course I knew better than to ask. She just said that she was tired of dealing with so much. My heart went out to her. She was a woman who suffered silently. She held so much in. I'd tell her to take as much time off as she needed. We had a lot of songs in the can that we could release without new material. ‘Oh, no, Jerry,' she'd say. ‘I can't stop recording. I've written some new songs, Carolyn's written some new songs. We gotta get in there and cut 'em.' ‘Are you sure?' I'd ask. ‘Positive,' she'd say. I'd set up the dates and typically she wouldn't show up for the first or second sessions. Carolyn or Erma would call me to say, ‘Ree's under the weather.' That was tough because we'd have asked people like Joe South and Bobby Womack to play on the sessions. Then I'd reschedule in the hopes she'd show." That third album she recorded in 1967, Lady Soul, was possibly her greatest achievement. The opening track, and second single, "Chain of Fools", released in November, was written by Don Covay -- or at least it's credited as having been written by Covay. There's a gospel record that came out around the same time on a very small label based in Houston -- "Pains of Life" by Rev. E. Fair And The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio: [Excerpt: Rev. E. Fair And The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio, "Pains of Life"] I've seen various claims online that that record came out shortly *before* "Chain of Fools", but I can't find any definitive evidence one way or the other -- it was on such a small label that release dates aren't available anywhere. Given that the B-side, which I haven't been able to track down online, is called "Wait Until the Midnight Hour", my guess is that rather than this being a case of Don Covay stealing the melody from an obscure gospel record he'd have had little chance to hear, it's the gospel record rewriting a then-current hit to be about religion, but I thought it worth mentioning. The song was actually written by Covay after Jerry Wexler asked him to come up with some songs for Otis Redding, but Wexler, after hearing it, decided it was better suited to Franklin, who gave an astonishing performance: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Chain of Fools"] Arif Mardin, the arranger of the album, said of that track “I was listed as the arranger of ‘Chain of Fools,' but I can't take credit. Aretha walked into the studio with the chart fully formed inside her head. The arrangement is based around the harmony vocals provided by Carolyn and Erma. To add heft, the Sweet Inspirations joined in. The vision of the song is entirely Aretha's.” According to Wexler, that's not *quite* true -- according to him, Joe South came up with the guitar part that makes up the intro, and he also said that when he played what he thought was the finished track to Ellie Greenwich, she came up with another vocal line for the backing vocals, which she overdubbed. But the core of the record's sound is definitely pure Aretha -- and Carolyn Franklin said that there was a reason for that. As she said later “Aretha didn't write ‘Chain,' but she might as well have. It was her story. When we were in the studio putting on the backgrounds with Ree doing lead, I knew she was singing about Ted. Listen to the lyrics talking about how for five long years she thought he was her man. Then she found out she was nothing but a link in the chain. Then she sings that her father told her to come on home. Well, he did. She sings about how her doctor said to take it easy. Well, he did too. She was drinking so much we thought she was on the verge of a breakdown. The line that slew me, though, was the one that said how one of these mornings the chain is gonna break but until then she'll take all she can take. That summed it up. Ree knew damn well that this man had been doggin' her since Jump Street. But somehow she held on and pushed it to the breaking point." [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Chain of Fools"] That made number one on the R&B charts, and number two on the hot one hundred, kept from the top by "Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)" by John Fred and his Playboy Band -- a record that very few people would say has stood the test of time as well. The other most memorable track on the album was the one chosen as the first single, released in September. As Carole King told the story, she and Gerry Goffin were feeling like their career was in a slump. While they had had a huge run of hits in the early sixties through 1965, they had only had two new hits in 1966 -- "Goin' Back" for Dusty Springfield and "Don't Bring Me Down" for the Animals, and neither of those were anything like as massive as their previous hits. And up to that point in 1967, they'd only had one -- "Pleasant Valley Sunday" for the Monkees. They had managed to place several songs on Monkees albums and the TV show as well, so they weren't going to starve, but the rise of self-contained bands that were starting to dominate the charts, and Phil Spector's temporary retirement, meant there simply wasn't the opportunity for them to place material that there had been. They were also getting sick of travelling to the West Coast all the time, because as their children were growing slightly older they didn't want to disrupt their lives in New York, and were thinking of approaching some of the New York based labels and seeing if they needed songs. They were particularly considering Atlantic, because soul was more open to outside songwriters than other genres. As it happened, though, they didn't have to approach Atlantic, because Atlantic approached them. They were walking down