About this time last year, when I began writing "Making Life Swing," it was hard to pinpoint where I would begin my journey of recounting the deep contributions of jazz and its practitioners to music on TV. I dug deep into my memories of television viewing as a kid, a teen, and a young adult.…
Patrick Williams
Patrick Williams has enjoyed a charmed career, albeit one fueled by talent and hard work. Being in Hollywood at the right time didn’t hurt – he has been honored by the muses Emmy, Grammy, Oscar - and even Pulitzer. With multiple nominations and wins for his work in what this author considers the Golden Age…
Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine’s career would make a great movie. A drumming prodigy at age four, the New Jersey native was featured on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour Show. At seven, he attended Stan Kenton’s summer clinics and was taught by drummers Louis Hayes, Alan Dawson and Clem De Rosa, future Weather Report bandmate Joe Zawinul,…
Angela and Chris Levey
Chris Levey recalls his earliest interest in music. “My parents would tell the story … they had the marimba set up in my bedroom,” he says. “I was six or seven and I started to pick some of the melodies out of the books and play them on the marimba. [My] parents looked at each…
Grady Tate: 1932-2017
The soulful vocals of Grady Tate, who died this week at the age of 85, made memorable two Schoolhouse Rock segments, "Naughty Number Nine" and "I Got Six". The songs - both celebrating multiples of three! - were penned by Bob Dorough and originally featured on the Grammy-nominated 1973 album, "Multiplication Rock," which became the…
Schoolhouse Rock
Nearly four generations of viewers – and their parents and teachers - have enjoyed the catchy songs and lively images of the animated series Schoolhouse Rock. Inserted between the requisite Saturday morning cartoons on ABC, the three-minute shorts taught billions of kids their multiplication tables, parts of speech, and American history. Little known however, is the…
Jordi Pujol
Growing up in Barcelona, Jordi Pujol listened to his father’s record collection, which was like a “who’s who” of popular American jazz. “When I was young, my father mostly listened to swing orchestras – Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Les Brown, Glenn Miller,” Pujol recalls. “He also had some records by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lois…
