Saturday, May 2, 2009

JERSEY MUSIC MAKERS ALPHABET LIST

I heard the great jazz piano player Bill Charlap on WNYC yesterday explaining improvisation and displaying his amazing talent and technical skills. I knew Bill before I knew who he was.

We met on a New Jersey Transit train to the city one day. I found out he was a jazz musician but I didn’t catch his last name and put it together with the piano player whose music had already impressed me when I heard it on another WNYC show, Jonathan Schwartz’s, on a Sunday afternoon drive back from the Berkshires.

But when I did I was even more amazed as he’s a very modest unpretentious cat for someone that TIME magazine named the greatest jazz musician of the year a few years back.

I think he originally grew up in the city, but he’s been living in Jersey for years and has kids in the same public school my little one goes to, so I consider him a home boy now.

So for last night’s wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-help-me-get-back-to-sleep alphabet list, I started thinking about all the musical makers who live or lived in Jersey and did another alphabet list. (I think I did something like this before, but I can’t locate it.)

Here’s what I came up with:

ANTHEIL, GEORGE (early 20th Century avant-garde composer and friend of Jersey poet William Carlos Williams), ARMOR FOR SLEEP (some relatives by marriage in this group)
BASIE, COUNT, COZY COLE, BON JOVI, BLUES TRAVELERS (at least some of them), SCOTT BUCK (a local multi-talent—meaning he plays many instruments—but mainly guitar player and songwriter and original)
GEORGE CLINTON, MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER, BILL CHARLAP
DUPREES, THE
ELGART, LES & LARRY, BILL EVANS (Not sure he grew up here, but lived in Jersey), THE E STREET BAND
FRANCIS, CONNIE, THE FOUR SEASONS, DONALD FAGEN (half of STEELY DAN), THE FUGEES, THE FEELIES, FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE
GILLESPIE, DIZZY (another jazz great who I don’t think grew up in Jersey but lived most of his adult life here), LESLIE GORE, GLORIA GAYNOR, STEVE GIRARDI (a local jazz guitarist and composer whose music is unique and compelling)
HARRY, DEBBIE, WHITNEY & CISSY HOUSTON, LAURYN HILL
ISLEY BROTHERS, THE (I saw them at the West Orange Teenage Canteen long before “Shout” was a hit), JANIS IAN
JOHNSON, JAMES P. (great stride piano player and composer), WYCLEF JEAN, THE JONAS BROTHERS (why not)
KIRSHNER, DON (who created the Monkees), KOOL AND THE GANG (at least some of them)
LATIFAH, QUEEN
MONK, THELONIOUS JR. (has lived in my hometown, South Orange, for many years now and his father spent the last years of his life living in Jersey, Englewood I think), MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE
NELSON, OZZIE (a big band leader before he became famous for the TV show and his younger son Ricky, who was born in Jersey), NAUGHTY BY NATURE
O?
PAUL, LES (not born in Jersey but has lived here most of his adult life), THE PLURALS (a very cool white group that I heard live many times back in the 1950s and were locally famous), THE PARLIAMENTS (some of), BUCKY & JOHN PIZZARELLI, PARLIAMENT-FUNKADELIC (also some of), KATE PIERSON (from THE B-52S, or so I hear)
Q?
ROBESON, PAUL, NELSON RIDDLE (one of the best arrangers of Sinatra recordings), THE RASCALS, THE ROCHES
SINATRA, FRANK, THE SHIRELLES, WAYNE SHORTER, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, PATTI SMITH, THE SMITHEREENS, SPIN DOCTORS, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS (the DeLeo brothers)
T?
U?
VAUGHN, SARAH, FRANKIE VALLI (after he went solo), TOM VERLAINE
WILSON, TEDDY, DIONNE WARWICK, STEVIE WONDER (maybe just as an adult)
X?
YO LA TENGO (someone told me they live in Hoboken, I don’t know if they grew up in Jersey)
Z?

(You could do this for your home state too, if it’s other than Jersey)

9 comments:

-K- said...

The Internet is still so astounding. I had never heard of Bill Charlap and now, 30 seconds after reading your opening paragraph, I'm listening to his "Live at The Village Vanguard" album.

Lally said...

He's wicked talented isn't he?

Ed Baker said...

jeeze Bill Evans!

the "love of my life" went down to The Showboat Lounge

some time around 1966 to see/hear The Bill Evans Trio

between sets when I returned from the Men's Room

sitting there deep in conversation with Marilyn was Chuck Isreals a great four-finger acoustic base player...Mare fell in on the spot love!

after the final set when it came time for the bill... "the base player paid your bill"

Bill Evans' CONVERSATIONS with MYSELF "changed my liefe"

I wonder what ever became of Marilyn?

couldn't sleep, either: so,

last night listened to BALLET MECANIQUE... noh kidding!

Lally said...

My friend the poet Robert Slater emailed me this comment from Kansas City: "You missed 2 crucial musicians in your list & both of their names begin w/ "R." They would be Robert Randolph (of Robert Randolph and The Family Band--perhaps the most exciting musician now playing) who lives in Maplewood and Sonny Rhodes--perhaps the best lap steel blues player ever who lives in Red Bank. Robert Randolpg is one of my favorites & he plays a gospel based pedal steel guitar w/ 13 strings & rocks like crazy. His first CD was called "Live At The Wetlands" & knocked me out. He comes by K.C. regularly & is very popular w/ the jam band folks."

Jamie Rose said...

I can't believe how much you know. How do you keep all of this in your brain?

Lally said...

Well there's a lot up there I don't have access to any more too. But lying in bed at night, it's pretty active, which is why I usually use the alphabet formula, because it helps me organize and remember my thoughts about a certain subject, like Jersey music makers. That one was relatively easy, because I've been noticing all my life when someone who accomplishes something beyond the ordinary comes from New Jersey—having been born and grown up here and always conscious of its impact on my own life's path, so most of this list was already pretty prominent in my brain. In some cases though, as with Steely Dan and some others, I had to double check the spelling of the names etc. often I don't bother to do that and get called on it (like my recent trinity list based on colors where I accidentally wrote GOLDEN SARDINES for Bob Kaufman's GOLDEN SARDINE (in the comments section) and my good friend the poet and artist Ray DiPalma quickly corrected me. When I'm at my desk writing, only inches behind me are three tall bookcases and that GOLDEN SARDINE book is directly behind my head, so I wouldn't even have had to look up or down or to the side, just turn around and read it, but I thought I was remembering the title correctly. Usually though, on names I'm less sure of, like some in this Jersey list, I double check to make sure. Anyways, that's my story and I'm sticking to it kid.

Jamie Rose said...

Oh geez--Sardines instead of Sardine. I guess you really are losing it.

Anonymous said...

how bout southside johnny? & labamba ? fagen i thought grew up in forest hills ?

Lally said...

Anonymous,
Good suggestions, but as for Fagen, I mostly was just going on what I'd heard over the years. I guess we could look it up somewhere (though I find Wikipedia can be wrong a lot, and I'm surprised sometimes when I try to check things out by googling them and discover conflicting "facts" or none at all for way more than anyone ever seems to mention).