Ghosts of Midnight - pt.7

Ghosts of Midnight is the latest edition of Your Heart Out which can be downloaded here free for all as a pdf. It is an affectionate tribute to the 1950s jazz label Bethlehem and some of its voices. One of Bethlehem’s great voices belonged to Betty Roché, who is one of my very favourite jazz or blues singers. I think it’s fair to say Betty didn’t have a lot of luck in the music business, she didn’t make many records, but there are many people discovering her extraordinarily beautiful voice. She recorded just the one LP for Bethlehem, which had possibly my very favourite Burt Goldblatt sleeve. It’s like the cover of a ‘noir’ crime novel, and really is quite beautiful. The record draws heavily on Betty’s connections with Duke Ellington, with whom she worked for some time as the featured vocalist in his orchestra.

After the Bethlehem set, Betty only recorded a couple more LPs, both for Prestige in the early ‘60s. One of these was Lightly and Politely, and if you like sweet vocal sets where jazz and blues blend exquisitely this is a perfect record, and features some wonderful performances like Rocks In My Bed. She is perfectly complemented by the small group format, including Wally Richardson on guitar who played on many great ‘60s and ‘70s recordings, Bobby Hutcherson’s Now!, Donald Byrd’s Electric Byrd etc., and made his own wonderful Soul Guru LP featuring a gorgeous version of Monday Monday.

The other LP Betty made for Prestige was Singin’ and Swingin’ and features Jack McDuff among others. Betty tackles standards but in a wonderful way, with irresistible scatting on numbers like I Just Got The Message Baby. Betty’s most famous moment, complete with scatting, I guess, is her early ‘50s performance singing on the Duke Ellington Orchestra recording of Take The A Train, with Louis Bellson o drums and Paul Gonsalves on sax. She is captured on film singing the same song with the Ellington band in Reveille with Beverley, and this clip really is glorious.

Ghosts of Midnight - pt.6

Ghosts of Midnight is the latest edition of Your Heart Out which can be downloaded here free for all as a pdf. It is an affectionate tribute to the 1950s jazz label Bethlehem and some of its voices. Among those voices were those of the Pat Moran Quartet, who recorded a couple of LPs for the label in the mid-'50s, featuring some lovely intricate vocal excursions which hold suggestions of the style that would be popular a decade or so later with the Mamas & Papas, Spanky & Our Gang, etc. Taking the lead on some tracks, like the exquisite Sunday Kind of Love, is Bev Kelly, one of my very favourite jazz singers. Pianist Pat Moran would next lead a new trio, which featured the legendary Scott LaFaro on bass. This line-up recorded a fantastic set for Audio Fidelity in 1957, which demonstrated a wonderful rapport between Scott and Pat. Indeed Scott is on record as saying the sessions with Pat Moran were his favourite recordings. The trio also made an LP backing Bev Kelly, which is an absolute must-have, and its got so many wonderful performances on. In fact, all the Pat Moran 1950s recordings are easy enough to buy in digital form and are great value.

Scott LaFaro died tragically young, though recordings with Bill Evans and Ornette Coleman mean he is rightly revered. There was, for example, a very entertaining BBC Radio3 tribute which is for now available and comes thoroughly recommended. Pat Moran, as far as I know, didn't make any more recordings leading a group of her own. Bev Kelly, however, went on to make what I think is one of the best jazz vocal LPs ever, Love Locked Out, at the start of the '60s, featuring among others Kenny Burrell, and gorgeous performances such as Lonelyville. There isn't as far as I know any vintage footage of Pat Moran or Bev Kelly, but there is a little of Scott LaFaro appearing on a show called Stars of Jazz which has a Bethlehem connection.

Ghosts of Midnight - pt.5

Ghosts of Midnight is the latest edition of Your Heart Out which can be downloaded here free for all as a pdf. It is an affectionate tribute to the 1950s jazz label Bethlehem and some of its voices. Just as fascinating as the stories of Bethlehem's voices are the tales of its arrangers, such as the very great Russ Garcia, much loved by lovers of lounge and exotica. For Bethlehem he arranged sets by the likes of Frances Faye and Peggy Connelly, and oversaw the extraordinary jazz interpretation of the complete Porgy and Bess, with the wonderful Al Jazzbo Collins as narrator.

Beyond Bethlehem Russ worked with all sorts of great singers, but it is his own work that gets easy listening connoisseurs all excited.

Bethlehem picked up on Russ Garcia's LP Sounds In The Night which is an exceptional collection of jazz choral vocal arrangements, which could easily be from an Italian soundtrack from ten years later. Then there is his imaginary soundtrack work, like the space age pop experimentations on Fantastica, and the actual film scores such as The Time Machine.

Among my own favourite Russ Garcia works is a brace of LPs he arranged for Julie London in 1957, where she expanded on her minimalist template perfectly.

Ghosts of Midnight - pt.4

Ghosts of Midnight is the latest edition of Your Heart Out which can be downloaded here free for all as a pdf. It is an affectionate tribute to the 1950s jazz label Bethlehem and some of its voices. Among those voices was the fantastic Frances Faye, whom I first came across via a CD that collected a couple of her Bethlehem LPs under the umbrella title of Frances Faye Sings, Russell Garcia Conducts. One of those was of Frances singing folk songs, and is perhaps her least typical work. Nevertheless it is a stunning work, with highlights like Go 'Way From My Window, the John Jacob Niles song.

