Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania

winter/
spring 2020

Johnny
Mandel

Special Issue

benny
Golson

Vol. 30 - No. 1

Issue 73

winter/spring 2020

In This Issue
3

Note from the
A
Collection Coordinator
By Dr. Matt Vashlishan

6

ILLUSION AND REALITY
By Su Terry

7

A n Interview with
Benny Golson
By Dr. Larry Fisher

12

S crapbooks in the
Archives: Why They
Might Not Be That Bad
By Elizabeth Scott

14

T he 3rd Annual
Duke Ellington
Nutcracker Suite

18
19




From The
Collection

Cover photo:
Benny Golson
at ESU April 1991
Photo by Bob Napoli



T hese Giants Still Roam

the Earth: Benny Golson
By Patrick Dorian



T hese Giants Still Roam
the Earth: Johnny Mandel
By Patrick Dorian



27 L earning Tunes
for Musicians
By Rob Scheps
29
R eflections on Body
and Soul by Al Cohn
and Zoot Sims
By Phil Mosley
3 0
R eaders, Please Take Note
2 | the note | winter/spring 2020

Editor
Matt Vashlishan, D.M.A.
Design and Production
Office of University Relations
Ideal Design Solutions

Al Cohn Memorial
Jazz Collection
Kemp Library
East Stroudsburg University
200 Prospect St.
East Stroudsburg, PA 18301
(570)422-3828
esu.edu/alcohncollection
esu.edu/jazzatesu

Chris Persad solos with the
Water Gap Jazz Orchestra
during the 3rd Annual
Duke Ellington Nutcracker
performance




Al Cohn (1925-1988)
The Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection was founded in 1988 by
Flo Cohn, Ralph Hughes, Phil Woods, Dr. Larry Fisher, ESU Vice
President for Development & Advancement Larry Naftulin, and
ESU President Dr. James Gilbert.

University President
Marcia G. Welsh, Ph.D.

23 J ohnny Mandel: From
the GRAMMY Awards
programs
By Marilyn & Alan Bergman
24 J ohnny Mandel
interview
By Marcell Bellinger

The Note is published twice a year by the Al Cohn Memorial
Jazz Collection, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania,
as part of its educational outreach program.

Johnny Mandel received
the Trustees Award when
The Recording Academy®
honored its 2019 Special
Merit Awards recipients
Courtesy of the Recording
Academy®_photo by
Amy Sussman_Getty
Images © 2020
The Note contains some content that
may be considered offensive. Authors’
past recollections reflect attitudes of
the times and remain uncensored.

The mission of the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection is to
stimulate, enrich, and support research, teaching, learning,
and appreciation of all forms of jazz, particularly those
connected to the Pocono area of Pennsylvania. The ACMJC
is a distinctive archive built upon a unique and symbiotic
relationship between the Pocono Mountains jazz community
and East Stroudsburg University.
With the support of a world-wide network of jazz advocates,
the ACMJC seeks to promote the local and global history
of jazz by making its resources available and useful to
students, researchers, educators, musicians, historians,
journalists and jazz enthusiasts of all kinds, and to preserve
its holdings for future generations.
East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania is committed to equal
opportunity for its students, employees and applicants. The university
is committed to providing equal educational and employment rights
to all persons without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national
origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or veteran’s
status. Each member of the university community has a right to study
and work in an environment free from any form of racial, ethnic, and
sexual discrimination including sexual harassment, sexual violence and
sexual assault. (Further information, including contact information,
can be found on the university’s website at esu.edu/titleix.)
In accordance with federal and state laws, the university will not
tolerate discrimination. This policy is placed in this document in
accordance with state and federal laws including Titles VI and VII of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments
of 1972, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Civil Rights Act of
1991 as well as all applicable federal and state executive orders.

A Note from the

Collection Coordinator
Dr. Matt Vashlishan

The Influence of Al Cohn

Call it irony, call it being a kid, call it whatever you want, but
I must admit Al Cohn was not on my radar as a high school
student studying music. I even grew up near the Al Cohn
Memorial Jazz Collection, where I could probably grab an Al
Cohn record faster than it would take me to grab a gallon of
milk and a dozen eggs for my parents, but I still somehow
missed out on him. I heard his name, saw his photos, and
likely heard plenty of his music, but it was not until later in
life when I truly began to appreciate who Al was and what
he brought to this music. As a young energetic person I was
focused on Buddy Rich and the pop-infused higher, faster,
louder music that was likely designed to hit me in the face
and hold my attention for short 3-minute segments. It
worked!
As I grew up and found myself in different musical situations,
particularly those around the Water Gap like COTA, COTA
Camp Jazz, and the Library Alive and Scholastic Swing
concerts that we used to put on via the ACMJC, I heard about
Al more and more often and learned who he was through
experiencing his music firsthand from the saxophone
section during these performances. From this vantage point
I could not only hear the music as a whole, but also hear
and experience the individual parts, the overall result, and
watch the audience reaction.

What I was not immediately aware of is the perfection in
his writing. Things like orchestration, a sing-able melody
(every time!), use of instruments in their perfect range for
every occasion, pace, climax, length, and perhaps most of
all how the audience reacts positively to each piece, are all
qualities that the best composers and arrangers possess in
their writing. When they got it, they got it and you don’t
even realize it. When they don’t… you know it immediately.
There are so many composers throughout jazz history that
“got it,” and many whose names are often hidden from view
for the sake of promoting the bandleader. Probably not
intentionally, but you would never know they were there if
you don’t read the liner notes. When you do read them, you
will begin to notice similarities. There is no mistake why some
of these bands were so famous, and it had (in my opinion)
everything to do with the arrangers. Al Cohn (among many)

wrote for Terry Gibbs, Elliot Lawrence, Woody Herman, Al
Porcino, and so many others, but his compositional gems
defined their books and therefore became the identity
of the ensemble. It seems that in recent times more and
more composers are leading their own bands and therefore
advertising their names along with it, so it is easy to make
the composer/ensemble connection: Bob Mintzer, Maria
Schneider, Gordon Goodwin, even Bill Holman and back to
Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, to name very few.
One composer in particular spanned multiple generations
and was not only responsible for writing music for Terry Gibbs
to the modern Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, but completely
overhauled his writing style during a ten-year hiatus and
developed his voice to become a modern influence that
nearly every current jazz composer can reference in some
way: Bob Brookmeyer.
During my Buddy Rich phase, back in high school when I
could still go into a music store and browse physical CD’s,
I became interested in Bob Brookmeyer. I was drawn to his
modern approach: the pedal tones, the long developing
melodies and harmony that didn’t sound like the classics.
There was something more to it, but I considered myself
a saxophone player, and although I took a stab at writing
some big band music for the years I was a participant in the
COTA Cats, I didn’t primarily focus on writing. I knew I liked
what I heard, particularly in Bob’s music, but it seemed so
unobtainable at the time that I just enjoyed it and went on
my way wishing I could write like that one day.
Insert about 20 years of higher education and life, and here
I am writing much more big band music than I ever thought
I would, thanks to the gift of the Water Gap Jazz Orchestra
courtesy of Phil Woods. Phil had a way of knowing everything,
and somehow he knew this was the perfect thing for me to
do. He must have heard something in the few charts of mine
we played every so often. Directing the band every month
gives me a chance not only to hear music that I love or that
I am curious about, but it gives me a chance to develop my
writing. It is an absolute priceless situation to hear music
that I write, good or bad, in the flesh played by real people
on a regular basis.
winter/spring 2020 | the note | 3

I took a few writing lessons from Phil over the years. They
were very short and didn’t go much beneath the surface.
At that point I couldn’t understand anything beneath the
surface. One thing he told me was to study scores, and
to copy scores if I could. Once I became involved with the
ACMJC, I began to notice a few things. Phil has donated more
scores than anyone else. Between Phil and a gentleman
named Pete Hyde, we have acquired fully notated digital
engravings of dozens and dozens of Al Cohn compositions
(as well as compositions by many other composers).
Phil always said that he enjoyed inputting Al Cohn scores
into the computer because he “felt like he was getting a
writing lesson from Al.” Come to think of it, that’s exactly
right. In order to input these scores, you must sit at the
computer, usually with a piano keyboard, and manually see,
hear, and input each note by the composer. As you do this
you also hear the music, see the range of the instruments,
hear phrases, voicings, and even articulations that they
wrote. The best lesson! Over the years I heard Phil use this
line many times - about digital engraving equaling writing
lessons with Al. He always said it about Al in particular, and
there is a reason that we have more Al Cohn compositions
inputted by Phil than any other composer. I would say Benny
Carter is a close second place.
This brings me to my modern big band hero mentioned
earlier, Bob Brookmeyer. This year I felt it was the right time
to begin studying more of his music, not to write like him
yet, but to get my feet wet and used to the sound. I went
back to all my favorite recordings (if you have not heard
the Celebration Suite written for Gerry Mulligan, I highly
recommend it!) and began to have a LOT of questions. I
started to ask around and before long I was told about
a wonderful new project offered by Artist Share: “Bob
Brookmeyer: in Conversation with Dave Rivello.”
If you don’t know Dave Rivello, now’s the time to change
that! I remember Dave as the director of the Eastman New
Jazz Ensemble when I was doing my undergraduate work
there in the early 2000s. Dave is a great person and a great
composer who had extensive contact with Bob Brookmeyer
as a student of his. Dave still directs the Eastman New Jazz
Ensemble as well as his own ensemble in Rochester, NY.
One of my most enjoyable and important memories of
my undergraduate work were the few times I was able to
perform with Dave’s band. It is a smaller version of a big
band with unique instrumentation (bass clarinet and tuba!)
and everybody wanted to be in it. His music was unique,
reminiscent of Bob Brookmeyer, and something you knew
was the real deal. It was through composed and didn’t cut
any corners. It also checked all the boxes of what I was curious
about recently, so when I heard about his Artist Share project
on Bob Brookmeyer, I had to check it out immediately.
4 | the note | winter/spring 2020

Bob Brookmeyer in Conversation
with Dave Rivello Cover

I ordered the full package – the composer experience.
That got me the book, which is the formal presentation of
10+ hours of conversation between Bob and Dave. It also
got me five audio lessons with Dave on Bob’s methods of
composing, as well as tons of files of Bob’s manuscript,
exercises, and interviews with former Brookmeyer students,
etc. If you are a composer, this is a gold mine offered at a
fraction of the price.
As I read the book in record time, I noticed again what
I noticed through my conversations with Phil Woods. Al
Cohn’s name was everywhere! It was immediately apparent
that Bob looked up to Al, and Al was one of his major
influences. I was definitely seeing a pattern… so I contacted
Dave immediately and asked him about it, and here is what
Dave said:
“Bob had a few heroes in his life, but the way he always
talked about Al and the way his eyes lit up when he did,
I really believe that Al was his biggest hero. As Bob said,
on page seven in my book, “I think when I came to New
York and began to write, my hero was Al Cohn. So if I
could write like Al Cohn, and play like Al Cohn, I would
never have any problems.”

