The Gone Sounds of Jazz with Sid Gribetz

Johnny Griffin earned the nickname “The Little Giant” for his short physical height but big powerful sound on the tenor sax.  Coming out of the blues and swing of his Chicago roots but also informed by the sophisticated developments of the bebop era, Griffin’s proficiency on his instrument and the fleet and darting lines of his attack make him one of our greats. Griffin was born in Chicago on April 24, 1928 and attended DuSable High School under the tutelage of its legendary teacher, Captain Walter Dyett.  As a teenager he played professionally in blues groups with T-Bone Walker.  Immediately upon his high school graduation Griffin joined Lionel Hampton’s big band.  In the late 40's and early ‘50s Griffin also played in R&B groups such as Joe Morris and appeared on some of the early Atlantic rhythm and blues records. Griff established himself on the modern jazz scene of New York later in the 1950s. He was a key member of Art Blakey’s 1957 edition of the Jazz Messengers; he replaced John Coltrane as the saxophonist in Thelonious Monk’s Five Spot group and stayed for several months in 1958; signed to the Riverside label he made numerous significant recordings with great compadres; and in the early 1960's he teamed with Eddie Lockjaw Davis for a swinging Tough Tenor combo. Griffin moved to Europe in 1963 and forged an international career as one of the leading expatriate American jazz artists. For many years he made many frequent trips to the US to visit Chicago, and the Village Vanguard in New York, with a regular group that included Michael Weiss, Dennis Irwin and  Kenny Washington.  He had a productive and active performing life into this century. Griff died in 2008 in France at the age of 80. originally broadcast January 18, 2026

Tiny Grimes was one of the innovators of the early days of the electric guitar, and he was a significant figure in the development of both jazz and rhythm and blues. His first major professional engagement was with the popular novelty vocal group “The Cats and the Fiddle” in the early 1940's.  Next, he became a key figure in the regular piano trio of the legendary Art Tatum. After his experience with Tatum, Tiny Grimes remained a vital participant in the small group swing of the 52nd Street night clubs.  During this period, Grimes also participated in recordings with jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Buck Clayton, and Ike Quebec, all to be heard on the program. Shifting gears, in the late 1940's and early 1950's, Tiny Grimes was an important figure in the beginning days of rhythm and blues and nascent rock and roll, with his “Rocking Highlanders” groups, work with Screaming Jay Hawkins, and participation in the early R&B recordings of Atlantic Records. In the late 1950's, Tiny Grimes made some great mainstream jazz records for Prestige, and later, he was a key figure in classic jazz revival of the 1970's, performing frequently in Europe, and in New York venues such as the West End Café. Grimes passed away in 1989 at the age of 72, after some debilitating illnesses. originally broadcast December 20, 2009

WKCR presents an annual marathon 24 hour tribute to trumpet virtuoso Clifford Brown on October 30, his birthday anniversary. From the 2021 edition, here are two thematic segments – Clifford Brown with vocalists (Sarah Vaughan, Helen Merrill, and Dinah Washington), about 85 minutes, and Clifford Brown in California in the spring and summer of 1954, about 50 minutes – along with several tracks of classic recordings for general listening at the beginning and end of the program.

Ben Webster was nicknamed “The Brute” due both to his sometimes tempestuous temperament and also for his vigorous power on the tenor saxophone.  But he was “The Beautiful” as well, with a personal sensitivity within his soul, and an elegant, romantic approach on the softer numbers, projecting  a breathy tone with “air to spare”. Webster (1909-1973), coming out of Kansas City,  was already recognized as one of the original  saxophone giants by the late 1930s.  But when he joined Duke Ellington’s famous orchestra in 1940 his career reached a higher plateau, immortalized as the soloist on many Ellington/Strayhorn masterpieces such as “Cottontail” and “Raincheck”. Webster left Ellington in 1943 and pursed a career as a “single”, fronting many small groups in various styles.  In that regard Ben made many notable and powerful recordings, albeit not as famously remembered.  In 1948 he briefly rejoined Ellington, although the orchestra did not make any studio records during that period. In 1949 Ben returned to Kansas City and participated in some fine bluesy activity. Accordingly, this five hour program features a varied presentation of tasty music touching on these aspects of his career. originally broadcast December 21, 2025

Celebrating the Centennial of Dexter Gordon on February 27, 2023, WKCR presented a marathon broadcast. From my segment, here’s a detailed survey of Dexter’s early work in the 1940s.  About 115 minutes, bookended for casual listening by a potpourri of some 1970s recordings upon his magical return to the US.

