Chicago Smooth

Dictaphone Jazz

Remember the piece of office equipment that was on every executive’s desk in the 1980s, the one that you talk into and then someone else listens to and transcribes from?  It’s not what I would consider a musical instrument, but then again, how many drum solos are performed on desk tops every day?  Seems that the lowly Dictaphone has been used as an instrument and incubator for one our favorite jazz bands, Down to the Bone. 

Digging further, I learned that Down to the Bone isn’t just one band.  It had a US set of artists and a UK set, but the common denominator was writer, producer and leader Stuart Wade.

According to Wikipedia: "Down to the Bone is unique in that the leader, Stuart Wade, does not play any instruments at all. Instead, Wade uses a dictaphone to hum tunes into which are then recorded by the band."   Amazing!

From their bio on their official website – the first paragraph says it all: 

"Down To The Bone is Stuart Wade as producer, writer and mastermind behind the whole groove project, working with other talented musicians and co-writers to bring together a project of good grooves."

And he has done it over and over again since 1995.  The list of artists who have played in Down to the Bone is a wonderful who’s who of contemporary jazz.  On the current US side of things, the flutist and saxman, Katisse Buckingham is a Los Angeles native who provided the sound for Will Ferrell’s jazz flute solo in  the movie, The Anchorman. He won a Golden Globe for his score for the Robert Redford film, All Is Lost, and is a featured soloist on the Universal Pictures animated film, Minions.  Rufus Philpot on five string bass and Oli Silk on keyboards and Pablo Mendelssohn on trumpet are transplanted Londoners. 

The current album is called Dig It.  It was done by the UK band members and released here in April of 2014.  Two cuts from it, "The Sweetness" and ""The Bounce," are part of the Smooth Jazz Chicago playlist.  Thank you Stuart.  Keep that Dictaphone working. 

~Lydia Barnes ([email protected])

The Smooth Video of the Day:  Down to the Bone live!

 

Thank You, Miss America Pageant

It was announced this week that Vanessa Williams is not only going to be a judge for this year’s pageant, but also the Chief Judge. Now there is a controversy hinging on who will apologize to whom before Vanessa is welcomed back to the organization. 

Rewind to 1984, when Vanessa won the contest.  She was the first African-American woman to become Miss America.  In her bow embellished, one shoulder lavender gown and appropriate '80s big hair, she walked the runway thrilled. She did eleven months of her reign before some nude photographs taken years earlier surfaced in Penthouse magazine.  She relinquished the crown to avoid dragging herself and the pageant through the mud.  We were shocked and amazed.  She had done an outstanding job as Miss America, doing more appearances that normal.

But the loss of a crown was a gain for smooth jazz lovers.  Vanessa used her music to heal. With the yoke of Miss America’s responsibilities behind her, she went into the studio and put out the aptly titled album in 1988, "The Right Stuff."  The song "Dreamin’" hit number one on the pop charts.  She went on to give us "Save the Best For Last" in 1991.  However, as her music career flourished, calls for her to take on acting roles soared too.  She’s been busy on stage and screen, so we haven’t had a CD from her since 2009. 

So, if there is an agreement between her and the pageant officials, we will get to see her in a new role, that of judge.  I hope everyone will be able to let bygones be bygones.  But if not, could there be a new CD? 

~Lydia Barnes ([email protected])

The Smooth Video of the Day:  From the WNUA playlist, 1995.

 

Jazz and the Air Show

Jazz happens every day.  Some days it takes me from the present moment to other moments in my life.  Listening to the stream, a song caught my attention, so I went to see what the title and artist were by way of TuneGenie.  That was when the fun started. Seeing that it was a song by David Foster called "Flight of the Snowbirds," it made me giggle.

The title took me back to the summer of 1988, when I was working in a riverside high rise.  The rehearsals for the Chicago Air and Water Show began on a clear Wednesday afternoon.  We could hear the planes as they flew high above us, getting their bearings over the lakefront.  Someone found that there was an empty upper floor facing east.  It was a great observation deck. 

We oohd and ahhd our way through our afternoon coffee break, sipping lemonade and swapping trivia about airplanes.  The blue jets soared and flashed in the sunlight. We got glimpses of them between the buildings and in the clear space that the river afforded us.  We debated whom we were getting a peek at, the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds, vowing to grab a newspaper or a brochure on the way home to look up who was gracing our skies.  (Remember, this is pre-Google, so info access was not as instantaneous as it is today). 

On the schedule was a visiting team called the Canadian Snowbirds.  Described as a precision team of the Canadian Air Force, it wasn’t clear if they were prop planes or jets. As there was no picture of the planes, I filed them away in my brain as a side note. 

The next day, while I sat in our 20^th Floor lunchroom with floor to ceiling windows facing east down the Chicago River, we heard the telltale rumble of jets beginning their maneuvers. Before we could abandon our table and head for our impromptu viewing station, I spotted a dot in the sky above the river.  In seconds, it became a formation of bright red fighter jets flying down the river at the same level as our lunchroom.  When they streaked past us, my heart leapt.  Being a child of the Cold War atomic bomb drills in grammar school, I uttered an explative while I dove under the table in full belief that we were under attack by the Soviets!  

My co-workers coaxed me from my duck-and-cover posture under the table by assuring me that there was no attack on Chicago.  Actually, I was waiting for the second wave and when it didn’t arrive, I decided to dust off my pride and emerge.

I was teased unmercifully by my co-workers.  In my defense, all I could say was "who knew that snowbirds were RED!"

Thanks for the memory, Mr. Foster. 

~Lydia Barnes ([email protected])

The Smooth Video of the Day:  David Foster's "Flight of the Snowbirds," an early favorite on WNUA 95.5, 1987.