I went through the book to find a few more Brookmeyer
quotes about Al:
Bob on practicing composition:
“I think it’s a great idea. The first step would be to copy
out a string quartet and by doing that you really find out
how that works. There were some copies of Al Cohn’s
scores I made when I was about 23. They were really
good and I wanted to have them. They were worth
keeping.”
Bob on his influences:

Dave Rivello: Are there specific people who have
influenced you as a composer: musicians or, particularly,
other composers?
Bob Brookmeyer: Yes, starting with Jimmy Mundy and
Buster Harding and Tad Smith with Count Basie. Woody
Herman’s band, Ralph Burns - he’s still a hero to me,
alive or dead. He was fantastic. Al Cohn, Bill Finegan,
Bill Holman. Gil Evans, of course, and George Russell.
He was one of the more brilliant men I knew. Johnny
Carisi later on, but as an influence I’d have to say Al
Cohn was one of the bigger ones.
Bob Brookmeyer with Dave Rivello in
Rochester 2011 Photo by Roland Paolucci

If you are a composer or curious about any of the digitized
Al Cohn material, please write to alcohncollection@esu.
edu. There are dozens of scores available by Al and Phil, and
they are the perfect lesson in very different approaches to
big band arranging. I would also encourage you to take a
look at Dave Rivello’s project. It is a labor of love of the
highest level, and as close as you will ever come to taking
lessons with Bob Brookmeyer himself. I would like to thank
Dave for giving me permission to use Bob’s quotes here,
and it is my pleasure to get the word out about Bob’s music
and Dave’s project.
So here we were, Phil Woods and Bob Brookmeyer, two of
MY hero’s in big band writing, both referencing Al Cohn as
the real deal. At this point the message is clear, and I have
some copy work to do!
For information on Dave Rivello’s Artist Share project
“Bob Brookmeyer: in Conversation with Dave Rivello,”
visit: www.artistshare.com q
Shortly after finishing my piece for this issue, I was alerted
yet again of sad news in our jazz community. Legendary
guitarist Vic Juris has passed away after less than a year in a
battle with liver cancer. His condition came as a surprise to
us all, and it is even more surprising that he has left us after
such a short time. In addition to his contribution to jazz and
overall influence on guitar players of all styles, he was truly
one of a kind and an equally wonderful person. He was one
of the very top level musicians who treated everyone as an
equal, no matter what their skill level may be. To show the
support Vic had in the music community and beyond, his
GoFundMe page raised over $110,000 of a $50,000 goal in
a matter of months.
I met Vic through my relationship with Dave Liebman, but
developed a closer relationship with him when he played on
my debut recording No Such Thing, and that began a longer
relationship playing with him and bassist Evan Gregor,
recruiting any top shelf drummer we could find to perform
at the Deer Head Inn. He was kind and funny, all while taking
our projects very seriously. He insisted on meeting together
prior to my record date to work out details in the music and
he practiced obsessively to make sure he was prepared. He
was a top-notch professional and a friend to so many of us.

It was very interesting to me to see that Bob Brookmeyer,
who’s career and writing style spanned multiple generations
well into modern big band, referenced Al Cohn and Bill
Finegan more than anyone else. It pays to go back to where
it all started!

While he did not live in the Poconos, I consider him as much
a local musician as anyone else that lives and performs
here. He always performed at the Deer Head Inn as well
as the COTA Festival. One of Phil Woods’ last projects was
a duo recording called “Songs One” that featured Vic.
Because of his extensive involvement in our area and jazz
community, look to the next issue of The Note for much
more on Vic Juris. n
winter/spring 2020 | the note | 5

From the bridge

By Su Terry

ILLUSION AND REALITY

Some years ago I was checking out assisted living places for my mother. At one
place, the very nice woman in charge handed me the promotional pamphlet
which featured photos of joyous-looking residents. Presumably my mother
would be as happy as these folks if she moved there. One photo was of a senior
gentleman with his saxophone. “Does this man live here?” I asked the woman.
Maybe I could play some duets with him to entertain the residents, I thought.
“Oh no, he’s just a model,” she replied.
A model? You mean . . . these aren’t . . . real people? Suddenly my illusionary
world came crashing down with an ironic thud, in the key of E flat minor. I
began to scan all the ads around me. You mean that girl on the dermatologist
pitch in the subway isn’t really a patient? She hasn’t had a zit since she was
eleven? Those ripped, lean chicks on the Yoga app I’m thinking of downloading,
they’re actually professional athletes? The Miniature Schnauzer wolfing down
the dog food on a TV commercial, you mean he was starved for three days
prior to the shoot?
Eons ago the Buddhist sages told us that everything about our existence is an
illusion. I’m okay with that. It’s just that it gets more complicated when there
are illusions inside the illusion. Like all the aforementioned, plus the “Yanny
or Laurel” and “gold dress/blue dress” controversies that wreaked havoc on
the Internet last year. Like fake news. Or how about Time–there’s a big one.
Add your own favorite illusion to the list, copy and paste, and send to twenty
of your friends.
How many are aware that the music industry is also chock full of illusions
(especially the ones of stardom)? For instance, when musicians go into the
recording studio, we never just mix the recording “flat.” On the contrary. We
put the music through all sorts of filters and effects to get it to sound “natural.”
If we didn’t do that, then you, the listeners, would think it sounded fake!
Radio uses audio compression to boost the aural presence of its broadcasts–
they’ve been doing it for decades. The popular music file format “mp3” uses
a different type of compression, one that leaves out large chunks of the aural
spectrum in order to save digital space. This is achieved by eliminating certain
frequencies which are deemed (by whom?) to be unnecessary to the listening
experience. This is like the “junk DNA” that in the 1970’s scientists said was
worthless, even though it comprises 98% of the genetic material in humans.
Fifty years later, come to find out it actually does stuff! Just because Science
might not know the purpose of something, doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
Science can also benefit from illusions though, as when Alexander Graham
Bell was studying the diagrams of Hermann Helmholtz. Because Bell didn’t
understand German, he misinterpreted the diagrams. He later said that if he
hadn’t done so, he would never have invented the telephone. What’s the
takeaway from that? Well, get your trompe l’oeil Escher-fried self over to the
Ames Room (second floor, up the Penrose stairs) where today’s special is Frim
Fram Sauce with Shafalfa on the side, and don’t forget to ask for a container
of “Banach-Tarski Paradox” to go.
What are the basic necessities of human existence? Air, water, shelter, food–
and illusions that give us a reason to live! Remember Tom Hanks in Castaway:
6 | the note | winter/spring 2020

if Wilson the soccer ball god hadn’t existed,
Tom would’ve had to invent him. And
let’s not get started on the proliferation
of virtual reality games, avatars and
accessories, on which people are spending
the real world dollars they earned from
slaving away at their real world jobs.
Which brings us to The Matrix. (If I had
my druthers, I’d spend a lot more time
discussing the movie than is probably
healthy.) In case there’s anyone reading
this who has just emerged from the
underground bunker they’ve been living
in since 1999, let me inform you that
the plot of The Matrix revolved around
the idea that we are living completely
in our minds, while our bodies lie in
incubation-style pods, connected to
gigantic machines that use our energy
as their “food.” So the real question is: if
everyone is making up their own reality in
their minds, why do they go to their jobs
every day instead of lying on the beach in
Bora Bora sipping margaritas and listening
to Kind of Blue while watching a live game
of co-ed nude volleyball? Why, in fact, are
we not all experiencing exactly what we
would prefer to experience, at any given
moment? Ponder on this, grasshopper.
Oh all right, I’ll tell you. But not all at once.
Tune in next issue for our exciting sequel!
Bring your psychiatrist. n

Benny Golson performing at ESU April 1991
Photo by Bob Napoli

An Interview with

Benny Golson
By Dr. Larry Fisher

ESU Professor of Music Emeritus and Research Chairman,
International Association of Jazz Education.

winter/spring 2020 | the note | 7

This interview occurred on March 1,
1997 and was presented at the annual
conference of the IAJE in Toronto, Canada,
January of 2003. It was published in IAJE’s
2003 Jazz Research Proceedings Yearbook
– Larry Fisher, editor.

Larry Fisher: Thank you for taking the
time to talk to me this morning. To begin,
please tell me about your recent projects.
What are you writing and recording at this
time?
Benny Golson: Well, I’m still writing a
college textbook. This is my eighth year
at it and I’m almost done now. Last year
I started writing my autobiography. I
badgered and badgered getting started
until I finally thought of how to do it. I
wrote 150 pages, which grew into 800 and
a second book. I recently got a commission
to write my second symphony that I will
be starting soon. The first one premiered
in 1992. I also wrote a piece for violinist
Itzhak Perlman three summers ago. Right
now, I’m preparing for a CD, which we
intend to record on March 31st. I’m using
a great trumpet player named John Swana.
He’s from Philadelphia, which is also my
hometown. I am also using a tremendous
tenor saxophonist named Ron Blake who
has been playing with Roy Hargrove. Ron
plays so well I call him my “brain surgeon.”
At the moment, I’m producing a CD for
another tenor saxophonist, Don Braden.
He’s a friend of mine and he asked me if l
would come aboard on this project and so
8 | the note | winter/spring 2020

I did. It’s very rewarding. This guy is ascending, as is Ron Blake. I want more
people to hear them.
LF: You bring up an interesting subject by saying that you’d like more people
to hear these players. Do you feel that people like yourself, famous and
successful jazz musicians, have a responsibility to mentor the “young lions?”
BG: Definitely, definitely, yes, because during my era when I came up music
was changing. Dizzy Gillespie came on the scene and Charlie Parker started
dramatically changing everything. It was like throwing some of the old musicians
into cold water. We got no help at all from them - I mean absolutely none.
We were ridiculed, we were vilified, we were put down, we were questioned
about what we were doing. We got no help at all! All we had were the old 78
RPM recordings and we listened to them religiously. The music schools knew
nothing about jazz. Everything was changing and shifting in mid 1945. Today
I feel that those of us who have arrived and have a wealth of experience and
knowledge are obligated to share it with the new ones rather than feeling
threatened by them. I am thoroughly encouraged by the young players. Every
time I hear a new one that’s really doing something consequential, I am
thoroughly delighted. When I’m in the workplace, it’s strictly business and
I deal on that level. However, I give up everything for students. I help in any
way I can and even bend over backwards. That’s the way it should be. Talent is
essential if a young player is to move ahead and make consequential moves,
but the next element in the equation is opportunity. If no opportunity presents
itself in any way then they may well wind up playing in their living rooms,
their bathrooms or wherever it is they practice. There must be opportunity.
Those of us who have already made it are the ones who can help them. We
are in a better position to influence as opposed to the managers, booking
agents or record companies. Unfortunately, not all of these types are as sharp
as they are supposed to be. Today, in the marketplace, everybody is going for
chronology. If they can find a 20-year-old player they are delighted, but if they
can find one who’s 19 or even 18, they are even more delighted. They are not
always concerned with primary talent although there may be some talent
there if they happen to be sharp enough to recognize it or stumble upon it.
LF: It is refreshing to hear you express this point of view because this interview
has the potential to be read by music students and college professors who are
interested in encouraging young musicians.
BG: I’m glad you mentioned college professors. When I went to college,
I could have been expelled for playing jazz. The official attitude about jazz
was not good then. I had to practice my saxophone in the laundry room of
the dormitory at night because I could not enter college and practice the
saxophone as a part of the studies. I had to major on the clarinet. It seems to
me that it was a European thing they were trying to uphold.
LF: My best instrument was the saxophone too, but I also played the bassoon.
Consequently, I was accepted as a bassoon major in 1959 at what was
then West Chester State Teachers College in my home state, Pennsylvania.
I could not major on saxophone or take lessons there. However, I did play
tenor sax in the Criterions, the schools very fine jazz band. No academic credit
was given for participation and we always had a student leader and faculty
advisor. Happily, there is a much better environment for jazz today at West
Chester University of Pennsylvania.

BG: Now the schools have become more
important in relation to jazz. They’re more
than important, they’re invaluable. Schools
teach the rules in the lectures and courses.
Experience on the other hand is something
you cannot get at any school. You can only
get it by leaving and doing what you set
out to do in a practical way. Experience
teaches you when not to use the rules or
how to go around them in a consequential
way. You don’t break the rules for the sake
of breaking them. You break the rules
for the sake of attaining what it is that
you hear in the deepest recesses of your
heart or in your mind. I’ve had a chance
to do that along with my peers. I was a
rebel in my last years of school because
I questioned everything. My contention
was, “Why does everything always have to
be the same?” A creative person looks for
new ways to do things. He walks two steps
into the darkness. He finds things that
are waiting to be discovered. Sometimes
these things are so new that people are
not ready to accept them with open arms.
Case in point is Thelonious Monk. When
I was coming along, they used to refer to
him as “that weird piano player.” Now he’s
everybody’s hero. When John Coltrane was
with Miles and not playing the ordinary,
people would say, “Miles is great, but who
is that tenor player?” You see, when Monk,
Dizzy, Bird, and Trane arrived, there was no
one at the station to meet them. People
were expecting them to be somewhere
else and they weren’t there.
LF: Many of the young players, particularly
the college students, have great technique.
They can run the changes perfectly,
improvise at a million miles an hour, but they
have not yet developed their own voices.
What advice do you have for students that
could help them develop their own identity
and humanity instead of imitating the
sound or style of a Parker or Coltrane?
BG: You are on the money. Please print
what you just said. It’s vital that students
hear that. We are all initially eclectic.
None of us begin by using concepts of our
own. We have to listen to this player or
that player, but only as a stepping-stone.

