"Detour Ahead: Mary Ann McCall" on Night Lights

[ghost of miles]

This week on Night Lights it’s “Detour Ahead: Mary Ann McCall.” Mary Ann McCall, whom Johnny Mandel once called “the greatest of all the big band singers,” is a secret heroine of American jazz vocal music. Little-known today, and not widely recorded during even the most active periods of her career, she has sometimes been compared to Billie Holiday and Anita O’Day for the soulful maturity of her late 1940s and 1950s work. (Musician and writer Loren Shoenberg describes her sound as “throaty and purposefully rough.”) Problems with addiction and a predilection for singing only jazz held McCall back as a marketplace force . We’ll hear a number of her recordings with the Woody Herman big band, including “Romance in the Dark” and “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good,” as well as small-group work with Phil Moore, Ralph Burns, and Charlie Ventura, and cuts from her late-1950s albums, including Detour to the Moon and Melancholy Baby. “Detour Ahead” airs Saturday, June 3 at 11:05 p.m. on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN. The program will be posted to the Night Lights archives Monday afternoon.

Also this week, Night Lights makes its debut on Michigan’s Blue Lake Public Radio, where western Michigan listeners can hear it Sunday evenings at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Next week: "The Lighthouse All-Stars."

Edited April 19, 2008 by ghost of miles

[Lazaro Vega]

Looking forward to it, Ghost.

Sunday night's line-up:

6 p.m. Jazz Profiles featuring Ahmad Jamal

7-8 p.m. Our recording of The Wonderland Jazz Ensemble performing live April 18th. A West Michigan based two saxophone and rhythm band, including music by Sun Ra ("Lullabye For Realville") and other classics.

8-10 p.m. Jazz From Blue Lake Sunday with yours truely. From 8 to 9 p.m. its Sunday jazz, that is Mary Stallings singing "A Sunday Kind of Love," a Buddy Rich mid-1950's Verve session playing "Sunday," music from Willie Pickens devotional album, David Murray's album "Speaking in Tongues" with Fontella Bass, etc. A big chunck of the 9 p.m hour will be spent on variations of "How High the Moon" including "Ornithology," "Solar" and "Satellite."

10 p.m. Night Lights. (web stream blocked)

Hope our listeners enjoy the new line-up.

[AllenLowe]

Mary Ann Mcall was an absolutely great singer - good choice -

[ghost of miles]

Mary Ann Mcall was an absolutely great singer - good choice -

Didn't you mention her in THAT DEVILIN' TUNE? I can't remember how I first discovered her--maybe through some of the Herman sides. I was very happy to turn up copies of MELANCHOLY BABY & DETOUR TO THE MOON (the last w/help of a board member) for this program, as I don't think too many people have heard those late-1950s recordings. The Hep is definitely the one to get, though--includes some of her best work w/Herman, as well as some obscure but great late-1940s small-group efforts. And her presence is yet another reason (not like we need one!) to grab Mosaic's Herman Columbia box.

Up for broadcast in about half an hour on WNIN and an hour and a half on WFIU.

[alocispepraluger102]

that was a great show. you honor vocalists really well.

blocked on lazlakeweb? what's the deal?

will they start with your most recent.........?

have you (yet) honored mr. eckstein?

Edited June 4, 2006 by alocispepraluger102

[AllenLowe]

yes, I did cite her - and if the boxed set ever gets issued that far I used a cut from one of her Okeh recordings-

[Uncle Skid]

Listening to it right now, on Blue Lake Public Radio.

(it's pretty cool to hear your show the "low-tech" way, ghost... no computer required!)

[ghost of miles]

Listening to it right now, on Blue Lake Public Radio.

(it's pretty cool to hear your show the "low-tech" way, ghost... no computer required!)

Cool! I'm really psyched to be on Blue Lake... and following Mr. Vega will keep me on my toes, that's for sure. My wife & I go up to the Saugatuck/Douglas area about once a year, and my mom went to Hope College, so I have some emotional connections to the area.

[ghost of miles]

This program is now archived. (Has been since Monday afternoon, but this is the first opportunity I've had to post.)

Edited April 19, 2008 by ghost of miles

[ghost of miles]

We'll be re-airing this program tonight at 11 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville (Blue Lake will be airing a fund-drive show--"Hard Bop Home Runs"); it's already archived for online listening.

Edited April 19, 2008 by ghost of miles

[sidewinder]

In one of the more bizarre pairings on the 'Frankly Jazz' TV series, she is paired with the Jazz Crusaders for one vocal number on a programme that is otherwise all Jazz Crusaders. Wonder if she was on Dick Bock's books at the time?

[BillF]

Now listening online. Some tremendous music there!

[ghost of miles]

Glad you're enjoying it, Bill. For anybody who's interested in McCall, that Hep CD is well worth picking up--the best representation of her work that there is on a single disc. (The only representation, I guess, but still a very good one.) Getting a few more of her vocals is another reason for grabbing the Herman Columbia Mosaic, if anybody's sitting on the fence about that set.

[Guest youmustbe]

I have the video of her on the Bobby Troup tv show. Also on the show was Max and the group with Booker Little, Coleman, Draper and Art Davis.