Miles Davis is one of the “superstars” of jazz, a dynamic trumpet master renowned throughout the world for many varied achievements during his decades long career. For this radio program, I isolated a lesser remembered period, to put a sharp focus on his activity during the years 1953 and 1954. Miles Davis was born in Alton, Illinois May 26, 1926.  A teenage wunderkind, he arrived in New York in 1945 to play with Charlie Parker and join in forging the nascent bebop movement of modern jazz.  By the late 1940's he was working on further innovations such as his creative arrangements for nonet orchestras, later named “The Birth Of The Cool”.  In 1949, he was famous enough to be one of the headliners of the International Jazz Festival in Paris, a significant event returning American jazz to Europe in the postwar renewal of the continent. In the legend and lore of Miles’s career, he had a triumphant “comeback” at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival.  This was to be followed soon by major landmarks we all know –  the quintet including Red Garland and John Coltrane, Gil Evans orchestras, Kind Of Blue, the 1960's groups with Wayne Shorter, and all the further milestones until his death in 1991. So then, what happened after 1949 that Miles needed a comeback?  First, he succumbed to the demons hovering around the jazz world of the time and suffered the scourge of heroin addiction.  However, the ravages of his drug use were not so great that it prevented him from performing, and he continued to tour the country and make records with different groups.  During this time Miles was in a period not just of personal self-doubt and struggle, but also of re-assessment of his musical conceptions and trumpet tones.  By some time in 1953 he had finally beaten the drug addiction, and with recuperation came renewed strength and consolidation of skills. Jazz itself was also going through a period of re-assessment in the early 1950's, on the one hand searching for avenues to take the be-bop breakthroughs to whatever next levels would come, but on the other hand popular musical tastes were changing and rhythm and blues also on the rise. So this is where we find Miles Davis in the early 1950's.  He had signed with the young independent jazz label Prestige and starting in 1951 made dozens of records in the 15 or 20 dates he had with them.  At first not an exclusive deal, he also had three sessions for Blue Note.  Most of these recordings were not by regular working “groups” but amalgamations of those with whom he played regularly – saxophonists such as Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean and Jimmy Heath, trombonist JJ Johnson, pianists Horace Silver and John Lewis, and drummers Art Blakey and Kenny Clarke, to name a few. These records might also not be as well known in his oeuvre, but they do include some that should be considered classics.  Perhaps another reason for their lack of lasting fame is that this was a period when record companies were in the transition to the long playing era, and these discs were originally issued as 78s, 45 EPs, 10" LPs, and other soon to be esoteric formats, and only later reissued in ersatz album groupings.  Accordingly, they could not be so coherently known with common monikers so as to fit in a Davis “canon”. With these factors in mind, this program features the years 1953 and 1954, with records such as Kelo and Tempus Fugit, When Lights Are Low and Tune Up, his definitive cool version of Old Devil Moon, the extended performance on Walkin’, and concluding with the legendary tempestuous date with Thelonious Monk, Milt Jackson and the Modern Jazz Giants on Christmas Eve 1954. These 1953-4 records are glorious on their own merit and just as impressive as other Miles Davis offerings.  As some have said upon reflection, one might think that the critics who had called 1955 a “comeback” were the ones who had been away, and not Miles.   And these recordings are key to study as a preface to the next level that Miles and other jazz artists took the music in the late 1950's.  As Dick Katz perceptively wrote about the musicians on Walkin’: “To me they represent a sort of summing up of what had happened musically during the preceding ten years.  It’s as if they all agreed to get together to discuss on their instruments what they had learned and unlearned, what elements of bop they had retained or discarded”. originally broadcast December 22, 2019