Broadway when a limousine pulled up, and Jerry Wexler stuck his head out of the window. He'd come up with a good title that he wanted to use for a song for Aretha, would they be interested in writing a song called "Natural Woman"? They said of course they would, and Wexler drove off. They wrote the song that night, and King recorded a demo the next morning: [Excerpt: Carole King, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (demo)"] They gave Wexler a co-writing credit because he had suggested the title. King later wrote in her autobiography "Hearing Aretha's performance of “Natural Woman” for the first time, I experienced a rare speechless moment. To this day I can't convey how I felt in mere words. Anyone who had written a song in 1967 hoping it would be performed by a singer who could take it to the highest level of excellence, emotional connection, and public exposure would surely have wanted that singer to be Aretha Franklin." She went on to say "But a recording that moves people is never just about the artist and the songwriters. It's about people like Jerry and Ahmet, who matched the songwriters with a great title and a gifted artist; Arif Mardin, whose magnificent orchestral arrangement deserves the place it will forever occupy in popular music history; Tom Dowd, whose engineering skills captured the magic of this memorable musical moment for posterity; and the musicians in the rhythm section, the orchestral players, and the vocal contributions of the background singers—among them the unforgettable “Ah-oo!” after the first line of the verse. And the promotion and marketing people helped this song reach more people than it might have without them." And that's correct -- unlike "Chain of Fools", this time Franklin did let Arif Mardin do most of the arrangement work -- though she came up with the piano part that Spooner Oldham plays on the record. Mardin said that because of the song's hymn-like feel they wanted to go for a more traditional written arrangement. He said "She loved the song to the point where she said she wanted to concentrate on the vocal and vocal alone. I had written a string chart and horn chart to augment the chorus and hired Ralph Burns to conduct. After just a couple of takes, we had it. That's when Ralph turned to me with wonder in his eyes. Ralph was one of the most celebrated arrangers of the modern era. He had done ‘Early Autumn' for Woody Herman and Stan Getz, and ‘Georgia on My Mind' for Ray Charles. He'd worked with everyone. ‘This woman comes from another planet' was all Ralph said. ‘She's just here visiting.'” [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"] By this point there was a well-functioning team making Franklin's records -- while the production credits would vary over the years, they were all essentially co-productions by the team of Franklin, Wexler, Mardin and Dowd, all collaborating and working together with a more-or-less unified purpose, and the backing was always by the same handful of session musicians and some combination of the Sweet Inspirations and Aretha's sisters. That didn't mean that occasional guests couldn't get involved -- as we discussed in the Cream episode, Eric Clapton played guitar on "Good to Me as I am to You": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Good to Me as I am to You"] Though that was one of the rare occasions on one of these records where something was overdubbed. Clapton apparently messed up the guitar part when playing behind Franklin, because he was too intimidated by playing with her, and came back the next day to redo his part without her in the studio. At this point, Aretha was at the height of her fame. Just before the final batch of album sessions began she appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, and she was making regular TV appearances, like one on the Mike Douglas Show where she duetted with Frankie Valli on "That's Life": [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin and Frankie Valli, "That's Life"] But also, as Wexler said “Her career was kicking into high gear. Contending and resolving both the professional and personal challenges were too much. She didn't think she could do both, and I didn't blame her. Few people could. So she let the personal slide and concentrated on the professional. " Her concert promoter Ruth Bowen said of this time "Her father and Dr. King were putting pressure on her to sing everywhere, and she felt obligated. The record company was also screaming for more product. And I had a mountain of offers on my desk that kept getting higher with every passing hour. They wanted her in Europe. They wanted her in Latin America. They wanted her in every major venue in the U.S. TV was calling. She was being asked to do guest appearances on every show from Carol Burnett to Andy Williams to the Hollywood Palace. She wanted to do them all and she wanted to do none of them. She wanted to do them all because she's an entertainer who burns with ambition. She wanted to do none of them because she was emotionally drained. She needed to go away and renew her strength. I told her that at least a dozen times. She said she would, but she didn't listen to me." The pressures from her father and Dr King are a recurring motif in interviews with people about this period. Franklin was always a very political person, and would throughout her life volunteer time and money to liberal political causes and to the Democratic Party, but this was the height of her activism -- the Civil Rights movement was trying to capitalise on the gains it had made in the previous couple of years, and celebrity fundraisers and performances at rallies were an important way to do that. And at this point there were few bigger celebrities in America than Aretha Franklin. At a concert in her home town of Detroit on February the sixteenth, 1968, the Mayor declared the day Aretha Franklin Day. At the same show, Billboard, Record World *and* Cash Box magazines all presented her with plaques for being Female Vocalist of the Year. And Dr. King travelled up to be at the show and congratulate her publicly for all her work with his organisation, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Backstage at that show, Dr. King talked to Aretha's father, Reverend Franklin, about what he believed would be the next big battle -- a strike in Memphis: [Excerpt, Martin Luther King, "Mountaintop Speech" -- "And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy—what is the other bread?—Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying, they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right."] The strike in question was the Memphis Sanitation Workers' strike which had started a few days before. The struggle for Black labour rights was an integral part of the civil rights movement, and while it's not told that way in the sanitised version of the story that's made it into popular culture, the movement led by King was as much about economic justice as social justice -- King was a democratic socialist, and believed that economic oppression was both an effect of and cause of other forms of racial oppression, and that the rights of Black workers needed to be fought for. In 1967 he had set up a new organisation, the Poor People's Campaign, which was set to march on Washington to demand a program that included full employment, a guaranteed income -- King was strongly influenced in his later years by the ideas of Henry George, the proponent of a universal basic income based on land value tax -- the annual building of half a million affordable homes, and an end to the war in Vietnam. This was King's main focus in early 1968, and he saw the sanitation workers' strike as a major part of this campaign. Memphis was one of the most oppressive cities in the country, and its largely Black workforce of sanitation workers had been trying for most of the 1960s to unionise, and strike-breakers had been called in to stop them, and many of them had been fired by their white supervisors with no notice. They were working in unsafe conditions, for utterly inadequate wages, and the city government were ardent segregationists. After two workers had died on the first of February from using unsafe equipment, the union demanded changes -- safer working conditions, better wages, and recognition of the union. The city council refused, and almost all the sanitation workers stayed home and stopped work. After a few days, the council relented and agreed to their terms, but the Mayor, Henry Loeb, an ardent white supremacist who had stood on a platform of opposing desegregation, and who had previously been the Public Works Commissioner who had put these unsafe conditions in place, refused to listen. As far as he was concerned, he was the only one who could recognise the union, and he wouldn't. The workers continued their strike, marching holding signs that simply read "I am a Man": [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Blowing in the Wind"] The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP had been involved in organising support for the strikes from an early stage, and King visited Memphis many times. Much of the time he spent visiting there was spent negotiating with a group of more militant activists, who called themselves The Invaders and weren't completely convinced by King's nonviolent approach -- they believed that violence and rioting got more attention than non-violent protests. King explained to them that while he had been persuaded by Gandhi's writings of the moral case for nonviolent protest, he was also persuaded that it was pragmatically necessary -- asking the young men "how many guns do we have and how many guns do they have?", and pointing out as he often did that when it comes to violence a minority can't win against an armed majority. Rev Franklin went down to Memphis on the twenty-eighth of March to speak at a rally Dr. King was holding, but as it turned out the rally was cancelled -- the pre-rally march had got out of hand, with some people smashing windows, and Memphis police had, like the police in Detroit the previous year, violently overreacted, clubbing and gassing protestors and shooting and killing one unarmed teenage boy, Larry Payne. The day after Payne's funeral, Dr King was back in Memphis, though this time Rev Franklin was not with him. On April the third, he gave a speech which became known as the "Mountaintop Speech", in which he talked about the threats that had been made to his life: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "Mountaintop Speech": “And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."] The next day, Martin Luther King was shot dead. James Earl Ray, a white supremacist, pled guilty to the murder, and the evidence against him seems overwhelming from what I've read, but the King family have always claimed that the murder was part of a larger conspiracy and that Ray was not the gunman. Aretha was obviously distraught, and she attended the funeral, as did almost every other prominent Black public figure. James Baldwin wrote of the funeral: "In the pew directly before me sat Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis, Eartha Kitt—covered in black, looking like a lost, ten-year-old girl—and Sidney Poitier, in the same pew, or nearby. Marlon saw me, and nodded. The atmosphere was black, with a tension indescribable—as