Tonight's Book: Rhythm and the Blues by Jerry Wexler
"Veteran record producer Wexler, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member who coined the term "rhythm and blues," spent the Depression as an adolescent in the Washington Heights section of New York City, hanging out in pool halls, hunting for rare records, hungering for excitement. Wexler took journalism courses at a college in Kansas but spent years as a window washer in Manhattan. After a stint in the wartime Army, he joined the staff of Billboard. In 1952 he became a partner in Ahmed Ertegun's Atlantic Records, recording such jazz, blues and folk greats as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Solomon Burke, Joe Turner, Betty Carter, the Drifters, Etta James and Bob Dylan. This spirited memoir, written with freelancer Ritz, crackles with career highlights and swings breezily through five decades of record-making, focusing especially on the 1950s and 1960s. Readers will enjoy accounts of Wexler's seminal encounters with gifted musicians, but they may wish for deeper development of this hip-merchant's life story."
Tonight's Playlist
Note: I - click to buy from the iTunes store (Canada) (You must have iTunes installed on your computer in order to buy tracks from the iTunes store); A - click to buy from Amazon.ca (Canada) (All subject to availability)Theme - Oliver Nelson Big Band - "Stolen Moments" (excerpt) I A
Jimmy Raney - "One More For The Mode" A
Brian Dickinson and Kenny Wheeler - "Springs Eternal" I A
Marcus Roberts - "The Jitterbug Waltz" A
Sophie Milman - "Like Someone In Love" I A
Miles Davis - "Well, You Needn't" I A
Joni Mitchell - "Moon At The Window" A
Mose Allison - "Stop This World" I A
Modern Jazz Quartet - "Django" I A
Artie Shaw & His Gramercy 5 - "Summit Ridge Drive" I A
Ronnie Earl, Duke Robillard and Jimmy McGriff - "Don't Take Everybody For Your Friend" I
Friedrich Gulda - "Lullaby of Birdland" A
Michael Brecker - "Midnight Voyage" I A
Count Basie - "Love Me Or Leave Me" I A
Bill Evans - "Gone With The Wind" I
Frank Zappa - "Rollo" A
Illinois Jacquet and Ben Webster - "Blue Nocturne"
Ray Charles and Fathead Newman - "Hard Times" I A
Emilie-Claire Barlow - "The Boy Next Door" I A
Johnny Frigo - "Detour Ahead" I A
Jimmy Knepper Quartet - "The Jumpin' Blues" I A
Sarah Vaughan - "On Green Dolphin Street" I A
Ahmad Jamal Trio - "Cherokee" A
Oscar Peterson and Lionel Hampton - "Indiana" I
Rabbits On The Moon - "Movies Break"
Jimmy Witherspoon - "Blues In The Night" I A
Miles Davis - "It's Only A Paper Moon" I A
Pat Metheny Trio - "All The Things You Are" A
Laura Hubert - "Ghost Of A Chance"
John Coltrane - "Village Blues" I A
Theme - Oliver Nelson Big Band - "Stolen Moments" (excerpt) I A
Frank Zappa - "Sofa #1" A