We celebrate the centennial of Gigi Gryce (Basheer Qusim). Gryce became a leading figure in his brief career in the 1950s. as a saxophonist, composer, arranger, music publisher, and teacher and mentor to many musicians. Gryce was born November 28, 1925 in Pensacola, Florida.  His parents owned a clothes cleaning business, but his father died when he was seven.  In the midst of the Great Depression, the family lost the business, and his mother raised a large brood of children as a single mother. But there was always music in the home with his various siblings, and Gigi also had a strong high school music education. Drafted into the Navy during World War II, thankfully someone noticed his musical talent.  He was eventually assigned to military bands, notably at the Great Lakes Training Station.  Discharged from the service after the war, Gryce moved to New England and had serious classical music conservatory training in Hartford and Boston. But upon graduating the conservatory, he moved to New York City and began an intensive career in our jazz fellowship.  Gryce had a personal sound on the alto sax, and an organizational ability that had him successfully leading his own bands and consulting with many others in leading theirs. He made some remarkable recordings in his own bands, a group with Art Farmer, and the “Jazz Lab” that he co-led with Donald Byrd.  He appeared as a musician and arranger, sometimes both roles at once, in significant projects of the greats such as Clifford Brown, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, Teddy Charles, Thad Jones, and Benny Golson, to name a few. Gryce composed more than 60 songs, most of which have remained components of our modern jazz repertory to this very day –  examples are Minority, Hymn To The Orient, Nica’s Tempo, Reminiscing, Reunion, Social Call, Wildwood, and there are many more. Distressed by the harsh economic realities of the music business and personal issues in the breakup of his family life, Gryce left jazz in the early 1960s.  He began a second career as a schoolteacher in New York City Public Schools.  He studied for a doctorate in Education at Fordham University, and eventually settled in as a leading educator at PS 53 in the South Bronx.  Living under his Muslim name and otherwise drawing no attention to his prior musical life, Qusim became a beloved youth leader in the community.  He died in 1983.  Upon his passing the school was named for him, and still stands on East 168th Street. originally broadcast November 23, 2025

WKCR presents an annual marathon broadcast celebrating the Coleman Hawkins birthday on November 21. From the 2025 edition here are segments from my contribution -- 60 minutes of a potpourri of Hawkins favorites, followed by a 105 minute survey of his recordings from the period 1945-1949.

Five hours of Harold Arlen.   This program is one in my occasional series examining the impact of the legendary composers on the jazz repertory, as some of the best in jazz derives from its interpretations of the great American popular songbook, .   Harold Arlen was born in 1905 in Buffalo, New York, the son of an orthodox cantor.  He began his musical career singing Jewish melodies with his father in the synagogue.  Smitten with popular music as a rebellious teenager in the Roaring Twenties, Arlen dropped out of school and began a career as a touring pianist and vocalist in Jazz Age combos.  After arriving in New York City, by the early 1930’s he secured work as the arranger for the house band and dancers at the Cotton Club, and he also played blues and jazz piano in small Harlem saloons.   Only at this point did Arlen turn his attention to a career composing popular songs for the Broadway stage and Hollywood film musicals.  Synthesizing the influences of this varied background, Arlen’s songs are informed by a yearning, spiritual quality, and his musical modes are especially suited for jazz interpretation.   Often overshadowed in history by Kern, Gershwin, Rodgers, and the like, nonetheless Arlen is on a par with these giants and his legacy should bear a similar stature.  Just a brief sample listing of his songs includes perennials such as Stormy Weather, I’ve Got The World On A String, It’s Only A Paper Moon, That Old Black Magic, One For My Baby, Blues In The Night, and Come Rain Or Come Shine.  Not to mention the score for The Wizard Of Oz.   This program presents jazz versions of Arlen’s songs featuring many instrumental improvisations by the greats Louis Armstrong, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and John Coltrane, among others, and less famous recordings as well. With a nod to his lyricists Ted Koehler, Yip Harburg and Johnny Mercer, we sprinkle in some vocal versions by Tony Bennett, Dinah Washington, and more. originally broadcast June 17, 2018

When McCoy Tyner passed away in March 2020, WKCR responded, as we often do, by pre-empting regular programming to present a memorial tribute, celebrating the legacy with a marathon broadcast of the artist’s music. Here’s segments of my contribution, first about 60 minutes of piano trio recordings, and then a presentation of more than an hour sampling his collaborations in groups with John Coltrane.

