Hello, Dolly!
John Coltrane turns 100 on Wednesday, and the Hollywood Bowl gives the night to Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Lakecia Benjamin. Today's record is Louis Armstrong's hit years, and Sekou tells how a show tune three record companies turned down ended the Beatles' run at number one.
LioraJohn Coltrane turns 100 on Wednesday, and Los Angeles has the anchor. Today's record is Louis Armstrong's hit years, and track one is "Hello, Dolly!" And later, a show tune three record companies turned down. It's Sunday. Let's go.
LioraIt's Sunday, September 20th. This is The Daily Quintet. I'm Liora. Five stories from the world of jazz, in about ten minutes. Here we go.
One. The Lead: John Coltrane turns 100 on Wednesday, and the Hollywood Bowl anchors the centennial with
LioraWednesday, John Coltrane turns 100.
The anchor event is in Los Angeles. The Hollywood Bowl bills the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, under the title "John Coltrane 100th Celebration with Lakecia Benjamin," Wednesday at eight, gates at six.
Benjamin opens. The Bowl says she gives the Los Angeles premiere of "Coltrane 100: Legacy," a symphonic treatment of Coltrane's best known works, newly arranged for orchestra. Then the orchestra plays Thelonious Monk, Coltrane, Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter as big band arrangements, with Jonathan Taylor Rush conducting.
The night is part of Marsalis' final season as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Bowl presents it with 88.1 KJAZZ. The page prints no ticket price.
The estate calls the whole year Coltrane 100, a year long global celebration.
LioraOn Long Island, the house in Dix Hills is getting ready. Coltrane lived there with Alice and their young family from 1964 to 1967, and wrote "A Love Supreme" in it. After a renovation, the Home says the public will be able to visit parts of it for the very first time. It gives no opening date yet.
Two. Listen to This: "Hello, Louis! The Hit Years, 1963 to 1969" on Hip-O Select
LioraToday's record is the one tonight's story made.
"Hello, Louis! The Hit Years, 1963 to 1969," Louis Armstrong, two CDs on Hip-O Select, twenty four ninety eight on Verve's own store. Track one of disc one is "Hello, Dolly!" The store's copy says he cut it on December 3rd, 1963, at 62, and that the single supplanted the Beatles at number one on the pop charts.
Here is the tip. The Louis Armstrong House Museum names the band from that date: Trummy Young on trombone, Billy Kyle on piano, Arvell Shaw on bass, Danny Barcelona on drums. Listen for the banjo: the museum says Tony Gottuso's was added later. Armstrong on the work: "We didn't have no arrangement or nothin'. We just scat out our parts. I played it the way I am, Satchmo's way."
LioraNow the release desk. "Synonym," Meshell Ndegeocello on Blue Note. The label's own post presenting it is dated September 18th, and its own store shows an October 2nd digital delivery date.
A show tune three record companies turned down, and a composer who said "My God, no" when he heard Louis Armstrong would record it. Then "Hello, Dolly!" ended the Beatles' run at number one on Billboard. Sekou has the story.
Three. The Bridge: A show tune three record companies turned down, and a composer who said "My God
LioraOne true story from this music's history, every day. Sekou tells it, I ask the questions. Sekou, where are we?
SekouCorona, Queens. Louis Armstrong's den. A tape machine is running, and on it he plays the demo of a show tune, over and over. At one point he orders lunch from his wife, Lucille. He is learning the song for a record date on December 3rd, 1963. The Louis Armstrong House Museum still has the tape.
The song is "Hello, Dolly!" He hasn't made a commercial record in over two years. The museum's Ricky Riccardi gives two reasons: rock and roll had made records a young person's game, and his manager, Joe Glaser, had priced him out of many big labels' budgets.
So Glaser was looking for a single. A song plugger named Jack Lee brought him this one. In Glaser's words, "Louis heard it and he said, 'I like the song.'" When Jerry Herman, who wrote the song, heard Armstrong would record it, he said, "My God, no." His reason: "I couldn't think of anyone less likely to succeed with it."
Liora"My God, no." So who said yes?
