Horace Silver, Junior Cook, Paul Winter, Itzhak Perlman: It’s the leering Live! Photos, Videos

Itzhak and I talked about how his parents met after leaving Poland just before the German invasion in 1939 and the day as a child he woke and realized he had polio.

Itzhak enjoys playing the violin while watching baseball with the sound down and loves hot dogs with just a bit of mustard and ketchup. He is on The Ed Sullivan Show at age 13 in 1958, a performance that led to a Juilliard School of Music audition and fame and fortune….

SiriusXM. This coming Thursday at 9 a.m. (EDT), I’ll be on SiriusXM’s Feedback (Channel 106) with co-hosts Nik Carter and Lori Majewski to talk about the writing and recording of The Gambler, written by Don Schlitz and recorded in 1978 by Kenny Rogers. Tune in, Tweet or call!

Why Jazz Happened, my 2012 book on the external forces that caused jazz styles to change eight times between the end of World War II and Watergate, has just been published in paperback.

The interviews. My vast library of conversations with jazz legends can be accessed in the right-hand column under “Interviews.” Just click on the link and you’ll be taken to Part 1. Readers often email me asking, “Hey, where’s Part 2 and the other parts?” If there are subsequent parts, you’ll find the link by scrolling up to the top of Part 1, above the red date. There, you’ll find a link to the next part. I’m sorry this isn’t easier. It’s how the platform was set up initially.

Count Basie. Moon River from This Time By Basie/Hits of the ’50s and ’60s in 1963, arranged by Quincy Jones…

The United States Army Field Band in 2017 playing the same arrangement…

Paul Winter. One of the early jazz-bossa albums, in 1962, by the Paul Winter Sextet. Just let it play…

Junior Cook radio. Sid Gribetz will present tenor saxophonist Junior Cook in a five hour radio broadcast this Sunday, January 13, from 2 to 7 p.m. (EDT) on WKCR’s “Jazz Profiles” in New York. You can access the show from anywhere in the world. [Photo above of Junior Cook by Francis Wolff]

Junior Cook with the Horace Silver Quintet playing Senior Blues…

Jazz quiz: How many former members of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers are still with us today? The number that just popped into your head is likely low. The answer can be found at a forum held last week at the annual Jazz Congress in New York featuring all former Messengers in conversation. To view a video of the event.

Zev to Blue Note. Those who enjoy Resonance Records and the previously unreleased treasures that producer Zev Feldman routinely tracks down around the world will be happy to learn that Zev will be performing the same magic tricks for the Blue Note label. He’s not leaving Resonance but will be working in a similar capactiy for the great label founded by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff 80 years ago this year. Wishing Zev enormous luck and success as we await lots of great new musical discoveries recorded by Blue Note’s many legendary artists. [Photo above of me and Zev last fall during an interview for the upcoming Evans in England: Live at Ronnie Scott’s due in April]

What the heck: The Ray Charles Orchestra playing Lee Morgan’s The Sidewinder, courtesy of Milan Simich…

James Brown’s Famous Flames band in Paris playing the same song. The trumpet solo is by Waymon Reed, who later played with Count Basie and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra and was Sarah Vaughan’s last husband. Thanks again to Milan and to Bill Kirchner…

Oddball album cover of the week.

I’m sure the women incarcerated here had plenty of choice related to appearing in this photo. Plus, shame on the designer for the go-go, Dating Game typeface. Perhaps the creepiest thing on the cover isn’t Mack Vickery or the setting. It’s the leering “Live!” at the top. And yes, this was Brad McCuen’s label after he left RCA in 1969.