We shouldn’t rely on the ideas of others like patterns that are cut in stone. If
a young player takes this approach, all they’re doing is glorifying and honoring
the person that they copied. When I listen to someone who does this, I say
to myself, “I wonder what this guy really sounds like?” Let me put it this way,
no one wants to go to a jewelry store and buy a zirconium if they can afford a
diamond. All the people that copy John Coltrane are zircons. The diamond is
gone, but he left a wealth of knowledge and materials that can delight us. The
student has to get out of the tractor beam and find his own direction otherwise
he’s going to remain behind the starship.
LF: Do you think students should go outside of the music to somehow find
their own humanity or expression? Should they study the graphic arts, poetry
or other literature?
BG: I hear where you are going, but it doesn’t give a student style, concept,
or direction. I’ve read D. H. Lawrence, Keats, and many great authors that
had nothing to do with my music. Sometimes it helps you become a better
human being and that’s good. Some young players with great talent become
supercilious or even arrogant. As they are ascending they step into the arena
and represent potential. What is potential other than that which exists in
possibility? The goal is to get potential to cross paths with reality. Intuitively,
that’s what we all strive for and many of them think they’ve crossed it when
they haven’t. This can be damaging to them as they develop.
LF: Do you think jazz students could benefit from serious study of the classical
composers for inspiration and particularly mood? I understand that Charlie
Parker was captivated by the music from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
BG: I love Puccini. He’s one of my favorites. Everybody speaks about Verdi
like he’s the father, but for me it was Puccini because he was much better at
orchestration.
LF: Pucciní’s romanticism is more personal and he uses chords that are more
interesting and complex. His melodies are beautiful and they absolutely soar
in many of the arias.
BG: There are all kinds of possibilities. Go to the fugues of Bach, check out
Mozart and Chopin. I would very much like to meet and talk to Krzysztof
Penderecki. Pianist Cecil Taylor is very similar to some of the modern
European composers. Taylor is brilliant, but the natural inclination of people
who do not understand is to imply that his music came from outer space. I
am reminded of one of those “B” science fiction movies when the spaceship
landed and those strange people came out. The Earthlings didn’t understand
so they attacked it. Their first reaction was to bring the tanks and the planes.
In music, anything people don’t understand will be attacked.
LF: That’s been true historically from at least Beethoven onward. Anything
new is looked at with skepticism until people arrive at an understanding of
what the pioneer has done.
BG: You’re right, you’re absolutely right. You’re on the money; it’s nice to talk
to you. What it is metaphorically is that many people don’t want to move
out of their nice warm spot. In the winter, you got a nice warm spot in your
bed and you accidentally move your leg to the cold spot. Nobody wants to
move out of the nice warm spot. Don’t change anything, don’t change a thing.
However, I say, “Change everything.” That’s what going forward is all about.
That’s what life is all about.
winter/spring 2020 | the note | 9

LF: I had a conversation with Phil Woods
recently. We were talking about how rock
and roll constantly reinvents itself every
few years or every generation. He said jazz
has to come to grips with reinventing itself
and that we need some bold new people,
some leaders, some original thinkers and
players to go out and do this.
BG: Yes, and when it comes, it’s like a breath
of fresh air to an asphyxiating world.
LF: I ask this question because you are
well known as a composer, arranger and as
a player. Do you think students who want
to have a career in jazz would have a better
chance of making it today as a writer than
as a player?
BG: The stance I take on that is that a
person has to do what he wants to do
most. It helps to have talent in the area
they want to pursue. If he wants to play
a piccolo and be accompanied by a herd
of six elephants, then if he can get the
elephants and train them, then that’s what
he has to do. We have to be able to look at
things objectively.
The person has to do this even if it’s wrong.
He has to answer that thing that’s in him
at that moment even if he has to change
later. Wynton Marsalis is a great writer
and a great trumpet player, but nobody
talks about his writing. How sad they only
talk about the trumpet. With me, I’m a
saxophone player and everybody talks
about my writing.
LF: Historically, jazz has not been very
thoughtful in remembering the composer
or arranger. The great improvising players
are the ones who have gotten most of the
attention. However, who can deny the
importance of the arranger during the
big band swing era? The arrangers were
the most creative artists during this time.
In the European classics, the names of
composers dominate the history books,
not the players. Only the great opera
singers, some conductors, and a few
instrumental soloists who played the major
concertos are remembered. In relation to
the attention paid to the great jazz soloists
of any era, is it frustrating to you that even
10 | the note | winter/spring 2020

today the jazz composers and arrangers still do not get more acclaim for their
major contributions?
BG: It doesn’t bother me and the reason is that I found out a long time ago
that audiences and fans are basically disloyal. Somebody hears me today
and likes me and they’re raving and waving banners. Tomorrow they hear
somebody else and they like that too or maybe they like it better than me.
That’s life. It doesn’t affect me. I keep doing what I keep doing anyway. I do
what I feel I must do and I keep trying to grow. That’s why most jazz musicians
consider themselves artists rather than entertainers. The difference is that
entertainers always try to second-guess their audience. They do what they
think the audience wants. I was once a part of a group that entertained. We
wore frumpy ties. I walked the bar stepping over drinks, playing low B-flats no
matter the key. I had to make money and take care of my family, but when I was
able to pull away from that, I became more of an artist. An artists obligation is
to himself, not to the exclusion of the audience, but he does what he feels he
must do with the hope that they might like it. That’s the difference between
and entertainer and an artist. I must say that there’s absolutely nothing wrong
with being an entertainer. It’s a matter of what everyone chooses. I choose to
be an artist at this point.
LF: I first became acquainted with your writing through your great
composition, “I Remember Clifford.” The arrangement I heard first was
recorded by the Woody Herman band and featured a beautiful flugelhorn
solo. It really grabbed me.
BG: I had forgotten about that arrangement. See what happens when you
get old!
LF: Did you know Clifford Brown very well? If so, was that what inspired you
to create a piece of music that is so profoundly moving?
BG: I knew him extremely well. All I can say is that he was a dear friend and
I just thought he should be remembered. As time went on, my song really
wasn’t necessary because of the legacy he left in his recordings. That legacy
compels people to remember, but I guess my tune just sort of underscores it. I
wrote it because I felt that I had to because of the way I felt about him. I shed
many tears while I was writing that tune.
LF: It has a beautiful melody and is definitely one of the most emotional
pieces I have encountered in jazz or any other style. Could you contrast
this highly serious and reverent composition with the relative simplicity of
“Killer Joe?”
BG: Take the “relative” off. My wife said “Killer Joe” would never make it.
LF: It’s another great memorable tune. It’s unique and people love it.
BG: Things that are remembered easiest are things that are simple. Nobody
ever comes away from a movie humming the music they heard behind a car
chase. Everybody came away humming “Lara’s Theme” from the movie, Dr.
Zhivago. I thought it was the most corny theme I’ve ever heard in my life and
I came out of the movie humming it. It sounded like a merry-go-round tune
with balalaikas strumming in the background.
LF: Who was Killer Joe? Was he a real person?
BG: No, Killer Joe was not a real person. He is a representative pimp, a
composite of all the great pimps of the world, black or white. I just dressed

him up a certain way because of certain
ones I’ve seen. The typical behaviors
with women on their arms, the Cadillac’s
parked outside, the nice clothing and the
processed hair. I saw it and it was amusing
to me so I just thought I’d write about it.
LF: As I think of the tune, I believe you
have captured the mood perfectly. I know
you have to go, so, I thank you very much
for taking the time to talk to me. It’s been
enjoyable and enlightening. I hope you can
find time in your busy schedule to create
many, many more great compositions for
us to play and enjoy. q
Benny Golson Biographical Information:
Multi-talented Benny Golson is an
acclaimed musical artist, at home in nearly
every idiom of modern music. He is a
composer, arranger, lyricist, producer, and
a saxophonist of world note. His influence
has had an impact on jazz, middle-of-theroad, rock & roll and on motion pictures,
television and records.

and composing for artists such as Diana Ross, Connie Francis, Earth Kitt, Lou
Rawls, Nancy Wilson, The Association, Mama Cass Elliot, Percy Faith, The
Monkees and Ella Fitzgerald.
Mr. Golson gave up performing in 1967 and devoted himself to writing music
for television and feature films. He moved to Hollywood and soon became
involved in composing musical scores for M*A*S*H, Ironside, Mission
Impossible, Mod Squad, Room 222, The Partridge Family, Mannix, Run for
Your Life, David Janssen’s Where It’s At, The Karen Valentine Show, and pilots
for ABC and CBS.
Accomplished and successful, Mr. Golson nevertheless felt the need to resume
his career as a saxophonist. He began performing again in 1974 and has
appeared regularly since in concerts and festivals around the world including
Tokyo, Berlin, Montreux, London, and Monterey. Since this resumption he has
recorded albums under his own name for Columbia, CBS/Sony in Japan. He
produces his own albums and albums for other artists as well. Benny Golson
is no stranger to the musical world - and it is no stranger to him. n
Benny Golson
Publicity Photo 1991

Educated at Howard University, Mr. Golson
began his jazz career in Philadelphia later
shifting his activities to New York where he
began to gain fame as a saxophonist, playing
with such bands as Dizzy Gillespie, Art
Blakey, Earl Bostic, Lionel Hampton, Benny
Goodman and even his own group. At the
same time, as well as winning first place as
“new star” saxophonist in the Downbeat
Magazine International Jazz Poll, he also
began to gain fame as a composer also
winning that same poll as the “new star”
composer. His compositions, many of them
standards now, have been recorded by many
major jazz artists such as Quincy Jones,
Oscar Peterson, The Modern Jazz Quartet,
George Shearing, Cal Tjader, Miles Davis,
John Coltrane, Woody Herman, Carmen
McRae, Dinah Washington, Anita O’Day, Mel
Torme, Peggy Lee and many others.
He also wrote music and produced music
for radio and television commercials by
many of the major advertising agencies
in the USA. Later, his interests expanded
to encompass popular music, arranging
winter/spring 2020 | the note | 11

Scrapbooks
in the Archives:

Why They Might Not Be That Bad

By Elizabeth Scott
Archivist and Special Collections Librarian

When an archivist hears the word scrapbook, often
it invokes a fear inside of them. Why you might ask?
Because generally, a scrapbook can be filled with
various types of items ranging from news clippings,
photographs, and letters to even personal effects like
ribbons and locks of hair. Essentially they can be a
hodge podge of mixed materials which make them very
difficult to preserve.
When Jill Goodwin, Phil Woods’ wife approached ESU
about giving scrapbooks to the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz
Collection, I was very interested in seeing their quality
and condition. Jill explained that the materials were
collected by various members of Phil’s family over the
years and then compiled by them as well.

