Segarini: The BobChart – Week 10

It’s hot, it’s humid, June is already in the rearview mirror, and Summer is flying by like a witch on a broomstick.

Here in Toronto we have been inundated (bombarded, really) with an amount of music and art that would deafen and blind most cities, but not Toronto. We LOVE music, we CRAVE music, we DEMAND music 7 days a week and have the venues and artists to prove it. You can bitch and moan all you want about the dearth of music and clubs in your town, you can whine all you like about how bad music is today, how shitty and stupid it all is, and you can bemoan the state of radio and despise your unfortunate luck of having been born too late to see and hear “The Great Bands” of yore.

Shut up.

Go out and listen to your local bands at your local clubs. I will bet a Coors Banquet Beer Tall Boy you will hear some MUSIC worth hearing, because, as always, REAL music is in the clubs, and the bars, and even on the street corners if you get off your ass and go look for it.

And of course, there is always the Intertoobz….

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BULLETIN!!!

BEFORE WE START, THURSDAY, JULY 3^RD (TOMORROW NIGHT)

RIVAL SONS AT THE MOD CLUB IN TORONTO

IF YOU LOVE MUSIC

BE THERE

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This week we offer up a history lesson of sorts. If you want to hear a Stevie Ray Vaughn song, look elsewhere. Today, The BobChart focuses on Jazz, A Capella, and harmony, and reveals a truth unnoticed  or acknowledged by few; Rock is great, but there are OTHER genres of music that are equally wonderful, and if you call yourself a ‘music lover’ you really should open up your mind and explore what came before. It is ALL connected.

If Rock is your only musical destination, then you may just miss the music of your youth…and that doesn’t make you a ‘music lover’…that makes you a nostalgist…and if you DO love the music of the past, you should at least investigate a little further.

We love the Rock as much as the next guy…but we also have a place in our hearts for ALL forms of music, because, like rock, Country, Rap, Pop, and the rest have Good AND bad songs and artists. And those songs and artists have affected rock, just like rock has affected them.

Since May, Toronto has been blessed with Canadian Music Week, NXNE, Luminato, various Music City mini-fests, and currently, one of two Jazz fests we get every year.

It is the latter that informs this week’s BobChart.

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Double Six of Paris – A Night in Tunisia

One of my earliest Jazz influences by a vocal group from Paris (and not the only one I loved as you shall see in a bit) who released this track in 1962, 20 years after it was written. Wikipedia explains the lineage of the song:

“A Night in Tunisia” is a musical composition written by Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli in 1942 while Gillespie was playing with the Earl Hines Band. It has become a jazz standard.

It is also known as “Interlude”, under which title it was recorded (with lyrics) by Sarah Vaughan (from the EP “Hot Jazz”, 1953) and Anita O’Day. Gillespie himself called the tune “Night in Tunisia”, although the song is usually titled “A Night in Tunisia”. It appears as the title track of 30 CDs and is included in over 500 currently available CDs.

In January 2004, The Recording Academy added the Dizzy Gillespie & his Sextet’s 1946 Victor recording to its Grammy Hall of Fame.”

This might be disorienting and a bit jarring on first listen, but believe me, it is worth your time.

Double Six of Paris  – Rat Race

What? Perform instrumental parts with voices? Why that’s crazy! Well, Quincy Jones didn’t think so. Look what he did with the Double Six….

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Johnny Puleo and the Harmonica Rascals

There are a lot of great harmonica players out there. Mostly of the blues variety, granted, but the harmonica can be used in a myriad amount of ways that many may not be aware of. Take this bunch. Even my Dad loved the musical stylings of Johnny Puleo and the Harmonica Rascals, and drove us all the way to San Francisco to see them and accordion great Dick Contino on a double bill at a Copa Cabana style Night and Supper Club in the San Francisco of the ‘50s. Complete with faux palms and other accoutrement, The Italian Village was a beautiful, lavish space that provided top notch musical entertainment for your dining and dancing pleasure, as well as food fit for an Italian Emperor. And did these guys keep up with current music? Wait until you hear their version of “Rock Around the Clock” towards the end of this clip.

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Toots Thielemans – Bluesette

I still remember the moment I first heard this recording. I was stunned. A beautiful melody, an incredible arrangement, and a sound so fueled by passion and feeling that a voice would be hard pressed to reproduce the emotion displayed in this man’s playing. This is just an undeniable piece of music.

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Sacha Show – Bluesette

…and there were quite a few good guitar players back in the ‘50s and ‘60s…even in France!

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Blue Stars – Lullaby of Birdland

“Lullaby of Birdland” is a 1952 popular song with music by George Shearing and lyrics by GeorgeDavid Weiss under the pseudonym “B. Y. Forster” in order to circumvent the rule that ASCAP and BMI composers could not collaborate. The song became a jazz standard.

The title refers to Charlie “Bird” Parker and the Birdland jazz club named after him.

One of the great Jazz classics. This is still my favourite when I can find it on YouTube. It disappears from time to time, so listen as soon as you can.

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Mel Torme – Lullaby of Birdland

In 1955 The Velvet Fog did this. A flawless vocal performance recorded live. I honestly don’t think there has been a singer since who is capable of this kind of musicality and taste. The scat segment of this is just jaw dropping….