Here’s five hours on blues and jazz singer and pianist Charles Brown.  Charles Brown was born September 13, probably 1920 (usually listed 1922), on the gulf coast of Texas and raised by his educated and religious grandparents.  He played piano and sang in church, and excelled as a science student.  His high school chemistry teacher, who also moonlighted as a musician, took Charles under his wing, and had Charles play piano with his dance band.  Brown had academic aspirations and attended Prairie View College. After graduation, Brown worked as a research chemist, eventually in government service for the war.  When it was time to actually go in to the armed forces Charles was 4-F for a childhood illness.  Instead, he left the science field, and the segregated South  Brown decided to try his hand as an entertainer and moved to southern California. The army’s loss was our gain, as Charles blossomed in his musical career.  But, in effect, he still contributed to the war effort.  During World War II there was a great migration of African-Americans to California, both in the workforce of industrial factories, and servicemen stationed while awaiting shipment to the Pacific.  A burgeoning black entertainment scene developed in California to entertain this swelling community. Brown’s first major engagement was at Ivie Anderson’s Chicken Shack in Los Angeles.  Soon he teamed up with guitarist Johnny Moore, and they formed a trio emulating Nat King Cole’s group. (Johnny Moore’s brother Oscar was the guitarist with Cole.)     Their “Three Blazers” took the elegant sound of the Nat King Cole trio and infused it with a grittier aspect.  At the same time, Brown’s mellow vocal style, influenced by idols like Pha Terrell, offered a refined side of blues singing that struck a responsive chord with popular listeners. Charles Brown and Moore’s Three Blazers had monster hits such as “Driftin’ Blues” and “Merry Christmas Baby” in the postwar period.  Eventually leaving the group, Brown had continued success as a single for a number of years but drifted in to obscurity.  He left a string of now forgotten hit records, but a direct influence acknowledged by singers from Ray Charles onward. In the 1980's Brown was “re-discovered”, becoming a popular attraction at the famous New York nightclub Tramps, featured on an acclaimed PBS documentary, releasing a breakthrough 1986 jazz album “One More For The Road”, and taken on tour by artists like Bonnie Raitt to be exposed to a younger generation.  With a base in northern California, and guitarist Danny Caron as musical director with a sympathetic style, Brown had great success once again touring the world and making many fine jazz records for the Muse and Verve labels, until his death in 1999. We will explore Brown’s tasty, often overlooked, jazz piano playing, and his great blues and ballad singing, sampling the recordings from across his career during this five hour radio broadcast. originally broadcast March 1, 2015

Five hours on piano legend Dodo Marmarosa! Michael Marmarosa was born on December 12, 1925 to a working class Italian immigrant family in Pittsburgh.  Dodo was a childhood nickname, and he began taking serious classical music lessons as a young child. He also befriended slightly older Steel City jazz pianists such as Billy Strayhorn, and especially Erroll Garner.  With Garner and other young musicians, he explored their developing mutual jazz interests.    As a teenager during the World War II years, Marmarosa had opportunities to begin a professional career performing in popular swing era big bands, eventually gaining recognition with Gene Krupa, Charlie Barnet, and Tommy Dorsey.  He had a significant stay with Artie Shaw.  When Shaw disbanded in California in 1945, Marmarosa remained in Los Angeles.  Establishing himself there, he was “present at the creation” to became THE pianist in the formative years of bebop on the West Coast.    Dodo not only “played with” all the greats, but he appears on classic, major, historic recordings of Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Artie Shaw’s Gramercy Five, Lucky Thompson, and Norman Granz “The Jazz Scene”.  Marmarosa also delighted in the playground of Slim Gaillard, joining in the fun but also providing luscious piano counterpoint to the jive on many of his records.    Marmarosa returned to his native Pittsburgh by 1950, settled down domestically, and played the piano in local clubs and restaurants, away from the national limelight.  He never made any more records, other than three isolated, stunning sessions for Argo in Chicago in 1961 & 1962 (only one of which was released at the time).  He had retired from professional music by the mid-1970's, but lived quietly until 2002, when he died at the age of 76.   Dodo’s piano style is lively and tasty, informed from his swing era beginnings, while his harmonic sense also demonstrates the Romantic classical music roots, as well as the jazz modernism of his time. He is a neglected and overlooked figure in the scope of jazz history, but his piano recordings are daring and fresh, and will surprise and enthrall you. originally broadcast October 12, 2025