12 | the note | winter/spring 2020

In a recent webinar I took about how to preserve scrapbooks,
the experts noted that due to glue and deteriorating items,
it is best practice to take apart the scrapbooks rather than
trying to keep them intact. That means taking out news
clippings, letters, photographs as well as physical objects
and housing like items together. Essentially dismantling
the scrapbooks for preservation purposes is the widely
accepted preservation norm.
With that said, the scrapbooks Jill presented to us were
beautifully bound and flawlessly constructed. The books
are made of acid free paper which is a must for preserving
archival materials. Each item has been carefully inserted
into the scrapbook with the utmost care. The scrapbook
I viewed from 1947-1958 was arranged in chronological
order and read like a book about Phil’s early life and career.
The documents in the scrapbooks are a glimpse into a
musician’s life. Like the Western Union telegram he sent
to his father Stanley Woods on May 17, 1954 asking him to
“NOTIFY INSURANCE CO CLARINET STOLEN LAST NITE SEND
SERIAL NO TO APOLLO THEATRE.” Or the letter he wrote to
his family about his travels in the Middle East during a tour.
The scrapbooks are filled with personal letters and
items that allow one to almost experience his life
first-hand.

Once they are donated, the scrapbooks will be a
wonderful resource for research about Phil and
his career in music. Eventually, a project to digitize
the materials to make them more accessible will
be implemented but until then, we look forward to
discovering more of their contents.

For more information about the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection, please visit the website
https://www.esu.edu/library/collections/alcohn/index.cfm. n

winter/spring 2020 | the note | 13

T h e 3 r d A nnual

Duke Ellington
Nutcracker Suite
As another year comes to a close, I would like to thank everyone for supporting the ACMJC
this year at the 3rd Annual Duke Ellington Nutcracker Suite. It was an absolute pleasure to
have Edward Ellington II back again, and I would say this was the best year yet. It is truly
a special moment to hear this music every year, and even after the third year in a row,
there is something magical about hearing such a well written iconic piece of music live.
Furthermore, we are incredibly privileged to have some of the finest musicians available
to play this music. I would like to thank everyone in the orchestra, and in particular Dan
Block for coming out year after year and playing the clarinet solos. This music is known for
its complicated clarinet parts and solos, and Dan is absolutely at the top of the list when it
comes to jazz clarinet. Enjoy a sample of photos from the event, and we all hope to see you
again next year! n

Matt Vashlishan solos with the
ensemble on his arrangement of
You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch

14 | the note | winter/spring 2020

All photos by Susie Forrester

Matt Vashlishan directs the ensemble
during a solo by Dave Demsey

The Water Gap Jazz Orchestra
performing for a great audience

Featured soloist Dan Block plays the clarinet
during the Ellington Nutcracker Suite

Edward Ellington II reads
the Nutcracker story

Neil Wetzel solos
on alto sax

Nancy Reed narrating the
story of the Nutcracker
between movements

winter/spring 2020 | the note | 15

Chris Persad Solos
with the Water Gap
Jazz Orchestra
during the 3rd Annual Duke Ellington
Nutcracker performance

16 | the note | winter/spring 2020

Ray Ellis Recording Session
Photo by Al Stewart

winter/spring 2020 | the note | 17

These Giants Still Roam
the Earth: Benny Golson

Patrick Dorian

ESU Distinguished Professor
Emeritus of Music

Benny Golson turned ninety-one in
January 2020. His journey continues to
inspire, from his youth in Philadelphia
walking around the city in search of “the
music” with peer John Coltrane to the
development of his incredible career to his
recent performances. With Jim Merod he
wrote Whisper Not: The Autobiography of
Benny Golson published in 2016 by Temple
University Press. On pages 129-132 he tells
of his time in Hollywood in the late 1960s
to early 1970s composing for the Twentieth
Century-Fox television program Room
222. A few years later, Twentieth CenturyFox produced the television series based
on the film M*A*S*H. Johnny Mandel,
composer of the score for the movie and
the theme that was also to be used in
the television series, started composing
music for episodes in the first season. He
became busy with other projects such that
he needed a highly qualified composer to
take over. Benny Golson was promoted to
this high-profile task for several episodes.

at ESU. As if that wasn’t enough for one month, Larry’s ESU Jazz Series also
cosponsored Clark Terry’s lecture and performance with the University Jazz
Ensemble under my direction. Clark, the students, and I then boarded a bus
and performed at a junior high school, a major music education conference,
and the Ryerson Theatre in Toronto. “CeeTee” lectured and performed with
the University Jazz Ensemble in 1989, 1991, and 1999. The world celebrates
Clark’s centennial this year.

Benny performed at ESU in April 1991
cosponsored by Dr. Larry Fisher’s ESU
Jazz Series, the same month that Larry
arranged for Maynard Ferguson to perform

“We’re not as young as we used to be, so take good care of yourself. And I
love you, man!!”

In Steven Spielberg’s 2004 film The Terminal, Benny is a major part of the plot.
The character played by Tom Hanks travels to New York from eastern Europe
to get the final autograph of the jazz musicians in his deceased father’s copy
of the iconic 1958 photograph A Great Day in Harlem. The 57th and final
autograph is Benny’s. Without giving away too much of the plot, Benny
appears in the movie. Incidentally, Benny and Sonny Rollins are the only two
jazz musicians in the photo still living in 2020.
In March 2019, Director of Jazz Studies at Penn State University, Professor
Marko Marcinko, contracted Benny to lecture and perform with the students
and faculty at the 20th Annual Penn State Jazz Festival. His lecture was
remarkable and extremely encouraging to students. I was honored to be a
guest clinician for the weekend working with several performing high school
and university big bands. When I knew that I’d be seeing Benny, I contacted
Johnny Mandel’s daughter Marissa and asked her if Johnny would like to send
a message to Benny through me. She wrote back the following:
Subject: Dad says to Benny

I printed out the message and handed it to Benny. He read this short love
letter repeatedly for well over a minute. I told Benny that he could keep it and
he replied, “No need to . . . I’m memorizing it.”
At the concert he performed with Centre Dimensions, the top Penn State
University big band. Several of his compositions heard that night were
standards that featured his stylized improvised solos, including Along Came
Betty, Whisper Not, I Remember Clifford (featuring guest artist trumpeter Dr.
Eddie Severn), Blues March, and Killer Joe. In between works he told the story
behind each composition and other anecdotes including his time with Steven
Spielberg and Tom Hanks. After the concert, Benny spent the better part of
an hour signing hundreds of LPs, CDs, photos, and his book. He’s gracious,
elegant, and humorous. Congratulations to the student officers and Professor
Marcinko for organizing this artistic triumph for the university and community.

Benny Golson with Penn State Centre Dimensions
directed by Marko Marcinko

18 | the note | winter/spring 2020

Benny is slated to perform in several countries in 2020. His concert schedule
can be viewed at his website www.bennygolson.com. His music, performance,
and substantive banter always make for an unforgettable experience. n

These Giants Still Roam
the Earth: Johnny Mandel
Johnny Mandel was born on November 23, 1925, one day before Al Cohn.
Their personal and professional collaborations since the mid-1940s continue
to be heralded in the annals of jazz. Johnny is a huge friend of the Al Cohn
Memorial Jazz Collection, reading each issue of THE NOTE from cover to cover
at least once if not more. I speak to Johnny several times a year and he tells
me that THE NOTE makes him truly feel like he is a member of the Pocono jazz
neighborhood. He certainly has earned it!

Al Cohn and Zoot Sims individually and collectively have been an important
part of Johnny’s journey. In April 1981, Al Cohn recorded Johnny’s compositions
Unless It’s You and El Cajon (a not-so-subtle homage to Al pronounced “El
Ca-Hone”) for Al’s Nonpareil LP/CD [Concord Jazz CCD-4155]. Dave Frishberg
(living in the Poconos in the late 1960s) would eventually write lyrics for the
latter tune. Upon Al’s passing, Johnny composed Here’s to Alvy, which Phil
Woods then arranged for and recorded with his own big band in 2013 on New
Celebration [Chiaroscuro CR(D) 401]. In March 1984, Zoot recorded Quietly
There [Pablo OJCCD-787-2], an entire LP/CD of Mandel compositions including
the angular work Zoot. Johnny was a member of the Count Basie Orchestra in
1953 on a tour bus with boxer-turned-singer and dancer Sugar Ray Robinson
and his piano accompanist Bob Dorough. Five of the eleven tracks on Tony
Bennett’s 2004 CD The Art of Romance were arranged by Johnny, who also
conducted nine of the tracks. Phil Woods is featured on five tracks including
Johnny’s remarkable compositions Close Enough for Love from the 1979
British movie Agatha, and Little Did I Dream (composed around 2003) with
lyrics by Dave Frishberg.
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS, a.k.a. the
Recording Academy) manages and presents the annual GRAMMY Awards.
In 1962, the Academy also started presenting the Lifetime Achievement
Award. Subsequently additional awards to individuals who have distinguished
themselves in the recording industry were presented. In 1967, the Trustees
Award was instituted followed by the Technical GRAMMY Award in 1994
and the Music Educator Award in 2013. The four awards finally became
categorized as the GRAMMY Special Merit Awards. Eventually the GRAMMY
Salute to Music Legends ceremony was established at the Dolby Theatre in
Hollywood, where the Oscar Awards are presented annually. In 2016, the
Academy started a partnership with Great Performances on PBS to broadcast
this star-studded event as a two-hour program. After watching it several years
ago, I looked up previous awardees to see when Johnny Mandel had received
this world-class recognition only to find out that he had NOT, so I decided to
advocate for Johnny.
My peripheral association with the GRAMMYS goes back decades with my
performance as last trumpet on GRAMMY-nominated CDs by Phil Woods
and the COTA Festival Orchestra and the Dave Liebman Big Band. In the
early twenty-aughts, I felt strongly that Phil Woods deserved a GRAMMY
Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003, Neil Portnow was the newly appointed
president/CEO of the Recording Academy. I then found out that in the mid-1960s

Patrick Dorian

ESU Distinguished Professor
Emeritus of Music

Neil had been a teenaged jazz string bassist
at the Ramblerny Performing Arts Camp in
New Hope, PA, where Phil Woods had run
the jazz department. Several teenagers
had attended Ramblerny who would go on
to world-class careers including Michael
Brecker, Roger Rosenberg, Joe Roccisano,
Richie Cole, and Rick Chamberlain. On
March 29, 2005, I contacted Neil’s staff
with my nomination of Phil for a Grammy
Legend Award. The Recording Academy
took my efforts on advisement and felt
it more appropriate to award Phil the
prestigious President’s Award.
Around 2016, remembering having this
self-anointed cred under my belt, I called
the office of the Recording Academy’s
chief awards officer, Bill Freimuth, to
start advocating for Johnny Mandel. A
very efficient staff member emailed the
application, which I quickly submitted.
When Johnny didn’t receive an award
in 2017, I called the Recording Academy
office, requesting that they again consider
Johnny in the next nomination cycle. A
new staff member said the nomination
would remain on the table. In 2018, Johnny
wasn’t recognized yet again. In autumn
2018, I called to ask about the 2019 award.
Another efficient staff member replied:
“I’m so glad that you called because we’ve
been trying to contact Mr. Mandel and it
seems that he’s unreachable.” I informed
the staff member that he and his family
were evacuated from their Malibu home
because of the California wildfires, but
I would be willing to ask his daughter
Marissa if I could give the Recording
Academy her contact information to start
the acceptance procedure. I immediately
contacted Marissa. Thankfully the fires
ended 1,500 feet from the Mandel home,
although the interior suffered serious
smoke and soot/cinder damage that would
take months to clean.
winter/spring 2020 | the note | 19

