• Home
  • About
    • Doug Ramsey
    • Rifftides
    • Contact
  • Purchase Doug’s Books
    • Poodie James
    • Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond
    • Jazz Matters
    • Other Works
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal
  • rss

Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Weekend Extra: Manny Albam And Dr. Millmoss

April 7, 2018 by Doug Ramsey 5 Comments

There is only one reason to bring you Manny Albam’s “Poor Dr. Millmoss”—it is a delight. It’s from the first of two Jazz Greats Of Our Time sessions that the prolific composer and arranger (pictured) recorded in the 1950s—one with star east coast musicians, the other with some of the most prominent west coast players. Albam made the east coast “Millmoss” in New York in 1957 with Gerry Mulligan, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, Nick Travis, Art Farmer, Osie Johnson, Milt Hinton and Hank Jones. In the video, the soloists are identified by name, for which Erlendur Svavarsson, who posted the track, deserves great credit.

Manny Albam was a fan of James Thurber’s work in general and, in particular, of what may be Thurber’s most famous New Yorker cartoon. If you weren’t around in 1934, or you don’t know about Dr. Millmoss, or the name James Thurber means nothing to you, click here.

A Spanish company has put both of Albam’s Jazz Greats recordings on CD. I haven’t heard the reissue and cannot comment on the remastering quality. The sound of the original Coral LPs was excellent.

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Main

Comments

  1. Bill Kirchner says

    April 7, 2018 at 11:37 am

    Thanks for posting this. Manny’s use of two baritone saxophones (Mulligan and Cohn) perfectly captures the humor of Thurber’s cartoon.

    As a friend and erstwhile teacher, Manny was one of the great people in my life. I spoke with him by phone not long before he died, and the thought of that conversation still brings a lump to my throat.

    BTW, just for the record, one of Manny’s huge roster of accomplishments was as uncredited producer of Chick Corea’s landmark 1968 album NOW HE SINGS, NOW HE SOBS.

    Reply
    • Doug Ramsey says

      April 7, 2018 at 12:49 pm

      Here’s an anecdote from years ago. It was one of Bill Crow’s Band Room columns in Allegro, the AFM Local 82 publication.

      Reminiscing with me via e-mail about the late Manny Albam, Doug Ramsey told me:

      We met by chance one night at the Village Vanguard because the joint was full, and Max Gordon installed me at Manny’s table. I bought Manny a drink. Years later, in California, I wound up at a table with Manny, Bob Brookmeyer, Herb Geller, and their wives, and Bill Perkins. It had been at least 15 years since I had seen Manny, but he remembered me. “You bought me a cognac,” he said. “I’ve never forgotten that. Nobody ever buys me a drink.”

      Reply
  2. Orsolya S. says

    April 7, 2018 at 2:35 pm

    Thank you for posting this cartoon. I didn’t know James Thurber was a cartoonist. I knew he was a writer. I learn a lot about music from your posts. Thanks!

    Reply
  3. Don Conner says

    April 8, 2018 at 8:00 am

    All of my Manny Albams LPs have flown the coop, along with others—too many moves. Guess I’ll have to settle for CDs. Albam was a magnificent arranger and writer. Thanks for posting the video. All the players have died—life is indeed short

    Reply
  4. Devra Hall Levy says

    April 9, 2018 at 12:11 pm

    My personal memories of Manny are from my childhood; he and dad were good friends. As my ears grew, of course I was awed by his arrangements. But for some reason there is an LP that made an impression on me decades ago such that I have never forgotten it.– maybe because I was in Paris in the home of Mimi Perrin from Les Double Six when I heard it. Do you remember his album The Soul of the City?—all original compositions. Not everybody appreciated the added sound effects, but it has stuck with me all these years.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

Subscribe to RiffTides by Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Doug’s Books

Doug's most recent book is a novel, Poodie James. Previously, he published Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. He is also the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. He contributed to The Oxford Companion To Jazz and co-edited Journalism Ethics: Why Change? He is at work on another novel in which, as in Poodie James, music is incidental.