Frances was a remarkable performer, with a penchant for pounding the piano and hollering like hell. The wise guys in the '30s loved her cabaret spots, and clips posted on YouTube such as the one where she and Martha Raye are scatting away like mad give an idea why the gangsters would have been eating out of her hand.

Bruce Weber has done a great job of immortalising Frances by placing her right at the heart of his own extraordinary film Chop Suey. It includes some amazing footage of Frances, which hasn't surfaced on YouTube (yet), where she seems as dangerous as Jerry Lee Lewis in the late '50s.

Ironically Frances' name may be best known now for a couple of recordings which remain favourites of jazz and soul DJs, such as her early '50s uptempo rendition of Summertime and her astonishing cover of I'm Coming Home from the early '60s (a song that itself has a couple of Bethlehem connections) which was arranged by Shorty Rogers.

I bet Frances was accused of many things during her lifetime, but age did not mellow her as this brief but astonishing clip shows ...

Ghosts of Midnight - pt.3

Ghosts of Midnight is the latest edition of Your Heart Out which can be downloaded here free for all as a pdf. It is an affectionate tribute to the 1950s jazz label Bethlehem and some of its voices. There is no denying the fact that some of these voices became lost along the way, and were criminally under-recorded. While the advent of the digital age has meant that the Bethlehem sides recorded by singers such as Terry Morel, Betty Blake, Betty Roche, Peggy Connelly, Marilyn Moore, Paula Castle, and Helen Carr are available one way or another, there still seems to be a general lack of awareness about the wonderful talents these ladies had, and background detail is often harder to find. Oddly YouTube is not much help in these cases, and there is little from the Bethlehem back catalogue posted for the casual browser to stumble across. There is even less in the way of rare footage to watch. One glorious exception, however, is a clip from the early '60s of Terry Morel performing on the West Coast jazz TV show, Frankly Jazz. What is particularly wonderful about this piece of film is seeing how the show's host Frank Evans is so visibly moved that he can hardly speak when Terry has finished singing What Is There To Say ...

Ghosts of Midnight - pt.2

Ghosts of Midnight is the latest edition of Your Heart Out which can be downloaded here free for all as a pdf. It is an affectionate tribute to the 1950s jazz label Bethlehem and some of its voices. Bethlehem as a record company hit on something magical in 1954 when Creed Taylor took Gus Wildi's label and set some great ideas in motion. First and foremost among these was to get the jazz singer Chris Connor to record a set of intimate songs in a small group setting, capturing an after-hours feel, and promote this 10" LP in a gorgeous sleeve designed by Burt Goldblatt. It set the tone for how Bethlehem would conduct itself as a label, and that combination of ideas and talents is still an intoxicating one. Chris Connor went on to sing on many special records. Creed Taylor would come up with many great schemes. Burt Goldblatt would design many wonderful sleeves. Bethlehem would release many more fantastic jazz LPs. And it was the magic of those early Chris Connor recordings on Bethlehem that changed so much. Chris certainly inspired a whole host of other singers, and brought out the best in many musicians. If you twisted my arm and asked me to pick a particular favourite Chris Connor record it would be the third set she recorded for Bethlehem, from 1955, with a group featuring Ralph Sharon on piano, Herbie Mann on flute, and Joe Puma on guitar. It's got some really special moments on ...

Ghosts of Midnight - pt.1

Ghosts of Midnight is the latest edition of Your Heart Out which can be downloaded here free for all as a pdf. It is an affectionate tribute to the 1950s jazz label Bethlehem and some of its voices. One of these voices is that of Audrey Morris'. She recorded one LP for Bethlehem in the mid-'50s, which featured some gorgeous tracks. The LP was recorded out in Hollywood and arranged by the great Marty Paich. Audrey had recorded one earlier LP, which is a particular favourite of mine, called Bistro Ballads. And, yes, Audrey is particularly wonderful singing the intimate torch songs on this record, such as Where Are You? Incidentally Audrey is accompanied on this LP by the great Johnny Pate on bass long before he had success with The Impressions. A lot of the Bethlehem singers sort of drifted out of music, but Audrey has carved a niche for herself as a cabaret performer in her native Chicago. After a long recording hiatus, she would make a series of LPs including one of old Film Noir numbers. Among those included on that LP is a particular favourite, Ace In The Hole, which Gloria Grahame is seen performing in The Naked Alibi. Torch songs and film noir ... these are two of my favourite things.

Ghosts of Midnight

Ghosts of Midnight is the latest edition of Your Heart Out which can be downloaded here free for all as a pdf. It is an affectionate tribute to the 1950s jazz label Bethlehem and some of its voices. Bethlehem was an extraordinary record company, and its roster featured a wide range of singers: from intimate torch singers to be-bopping scat specialists. Some seem to have been lost along the way. Others have doggedly stuck with the jazz thing. In recent years the voices of Bethlehem have become a bit of an obsession, so this is an attempt at sharing that enthusiasm ...