During the worldwide broadcast of the
61st GRAMMY Awards on February 10,
2019, photos were shown of the Special
Merit Award winners for the year. Johnny
was pictured recording with Frank Sinatra.
It was announced that he would receive
the Trustees Award along with legendary
producer Lou Adler and renowned singersongwriters Nickolas Ashford and Valerie
Simpson. The announcer stated that the
twelve awardees would be celebrated in
a gala ceremony on May 11 at the Dolby
Theatre in Hollywood.
A few weeks later, Mary and I received an
invitation from Marissa and the rest of the
Mandel family to attend the Dolby Theatre
gala, then visit with Johnny in his home on
the cliffs of Malibu. No need to think about
this honor. It would be two weeks after I
spoke on behalf of Bob Dorough’s family
at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC,
where Bob was posthumously awarded the
NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. It, too, was
a weighty privilege even though I wished
Bob could have been there to speak on his
own behalf. Two incredible events within a
couple of weeks!
Saturday, May 11, 2019, Mary and I arrived
in Los Angeles on Friday night and checked
into a hotel near LAX. On Saturday we
decided to drive up to Hollywood to
find the Dolby Theatre hours before the
ceremony. We knew that Jill and brother
Bill Goodwin’s father, William, has a star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his
accomplishments in radio and film during
the 1930s and 1940s, so we enjoyed finding
it. Marissa’s wife Lauren had arranged
for our seats just behind many of the
awardees. Upon being seated we opened
our program book to see a welcome essay
by the aforementioned Neil Portnow,
who was finishing his fifteen-plus-year
tenure at the Recording Academy in
2019. The twelve awardees each receive
a page that includes their photo and an
essay by an admiring colleague and/or
expert in the industry. The first award in
the book was a Black Sabbath tribute as
penned with subtle humor by Spinal Tap
bassist Derek Small (a.k.a. Harry Shearer).
20 | the note | winter/spring 2020

Billy Eckstine was memorialized by Johnny Mathis and Dionne Warwick’s
tribute was by Elton John.
Who would write for Johnny? . . . none other than 2013 Recording Academy
Trustee Awardees Alan and Marilyn Bergman, the iconic lyricist husband-andwife team who have collaborated with many historic composers including
Johnny. What could be better than having incredible versifiers write an essay
about you? For this issue of THE NOTE, I asked if this fitting tribute to Johnny
(that includes Al and Zoot) could be reprinted. The Bergmans graciously gave
permission. As a special bonus they sent the remarkable photo of them at
the piano with Johnny that appears on page 23. The Bergmans’ publishing
company, Threesome Music, is named for the two lyricists and their daughter,
yet it might also hint at the trio that consists of the two of them with the
renown composer they’re working with at any given time. I also received
program copies from the previous February’s GRAMMY ceremony where the
essay initially appeared. On the page across from the Bergmans essay, an
entire red-tinted page consisted of a few red roses with only 23 words:
Congratulations Johnny, on tonight’s honor.
Your talent will live forever through your music and in our hearts.
Love IS the answer.
Barbra Streisand
“Love IS the answer” is a direct reference to the title of Ms. Streisand’s 2009
CD set for which Johnny arranged and conducted eleven tracks including
his compositions Where Do You Start? (lyrics by the Bergmans) and A Time
for Love. The piano duties are shared by producer Diana Krall and two
accomplished artists who perform at the Deer Head Inn several times each
year: Bill Charlap and Alan Broadbent (check the Deer Head Inn schedule:
www.deerheadinn.com).
Throughout the Saturday evening ceremony, Greg Phillinganes played
keyboards and conducted a top-shelf Los Angeles ensemble of nine
instrumentalists and three vocalists. Johnny’s segment was introduced by
Patti Austin with Philliganes adding subtle piano background as she related
the story of Johnny and Phillinganes’ arrangement of Michel LeGrand and the
Bergmans’ song How Do You Keep the Music Playing? (from the 1982 movie
Best Friends). Austin’s recording with the late James Ingram in 1983 was a
commercial success and this song is now considered a standard. She and
Philliganes performed a short segment of it followed by a video production
portraying Johnny’s incredible career and awards with many iconic musicians.
Patti then performed Johnny’s 1965 Oscar-winning The Shadow of Your Smile
from the movie The Sandpiper, which segued into her virtuosic rendition of
his pop-culture classic Theme from “M*A*S*H” (Suicide Is Painless). Daughter
Marissa and her spouse Lauren held Johnny’s arms and walked him to the
front of the stage. Patti was handed the heavy GRAMMY Trustees Award and
she very quietly said, “Whoa! This thing’s heavier than shit!” As she presented
it to Johnny, he leaned toward the microphone, booming throughout the
theatre, “WHOA . . . this thing’s heavier than SHIT!!” Those of us who know
Johnny’s ebullient uncensored remarks weren’t surprised. As Lauren would
say, “That’s Johnny.” This part of his presentation obviously didn’t make it to
the October broadcast, but his next spoken words were left in:
“It’s just an honor to be honored by these people, all of whom I’d love to
honor individually. Thank you so much.”

Besides the aforementioned awardees, some of the others were Donny
Hathaway, Sam & Dave, and Julio Iglesias with celebrity presenters such as
Garth Brooks and Cheech & Chong. To prove that efforts were being made to
have something for everyone, the final award was presented by Snoop Dogg
to George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic. Quite a few performers from
Clinton’s ensemble over the decades were onstage to join Mr. Clinton and Mr.
Dogg in a medley with a raising-the-roof rendition of Flashlight to conclude
the ceremony. Quite a contrast to Johnny’s segment!
The entire program may be viewed online by PBS members: http://
www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/grammy-salute-to-music-legends-2019-full-episode/
Sunday, May 12, 2019, while Johnny rested for the day after the long awards
evening, Mary and I took our rented hybrid Ford Fusion into the Hollywood
Hills to see where Benny Carter lived on the appropriately named Skyline Drive.
Benny and Phil Woods were our honored guest soloists with the East Stroudsburg
University Jazz Ensemble in May 1993 when Mr. Carter was a mere eighty-five
years young. For ten years afterward, I spoke to him a couple of times each year
until the week of his death. He was the epitome of elegance and virtuosity. The
next day when I told Johnny that we had found the street, he told me that Benny
took a lot of grief from the white residents when he first moved there.
We then drove by the Hollywood Bowl where Benny Golson would be
performing at the Playboy Jazz Festival a few weeks later. More about Benny
and Johnny’s friendship is included in my article about Benny in this issue. Next
was to drive over to the Disney studios in Burbank to see if anyone would be
around on a Sunday . . . just a pleasant parking lot security guard who gave
me the number of the staff in the office of the CEO so that inquiries could be
made about a documentary of Bob Dorough’s life. (Disney owns the rights to
Schoolhouse Rock!)
It was five o’clock somewhere, so we headed over to Culver City to Marissa and
Lauren’s fine wine and spirits store Bar & Garden. Sunday afternoons feature
wine tasting, so it was an exquisitely relaxing break. Across town from the wine
store is the Palomar Ballroom, where Benny Goodman’s band landed at the
end of a disastrously received cross-country tour in August 1935. The legend
has been well documented that the band expected to lick their wounds and
go home, but excellent radio promotion led the engagement to be overrun
by young people ready to dance to ensemble passages and improvised solos,
thus becoming known as the explosive beginning of the swing/big-band era.
Goodman would integrate his band several months later. Repercussions from
this musical style obviously reverberate in music to this day. Upon arriving at
the east side of Vermont Avenue between 2nd and 3rd streets, there is a Von’s
grocery-type store with a large parking lot. There is no historical marker. Upon
returning home, I contacted a few Los Angeles jazz entities to see if a hole could
be drilled in the sidewalk for a pole and a plaque commemorating this important
event. This August marks eighty-five years, so we’ll see.
Monday, May 13, 2019, Mary and I were warmly received at Johnny’s home
in Malibu in the late afternoon. His GRAMMY Award from two nights before
was visible as we entered the living room with an entire back wall of glass that
overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Mary and I walked around the backyard a bit to the
edge of the Pacific cliff. Johnny chose this home wisely almost fifty years ago. On
the piano in the living room are photos of Johnny with Diana Krall, Quincy Jones,
and Barbra Streisand and a drawing by Tony Bennett of Johnny conducting,

probably during the aforementioned Art
of Romance recording sessions. Also there
are photos of family members holding
pets. We met rescued canine Bella,
whose spirit ignores her injured front
paw and ear. She was hurt in Sarajevo
and airlifted to Berlin before she was
brought to New York. Marissa and Lauren
had her transported to Malibu, where for
the past few years she matter-of-factly
does her business in the backyard while
the sun sets over the Pacific. I wanted to
take her for a walk to the local mini-mart/
convenience store and buy a few lottery
tickets.
Johnny frequently asks to have a sheet
of lined music manuscript paper and
pencil near him . . . there’s music in his
head always! I had brought my copy
of the previously mentioned Al Cohn
Nonpareil CD. For over a minute, Johnny
stared lovingly at the cover photo of Al.
Johnny often seemed to go into a relaxed
dream-like gaze, focusing on nothing
in particular. I’ve read that he does this
with everyone and it’s part of his focus
and remarkable imagination. We then
exchanged our favorite ribald jokes as
told by Jack Sheldon over the decades.
Jack would die on December 27, 2019. His
many remarkable recordings include his
singing of Conjunction Junction and I’m
Just a Bill for Bob Dorough’s Schoolhouse
Rock! and Jack’s seminal trumpet solo
of The Shadow of Your Smile during the
opening scenes of Johnny’s Oscar-winning
song and GRAMMY-winning score for the
movie The Sandpiper in 1965. Throughout
our visit I thought that I heard some of
those same waves hitting the beach
below Johnny’s home.
Johnny and I spoke at length over the hours
about so many musicians and compositions.
Of pieces he admired that he didn’t compose,
he would often humbly say, “I wish that I
composed that one!” Here are some of our
exchanges about music:
PD: Your arrangements on the Shirley Horn
CD Here’s to Life: Shirley Horn with Strings
recorded in 1991 are breathtaking. You
presented her abilities like no one else could.
winter/spring 2020 | the note | 21

JM: None better than Dave Grusin!
PD: Your orchestrations for Natalie Cole in the early 1990s, especially when
she sings Unforgettable as a duet with her father Nat King Cole on the video
screen, are remarkable. I thought that the choice of Pete Christlieb to play
the tenor sax solo(s) was excellent. He’s always acknowledged the profound
influence that Al & Zoot had on him as he was evolving in the 1960s. I also
enjoyed his improvisations with Steely Dan on their sessions for the Aja LP
in 1977, especially the songs such as Deacon Blues and FM (No Static at All).
JM: I arranged the strings on FM (No Static at All)!

Johnny Mandel and Pat
with the GRAMMY Legend
Award in Mandel’s kitchen.