though something, perhaps the heavens, perhaps the earth, might crack. Everyone sat very still. The actual service sort of washed over me, in waves. It wasn't that it seemed unreal; it was the most real church service I've ever sat through in my life, or ever hope to sit through; but I have a childhood hangover thing about not weeping in public, and I was concentrating on holding myself together. I did not want to weep for Martin, tears seemed futile. But I may also have been afraid, and I could not have been the only one, that if I began to weep I would not be able to stop. There was more than enough to weep for, if one was to weep—so many of us, cut down, so soon. Medgar, Malcolm, Martin: and their widows, and their children. Reverend Ralph David Abernathy asked a certain sister to sing a song which Martin had loved—“Once more,” said Ralph David, “for Martin and for me,” and he sat down." Many articles and books on Aretha Franklin say that she sang at King's funeral. In fact she didn't, but there's a simple reason for the confusion. King's favourite song was the Thomas Dorsey gospel song "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", and indeed almost his last words were to ask a trumpet player, Ben Branch, if he would play the song at the rally he was going to be speaking at on the day of his death. At his request, Mahalia Jackson, his old friend, sang the song at his private funeral, which was not filmed, unlike the public part of the funeral that Baldwin described. Four months later, though, there was another public memorial for King, and Franklin did sing "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at that service, in front of King's weeping widow and children, and that performance *was* filmed, and gets conflated in people's memories with Jackson's unfilmed earlier performance: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord (at Martin Luther King Memorial)"] Four years later, she would sing that at Mahalia Jackson's funeral. Through all this, Franklin had been working on her next album, Aretha Now, the sessions for which started more or less as soon as the sessions for Lady Soul had finished. The album was, in fact, bookended by deaths that affected Aretha. Just as King died at the end of the sessions, the beginning came around the time of the death of Otis Redding -- the sessions were cancelled for a day while Wexler travelled to Georgia for Redding's funeral, which Franklin was too devastated to attend, and Wexler would later say that the extra emotion in her performances on the album came from her emotional pain at Redding's death. The lead single on the album, "Think", was written by Franklin and -- according to the credits anyway -- her husband Ted White, and is very much in the same style as "Respect", and became another of her most-loved hits: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "Think"] But probably the song on Aretha Now that now resonates the most is one that Jerry Wexler tried to persuade her not to record, and was only released as a B-side. Indeed, "I Say a Little Prayer" was a song that had already once been a hit after being a reject. Hal David, unlike Burt Bacharach, was a fairly political person and inspired by the protest song movement, and had been starting to incorporate his concerns about the political situation and the Vietnam War into his lyrics -- though as with many such writers, he did it in much less specific ways than a Phil Ochs or a Bob Dylan. This had started with "What the World Needs Now is Love", a song Bacharach and David had written for Jackie DeShannon in 1965: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "What the "World Needs Now is Love"] But he'd become much more overtly political for "The Windows of the World", a song they wrote for Dionne Warwick. Warwick has often said it's her favourite of her singles, but it wasn't a big hit -- Bacharach blamed himself for that, saying "Dionne recorded it as a single and I really blew it. I wrote a bad arrangement and the tempo was too fast, and I really regret making it the way I did because it's a good song." [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "The Windows of the World"] For that album, Bacharach and David had written another track, "I Say a Little Prayer", which was not as explicitly political, but was intended by David to have an implicit anti-war message, much like other songs of the period like "Last Train to Clarksville". David had sons who were the right age to be drafted, and while it's never stated, "I Say a Little Prayer" was written from the perspective of a woman whose partner is away fighting in the war, but is still in her thoughts: [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer"] The recording of Dionne Warwick's version was marked by stress. Bacharach had a particular way of writing music to tell the musicians the kind of feel he wanted for the part -- he'd write nonsense words above the stave, and tell the musicians to play the parts as if they were singing those words. The trumpet player hired for the session, Ernie Royal, got into a row with Bacharach about this unorthodox way of communicating musical feeling, and the track ended up taking ten takes (as opposed to the normal three for a Bacharach session), with Royal being replaced half-way through the session. Bacharach was never happy with the track even after all the work it had taken, and he fought to keep it from being released at all, saying the track was taken at too fast a tempo. It eventually came out as an album track nearly eighteen months after it was recorded -- an eternity in 1960s musical timescales -- and DJs started playing it almost as