Jazz and The Bear Comes Home

Rafi Zabor The Bear Comes Home


There have been many novels that reference jazz songs or musicians. But there are few novels that are based in jazz. Rafi Zabor's (so far only) 1997 novel The Bear Comes Home is one of those rare novels. It circles around the main character rightly named, Bear, who is an alto sax perfectionist.


The story follows Bear through his life striving to emulate John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. He also struggles with his own demons and relationships just like us humans do. The story is compelling, touching, thoughtful, loving and inspiring for us all. While based in jazz it is an easy story to digest and you will fall in love with Bear--no doubt about it.

The Bear Comes Home was a national best seller upon its release in 1997. I always hoped that Rafi Zabor would write another novel but it has since not appeared. I highly recommend this book which after twelve years is still available at your local bookstore and online.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bear-Comes-Home-Rafi-Zabor/dp/039331863X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

Jazz Soundtracks — Part 8

Portions of the following are excerpts from the book Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979 (McFarland, 2008) by Kristopher Spencer, founder of Scorebaby.com.

Another couple of jazz legends who cut soundtracks during the ’60s and ’70s are Herbie Hancock and J.J. Johnson.

On Blow Up (’66) — Michelangelo Antonioni’s existential crime film about a hip London fashion photographer who thinks he’s witnessed a murder — Hancock draws upon his hard bop and rare groove chops. The results aren’t particularly cinematic — one could easily be fooled into thinking this is one of Hancock’s Blue Note recordings from the same period — but they are kicky nonetheless. One of the best tracks is the bouncy “Bring Down the Birds,” which dance pop group Dee-lite sampled for their early ’90s hit “Groove is in the Heart.” The soundtrack also features “Stroll On” by The Yardbirds, who appear in a riveting club scene.

By the time Hancock scored Death Wish (’74), he’d already moved on to fusion. For this Charles Bronson vigilante flick, Hancock creates a mood of sophisticated yet funky suspense. The densely arranged and tension-mounting main theme is worth the price of admission alone. On “Do a Thing” and “Paint Her Mouth,” he opts for more minimalistic arrangements to more disturbing effect. The centerpiece of Death Wish is the 9-minute “Suite Revenge,” which explores stylistic cues from atonal symphonic, as well as African tribal drumming and Hancock’s penchant for synth sounds. Hancock’s score for Death Wish, while not as immediately accessible as the groovier Blow Up, is an intriguing, richly detailed crime score every bit as gritty as the movie.

One of the best soundtracks of ’72 and of the blaxploitation era is Across 110th Street, featuring music by legendary jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson and songs performed by Bobby Womack & Peace. Hit-maker Womack’s theme song boasts a memorable hook, a sweeping arrangement and a lyrical message that doesn’t pull punches about organized crime and the drug epidemic. Womack also contributes a tender ballad (“If You Don’t Want My Love”), an up-tempo pop number (“Quicksand”), a bit of hard funky rock (“Do It Right”) and raucous feel good soul (“Hang On In There”). Johnson performs instrumental versions of most songs, but his contribution is most noticeable on “Harlem Clavinette,” which raised the bar on cinematic funk with its pulsating rhythm and bubbly mix of brass, wah guitar, clavinet keyboard, percussion and electronics. J.J. Johnson also contributed excellent soundtracks for Cleopatra Jones, Trouble Man (with Marvin Gaye) and Willie Dynamite.

Want to read more about groovy soundtracks? Visit http://www.scorebaby.com/

J. J. Johnson: The Benchmark

Jay Jay Johnson (a.k.a. J.J. Johnson; b. 1924 - d. 2001)


Widely known as one of the masters of the trombone along with his former co-leader Kai Winding, J. J. Johnson is the benchmark against which all trombone players are measured.

J. J. along with Kai gave the trombone a vogue-ish feel during their time together. Most people don't associate the trombone nowadays because so few use it in their bands (except in large ensembles). J. J. Johnson made it sound essential no matter what the setting (quartet, quintet, ensemble or orchestra). At times you would almost think you were listing to a saxophone.

There is no denying that J.J. Johnson is one of the most important musicians in jazz history. He practically has never made a bad record. Many jazz fans will point to the two Blue Note albums, The Eminent Vol. I and Vol. II as the J. J. Johnson albums with which to start. I would not disagree. And for those of you that enjoy soul/R&B, J. J. Johnson also did the soundtrack for the 70s classic "Across 110th Street" featuring vocals from Bobby Womack.