JM: When working with a singer like
Shirley, I don’t want to get in her way. I
imagine that she’s performing on stage
and I try to write accompaniment that acts
like the musical equivalent of a theatrical
scrim so that her essence comes through.
PD: Describing it this way has me thinking
that this musical scrim works with an effect
of auditory translucency.
JM: Sure.
PD: On that CD on the song Here’s to Life,
the French horn solo you composed that
was performed by Richard Todd is stunning
in its ascending arch into the stratosphere
followed by a gradual wind-down.
JM: I wrote for how high he could play and
he executed it.
PD: Mary and I went to Ithaca College, on
the hill opposite Cornell University where
in 1931 Cornell senior fraternity member
Murray Burnett obsessed with Herman
Hupfeld’s As Time Goes By. Nine years later,
Burnett made sure it would be resurrected
and forced on composer Max Steiner by
the movie studio during the production of
Casablanca.
JM: That tune sounds like it came from a
Cornell frat house.
PD: In a few weeks, Mary and I are
going to stay a few nights at the manor
that overlooks where On Golden Pond
was filmed in the early 1980s in New
Hampshire. Dave Grusin’s score for that
film works so well.
22 | the note | winter/spring 2020

PD: (stunned silence) . . . What? I’d forgotten about that! I’ll listen to that with
a string-centric approach when I return home. (This was possibly the only
song that “The Dan” used strings on in their entire history. Donald Fagen said,
“It was fun meeting Johnny.”)
PD: Around 1981, Al Cohn arranged several standard songs for a quintet
including Tommy Flanagan and Ira Sullivan to accompany Linda Ronstadt.
They had a few recording sessions, but it was never released.
JM: Everyone I know who has worked with her has said that she’s wonderful.
PD: You were traveling and recording in bands with trombonist Jack(ie)
Carman (a.k.a. Carmen) as World War II was ending in 1945 (you were
nineteen), Johnny Bothwell’s band, and Boyd Raeburn’s band, and in 1948,
Buddy Rich’s band.
JM: Jackie was funny and crazy. He was from Long Island, and after we’d finish
playing with a band in the Times Square area around 3 a.m., we’d go directly
to the south shore of Long Island and get on a fishing boat and stay out on
the water all day.
PD: Mr. Carman became a public school music teacher and started me on
trumpet at the age of nine in the autumn of 1965 in the South Huntington
(NY) elementary music program. His uplifting spirit was encouraging and I feel
that his infectious enthusiasm hooked me from the beginning.
Several hours in, Marissa arrived with a delicious dinner and we continued
talking in the kitchen. Johnny’s publishing company is Marissa Music . . .
makes sense to us! The evening news was on the television in the kitchen
while it was reported that Doris Day died earlier in the day. Johnny said that
even though she was known for her appearance, she was a significant singer,
well beyond Que Sera, Sera. She would never leave the recording session until
she felt that it was really right. This reminded me of the time when “Blue Lou”
Marini spoke at the Jazz Masters Seminar at ESU in March 2000. Our speakers
were always asked to start the lecture by performing or playing a recording
that they admired. I thought Lou’s choice could go in many directions, yet he
totally surprised the audience when he chose Doris Day’s recording of Secret
Love. After he allowed us to regain our auditory balance, we had to agree
with him that her presentation of this melody was pristine, elegant, and near
perfection.
As midnight approached, we felt it appropriate to say our goodbyes after seven
hours of extraordinary hospitality by the Mandels. One of the best writers
about jazz in history was Gene Lees, who lived about an hour away in Ojai.
He wrote at least eight extraordinary books about jazz. All of them are worth
the effort, money, and time to read. In his 2000 book Arranging the Score:

Portraits of the Great Arrangers, chapter
9 is “Mandelsongs: Johnny Mandel.” Near
the end of the chapter, Lees writes:

One day years ago, I was visiting.
Johnny and I stood at the end of the
garden at the top of the cliff, listening
to the flopping of the surf and the
keening of terns and gulls. I thought
of The Sandpiper and the sights of
Big Sur and said, “Do you ever get
the feeling here that you’re walking
around inside one of your film
scores?”
Johnny said, “Yeah, I do.”
Mary and I truly concur . . .

q

New or Re-view reading and listening recommendations:
• All of the music mentioned above and the Gene Lees book mentioned above.
• Online: Los Angeles Times: “You’ll Place the Tune If Not the Name: Johnny
Mandel . . .” December 1, 1991.
• In the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program Collection of the Smithsonian
Online Virtual Archives (SOVA), there is a remarkable 179-page PDF of
the interview of Johnny Mandel in 1995 by Bill Kirchner. Access it by
searching “Johnny Mandel – Museum of American History.” The actual URL:
https://amhistory.si.edu/jazz/Mandel-Johnny/Mandel_Johnny_Interview_
Transcription.pdf
• An in-depth, five-part interview by Marc Myers on JazzWax.com from October
2008. Start by accessing Part 1 by searching “Interview: Johnny Mandel (Part
1) – JazzWax.”
• Online: Los Angeles Times: “Johnny Mandel Has Composed Quite a Life in
Music,” May 29, 2012. n

Johnny Mandel

By Marilyn
& Alan Bergman

(Reprinted with permission) Compiled by Patrick Dorian
From the GRAMMY Awards programs (February & May, 2019)

We met Johnny Mandel in 1965. It was a very good year.
For 50 years we have worked with John, collaborated on many of his
tunes, been blessed by his arrangements, and stood shoulder to shoulder
championing songwriter rights as board members of ASCAP. Johnny has our
long-time respect as a composer and as a friend - and being John’s friend
means you get to call him Mendel.
It is fitting that the NARAS Trustees chose to honor Johnny Mandel with its
prestigious Trustee Award. His body of work is exceptional.
Johnny can write anything and he has! He’s one of a handful of composers
who are as skillful at scoring films as they are at writing songs and at writing
magnificent arrangements.
As with all fine composers, there is an inevitability about their melodies, and at
the same time, there are surprises. The “I-didn’t-know-it-was-going-there-buthow-great-it-did” kind of tune.
His melodies beg to be sung. And as lyric writers what more can one ask? We’ve
often said that good tunes have words on the tips of the notes and we’ve but to
find them. The lyric writers who’ve had the pleasure of finding words to John’s
music are many. If we had to choose one of his songs to take to a desert island, it
would be “Emily,” with Johnny Mercer’s inspired, masterful lyric.
“As my eyes visualize a family, They see dreamily, Emily too.”
You can’t get much better than that. But even the great Johnny Mercer needed
Mandel’s great tune to elicit, to inspire those magical lines.
Johnny has received many honors and awards in his career. Among them, an
Oscar and five Grammys. You all know his music. You all know his wonderful
gifts. Melodically, harmonically, there is a Mandel signature to everything he
writes . . . be it a score, a song or an arrangement. There are a couple of [chord]
changes that have his name on them.
His influence on jazz came from being on the road with Stan Getz, Al Cohn,
Zoot Simms, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and working with the
Count Basie band. And to punctuate his jazz chops, he received the prestigious

In the Bergman’s home, Johnny Mandel seated at
the piano with Marilyn Bergman and Alan Bergman
behind them Photo by Spike Nannarello

Jazz Master Award from the National
Endowment for the Arts in 2011. There isn’t
a jazz musician in the world who doesn’t
want to play a Mandel tune.
We are all familiar with Johnny’s quizzical
look – kind of vague and dreamy. The times
when it doesn’t appear that you have his
full attention – but, believe us, you do. Most
likely, when you have music like his running
around in your head, you get that dreamy
faraway look.
We salute you, Mendel. Congratulations on
this well-deserved award. We love you and
wish you the best always. q
Lyricists Marilyn & Alan Bergman’s songs
include “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “Nice
‘N’ Easy,” and “The Way We Were,” and they
have collaborated with composers including
Michel Legrand, Henry Mancini, and Quincy
Jones. They received their own GRAMMY
Trustees Award in 2013. n

Johnny Mandel
Interviewed by Marcell Bellinger
via phone on September 20, 2011

Before I dive into the reason for this foreword, I first need
to express my gratitude to Professor Patrick Dorian of East
Stroudsburg University. This gentleman has always kept
me in the loop about opportunities that could (and have
been) beneficial. For example, while a junior in high school
Professor Dorian introduced me to my future trumpet
professor–Terell Stafford–at an ESU concert where Professor
Stafford was playing a duo concert with the late Mulgrew
Miller. That concert had a profound impact on me; especially
their rendition of Thad Jones’ “A Child Is Born”–Terell’s
flugelhorn sound still haunts me. After meeting Professor
Stafford (and getting a trumpet lesson gratis), I knew that he
was the person with whom I needed to study. My next stop
would be Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Junior year seemed to be the time of discovery for me and
where something amazing happened. I took a composition
seminar course with pianist Bruce Barth. It was at this
point that I fell in love with composition. Afterwards, I took
another elective on composing for film with Lou Delise. I
was hooked. However, I still loved the trumpet and wanted
to continue to develop. Instead of going west, I decided
to study trumpet and develop composition skills on my
own. My next alma mater was New Jersey City University–
formerly known as Jersey City State College where I studied
trumpet with Joseph Magnarelli and composition with
pianist Joel Weiskopf.

In grad school, my passion for film and television
composition continued. I went on a transcribing jag. What
was I transcribing? Television themes and one or two movie
themes. These transcriptions helped me understand how
television music works.
I then asked myself:
Why was the music in such bright keys? (generally speaking)
Why were the modulations so smooth?
I let my journey through transcription answer my questions,
and coincidentally, led me to my thesis topic “Jazz in Film
1959-1965”. For you history buffs here, you’re probably
thinking there were films that used Jazz prior to 1959.
You’d be right, however, the film “I Want to Live” is the first
to utilize jazz underscore in lieu of symphonic underscore.
Thus, effectively rendering this film the first overall full jazz
score. My thesis advisor, Bill Kirchner, was the catalyst to the
interview with Mr. Mandel.
My thanks to Mr. Mandel for his time. Thanks to Professors
Terell Stafford, Bruce Barth, Lou Delise et al. at Temple
University and Joseph Magnarelli, Joel Weiskopf, Bill Kirchner
et al. at New Jersey City University. Thanks to Patrick Dorian
for the opportunity and for keeping me in mind. Thanks to
my wife Rebecca for taking this journey with me. Thanks to
my family for all the support through the years. Thank you
for reading. Enjoy the interview. q

MB: What led you to pursue a career in arranging/composing
and eventually film composition?

Marcell Bellinger

24 | the note | winter/spring 2020

JM: When I was about 12 years old, I realized that arranging
was the first thing that I wanted to do, not composing. In
1936-37, we used to listen to the radio. Like most kids at
age 12, I’d be glued to the radio. My ears would be. So, this
is when the bands hit it really big with people like Benny
Goodman and all of a sudden everybody went “swing mad”
in the late 30s and early 40s. Everybody was broadcasting
over the radio. They all had to play the same songs that
were on the hit parade because that would get them
more recognition and so forth. People would recognize
the tunes. I’d hear the tune and say to myself, “eh...what
was so great about that tune? I keep hearing it all the time.

It sounds like it kind of sucks.” Then I’d hear another band
come in and play the same tune. It was like a laboratory
situation that you’d never find. The song this time would
sound marvelous. Then somebody else would come in
playing the same song and this would sound putrid. I got
really confused and then it took me about a couple of weeks
before the light bulb went on. I said, “It’s not the song.
It’s somebody writing the music for that band to play that
song. It can sound good [or] it can sound dreadful and so
forth.” I realized that there was magic in actually doing that,
making something sound good. It was the way you had all
the different instruments you could use.

MB: While watching the film, I noticed a couple of stereotypes
of jazz culture. How did you feel about composing for that or
did you look at the film from that perspective?

I got hooked on arranging when I was about 12. I didn’t start
off wanting to be a songwriter. So, from then on I went on to
study the business of arranging–which was very hard to do–I
ran into somebody that really showed me the way. He was
a bandleader at the time, who’s still around, Van Alexander.
I hit on my mother real hard for lessons because I noticed
in Downbeat he was taking students. And, from then on I
was writing big band arrangements even though I was still
in junior high school. That’s all I wanted to do. I also wanted
to play in the band, so I became a trumpet player. I played
in a lot of different bands, ending with Count Basie. It was
the greatest way to grow up and it was the biggest thing in
music to be in bands and all that.

JM: Well, no. First of all, [Barbara] was a Gerry Mulligan fan
in real life. That is why Gerry was in the movie. [The score]
was supposed to be a jazz score. It actually is the only jazz
score I ever wrote. I never found another film where a jazz
score was the best way to do it. This was it. They wanted
all jazz; I just fell right into it. I wasn’t thinking about jazz. I
was thinking about capturing emotion. I was just using the
form of jazz. I’ll give you an example. When Barbara Graham
meets the bartender that she ends up marrying–-who ends
up being a real loser–she was trying to cash a check and there
were some cops and the bartender [sic] tipped her off that
there were cops. She doesn’t cash the check. She becomes
friends with the bartender, ends up marrying him, and later
they have a baby. Now...she’s talking to Perkins (the guy
who was an older friend of hers who was is the rackets).
She’s telling him that she quitting and that she’s going to
settle down and get married. As he’s playing cards, he has
a stack of cards and he says to her–-he builds a house of
cards– “You can always come back to me if you want, but I
wonder if you’re making the right move” ...or something like
that... and then he knocks the cards over. So, Robert Wise
[director of the film] wanted me to bring you to the next
scene, which would be with the baby crying and the whole
house a real mess. She’s already burnt out with the marriage
and all that. We had to go from one situation to another.
It starts off with a certain kind of music and starts getting
more chaotic until it’s interrupted by the baby crying. There
were a lot of scenes in this movie where I had to bridge a lot
of things, going from one thing to another...all the drama. I
never used traditional underscoring for anything, including
the execution. The whole thing was done within what you
would call jazz without trying to say, “this is jazz!”
The chase scene where she is being picked up, that’s a long
cue. They’re trailing her in the bus, they’re trailing her in
a car and so forth. When they pick her up, finally, I got
this great saxophone player... when she is surrendering to
the cops in all. She’s got this bear and she goes “GRRRR”
to the press. I just had the right people to do the right
things. But it is all written, scored to the tenth of a second.