SekouNot the big labels. Glaser said he offered it to three top record companies, and they all turned it down. So he took it to Dave Kapp, of Kapp Records. Kapp let his son Mickey, who was 33, run the session. On December 3rd, Armstrong and the All Stars cut two sides, "Hello, Dolly!" and "A Lot of Livin' to Do." Two columnists who were there wrote that the second one was "the one to watch for."
The show hadn't opened anywhere yet. Fifteen days later it began a tryout in Washington, with Carol Channing as Dolly. In the second act she walks into a restaurant, and the waiters greet her with the title song. It reached Broadway in January.
Armstrong's single entered Billboard's Hot 100 on February 15th, 1964, at number 76. The Beatles were number one. Then "Dolly" climbed. On the chart for April 4th, the Beatles held all top five places. "Hello, Dolly!" was number seven.
LioraFive Beatles records ahead of him. Does he catch them?
SekouIn mid-April, while Louis Armstrong was playing Las Vegas, Newsweek quoted him: "It's awful nice to be there among all them Beatles." He was still behind them.
Then came Billboard's Hot 100 for May 9th, 1964. Number one: "Hello, Dolly!" The Beatles had held the top of Billboard for fourteen straight weeks, with three different records. That run was over.
LioraHow long did he stay there?
SekouOn Billboard, one week. Mary Wells's "My Guy" took over. That same week, Cash Box, the rival chart, made it number one, and said all that was needed to crack the Beatles' hold was "a show song performed by an artist well into his 60's." By the end of May the Beatles were back on top of Billboard. He broke their streak, not their reign.
The show's producer, David Merrick, credited the single: "It was that single that tilted it." Jerry Herman, the man who said "My God, no," won the Grammy for Song of the Year for it. Armstrong won one for his singing.
There's a story that Armstrong hated this song. It traces to his bassist, Arvell Shaw, who told it later, and Riccardi calls Shaw a true "print the legend" storyteller. The accounts from 1964 say otherwise. So does that tape from the den: Louis Armstrong at home, playing the demo over and over, and ordering lunch from Lucille.
LioraThree companies said no, and the man who liked the song took it past the Beatles. That's The Bridge. Back to today, right after this.
Four. On the Road: The ticket is the Jaik Hakkarinen Quintet's debut album release at Dazzle in Denver
LioraTonight, coast to coast.
Tonight's ticket first.
If I had one ticket tonight, it's Denver. Dazzle bills the "Jaik Hakkarinen Quintet, Album Release Show," for the quintet's debut record, "The Down Lo." Doors at five, show at six. Greg Gisbert on trumpet, Camden Johnson on reeds, Hakkarinen on drums. Seats run from twenty one thirteen, fees in.
Now the sweep. In Baltimore, Keystone Korner has the Fonville x Fribush Organ Trio at five and seven thirty, thirty to thirty five dollars plus fee. The club says the guitar chair rotates, so I cannot tell you who has it.
In Washington, Blues Alley has Camila Meza in its Chilean Jazz Series at five thirty and eight, thirty five dollars plus a seven dollar fee.
In Chicago, the Green Mill has Soul Message at eight, ten dollars, cash only.
LioraAnd in New York, the Blue Note closes a three night run billed "Chris Dave x Meshell Ndegeocello x Eric Gales Trio," at eight and ten thirty. The club prints no admission, only a twenty dollar minimum.
One dark room. Chris' Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia is closed Sundays.
Five. One More Note: On September 20, 1935, Mosaic's discography logs Mildred Bailey and Her Swing Band in New
LioraSeptember 20th, 1935. New York. Mosaic Records logs a session by Mildred Bailey and Her Swing Band, and publishes the sheet.
Chris Griffin on trumpet, Chu Berry on tenor, Teddy Wilson on piano, Dick McDonough on guitar, Artie Bernstein on bass, Eddie Dougherty on drums. Red Norvo plays xylophone on one title. Bailey sings on all of them.
Three titles are listed. The Norvo one is "When Day Is Done," first issued on Vocalion 3057.
Outro
LioraThat's the Quintet. If today's show earned it, follow The Daily Quintet wherever you listen.
The Daily Quintet is an AI-crafted production, researched and checked by humans. Every listing you heard came from the venue or the festival's own organizer.
That's your Sunday. I'm Liora. See you tomorrow.