If you want to hear an unfashionable instrument sound so incredibly beautiful, these two albums are a must for your collection.

Jazz Soundtracks — Part 7

The following is an excerpt from the book Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979 (McFarland, 2008) by Kristopher Spencer, founder of Scorebaby.com.

What is the soundtrack for sex and seduction? Is it a sultry Latin dance number, smoky torch song, the bump and grind of funky soul, or the vivacious shake of rock and roll? The short answer is all of these things and more...

from Skin-dependent Films
To see nudity and sexual situations in legitimate Hollywood features one is generally limited to the pre-code and post-code eras of filmmaking. While the Hays Code imposed limits on the big studios, outlaw independent impresarios like Dwain Esper, Kroger Babb and David Friedman road-showed the grindhouse circuit during the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s exhibiting their low-budget exploitation flicks for the more daring moviegoer. By selling sin in the guise of seemingly well-intentioned sex hygiene scare films and vice racket exposés, the legendary “Forty Thieves” and their progenitors managed to show audiences a bit of bare thigh, breast or bottom before hastily packing up and high-tailing it to the next town. When the raincoat crowd got their fill of one type of exploitation flick — such as the natives-gone-wild “goona-goona” pictures — the skin-dependent filmmakers produced pasty and g-string burlesque shorts or not-so-naughty nudist camp docudramas.

Needless to say, such skid row cinema was too low profile to warrant legitimate soundtrack releases not to mention an actual score. In fact, most striptease and stag films of the period featured canned recordings of generic jazz, nameless lounge exotica or incognito big band blues. Short of sitting through campy but quaint video reissues like Teaserama (starring Tempest Storm and Bettie Page) or Love Moods (starring Lili St. Cyr), the grind-curious must resort to retro rockin’ strip club compilations like The Las Vegas Grind and Jungle Exotica series or Take It Off: Striptease Classics. These feature long-forgotten groups with cheeky names like the Genteels, the Lushes and the Whips who cut 45s of stroll, jive and slop for seedy joints with names like Louie’s Limbo Lounge and the little films they subsidized...


from Big Budget Seduction
While Hollywood was still under the watchful eye of the Catholic Church’s Legion of Decency, filmmakers nudged the envelope of acceptable on-screen sexuality with innuendo (like Lauren Bacall suggesting to Humphrey Bogart that he “put his lips together and blow” in To Have and Have Not, ’44), or with symbolic imagery (like frothy waves splashing over the semi-clothed Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity, ’53).

During the ’50s, certain filmmakers pushed the boundaries of subject matter. Elia Kazan transplanted Tennessee Williams’ melodrama A Streetcar Named Desire (’51) from Broadway, complete with its original cast. The film’s hothouse atmosphere of sexual frustration is made all the more palpable by Alex North’s influential jazz-tinged score.

A few years later, Kazan made a film that was even more brazen in its suggestive sexuality as one of its characters is a “child bride.” Baby Doll (’56) concerns a cotton gin owner married to a Lolita-esque teenager who is holding out on her hubby sexually until she turns 20. Another man attempts to seduce the girl and steal her husband’s business. Kenyon Hopkins’ sultry score, as orchestrated by Ray Heindorf, lends Baby Doll an atmosphere of decadent Southern charm. The lush score is like a jazz symphony, with occasional lapses into small group jazz and blues, featuring soloists on harmonica, saxophone, trumpet and guitar. The only break in musical character comes when Smiley Lewis, the legendary New Orleans R&B artist, is featured on the rollicking “Shame, Shame, Shame.” The Legion of Decency condemned the film, though that hardly hurt its box office...

The most celebrated sex comedy of the ’50s remains Some Like It Hot (’59), which the American Film Institute later named as “the funniest film ever made.” Music is integral to the film’s charm, as Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play musicians who have witnessed the Valentine’s Day Massacre, and in an effort to avoid the mob, doll themselves up and join an all-female traveling jazz band featuring Monroe. The movie relies on innuendo, the cheeky kink of its cross-dressing heroes and Monroe’s undeniable sex appeal for much of its illicit kicks. Composer Adolf Deutsch supplies a mix of ’20s hot jazz and pop, including period hits like “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Down Among the Sheltering Palms.” Monroe delivers memorable vocal performances on “Runnin’ Wild,” “I Wanna Be Loved By You” and “I’m Thru With Love.”