WKCR presents annual marathon broadcasts to celebrate the October 10 birthday anniversary of Thelonious Monk.  Here's my segment form the 2025 edition. This program includes a 2 ½ hour survey focusing on Monk’s association with Riverside Records.  It’s bracketed by a couple of potpourri tracks at the start, and some Gigi Gryce collaborations at the finish.

Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis (1922-1986) was one of the dynamic “tough” tenor saxes on our jazz scene. His full bodied approach was brashly swinging yet could be sensitive and romantic, too. Jaws had a wide ranging career, inspired by the big bands but also coming up at Minton’s and in the be-bop era as well, with an R&B tinge, and later a master of the organ-tenor groove.  Always blowin’. This close to five hour program samples highlights of his prolific output, including recordings from the 1940's, organ dates especially with Shirley Scott, Lock’s frequent associations with Count Basie, and his duo tandems with Johnny Griffin, among other goodies. originally broadcast June 25, 2006

Johnny Hartman was the great romantic singer in our jazz universe. More than just a baritone crooner, Hartman could swing hard, and he imparted a wonderful jazz feel to his songs.  He sang with precise articulation but also invested the lyrics with deep inner meaning and emotional insight. The suave and debonair Mr. Harman (1923-1983) came up on the Chicago scene.  Despite peaks and valleys of popular recognition, and his early death from cancer at age 60, Hartman left behind a wide ranging, timeless body of work that is surveyed in this five hour program. We look at his early days with Earl Hines and Dizzy Gillespie.  Next, he was also marketed as a pop balladeer.  In the later 1950's he did some wonderful jazz recordings for Bethlehem and then came back in the mid 1960s with more swinging jazz offerings.  He spent time in Japan and elsewhere abroad, and had some fallow periods, but in the last few years before his 1983 passing enjoyed renewed appeal. And relax, I haven’t omitted Hartman’s most significant repute - his LP with John Coltrane in 1963. originally broadcast December 11, 2005

The "Bird-Prez Birthday Broadcast", a 72 hour (and some years longer) marathon celebrating Lester Young and Charlie Parker around their birthday anniversaries, August 27 and August 29, is a long standing tradition at WKCR, and it is among our listeners' favorites. From the 2025 edition, here’s a segment where I presented a survey of Charlie Parker’s collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie.   Approximately 2 ½ hours.  It’s sandwiched additionally by a few other tracks for general listening.

