Fingerote Paul Simeon - Jazz on my mind: collected liner notes, anecdotes and conversations from the golden age

Herb Wong
with Paul Simeon Fingerote

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2547-8

2016 Marilyn Wong and Paul Simeon Fingerote. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover photograph of Herb Wong courtesty of Richard Hadlock; front cover design direction by Kira Wong Roher

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

Thanks to the following for their contributions to Jazz on My Mind:

Thanks to my wife, Marilyn, and our daughters, Kira and Kamberly; and to my brother in life and in jazz, Dr. Woody Wong.

Thanks to my co-author, colleague and friend, Paul Simeon Fingerote.

Thanks to those whose contributions and efforts made this publication possible: Production assistants Quincy Fingerote (proofreading), Barbara Hickey (transcriptions), Remona Murray (research and scans), Marilyn Wong (proofreading); photographers Jim Edelen, Richard Hadlock, Andy Nozaka, Veryl Oakland; researchers Sara Cline, Larry Kelp, Suzanne McCulloch, Jay Nitschke, Sibila Savage; Tim Jackson, Timothy Orr, Jan Stotzer, Bill Wagner and the Monterey Jazz Festival; Stuart Brewster, Michael Griffin, Harvey Mittler and the Palo Alto Jazz Alliance; Jerry McBride and the Stanford University Archive of Sound; friends David Miller, Melissa Morgan, Steve Piazzale, Danny Scher, Deborah Winters; and Herbs Herd, my Palo Alto Adult School Jazz Class students, whom I taught for almost 30 years.

Thanks to those who assisted in obtaining permissions, including Frank Alkyer, Maureen Bacon, Nieves Bates, John Bishop, Anthony Brown, Raquel Bruno, George Buck, Fatima Budica, Thomas Burns, Melanie Clarkson, Paul de Barros, Patty Boyle, Madeline Eastman, Linda Fernandez, Kevin Gore, Donna Gourdol and the McPartland Family, Thomas Gramuglia, Ron Haas, Tom Hampson, James Harrod, Irv Kratka, Cem Kurosman, Jon Jang, Richard Jeweler and the Brubeck Family, Devra Hall Levy, Dave McIntosh, Charles McPherson, Alasdair McMullan, Lee Mergner, Dan Ouellette, Knut Pederson, Nick Phillips, Sandra Prince, Mike Rittberg, Sean Roderick, Anna Sala, Toby Silver, Rhett Smith, Gary Smulyan, Diana Spangler, Gerry Teekens, Tricia Tierno, Adam Tight, Henry Towns, Steve Turre, Terry Vosbein, Ana Way, Scott Wenzel, Jim Wills, Gil Wisdom.

Most importantly, my thanks to all of the young musicians who are learning, studying, playing and appreciating jazz. My heartfelt gratitude goes to their teachers, mentors, families, friends and supporters. Thank you for ensuring that the future of our music is so well placed in such capable hands.

Finally, thanks to all of you for allowing me to share the jazz thats been on my mind for seventy wonderful years.

Dig ya later!

Herb Wong

Liner notes written by Herb Wong are reprinted courtesy of:

Concord Music Group, Inc. (Louie Bellson / Dynamite!; Art Blakey / In This Korner; Ray Brown / SuperBass 2; Richie Cole / KUSH: The Music of Dizzy Gillespie; Buddy DeFranco / You Must Believe in Swing; Shelly Manne / Perk Up; Tierney Sutton / Unsung Heroes).

Rhino Entertainment Company/A Warner Music Group Company (Carmen McRae / Dreams of Life; Mel Torm / It Happened in Monterey).

Sony Music Entertainment (Woody Herman / Woodys Winners; Denny Zeitlin / Shining Hour: Live at the Trident)

Universal Music Enterprises, A Division of UMG Recordings, Inc. (Kenny Burrell / 75th Birthday Bash Live!; Herbie Hancock / The Prisoner; Bobby Hutcherson / Total Eclipse; Oscar Peterson / Eloquence; Dianne Reeves / The Palo Alto Sessions; Buddy Rich / Big Swing Face; Bola Sete / At the Monterey Jazz Festival; Wayne Shorter / Super Nova; Cal Tjader / The Prophet).

In late December of 2013, Herb Wongs wife, Marilyn, asked me if I could help Herb with his memory. Unable to recall any prior mention by Marilyn of my mnemonic skills, I was left to my own devices until I heard from Herb, who clarified: Not memory, Paul, memories, memories which were to become Jazz on My Mind.

These were the memories Dr. Herb Wong had made over seven decades as a reigning force in jazz: 30-year DJ on San Franciscos KJAZ radio station; author of more than 400 album liner notes during the heyday of jazz; explorer of creativity in one-on-one conversations with jazz legends and legends-to-be; founder and producer with Palo Alto Records and Black-Hawk Records; founder and producer of Palo Alto and Stanford jazz concerts and festivals; co-founder and artistic director of the Palo Alto Jazz Alliance; scientist and educator, innovator and pioneer in the field of jazz education; member of the Jazz Educators Hall of Fame; President of the International Association for Jazz Education.

Herb Wong and I had met through our mutual work with the Monterey Jazz Festival. Herb covered the event as a journalist for 56 years and, for 30 of those years, I was the festivals marketing and public relations director.

With our common connections in jazz and path-crossing careers; with our shared respect for words and joint sense of humor; with our mutual love of familyconsidering each other as suchHerb and I developed a personal relationship over the years, a relationship that extended over and above our professional association.

So it was only natural for Marilyn to have approached me with her request to help Herb write this book.

Complicating our mission of memorializing Herbs memories was the understandingwhich we all shared at the outsetthat Herb had terminal cancer with less than a year to live.

For our first meeting on the book project, I sat down with Herb and Marilyn in the living room of their longtime home, a classic Eichler located on a leafy lane in Menlo Park, California. I came to the table with an agenda in hand, mapping out the steps we needed to take in order to complete the book over the next twelve months.

On my return to my office in Monterey, I received a frantic phone call from Marilyn, letting me know that the latest prognosis had given Herb less than four months to livenot the year I had planned out in my agendaand that Herb was unaware of this depressing new development.

In response, I accelerated the schedule of my meetings with Herb while maintaining the facade of our twelve-month to-do list. I had hoped that the year I had projected for the projects completion might help prolong Herbs positive outlook on life, if not Herbs life itself.

Herbs job was to select the liner notes, articles and conversations he wanted to include in our book. My job was to interview Herb and record his accounts of the artistsin addition to his insights on jazzthen weave it all together into the pages of