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Mark Mohr on Rifftides Nominated
  • Ted O'Reilly on Duke Ellington, 1899-1974
  • mel on Bob Dorough Is Gone
  • Doug Ramsey on Bob Dorough Is Gone
  • Doug Ramsey on Duke Ellington, 1899-1974

Doug’s Picks

Monday Recommendation: McNeely & The Frankfurtians

Jim McNeely, The Frankfurt Radio Big Band, Barefoot Dances and Other Visions (Planet Arts) McNeely fortifies his position in the upper echelon of jazz arrangers in this set of new pieces for the formidable Frankfurt Radio Big Band. The album begins with his tribute to the late Bob Brookmeyer, “Bob’s Here.” Despite the dedication to […]

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Monday Book Recommendation: Lilian Terry’s Jazz Friends

Lilian Terry, Dizzy Duke Brother Ray And Friends (Illinois) Lilian Terry’s book is full of anecdotes about her friendships with the musicians mentioned in the title—and dozens of others. Enjoying modest renown in Europe for her singing, Ms. Terry has also been involved in radio and television broadcasting and is a cofounder of the European […]

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Monday Recommendation: Oscar Peterson Plays 10 Composers

Oscar Peterson Plays (Verve) In this five-CD reissue, the formidable pianist plays pieces by ten composers who dominated American popular music for decades. Peterson had bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Barney Kessel, succeeded by Herb Ellis. It’s the trio that made Peterson famous with Jazz At The Philharmonic and–by way of the 10 albums reproduced […]

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Monday Recommendation: DIVA At 25

The DIVA Jazz Orchestra 25th Anniversary Project (ArtistShare) It has been a quarter of a century since Buddy Rich’s manager and relief drummer Stanley Kay found himself conducting a band whose drummer was young Sherrie Maricle. Intrigued by her playing, Kay set out to find whether there were other women jazz musicians of comparable talent. […]

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Monday Recommendation, Keith Jarrett Trio: After The Fall

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, After The Fall (ECM) In 1998 Keith Jarrett was emerging from a siege of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that had sidelined him for two years. As he felt better, he was uncertain how completely his piano skill and endurance had returned. He decided to test himself. He gathered his longtime […]

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Monday Recommendation: Gerard Kubik, Jazz Transatlantic

Gerhard Kubik, Jazz Transatlantic, Vol. I and Vol. II (University Press of Mississippi) The first volume of Kubik’s work is subtitled, “The African Undercurrent in Twentieth–Century Jazz Culture;” the second, “Jazz Derivatives and Developments in Twentieth-Century Africa.” The descriptions indicate the depth and scope of the Austrian ethnomusicologist’s research, which has taken him to Africa […]

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

More Doug's Picks

Blogroll

All About Jazz
JerryJazzMusician
Carol Sloane: SloaneView
Jazz Beyond Jazz: Howard Mandel
The Gig: Nate Chinen
Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong
Don Heckman: The International Review Of Music
Ted Panken: Today is The Question
George Colligan: jazztruth
Brilliant Corners
Jazz Music Blog: Tom Reney
Brubeck Institute
Darcy James Argue
Jazz Profiles: Steve Cerra
Notes On Jazz: Ralph Miriello
Bob Porter: Jazz Etc.
be.jazz
Marc Myers: Jazz Wax
Night Lights
Jason Crane:The Jazz Session
JazzCorner
I Witness
ArtistShare
Jazzportraits
John Robert Brown
Night After Night
Do The Math/The Bad Plus
Prague Jazz
Russian Jazz
Jazz Quotes
Jazz History Online
Lubricity

Personal Jazz Sites
Chris Albertson: Stomp Off
Armin Buettner: Crownpropeller’s Blog
Cyber Jazz Today, John Birchard
Dick Carr’s Big Bands, Ballads & Blues
Donald Clarke’s Music Box
Noal Cohen’s Jazz History
Bill Crow
Easy Does It: Fernando Ortiz de Urbana
Bill Evans Web Pages
Dave Frishberg
Ronan Guilfoyle: Mostly Music
Bill Kirchner
Mike Longo
Jan Lundgren (Friends of)
Willard Jenkins/The Independent Ear
Ken Joslin: Jazz Paintings
Bruno Leicht
Earl MacDonald
Books and CDs: Bill Reed
Marvin Stamm

Tarik Townsend: It’s A Raggy Waltz
Steve Wallace: Jazz, Baseball, Life and Other Ephemera
Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest
Jessica Williams

Other Culture Blogs
Terry Teachout
DevraDoWrite
Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
On An Overgrown Path

Journalism
PressThink: Jay Rosen
Second Draft, Tim Porter
Poynter Online

Share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Return to top of page

an ArtsJournal blog

This blog published under a Creative Commons license

Copyright © 2018 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.