GIANT STEPS
EPISODE 3

From Studio C Chicago, it's “Giant Steps,” exploring the brilliant corners of 1950s jazz, Broadway, popular song, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country, folk, film music, doo-wop, mambo, and more. I'm Andy Miles, and this is Django Reinhardt.

Django Reinhardt “September Song” (1950)

Otis Spann “Must Have Been The Devil” (1954)

Abbey Lincoln “Afro-Blue” (1959)

Anita O’Day “My Heart Belongs To Daddy” (1959)

That's Anita O'Day doing her devilishly cool version of the Cole Porter song “My Heart Belongs To Daddy,” which had first been performed — and debuted on stage — by Mary Martin a decade earlier.  O'Day's version was released on the 1959 album “Cool Heat” on the Verve label.

Another prominent female vocalist of the late ’50s before that, Abbey Lincoln with the opening track from her 1959 release “Abbey is Blue.” That is, I believe, the first vocal version of the song to be released, and includes Max Roach on drums.  Lincoln married Roach a couple years later. Roach also played with John Coltrane, who would record a famous version of “Afro-Blue” a few years after Lincoln.

“Must Have Been the Devil” was Otis Spann from 1954, and Django Reinhardt's 1950 recording of Kurt Weill's “September Song” got us started, a song that was introduced on Broadway the same year as the Cole Porter song we heard, 1938.  

And you're listening to “Giant Steps,” coming to you from Studio C Chicago. I'm Andy Miles.  Good stuff ahead, including Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner — not together; Count Basie and Joe Williams — together; also Muddy Waters, and this from James Brown.

James Brown “Please, Please, Please” (1956)

Ava Gardner “Can’t Help Loving Dat Man” (1951)

Muddy Waters “Honey Bee” (1951)

Count Basie & Joe Williams “My Baby Upsets Me” (1956)

Count Basie and Joe Williams, “My Baby Upsets Me” from their 1956 collaboration “Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings,” which also produced the classic “Every Day I Have the Blues.”

Muddy Waters before that, a 1951 recording called “Honey Bee,” third in a run of five top 10 R&B chart hits Waters scored in the early ’50s.  

We heard Ava Gardner, also from 1951, singing “Can't Help Lovin Dat Man,” from “Showboat.”  She starred in the 1951 film remake and her vocals in the film were dubbed by Annette Warren, but according to the box set that track comes from, that is Ava Gardner singing there.  

James Brown and the Famous Flames, “Please, Please, Please,” at the top of the set, their first single. It reached number six on the R&B chart in 1956, but then Brown didn't get another record on that chart for almost three years when “Try Me” finally broke through.  I will no doubt play that one in a future episode of this show.  

Next up is Beny Moré, “Como Fue” from 1953.

Beny Moré “Como Fue” (1953)

Ray Heindorf “Four Deuces” (1951)

Frank Sinatra “Angel Eyes” (1958)

Champion Jack Dupree “Bad Blood” (1958)

That's Champion Jack Dupree with a 1958 track called “Bad Blood.”

From that same year, we heard Frank Sinatra's “Angel Eyes,” cut two on the famous “Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely,” which showcases some of Nelson Riddle's best work as an arranger/orchestrator.  The song's composer, Matt Dennis, wasn't that famous, or even prolific, but he wrote a handful of songs that are closely identified with Sinatra.  Dennis actually introduced “Angel Eyes” to the public himself, performing it on screen in the largely forgotten 1953 film “Jennifer.”

We heard “Four Deuces” from the brilliant symphonic jazz score to “A Streetcar Named Desire,” composed by Alex North and conducted there by Ray Heindorf for a Capitol Records release of the early ’50s.

And Beny Moré, “Como Fue” at the top of the set.  Forty years later that one turned up on the excellent soundtrack to “The Mambo Kings.”    

We also heard an excerpt from “On the Waterfront,” which won eight Academy Awards in 1954, including Best Picture. Marlon Brandon and Rod Steiger in that scene, both of them nominated for Oscars for their roles.  Brando won.

This is “Giant Steps” from Studio C Chicago.  One final set on this week's show, and it starts with Ella Fitzgerald.

Ella Fitzgerald “Blue Skies” (1958)

T-Bone Walker “Street Walking Woman” (1951)

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross “Centerpiece” (1959)

Jimmie Rodgers “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” (1957)

“Kisses Sweeter Than Wine,” a 10 top single for Jimmie Rodgers on the pop, country and R&B charts in 1957, the second of a trio of Rodgers singles that accomplished that crossover feat.  

Before that, “Centerpiece,” one of the centerpieces of the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross discography, and one of the 10 tracks on the 29-minute classic album “Lambert, Hendricks & Ross!: ‘The Hottest New Group in Jazz,’” which, depending on the source, was released either in 1959 or 1960.  Since this is a show covering the ’50s, I'll consider it a 1959 release.

T-Bone Walker was in there with his “Street Walking Woman” from 1951, and Ella Fitzgerald “Blue Skies.” The previously mentioned Nelson Riddle did the orchestration on the version we heard, which was recorded in Hollywood in early 1959.

This has been “Giant Steps” from Studio C Chicago.  Thank you for listening.  One last song on the show; it’s Charles Mingus with the jazz classic “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.”

Charles Mingus “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” (1959)

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