Chestnuts in July
Phil Woods turns ninety five on paper today and Bunny Berigan turns a hundred and eighteen, and the Library of Congress still lists three first names for Berigan without choosing one. Then Silas tells how "The Christmas Song" began in July, on a hot day, as Mel Torme remembered it.
LioraTwo jazz musicians share today's date. One of them got eighty three years. The other got thirty three. And the Library of Congress still is not sure what the second one's name was. Then: four lines about winter, written on a hot day in July. It's Monday. Let's go.
LioraIt's Monday, November 2nd. 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
Phil Woods and Bunny Berigan were both born on November 2nd
LioraPhil Woods would be ninety five today.
The Library of Congress keeps his file. Born November 2nd, 1931, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Died September 29th, 2015, in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He was eighty three.
Then it does the thing that makes a catalog worth reading. It keeps the other names he went by. "Woods, Philip Wells." "Wood, Phil, saxophonist," singular. And, with no explanation at all, "Gumjaw, Fudd."
The bands get files of their own, one each, and you can read a working life in them. The Phil Woods Quartet. The Quintet. The Septet. The Phil Woods Six. The Little Big Band.
Now the other birthday. Bunny Berigan was born on this date in 1908, in Hilbert, Wisconsin. The Library files him as a trumpet player and a bandleader. He died in New York on June 2nd, 1942. He was thirty three.
LioraHis file is shorter, and far less certain. The authorized form is "Berigan, Bunny." Underneath it, the Library lists what else he has been called. Bernard. Roland Bernard. Rowland Bernart. It does not choose.
Two. Listen to This
Blue Note reissues Nat King Cole's "After Midnight: The Complete Sessions" on November
LioraBlue Note is reissuing Nat King Cole's "After Midnight: The Complete Sessions" on November 13th, in its Tone Poet vinyl series. The label says the date marks the album's seventieth anniversary. Two LPs, everything Cole cut over four sessions at Capitol Studios in 1956.
Cole sings and plays piano. The trio is John Collins on guitar, Charlie Harris on bass, Lee Young on drums. Then the guests: Willie Smith on alto, Harry "Sweets" Edison on trumpet, Stuff Smith on violin.
Will Friedwald wrote the booklet essay, and the label quotes him: "In the Trio, the interplay was the thing. Cole himself was keenly aware of this."
Here is the tip. Blue Note prints the whole running order, and the last track on side four is a second pass at a song from side two. "You're Looking At Me," alternate take. Play the two back to back.
LioraA hot day, a spiral pad, and four lines about winter. Today on The Bridge, how "The Christmas Song" began in July, as Mel Torme remembered it. Silas has it.
Three. The Bridge
A hot day, a spiral pad and four lines about winter
LioraOne true story from this music's history, every day. Silas tells it, I ask the questions. Silas, where are we?
SilasToluca Lake, in the San Fernando Valley. Los Angeles, July 1945, on a hot day. That date comes from Mel Tormé's memory, passed down by his son James, so hold it loosely. Tormé is 19, and his son says he's just out of the service. He drives over most days from Hollywood to write with Bob Wells, 22, at the Wells family home. This day, the family story goes, he lets himself in, calls out, and finds nobody. In Tormé's own words, as one book quotes his memoir: "I saw a spiral pad on his piano with four lines written in pencil."
LioraFour lines. What did they say?
SilasThe first one you know. "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." The rest are winter pictures: Jack Frost, carolers, people bundled up. Then Wells shows up, in the family's telling wearing a T-shirt and tennis shorts. It's so hot, he says, that he figured some wintry verses might cool him down, at least in his head. The exact words change from one telling to the next, so none of it is a transcript. Tormé, by his son's account, thinks it could be a song.
LioraHow long did the rest take?
SilasUnder an hour. Three accounts put it at about forty-five minutes. Tormé brings a melody that, his son writes, had been going through his head for a week or so. Wells has the words, and Tormé helps. That's "The Christmas Song." Then they drive off to play it for Nat King Cole. On the way, in the son's version, they stop to play it for Johnny Burke at their publisher. Burke passes. He thinks it "would only be good for one day of the year." A magazine tells the stops in a different order, so the route is in dispute.
LioraAnd Cole?
SilasCole lives in Hancock Park. They play it at his piano. The family story, told in the son's essay and to CBS in Los Angeles, says Cole asks to hear it again, then stops them and claims it as his song. Whether that came during the second play or after it depends on who's telling. Still, he doesn't record it right away. About a year goes by. Then, in mid June 1946, at WMCA Studio in New York, he cuts it with his trio: Oscar Moore on guitar, Johnny Miller on bass. The discography lists no strings.
LioraThen where do the strings come from?
SilasOne word. In the son's account, Cole sings "to see if reindeers really know how to fly." Reindeers, with an s. A music magazine also says the first pressing had a grammar slip, without naming it. Cole insists on doing the whole thing over. Capitol, the son writes, was "initially less than excited." On August 19, 1946, back at WMCA, Cole records it again, now with strings and a harp, arranged by Charlie Grean. His record of it hit number three on the pop chart in 1946, by Joel Whitburn's count. And the June take didn't vanish. One university library says it was included by accident on a 1989 Christmas compilation.
SilasCole recorded the song at least four times. The take the Library of Congress added to its National Recording Registry in 2022 is from 1961, with Ralph Carmichael conducting, in stereo. And Mel Tormé said he'd sing it "whether it's December, March, or July."
LioraFour lines on a pad, written to beat the heat, and we sing them in the cold. That's The Bridge. Back to today, right after this.
Four. On the Road
Dizzy's Club bills the Jimmy Heath Big Band Centennial Celebration with the early set
LioraTonight, coast to coast.
Tonight's ticket is Dizzy's Club in New York, and the early set is gone.
The room bills it the Jimmy Heath Big Band Centennial Celebration. Jazz at Lincoln Center's own calendar puts it at two sets, seven and nine. On the house ticketing page the seven is sold out. No price printed anywhere, and not one player named.
Now the sweep.
Also in New York, Birdland runs five bills across two rooms. Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks play the Theater twice, half past five and half past eight, an eleven piece band the club bills as a residency. In the Jazz Club at half past nine, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, which the club says has run every Monday night since 1993.
LioraIn New Orleans, Snug Harbor has the Charmaine Neville Band at seven and nine, thirty five sixty five, though the club's own hours block says half past seven and half past nine.
In Minneapolis, the Dakota has Edwin McCain at seven, from eighty one oh nine.
Two of tonight's rooms are dark. Chicago's Jazz Showcase is closed for a private event. The Green Lady Lounge in Kansas City, which runs seven nights a week, is shut after an HVAC unit caused a fire. Its own page says very little damage, some water, and a few weeks to a month.
Five. One More Note
Enjoy Jazz has Gregory Porter at the Rosengarten in Mannheim tonight
LioraEnjoy Jazz, in Germany, has Gregory Porter tonight at the Rosengarten in Mannheim, eight o'clock, and the festival's own copy says he sings a tribute to his heroes, "such as the great Nat King Cole."
A Monday night in Mannheim that bows to the man whose record comes out next week.
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.
Phil Woods at ninety five. I'm Liora. See you tomorrow.