Bacharach on Marian MacPartland's Piano Jazz

[pljms]

For those on the forum who've never heard the show which originally aired in 2005, here's all 57 minutes of it. Hearing it again now makes me sad for the passing almost a year to the day of the lovely, generous and remarkably talented Marian McPartland:

[Martin Johnson]

Nice to hear the show again, thanks.

Here's one of the true giants of jazz piano playing Bacharach in his own inimitable style.

[pljms]

Yes, this is as good a place as any to post some classic jazz recordings of Bacharach. Because of the waltz time and the chord changes, 'Wives and Lovers' has long been a favorite with jazz musicians. Here's guitarist Grant Green's well known recording on Blue Note of the tune featuring a wonderfully inventive piano solo by McCoy Tyner:

[Sara D]

Good to get a new link to this show as the old one gave up the ghost months ago. It's not the most flowing of conversations but BB sounds like he's enjoying himself and Marian is her usual gracious and musically intuitive self.

I was lucky enough to see two Crusdaers' gigs in London around 1980 at the height of their 'Streetlife' success, at the first they were joined by the wonderful Randy Crawford and at the second BB King took centre stage. Alas, I never saw them when they were known as 'The Jazz Crusaders' and here they are from those days negotiating the multiple time changes of what must be Bacharach's trickiest tune.

[Bruce Bernard Williams]

Sorry Sara et.al., I replied to your Crusaders' post on the "Put Your Youtube.com Links Here! (if you want)" thread instead of this one somehow.

[Sara D]

Thanks Bruce, I saw it. Yes, I'd heard that Wayne Henderson had recently passed and also that Joe Sample had to cancel some gigs earlier this month because of pneumonia. He also had to cancel a European tour with Randy Crawford last year because of illness. As my mother used to tell me repeatedly, make the most of your youth because it sure is no fun growing old.

[pljms]

I'm not sure if guitarist Barney Kessel ever recorded 'Alfie' but here he is playing it on TV in 1979:

[Martin Johnson]

Barney Kessel's 'Alfie' is sublime, a real find. Thanks. Equally sublime in my view is Earl Klugh's 'The April Fools'.

[Martin Johnson]

What must be Bacharach's most covered non-hit tune as recorded in '69 by the Ernie Watts Quartet: