Mavis Rivers: Four Classic Albums Plus (Take A Number, The Simple Life, Hooray For Love, Mavis) (AVID Jazz AMSC1462)
Singers are often a tricky bunch – some are referred to simply as popular or even “quality” vocalists, others fall readily under the jazz umbrella. The relatively unknown Mavis Rivers falls into both categories.
Originally from Samoa, she moved to the US in the early 1950s and was to make several records, for Capitol and later signing, as did Duke Ellington, for Frank Sinatra’s label, Reprise. Most of the material here was issued 10 years ago on Fresh Sounds, with more accurate recording details.
Her polished, upbeat approach, with its clear delivery, is shown in this collection. Supported by top arrangers, including Nelson Riddle and Van Alexander, she was clearly aimed at a commercial market. Hooray For Love has Jack Marshall directing operations with bouncy, even gimmicky results – no sense of the forlorn on You Don’t Know What Love Is here. At times there’s an element of Ella in the purity of tone and the bending of a sustained note, but it’s more towards Doris Day territory.
However, the album simply titled Mavis is with a Marty Paich band, full of first-rate players. Mel Lewis and Joe Mondragon move things along and soloists include Bud Shank, Stu Williamson and Bill Perkins, and it’s worth getting just for this. There’s greater freedom for Rivers, who was down as saying “This kind of backing was what I always wanted.”
During the 50s she had moved to Pacoima, a suburb of Los Angeles, so it made sense to take advantage of the musicians there, which brings us to Irene Kral.
Irene Kral: Better Than Anything (Supper Club 043)
Born in Chicago, of Czech extraction, Irene Kral, like Rivers, relocated to Los Angeles in the 50s, and lived in Tarzana, about 10 minutes on the San Diego freeway from Pacoima. Influenced by Carmen McRae, Kral was more of a club singer, with a relaxed intimacy, especially in her ballad work; the name-checking on title track Better Than Anything showing where her interests lay. The Meaning Of The Blues, No More and This Is Always have a late-night melancholia and Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry shows her as a fine purveyor of torch songs.
There’s great support from the Junior Mance trio and the album includes three earlier tracks with a Herb Pomeroy band that has Charlie Mariano, Varty Haratounian, Ray Santisi and other East Coast/Boston session men. Kral made only a handful of recordings in her short life but established her reputation working with Woody Herman and Shelly Manne, and later was recognised by Clint Eastwood in the soundtrack to The Bridges of Madison County.
Ineza with Alex Webb & The Copasetics: Women’s Words, Sister’s Stories (Copasetic Recordings COP505)
Ineza Kerschkamp moved from her Rwandan roots and upbringing in Belgium to find her niche in London’s jazz scene. Again, referencing Carmen McRae as an inspiration, here she mainly uses the compositions of female vocalists to underline their contribution to the genre – Peggy Lee, Billie Holiday, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln amongst them.
In the liner notes, pianist and bandleader Alex Webb rightly sings the praises of the material, some well known and associated with earlier vocalists, others not so familiar, but certain things stand out – his arrangements and piano support, and Ineza’s strong, confident voice, especially on the more blues-orientated compositions.
The backing quintet firmly shows how effective more modern styles can be behind a singer, the exciting Don’t Waste Your Time and Free Your Mind in particular. Several others have strings, although a simple combination of two violins, viola and cello means that it’s not swamped or over-orchestrated, as demonstrated on Tell Me More, Good Morning Heartache and Throw It Away.
Recently she has been involved with swing big band Down With The Count, currently on an extended tour and made up of young musicians interested in exploring the areas of big band swing. In this they are not alone, as the following recent issues show, all three taking different angles on Duke Ellington’s music.
Francesco Bearzatti, Stefano Risso & Mattia Barbieri: Behind Anatomy (Auand AU9108)
The title refers to Ellington’s soundtrack to the film Anatomy Of A Murder, although director Otto Preminger used very little of the music, and only fragmentarily. A collective effort from reedman Bearzatti, with Barbieri on drums and Risso playing bass and handling electronica, it’s not an attempt to make a cover version of Ellington’s work or interpret the film, but as Risso says, to reinterpret a film score.
After a bright and encouraging start, the electronic effects enter towards the end of One Emo, creating harmonic textures but these interjections are like systems music, slightly insidious. Any comparisons with Duke’s soundtrack are largely irrelevant, given the instrumentation and style, but of course inevitable. Lee’s Dance no doubt refers to Lee Remick, represented through an amalgamation of rock-orientated rhythm, electronics and repetitive riffing. The parallel in the original film score is Flirtibird, Remick’s theme, but that was a sinuous and seductive ensemble piece, far removed from this.