All of a sudden the big bands were out. They discovered that
more money could be made with a smaller band. From this
point I wanted to keep writing. I was doing radio dramas
before radio went out. Then I wrote for TV after that. I never
cared about writing for movies until I got the job to do “I
Want to Live.” I got hooked on movies after that.
MB: You mentioned “I Want to Live” and I think that is the
perfect segue.
JM: That was the first movie I ever did. Then I suddenly
realized I really like doing movies. I realized that everything
that I had done before [was leading to this]. I wrote for radio
before it went out. Things like “The MGM Theater In The
Air”, Lux Radio Theater–those were scored. I learned how
to write music by the clock that way. You had to be right to
the second. Then I was on “Your Show Of Shows” featuring
Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. That was like writing for
vaudeville. There were a lot of comedy shticks and a lot of
writing for singers... everything. I discovered when I started
doing movies I was petrified, but I realized that I had done
all the things and all I had to do was put them together. You
know, writing and catching by sight cues... if the dancers
kicked or something. Also having to write under dialogue
which I was doing for radio dramas. I [said] to myself, “Geez
this is fun. Where have I been all my life?” So, I started doing
movies for quite a while.

JM: What do you mean stereotypes about the jazz culture?
You’d better tell me what you mean by that.
MB: In a lot of the scenes, jazz is portrayed as this party
culture. In the film Barbara Graham was living on the fringes.
JM: Yeah...
MB: How did you feel when you had to compose music based
around that [jazz being portrayed as a seedy, party culture]
or did you even look at that [the film] with that perspective?

winter/spring 2020 | the note | 25

I grew to love the whole art form. How to make your music
come out just where it should and what it was saying. I
realized that you can say a lot of things using jazz. I only used
it on that one. I never had another picture where I made a
jazz score. I went to different kinds of music, not particularly
jazz. It becomes a stereotype. I never thought that “The Man
With The Golden Arm” was a jazz score, it wasn’t. The only
one I know that really did jazz scores and I could call them
jazz was Henry Mancini with Peter Gunn and those kind of
pictures. But you’re limited trying to do a picture with jazz.
Usually if a picture doesn’t call for it then it comes off as if
they were trying to get a cheap score and it sounded cheap.
MB: I want to address another scene and that is the
nightmare scene where she’s in her jail cell. How did you
arrange the layers? Did you overdub that scene? There were
a lot of things going on.
JM: There were a lot of things. But, basically I had a
contrabassoon playing the main theme. They’re all variations
of [proceeds to sing main theme] which was the main title.
But this was a distorted one. I used some ad lib trombone
over it, which would have been Frank Rosolino. I put it into
deep echo and then I did a little gimmick that I like to do for
something like this... when she wakes up suddenly, when the
nightmare gets too bad and she’s sweating. I have the band
play a chord with a hard attack and fade out [demonstrates
technique]. Then we’d have it on film. Then we just run it
backwards so then it goes [demonstrates result]. That’s
what you end with. I [superimposed] that over the end of
the actual music and [recorded]. That’s how we woke her
up. Those are devices...I don’t think of them as music. What
you’re trying to do is create an emotion.
MB: Did the cues for the gas chamber unveiling serve as
foreshadowing to Barbara’s execution?
JM: Well...yeah. I wrote a number of cues...not the one
where she is talking to her friend or with the baby or with
her lawyer who died. Those were written in a different
manner. I’m using very low sounds. I’m not trying to make
it mean as if it is all of a sudden from the time she been
sentenced and where the gas chamber becomes a player.
The whole texture of the picture changes. I’m using a lot of
low woodwinds and a lot of the music is down in the cellar.
It [the music] never gets back to where it was in the early
part of the movie.
Usually the cliché was when someone was going to be
executed or die, they would do it to very high drama [sings
example]. I would never do that. First of all, the way that
you die in a gas chamber is anything else but dramatic;
you just sort of fade out. So what I did was go the other
way. The instrument that I used for it was something quite
uncommon, which was a piccolo in its bottom register
26 | the note | winter/spring 2020

where you never hear it. Those notes are usually played
by a flute. The piccolo sounds sort of like–if you wanted
to depict an old man dying and just getting very short of
breath that’s a really good [way]. It has no overtones in
that register. So, it sounds very spacey and at the same
time kind of pathetic or sad. That was what I used to play
the theme and it never finishes. We continue it until she’s
totally out of it and dead...and it just gets softer and softer.
If you listen to the background I start with a cluster in the
middle–very soft–of brass and low woodwinds and they
start spreading apart. They highs go higher and the lows
go way down to the cellar, very measured...not rapid and
not terribly slow. By the time they hit their limits that’s the
end of her life and also the theme. So, it expires. It is a very
undramatic ending. That’s the way it would be. It’s not like
being in the electric chair or something. That is quite the
opposite. What you are doing is portraying the life leaking
out of someone.
MB: The next scene I’d like to address is the letter from the
attorney. You used what I heard to be was muted trumpet,
piano, bass and drums. What kind of mood were you trying
to portray?
JM: Sadness. This was the point where the attorney
died. From the time she’s in prison, the music changes
to a somber kind of note. I didn’t want to telegraph the
ending. It was just sort of neutral, but very muted, totally
unlike what you [heard] before she was in prison. It never
became loud after that, it was very muted with the muted
trumpet playing the theme and piano playing different
chords. It had to be neutral, but conveying the emotion
that was in the scene and what the lawyer was saying. He
was trying to do something...either getting her sentence
commuted or whatever, it was and wasn’t good news.
She went through several lawyers in the process. It wasn’t
making a large statement, it was just kind of setting up
the scene so that the scene played against it. There was
an overlying sadness, but it wasn’t like [fake weeping] that
kind of sadness. The whole score got kind of grey towards
the end if you can use color as an example. Once you’re in
prison it’s not exactly “set ‘em up joe...”
MB: Is there anything that you’d like to mention or talk
about that I didn’t ask or talk about?
JM: All the business with all these guys she was in with,
who ended up betraying her and all, the one that knocks
the hell out of her before she’s arrested...that scene is
quite an amazing scene. The way she puts on a big front,
walks out to surrender. She didn’t surrender. She was going
out there and was gonna show them she had a lot of spirit
and didn’t break down, even towards the end. She never
lost her bravery. n

Learning Tunes
for Musicians

By Rob Scheps

Learning/Memorizing:
Jazz musicians need to know a stable of standards in order
to function at various gigs and jam sessions. The question is,
how does one go about acquiring the necessary repertoire?
1. Compile a list of 20 or so standards that are very commonly
played, such as Stella by Starlight, Just Friends, etc. Remember
that as you work to learn and subsequently memorize these
tunes, you can do just small bits at a time. Try to select tunes
that are played universally as well as often. I call these “A level
standards.” With my students, we try to learn two tunes a
week. You can do that too.
2. Compile a separate list of what I call “jazz standards,”
meaning tunes by Coltrane, Monk, Miles, Mingus, Ornette,
etc. Tunes that were composed by jazz musicians rather
than Broadway/Tin Pan Alley type writers. Examples might
include All Blues, Round Midnight, Giant Steps, and Solar.
Start off by reading the chart for a standard you wish to
learn. You can use the chart for a few days, with the implied
intention of getting “off -book” soon, meaning memorizing
said tune.
Always assess the form of the song FIRST, before playing
a note. Look for familiar, common forms: 12 bar blues,

16 bar tune, 32 bar AABA, etc. Once you know the form
you have a sense of how long a chorus is, and how its parts
are broken down. Next, check for repeated sections. For
instance, if the tune is AABA, knowing that the 2nd A is the
same or very similar to the first A can save you a lot of work;
it also serves as some relief if you are stressed about your
ability to memorize. A 32-bar AABA tune actually contains
only 16 bars of new music, assuming the endings of the A
sections are the same.
After playing the tune using the chart for a while, you want
to begin memorizing. It’s been said that cellist Yo-Yo Ma
memorizes music two bars at a time. This is a great method,
and one I fully endorse from personal experience as well.
Learn bars 1 and 2 perfectly committed to memory by
repeating them 8 or 9 times played perfectly; then do the
same with bars 3 and 4. Then go back and try to play bars
1-4 from memory. When these bars are solid, learn bars 5
and 6, and so on. It’s an additive process. It also reduces
stress because each small section you learn is something
manageable. q

FORM:
There are certain song forms that are extremely common
in jazz. The most common are: 12-bar blues, 32-bar AABA,
32-bar (16+16), 16-bar tune.
Many songs fit one of these forms. Look for familiar forms
when first checking out a new tune. Often you will see
that the tune in front of you has a common form you’ve
seen before. Knowing this also simplifies the difficulties of
memorization.
Standard Form Examples:
1) 1
2 Bar Blues: • Now’s The Time • C Jam Blues
• Blues For Alice • Au Privave • Night Train
• Sonny Moon for Two • Blue Monk
• Things Ain’t What They Used To Be
• Bessie’s Blues
2) 3
2-bar AABA: • Satin Doll • Take The A Train
• There Is No Greater Love • Blue Moon
• Have You Met Miss Jones • Yardbird Suite

• Once In a While • Body And Soul • Darn That Dream
• Oleo • Polka Dots • Moonbeams
3) 32-bar (16 + 16): • I Love You • Tangerine
• On Green Dolphin Street • Just Friends • All Of You
• The Touch Of Your Lips • ESP • All Of Me
4) 16-bar: • Una Mas • I Fall In Love Too Easily
• Nefertiti • Fall • My Ideal • Prince of Darkness
• If You Never Come To Me • Summertime
Unusual Form Examples:
1. 14-bar A Sections: • Alone Together • Stablemates
• Yes Or No
2. 5 bar phrases: • Gloria’s Step
3. 7 bar phrases: • Estate
4. 9 bar phrases: • Infant Eyes

q

winter/spring 2020 | the note | 27

It is helpful to consider certain popular composers when
choosing standards to learn. Some of the mandatory
composers are Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern,
Jimmy Van Heusen, Harold Arlen and Richard Rodgers.
Rodgers has bodies of work with Lorenz Hart, and also with
Oscar Hammerstein. Simply by exploring this short list, you
will find many of the standards jazz musicians play frequently.
There are some other Broadway/film/classical composers
who are worth checking out for the shorter list of tunes they
Amassing a (memorized) repertoire:
Sometimes you will hear or play with older or more
experienced musicians who seem to know a ton of tunes.
Realize that at some point they had to learn their first few
tunes. The good news is that the job gets easier! As you learn
more and more tunes, you will see similarities in the tune
you are currently learning. Other songs you already know
will reduce the time needed to learn new ones, and this
will also reduce stress because there is less NEW material
to learn each time. On this point, contrafacts or “lines”
occur often. Contrafacts are new melodies written on top of
existing chord progressions. You might think that this process
started in the bebop era with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie
How many tunes do you need to know?
I tell students that if they know 1-5 tunes, it will be hard for
them to function at gigs and sessions. If they know 10 tunes,
they can “kind of” make it. If they learn 20 or more they’re

wrote which we play: Irving Berlin, Dietz/Schwartz, Bronislaw
Kaper, Victor Young, Alec Wilder, Livingston/Evans, Kurt
Weill. Conversely, some jazz composers whose work plays a
prominent part in the repertoire include: Thelonious Monk,
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane,
Billy Strayhorn, Cedar Walton, Wayne Shorter, Freddie
Hubbard, Duke Ellington, and Herbie Hancock. Ask yourself
or your colleagues, what tunes are most commonly called
and played? q

and Thelonious Monk. They all wrote famous contrafacts,
but earlier Swing Era musicians used this method as well.
Some early examples of this are: Duke Ellington’s “In a
MellowTone” based on the chord changes of “Rose Room;”
Billy Strayhorn’s ultra-famous “Take The A Train” from 1939
based on the chords to “Exactly Like You.”
Sometimes in jazz we find two tunes with the same changes
like “There Will Never Be Another You” and “Weaver Of
Dreams.” Again, by realizing that the changes are the same
it makes memorizing the 2nd tune easier, since you already
know the changes to the first one. q

in good shape to start dealing with gigs and sessions with
confidence since they have a broader list of tunes to draw
from.

