duaneiac

I was lucky enough to see Hugh Masekela perform 3 times -- first at Yoshi's with his own band of the time, once in the more refined setting of Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley with a group of South African musicians who had been on his own Chisa Records label, and once at a free outdoor summer concert presented at Stern Grove in SF. Each was a really good show. The man was a gifted performer, able to play good music and also engage with his audience in a warm and personable manner. I think I told this story before, but perhaps it was on the AAJ board. After that Stern Grove concert, it was announced that Mr. Masekela would be available for autographs after the show. I made my way over to the little wooded area where he was to be and found the line to be not too long, maybe 40-50 people. I could hear a little applause when Mr. Masekela made his way over there, but after that it seemed the line was moving very slowly. Once I made my way up closer to the front of the line, I saw the reason why. Mr. Masekela greeted each and every person with a hug, signed whatever they asked him to (guys had gone along the length of the line to announce he would only be signing albums and CDs), made some conversation with each person (I remember he asked me where I was from and when I told him, he sang a bit of "Do You Know The Way To San Jose?") and then said good-bye to each and every person with another hug. I remember thinking, here's a guy who grew up and lived under the violence and oppression of apartheid, who was forced to become an exile from his own country, separated from family and friends for a couple of decades, who had his own personal struggles with substance abuse, had a couple of failed marriages, who had every reason to be a bitter misanthrope if any one ever had. Yet he was still a very warm, caring and seemingly genuinely humble individual. I still have the CDs he signed for me that day and looking at them brings a smile to my face. But when I heard of Hugh Masekela's passing, it was the memory of the two hugs he gave me that day which brought a little tear to my eye. Thank you for having lived among us, Mr. Masekela. Thank you for all the music you gave us. May you Rest In Peace. Edit -- From the NY Times obit linked to up above: At St. Peter’s, he was encouraged to pursue music by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, an influential anti-apartheid advocate and organizer. He took lessons from Uncle Sauda, an esteemed local trumpeter, and quickly mastered the basics. Archbishop Huddleston established the Huddleston Jazz Band, a youth orchestra, partly to give Mr. Masekela an opportunity to play, and later, during a trip to the United States, he met Louis Armstrong, who had a trumpet sent to the band. The instrument made its way into Mr. Masekela’s hands. A photo of the moment when "the instrument made its way into Mr. Masekela’s hands" for the first time appears on the cover of Hugh Masekela's autobiography (a recommended read) and associated CD --

Yes, I suppose so. Ms. Christy herself almost always sounded "friendly' on her recordings, even when tackling some of the more challenging Kenton arrangements. I have 3 volumes of these recordings (not sure if there were more) and the liner notes state they were recprded in 1949 by NBC for radio play only. As such, I'm guessing it was a pretty "casual" recording session with loosely framed arrangements of standards and they probably whipped through a dozen tunes in a given session. Nice stuff which any June Christy fan would enjoy. Now playing For some reason, the piano used for this session had 91 keys instead of 88. To fully capture the sound of those extra keys, I hope the recording engineer turned all his knobs up to 11.

:"A Friendly Session" -- as opposed to the usual surly or combative June Christy session?

Some excellent listening there, each one of them a favorite of mine. Disc 1 and 2. Rarely has an album had a more appropriately descriptive title. One of my favorite "live" recordings and one deserving of an "expanded edition" which would include any other remaining recordings made from these 2 nights at the Keystone Korner. Then for something completely different: Disc 2 of 2, which contains the episodes "Wings Over Dagenham" and "The Rent Collectors", the latter, coincidentally, was first broadcast on Jan, 17, 1957 (and includes one of my favorite jokes: "This is ridiculous! You can't hang me!" "He's right you know -- he hasn't got a neck!")

The album that hit song came from is mighty fine from start to finish -- one of the best 99 cent purchases I ever made. That's about all of Edwin Hawkins' music I'm familiar with, but it's very good indeed. May he Rest In Peace.

Disc 3 of 4, which includes the album Peter & Sophia (Ms. Loren, that is, who actually had a rather charming singing voice) as well as several bonus tracks including Mr. Sellers' version of several Beatles hits.

These programs from 1945 also featured performances by Barney Bigard, the Nat Cole Trio, Rose Murphy, Betty Roche and the always welcome (in my book, at least) Jimmy Durante.

From 1965, with James Moody, Cedar Walton, Ron Carter and Candy Finch.

! now playing -- According to the liner notes written by Woody Herman's #1 fan, Dr. Herb Wong, the music heard here was recorded at a concert which did not begin until 3:30 AM following an extended Sonny Rollins set which included 3 encores (part of that set was released as the album The Cutting Edge, but why oh why hasn't all of the music from that set been reissued in an expanded version by now?). AMG says this album is "for Herman completists only", but I would disagree. The band sounds lively, tight and swinging and there is a good variety of material presented.

Disc 2 of 2.

Thanks to Ted O'Reilly for recording this music.

Cover art by Robert Crumb, who also played mandolin and banjo with the group on some tracks in this compilation.