Wardell Gray is a “forgotten tenor”, one of the lost masters of modern jazz.  Many critics aptly classify his style with a label of “Easy Swing”. This distinctive feature is a felicitous facility that imparts a rhythmic grace while maintaining an intensive communicative attack that conveys a soulful message.   Gray was born in Oklahoma on February 13, 1921 just a few months before the Tulsa massacre, and he lived in the “Deep Deuce” African-American neighborhood of Oklahoma City.  His family moved to Detroit when he was nine years old.  Gray was raised and came of age in the Motor City.  He learned great lessons in his formative years at the legendary Cass Tech High School and as a player in Detroit’s then-vital jazz scene.  Gray attracted the attention of Earl Hines, who hired him to be the featured soloist in his big band from 1943-1946.   Wardell left Hines to settle in Los Angeles, where he became a pivotal figure in the excitement of post war California jazz, in the raucous jam session development of west coast bebop when Bird was in the air.  Gray was often featured in musical battles with his friend Dexter Gordon.  Gray’s records with Dexter, “The Chase” and later “The Hunt”, and others, were big sellers and epitomized this excitement, fueling the drives of Jack Kerouac On The Road.   By the end of the decade, Gray’s reputation led to his engagement in the bands of Benny Goodman and Count Basie, but perhaps the timing was off – he was with Goodman when Benny attempted to make his band bop-influenced, and Gray’s major accomplishments with Basie were in the brief period when the Count down-sized his big band to an octet.  In the late 1940's, Gray also appeared on key sides with Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, and Tadd Dameron.   Later, Wardell made a few small group recordings for Prestige Records, most notably his composition “Twisted” and Art Farmer’s “Farmer’s Market”.  With Annie Ross’s hip lyrics, these songs remain a big part of our repertory to this day.   In the 1950's Wardell drifted away from major popular attention, but he remained active and was poised for a comeback when Benny Carter hired him to participate in a new band which would integrate the Las Vegas casino entertainment.  However, on opening night in July 1955,  Gray was killed at the age of 34, and his body found in the Nevada desert, under mysterious circumstances subject to various innuendos and yet to be solved.   originally broadcast October 8, 2017; re-broadcast February 14, 2021

Before Nat King Cole became “Nat King Cole”, he was a swinging and influential jazz pianist.  Additionally, he popularized the innovative format of the piano-guitar-bass trio which heralded an elegant “chamber jazz” style.  This program focuses on these jazz sides of his career, as well as recordings made with Lester Young, Harry Sweets Edison, Illinois Jacquet and other jazz greats. But fear not, I’ve kept a batch of shifafa on the side and also include some popular vocals for a fun and easily enjoyable five hour presentation. originally broadcast March 17, 2019

The "Bird-Prez Birthday Broadcast", a 72 hour (and some years longer) marathon celebrating Lester Young and Charlie Parker around their birthday anniversaries, August 27 and August 29, is a long standing tradition at WKCR, and it is among our listeners' favorites. On the middle, swing, date, August 28, we play mixtures of Bird and Prez.  Here is my segment from the 2025 edition. It starts with an hour of casual listening of 1950's Mercury/Verve recordings of the two saxophonists. Then I discuss the impact of episodes of breakdowns suffered by Charlie Parker and Lester Young, Bird’s commitment to Camarillo Hospital in 1946 and Lester’s treatment at Bellevue in November 1955, and their music upon refreshing recoveries; and finally a 58 minute treasure contrasting recordings of American Popular Songbook items by each, “Oh, Lady Be Good” and many more.

Herman “Junior” Cook was born on July 22, 1934 in Pensacola, Florida.  The tenor saxophonist came of age with the soulful aspects of modern jazz in the late 1950's. Cook’s first major engagement was with the classic Horace Silver Quintet, from 1958-1964.  Teaming with trumpeter Blue Mitchell as the front line, Cook contributed to the lasting legacy of the “Horace Silver sound” and the enduring LPs such as “Silver’s Serenade”, “Blowing The Blues Away”, Finger Poppin’”, “Horace-Scope”, “The Tokyo Blues”, and more. After leaving Silver, Cook also appeared together with Mitchell on various records on the Blue Note label.  In the 1970's and 1980's, Junior Cook kept the hard-bop flame alive, often in groups co-led with Bill Hardman which performed frequently in New York, and elsewhere.  They also made many records on the Muse and Steeplechase labels. Cook was a key figure on the New York scene during this time, and he served as a mentor to many younger musicians.  He died of cancer in 1992 at the age of 57. Cook’s tenor saxophone combined a wistful tender lyricism and harmonic grace with the hard driving soulful attack attendant to his genres.  His individual sound should have lasting appeal. originally broadcast January 13, 2019; rebroadcast September 12, 2021