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Lambert Hendricks and Ross  – Live on ‘Playboy After Dark’ 1959

When he wasn’t busy corrupting the youth of the day, Hugh Hefner spent his spare time hosting a television show that featured musical and comedy guests surrounded by an audience of celebrities and dewy eyed women who defined their gender for 13 year old boys everywhere. Say what you want about good old Hef, but his musical taste matched his taste in voluptuous women. I wonder if there is a correlation between the lushness of the music and women of this era, and the thin, reedy look of today’s women and the music currently being espoused. Singing instead of playing the notes, this is a Hendricks as creative and rule changing as the other Hendix.

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Manhattan Transfer – Four Brothers

“Four Brothers” is a jazz standard composed by Jimmy Giuffre in 1947 and originally performed by the Woody Herman Orchestra. What? Sing Woody Herman horn charts and adding lyrics? Absolutely…and wait until you hear the note Laurel Masse hits at the end of this astounding live performance. Yipes!

Manhattan Transfer – Walk in Love

…and here they are again with Laurel giving ample reason not to believe that Adele and Amy are the only ones out there who can sing. Compared to this, in fact, I have to stick with Laurel, Rumer, the Karens, Sousa and Carpenter, and the rockier songbirds like the Bramletts, Samantha Martin, and Bonnie Riatt.

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The Four Freshmen – Their Hearts Were Full of Spring

This classic still brings tears to my eyes. It makes me long for this kind of love and these kinds of people. Jazz, aside from being popular music itself, continued to inform popular music and still can be heard and felt in contemporary music. Oh the harmonies…and without these harmonies and this particular song, we never would have had what follows it here.

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Beach Boys – Surfer Girl

Yep. If it wasn’t for jazz, Brian Wilson never would have dissected that Four Freshmen song and painstakingly learned the difficult harmony and complicated patterns, and instilled it in his music and the members of his group. If you search YouTube, you will find the Freshmen and the Boys doing each other’s music in tribute. For this reason alone, I will always love Brian Wilson.

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Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers – I Want You to be My Girl

There are 100s of Doo-Wop songs I could have posted here (we’ll do a BobChart based on them at some point), but here’s one that has stayed with me. Not the hit, but a fine example of street corner singing that is just as soulful and musical as what came before. Frankie Lyman was 15 years old when he co-wrote “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”…and he is 15 years old here as well. Seriously, The Bieb ain’t all that.

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The Four Seasons – Sherry

Remember when this record first came out? No. probably not, so take my word for it, it came out of nowhere and there was NOTHING like it on the radio at the time. If you listen closely enough, you can hear the connection to the jazz vocalists and writers that proceeded them. Valli’s voice was his instrument, a horn in its own right.

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98 Degrees – Invisible Man

I always thought it was a shame that people turned their backs on a whole genre without listening to see if there were great examples of it before they dismissed it out of hand. Unlike most of their peers, this group didn’t dance and lip sync, and they recorded some incredibly well crafted songs. This is one of the best. An unrequited love song so good I wish I had written it…but I didn’t. Dammit.

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One Direction – More Than This

Ditto, these kids. The best of the current crop for the exact same reasons. They are wonderful singers, and their songs are a cut above the rest. This one in particular.

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Cadence – I Wish

Sometimes, you don’t even need musical accompaniment. Stevie wrote this jazz influenced monster song, but this is my favourite version of it…ever. And hey kids, they’re local! Canadians just OWN it when they set their minds to it.

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Naturally 7 – Wall of Sound

Full circle to jazz with the hippest unit in the BobChart this week. Seriously, how can you not love this if you love music?

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Fourplay – Chant

Here’s ground zero for the culmination of all the elements described above. My favourite group, my favourite players, and one of my Eternal Top Ten. I have friends who HATE this music and call it ‘soulless’ and ‘boring’. It actually saddens me that they will never be able to enjoy this, or hear the passion and joy of it. Take the time to just close your eyes and listen…it’s like hearing the ocean reach the sand, withdraw and land again. The ebb and flow in musical form. Beautiful.

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Okay, Rock Fans…I know you must be bored to the tits by now…if you lasted this long, So here are a couple just for you.

First up, a lot of you have asked me why I don’t include more of my own music in these BobCharts. The answer is, I don’t know…never really occurred to me, but your response when I DO makes me ask you this; do you WANT to hear more of my stuff here? If you do, I will accommodate that request with whatever happens to fit that week’s vibe. Let me know.

As an introduction to 94.9 The Rock’s weekly pick, here’s an unreleased track from The Family Tree from ’67. Why is it here? Because of The Rock’s pick of the week…like I said, these charts are purely personal and won’t make a hell of a lot of sense all the time…if at all…ever.

The Family Tree – Sideliner

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And Finally….

94.9 The Rock Doug Elliott’s Pick of the Week

Kings of Leon – Family Tree

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Segarini’s regular column appears here every Friday whenever he can finish one in time.

Contact us at dbawis@rogers.com

Bob “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, and The Segarini Band and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now publishes, edits, and writes for DBAWIS, and continues to write music, make music, and record.