The only non-Risso track, composed by Ellington, A La Guy Lombardo, is a mishmash of soundbites and sampling, and although it includes snippets of swing, like the brief part of the film where Laura (Remick) listens to records in Biegler’s office, it lacks coherence and at times is almost a parody of Ellington’s music. It might be fine for those interested in the fusion of sound and the merging of styles, but it seems heavy-handed. On the positive side there’s Bearzatti’s use of clarinet, reminiscent of Jimmy Hamilton; his attractive tenor, gutsy and growling on Manion v Biegler (an awkward stand-off between defendant and attorney in the film) while bass and drums create ominous menace; the build-up of tension in the second half of The Dreams; and you could say the numerous twists and turns mirror those in the story, but this analogy is rather tenuous.
An interesting note is that apparently Billy Strayhorn wrote very little of the original score but dubbed James Stewart’s on-screen piano playing.
Day Dream: Duke & Strays Live (Corner Stone Jazz CSJ 0140/1)
Contrasting with this is a more straightforward homage to Ellington and Strayhorn, whom the Duke described as “my favourite human being”. The trio’s name is taken from Strayhorn’s early composition. Although there are improvisational passages throughout, the music is firmly fixed to Ellington/Strayhorn and serves to underline the inherent modernism of the material.
Recorded live at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania (perhaps appropriately – The Pittsburgh Courier readers voted Ellington their favourite bandleader as early as 1931) – it brings together long-time collaborators Drew Gress and Phil Haynes joining pianist Steve Rudolph in a selection of well-known classics – Perdido, Take The A Train, Rockin’ In Rhythm, etc.
The approach is respectful, and Rudolph shows his Bill Evans influence on the slower numbers. The opener is a beautiful version of African Flower, introduced by small sounds like the background noises of the equatorial forest – it’s less forceful than the Money Jungle version, but equally as beguiling. The slower introspection of Single Petal Of A Rose melts seamlessly into Sophisticated Lady and Gress’s bass leads Lush Life. The religious side of Ellington is represented by TGTT (Too Good To Title) from the Second Sacred Concert and drummer Haynes puts his stamp on Come Sunday.
An album that Ellingtonians will certainly enjoy, and although it could occasionally do with Ellington’s quirky non-conformism, there are some exquisite moments.
Brian Landrus: Plays Ellington and Strayhorn (Palmetto BL202301)
Boston-based saxophonist Brian Landrus has produced the closest music to that of Ellington and Strayhorn in his album. A master of the lower-register horns, he has created a virtual orchestra, using mainly baritone for the melodies and other instruments for the body of the wind section. Accompanied by guitarist Dave Stryker, bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Billy Hart, he’s produced some of the best cover versions around. He hasn’t tried to reinvent the material, nor simply copy, but has changed the arrangement by modifying the instrumentation slightly yet keeping the distinctive character, feel and emotion of the compositions.
The versions of Agra (from Far East Suite), Praise God (Second Sacred Concert), Star-Crossed Lovers (Such Sweet Thunder), Come Sunday (Black, Brown and Beige) and Chelsea Bridge fit perfectly, at times evoking the darker elements so often found in Mingus’s interpretations of Ellington-inspired music, and in Landrus’s rich and commanding horn playing, the spirit of Ben Webster and Harry Carney is apparent throughout.
Curiously, Daydream is played as a bossa nova – I admit to preferring the more contemplative, almost languorous, rendition which Johnny Hodges first performed in 1940, but this is a minor quibble. Away from the orchestral context, Landrus and Stryker duet on Lotus Blossom whilst the bass saxophone closes the album with a short solo version of Sophisticated Lady – a suitable ending to an excellent release.
All three albums, with their different emphases, show the enduring influence and inspiration of both Ellington and Strayhorn’s contribution to the music and are worth investigating.
2024 favourites
QOW Trio: The Hold Up (Ubuntu UBU0151) (new). I enthused about this back in February and nothing has changed my mind; in fact after seeing them at the Toulouse-Lautrec in October, it has reaffirmed how good a live band they are.
Chet Baker Quartet: In Paris (New Continent 101009) (archive) Some strong candidates including Rollins at the Village Vanguard, but with Baker’s playing, Bob Zieff’s unusual compositions and most of all, the last recordings of the mercurial Dick Twardzik, this takes it.