In A Mellow Tone, January 29: Jazz at the Chateau (1982-84), Part 3 — the vocalists

Mose Allison, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Mark Murphy, Ernestine Anderson, Freda Payne and others

From 1982 to 1984 a bold experiment in jazz programming occurred in Ottawa. The Chateau Laurier brought in jazz artists for week-long residencies at the Cock and Lion lounge. In Part 1 we heard the jazz guitarists and in Part 2 we listened to the pianists. On this week’s show we will hear most of the vocalists who came to town.

Cock and Lion Lounge, circa mid-1960s

In December 1982, Mose Allison, the American jazz and blues pianist and vocalist played with Scott Alexander on bass and Peter Magadini on drums. Mose Allison got his start on piano with Stan Getz and Zoot Sims. But his song compositions and singing are what made his name. His early compositions were big influences on Pete Townsend and The Rolling Stones.

At the Cock and Lion Lounge he played tunes by Duke Ellington, Hank Williams and Nat King Cole, as well as some original compositions. He also played a version of “You Are My Sunshine” in what Lois Moody, the Ottawa Citizen jazz critic, described as “a minor key lament”. We will hear him perform that song live from a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, about 6 months prior to his appearance at the Chateau. Here he is with a performance from 2005 - as usual, with very perceptive lyrics.

We will also hear another piano player and singer, David Frishberg - who did a solo show at the Chateau in April of 1983. Frishberg got his start playing piano in bands with Zoot Sims, Ben Webster and Gene Krupa, among others. His songs have been performed by Blossom Dearie, Rosemary Clooney and Diana Krall. Here’s Blossom Dearie, singing his composition, “Peel Me a Grape”.

In January 1983, Jimmy Witherspoon came to town. He was joined by P.J. Perry on tenor sax, Pete Beaudoin on drums, Scott Alexander on bass and Brian Browne on piano. Lois Moody wrote that Witherspoon's voice was a little worse for year after his 40 year career and his determined fight against throat cancer, “but his gruff sound and high spirits still get a great deal from a tune”. He played “Stormy Monday” and “Money’s Getting Cheaper”.

Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, another blues singer, played at the Chateau in August 1983. He played with pianist Wray Downes, bass player Dave Gelfand and Don Johnston on drums. Vinson also played the alto sax. Here he is playing live in 1978.

In June 1984, Mark Murphy played at the Chateau. He was accompanied by Brian Senensky on piano, Scott Alexander on bass and Joe Bendza on drums. Murphy has been described as a “jazz singers’ singer” — Ella Fitzgerald called him “my equal”. Lois Moody described Murphy as “taking an energetic and free-wheeling instrumental approach to song interpretation”. She said:

His lines and phrases make one think more of horn players, than singers. Register hopping with abandon, he slides into notes, takes flying leaps, whispers, shouts and turns both melodies and words inside out.

Those who enjoy this exuberant style of the vocal art will be well entertained.

She also said that his revamping of lyrics “can be effective”, as he was with “Blues in the Night” and “Eleanor Rigby” or can “border on the excessive”, as in his version of “Send in the Clowns”. We will hear all three tunes. Here he is, much earlier in his career, with “God Bless the Child”.

The husband and wife duo, Jackie and Roy (Jackie Cain and Roy Kral) played at the Chateau Laurier twice - in June 1982 and May 1983. Lois Moody described their music as slick, although that was not intended as an insult! They got their start with the Charlie Ventura band and released their first album as headliners in 1955. We will hear a track from that first release, as well as a live recording from 1986.

Freda Payne played at the Chateau in March 1984 - she was backed up by Bernie Senensky on piano, Scott Alexander on Bass and Jerry Fuller on drums. At the time (and still today) she was better known as a soul singer - especially for “Band of Gold”.

However, she got her start as a jazz singer - as a teenager she was recruited by Duke Ellington to join his band, but her mother prevented that. Payne recorded an album with Impulse! in 1964 before veering into soul music. We will hear “Blue Piano” and “Lonely Woman” from that 1964 release. We will also hear a track from her album “Come Back to me Love”, released in 2014.

In September 1983, Maxine Sullivan played for a week at the Chateau - with Art Maiste on piano, Scott Alexander on bass, and Charles Guay on drums.

Maxine Sullivan was in her early 70s when she sang at the Cock and Lion Lounge. Lois Moody described Maxine Sullivan as a "charmer who has lost none of her magic”. She wrote:

…stylish and poised as ever, though looking just a little fragile, Sullivan has that indefinable but essential quality called presence. In a totally natural fashion that makes no allowances for showbiz excesses, she reaches out to an audience with directness and warmth.

She's quietly but firmly in charge of the music and those who both play and hear it.

Here she is recorded in 1986, with Tommy Flanagan on piano.

Ernestine Anderson came to the Chateau a month after Maxine Sullivan - in October 1983. Ernestine Anderson got her start in the 1950s, playing with Lionel Hampton. She spent some time in Europe before reviving her recording career in the 1970s. In 1983 she had a new album out, “Big City” and she played a few tunes from that release at her Chateau Laurier residency. Joining her in the Cock and Lion Lounge was Hugh O'Connor on saxophone, Scott Alexander on bass, Wray Downes on piano and Archie Alleyne on drums.

Lois Moody said that she wore “her material like a glove and knows how to shape and color it naturally and effectively”.

In December 1982, Salome Bey came for a ten day run at the Chateau Laurier. Bob Murphy was on piano, Jamie Gatti on bass and Peter Beaudoin on drums.

Salome Bey was born in the United States, but moved to Canada permanently in 1964. In 1966, she played with Horace Silver on SOUL! — sounding a little bit like Grace Jones (or, rather, Grace Jones sounds like her).

Lois Moody noted the voice and personality of Bey were “a formidable combination punch that dominated the audience from the opening note”. She played “I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to Be Free” at the Cock and Lion Lounge and we will end the show with a live version of that tune recorded in Montreux in 1979.

The show will be aired on Wednesday at 9 to 11 p.m. at 93.1 on the FM band and online at CKCUFM.com. The show will also be available on demand.