soon as it came out. Scepter records rushed out a single, over Bacharach's objections, but as he later said "One thing I love about the record business is how wrong I was. Disc jockeys all across the country started playing the track, and the song went to number four on the charts and then became the biggest hit Hal and I had ever written for Dionne." [Excerpt: Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer"] Oddly, the B-side for Warwick's single, "Theme From the Valley of the Dolls" did even better, reaching number two. Almost as soon as the song was released as a single, Franklin started playing around with the song backstage, and in April 1968, right around the time of Dr. King's death, she recorded a version. Much as Burt Bacharach had been against releasing Dionne Warwick's version, Jerry Wexler was against Aretha even recording the song, saying later “I advised Aretha not to record it. I opposed it for two reasons. First, to cover a song only twelve weeks after the original reached the top of the charts was not smart business. You revisit such a hit eight months to a year later. That's standard practice. But more than that, Bacharach's melody, though lovely, was peculiarly suited to a lithe instrument like Dionne Warwick's—a light voice without the dark corners or emotional depths that define Aretha. Also, Hal David's lyric was also somewhat girlish and lacked the gravitas that Aretha required. “Aretha usually listened to me in the studio, but not this time. She had written a vocal arrangement for the Sweet Inspirations that was undoubtedly strong. Cissy Houston, Dionne's cousin, told me that Aretha was on the right track—she was seeing this song in a new way and had come up with a new groove. Cissy was on Aretha's side. Tommy Dowd and Arif were on Aretha's side. So I had no choice but to cave." It's quite possible that Wexler's objections made Franklin more, rather than less, determined to record the song. She regarded Warwick as a hated rival, as she did almost every prominent female singer of her generation and younger ones, and would undoubtedly have taken the implication that there was something that Warwick was simply better at than her to heart. [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer"] Wexler realised as soon as he heard it in the studio that Franklin's version was great, and Bacharach agreed, telling Franklin's biographer David Ritz “As much as I like the original recording by Dionne, there's no doubt that Aretha's is a better record. She imbued the song with heavy soul and took it to a far deeper place. Hers is the definitive version.” -- which is surprising because Franklin's version simplifies some of Bacharach's more unusual chord voicings, something he often found extremely upsetting. Wexler still though thought there was no way the song would be a hit, and it's understandable that he thought that way. Not only had it only just been on the charts a few months earlier, but it was the kind of song that wouldn't normally be a hit at all, and certainly not in the kind of rhythmic soul music for which Franklin was known. Almost everything she ever recorded is in simple time signatures -- 4/4, waltz time, or 6/8 -- but this is a Bacharach song so it's staggeringly metrically irregular. Normally even with semi-complex things I'm usually good at figuring out how to break it down into bars, but here I actually had to purchase a copy of the sheet music in order to be sure I was right about what's going on. I'm going to count beats along with the record here so you can see what I mean. The verse has three bars of 4/4, one bar of 2/4, and three more bars of 4/4, all repeated: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer" with me counting bars over verse] While the chorus has a bar of 4/4, a bar of 3/4 but with a chord change half way through so it sounds like it's in two if you're paying attention to the harmonic changes, two bars of 4/4, another waltz-time bar sounding like it's in two, two bars of four, another bar of three sounding in two, a bar of four, then three more bars of four but the first of those is *written* as four but played as if it's in six-eight time (but you can keep the four/four pulse going if you're counting): [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer" with me counting bars over verse] I don't expect you to have necessarily followed that in great detail, but the point should be clear -- this was not some straightforward dance song. Incidentally, that bar played as if it's six/eight was something Aretha introduced to make the song even more irregular than how Bacharach wrote it. And on top of *that* of course the lyrics mixed the secular and the sacred, something that was still taboo in popular music at that time -- this is only a couple of years after Capitol records had been genuinely unsure about putting out the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", and Franklin's gospel-inflected vocals made the religious connection even more obvious. But Franklin was insistent that the record go out as a single, and eventually it was released as the B-side to the far less impressive "The House That Jack Built". It became a double-sided hit, with the A-side making number two on the R&B chart and number seven on the Hot One Hundred, while "I Say a Little Prayer" made number three on the R&B chart and number ten overall. In the UK, "I Say a Little Prayer" made number four and became her biggest ever solo UK hit. It's now one of her most-remembered songs, while the A-side is largely forgotten: [Excerpt: Aretha Franklin, "I Say a Little Prayer"] For much of the
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