Tunes Everyone Should Know
These are going to come up, so learn them! This is a short
sample list, but will get you started:
• Stella By Starlight • Just Friends
• On Green Dolphin Street • All The Things You Are
• What Is This Thing Called Love • Night and Day
• The Girl From Ipanema • Wave • My Romance
• Now’s The Time • Satin Doll • Take The A Train • Oleo
• Solar • Recordame • Blue Bossa • There Is No Greater
• Love • Body and Soul • Softly As In a Morning Sunrise
• Yesterdays • The Way You Look Tonight
• You Stepped Out of a Dream • Speak Low

• Tune Up • Someday My Prince Will Come
• Blue In Green• So What, Impressions • Mr. P.C.
• Doxy • There Will Never Be Another You • Footprints
• A Night In Tunisia • Round Midnight • Blue Monk
• Nica’s Dream • Song For My Father • Invitation
• Things Ain’t What They Used To Be • Au Privave,
• I Love You • Autumn Leaves • My Funny Valentine,
• Alone Together • It Could Happen To You
• How Deep Is The Ocean • The Days Of Wine and Roses
• Groovin’ High • Donna Lee • Confirmation q

For more information about Rob Scheps, visit his website at www.robscheps.8m.net
Also, check out his newest recording, Comencio, available on amazon.com
from Steeple Chase Records. n

28 | the note | winter/spring 2020

Reflections on

Body and Soul

by Al Cohn and Zoot Sims
by Phil Mosley

March 23, 1973 is one of many memorable dates in the
extensive Al Cohn/Zoot Sims discography. When Al and Zoot
took their quintet into Media Sound Studio in New York City
to lay down the tracks of their Body and Soul album for the
Muse label (re-released as a CD by Muse in 1988 and by 32
Records in 1997), it was the first time they had recorded
together in the studio in their distinctive quintet format
since 1961’s Either Way.
Though Al and Zoot had continued to perform together
occasionally in the intervening years and had been
recorded live on minor labels—in London in 1965, in New
York the same year (at their old haunt the Half Note club
with Richie Kamuka forming a triple tenor threat), and in
Baltimore in 1968—Al had spent the best part of twelve
years concentrating on another of his considerable talents:
composing and arranging songs for many leading television
shows and specials, for several Broadway productions, and
for a host of leading vocal and instrumental jazz and pop
artists.

than had already been attributed to these masters of their
art. Al and Zoot always sounded good together; here,
our pleasure—and perhaps theirs too—might be akin to
uncorking and savoring a favorite vintage wine that has been
carefully laid up for years. The duo’s unruffled and almost
intuitive understanding is freshly evident in the relaxed yet
ever precise interweaving of their horns. This mutuality
extends to their rapport with an outstanding rhythm section
comprising Jaki Byard on piano, George Duvivier on bass,
and Mel Lewis on drums.

One of the first things to strike the listener on Body and Soul
is its almost seamless reprise of the straight-ahead style that
had marked their original quintet dates from the 1950s, a
style that had grown somewhat unfashionable after the rock
dominance of the 1960s. By those early 1970s, many of Al
and Zoot’s peers were deeply involved—and often brilliantly,
it should be added—with various forms of fusion. Take, for
instance, Stan Getz on 1972’s Captain Marvel; or Miles
Davis’s explosive excursions into rock and funk (to some of
which Dave Liebman, of course, made major contributions)
during those years from Bitches Brew in 1969 to his
temporary retirement in 1975. Al and Zoot chose instead to
remind us of their proven approach to mainstream jazz in a
session where we hear two old friends pick up effortlessly
where they had left off twelve years before.

The set is a carefully balanced and varied one. It opens with
the rousing bop energy of Billy Byers’s “Oodle Doodle,”
before Al and Zoot slow everything down touchingly on
“Emily,” Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer’s title song from
the 1964 movie, The Americanization of Emily, starring Julie
Andrews. “Brazilian Medley” pays homage to the momentous
arrival of the bossa nova on the international jazz stage a
decade earlier. The track segues from an intriguing lesserknown minor-key piece, Djalma Ferreira’s “Recado Bossa
Nova,” to two Antonio Carlos Jobim classics, “The Girl from
Ipanema” and “One Note Samba.” Al contributes one of his
own compositions, the bluesy waltz “Mama Flossie,” a tune
dedicated to his wife, the singer Flo Handy. Then it’s time
for Al’s heartfelt reading of the eponymous song, Johnny
Green’s masterpiece for which Coleman Hawkins had set the
tenor bar high back in 1940. It’s followed by another movierelated ballad, a bookend to “Emily” in the form of Rod
McKuen’s “Jean,” from 1969’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,
starring Maggie Smith. The song features Zoot on soprano
sax, an instrument he had recently taken up playing, and he
brings out perfectly the plaintive, bittersweet quality of the
song. The bop is bookended too, as the five men close out
the date with “Blue Hodge,” Gary McFarland’s composition
for the great Johnny Hodges.

Body and Soul isn’t an album that knocks the listener
sideways with innovation or conceptual progression. Rather,
it’s a comfortably familiar experience, reflecting the sense of
well-being that Al and Zoot clearly felt in recording together
again after such a long hiatus. In his original liner notes,
Ira Gitler writes of an “atmosphere … of quietly joyous
celebration,” of “good vibes … ricocheting around the room
… as implicit as the good notes they reflected.” Yet there is
progression here, in our sensing of an even greater maturity

Phil’s latest book is “Resuming Maurice and Other Essays on
Writers and Celebrity” (Lasse Press, 2019). n

Blowing in tandem with ease and verve throughout their
long and storied careers, Al and Zoot continued their
recorded partnership until 1982’s Zoot Case recorded live
in Stockholm, Sweden. Listening to Body and Soul, it seems
as if that time away from the studio together had been no
more than a blink of a chart-reading eye or the wiggle of a
swing-tuned ear.

winter/spring 2020 | the note | 29

Readers, please take note
The ACMJC and the Jazz Lounge
at Kemp Library

Visit esu.edu/jazzatesu to stay up to date on everything
happening at the Collection.
From jazz concerts on campus to Zoot Fest to Jazz Lounge
Lectures, any information will be available on this website.
We hope to see you at a future event!

ACMJC on WESS 90.3
Tune in to 90.3 FM WESS radio one Saturday a month to
hear Collection Coordinator Matt Vashlishan showcase
some of the unique recordings hidden in the ACMJC.
Visit esu.edu/jazzatesu for updates to the schedule

Deer Head Inn Jam Session Every
Thursday Night
Hosted by guitarist Bill Washer, bring your horn to jam at
the Deer Head Inn every Thursday night. Come hear the
house band (with Joe Michaels on bass and Tyler Dempsey
on drums).
Play a set at 8 p.m., then sit in from 9-11 p.m.
No music charge.

Big Band Night at the Deer Head Inn!
Join the Water Gap Jazz Orchestra under the direction of
Matt Vashlishan the last Monday of every month at the
Deer Head Inn for a great evening of big band jazz. Each
month the ensemble performs original and arranged
music from throughout jazz history, as well as performing
modern compositions by many internationally recognized
composers and arrangers, specifically works available in
the ACMJC: Phil Woods, Dick Cone, Al Cohn, and more!
Sets at 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., admission $12.
For more information visit www.deerheadinn.com

Pennsylvania Jazz Collective
PA Jazz focuses on improving the future through arts
education. The PA Jazz Collective is a Lehigh Valley
based 501 (c) 3 organization designed for educational
and charitable purposes and to specifically foster jazz
appreciation through a regular series of educational
initiatives, public performances, and special programs.
The ACMJC appreciates all of the help that PA Jazz
provides, and celebrates the unique partnership of jazz in
the Pocono area.
www.pajazzcollective.org

Contributors and
Acknowledgements
For additional information about contributors to this
issue of The Note, you can visit their websites:
Su Terry: www.suterry.com
CTS Images: Special thanks to Cynthia at CTS Images
for the wonderful Urbie Green cover photos in last issue.
Visit the website at ctsimages.com.
Special thanks to: ESU President Marcia Welsh, Ph.D.,
director of university relations Brenda Friday, Ph.D., provost
Joanne Bruno, J.D., and dean of Kemp Library Jingfeng Xia,
Ph.D. for showing their continued support for the Al Cohn
Memorial Jazz Collection and providing the opportunity to
continue to present this publication; Ideal Design Solutions
for graphic design; the ESU Staff for making this publication
possible; Louise Sims for her ongoing support; all of the
people and families that have donated over the years to
make the ACMJC a success for 30 years!
30 | the note | winter/spring 2020

“A delight to read: bites of life from the quirky, zany mind of musician Su
Terry (no laymen left in the dark). She is an observer, a mixer, a tummler,
getting you into it, and over it. Learned (two syllables there) and welltraveled,
"A delight
tohas
read:
bites
life from the
quirky, zany mind of Bob
musician
Su
Su Terry
THE
BIGof
PICTURE!”
– pianist/singer/songwriter
Dorough

Terry (no laymen left in the dark). She is an observer, a mixer, a tummler,
“Su combines a few talents in one: hipster, comedian, and above all,
gettingobserver
you intoofit,life.
andBeing
over ait.good
Learned
(two syllables
and welljazz musician
who hasthere)
been around
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traveled,
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has
THEThis
BIG
PICTURE!"
pianist/singer/songwriter
block Su
doesn’t
hurt
either.
book
is fun to read.”
– saxophonist DaveLiebman
Bob Dorough
“The wisdom and wit, the intelligence and irreverence of Su Terry–highly
recommended!” – radio host and author Bob Bernotas, WNTI FM

"Su combines a few talents in one: hipster, comedian, and above all,
observer of life. Being a good jazz musician who has been around the
block doesn't hurt either. This book is fun to read." –saxophonist Dave

L e g en ds Live On
But not without
your support!

Representing all forms of Jazz
from all eras, the Al Cohn
Memorial Jazz Collection was
founded and named in honor
of the award-winning Al Cohn —
legendary saxophonist, arranger,
composer and conductor.
Housed in Kemp Library on the
campus of East Stroudsburg
University of Pennsylvania,
the collection consists of
jazz recordings, oral histories,
sheet music, photographs,
books, videos, original art and
memorabilia. The collection
also includes outreach programs.
Your financial support
of the collection is
crucial in helping promote
music education and preserving
the iconic jazz history of the
Pocono region.

Please make your gift by mail using the enclosed envelope
or online at www.esufoundation.org/supportalcohn
Be sure to designate your gift to the ACMJC. For personal assistance, call (800) 775-8975.

200 Prospect Street
East Stroudsburg, PA 18301-2999

Johnny Mandel
Special Merit Awards ceremony

Johnny Mandel received the Trustees Award when The Recording Academy®
honored its 2019 Special Merit Awards recipients during the “GRAMMY Salute to
Music Legends®” ceremony and live tribute concert on Saturday, May 11, 2019,
at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
From left to right: Marissa Mandel (Johnny’s daughter), Johnny Mandel, Lauren Johnson (Johnny’s daughter-in-law).
Courtesy of Recording Academy®/Photo by Amy Sussman Getty Images© 2019.