I spent two years, 1981-1982, at a job where I worked alone, building trophies and engraving trophy plates and plaques. The radio was on from the minute I got to the shop at 8:AM until I shut down at 5:PM. The roster of DJ's on WNEW-FM was hall of fame. I loved them all. Richard Neer, Pete Fornatale, Ken Dashow, the one and only Meg Griffin who years later became a friend, as did Dan Neer for a short time, Scott Muni and of course The "Nightbird," Alison Steele. They were all special with individual taste and larger than life personalities. At any time, on any show, you could hear anything, like the one afternoon, somewhat impossibly sandwiched between Little Feat and the Grateful Dead, I heard Sonny Criss.
I wasn't into jazz at all at that time, aside from some fusion records by Return To Forever, Deodato and George Benson. I had no idea who Sonny Criss was, but the track was speaking to me. I also didn't find it at all strange that this radio station was playing a jazz tune. It seemed perfectly normal to me.
I picked up a small collection of records on Saturday and saw the Sonny Criss album which I hadn't thought about in ages, and all of this came back to me. "Crisscraft" is a terrific record, and when it was over, something about it made sense. I completely understood how any one of the tracks, especially "The "Isle Of Celia," which is what I remember hearing on the radio, could have slipped into the rotation of any of one those DJ's on WNEW-FM.
There is some stellar playing on "Crisscraft," and I hope that even non-jazz people, which is most of you, give these tracks a minute. You just might dig the music.
7 comments:
i had the same experience growing up. the free form station in Honolulu (dad was in the military) was just as likely to drop Memphis Underground, Forest Flower Sunset, My Favorite Things, Mercy Mercy Mercy or Pass the Plate in the middle of a set as Whipping Post, Dazed and Confused or Spoonful.
Sonny Criss is even overlooked by a ton of jazz aficiandos. Yeah, free form radio stations were the best. Sadly, very few exist now.
Great line -up on that station. Several of those djs went on to host shows on Sirius.
Digging the Sonny tracks! It never hurts to have Larry Gales on bass. Thanks for the heads-up.
I loved the free-form stations in the Bay Area growing up. I recall one set on KTIM with B.B. King, Dead Kennedys, Bob Marley, and Grateful Dead. When I got a bit older and many of these stations got bought out or shut down, I switched to college stations.
- Paul in DK
Of the 3, I enjoyed "The Isle of Celia" the most, but to be honest, I'm not sure what it is about horns that don't agree with me. Give me piano, bass, drums - but then add those horns and I get twitchy. Maybe it's because they sometimes sound like my mother screaming at us? ;)
But honestly, I do appreciate the talent all around.
When I was a kid, my dad had a Sonny Criss album he played all the time. It had a bigger band than Criss Craft's ensemble. Much later, when I was in college, my mom and dad took me to see him play at The Parisian Room in Los Angeles. It was a small ensemble. I was not familiar with the material they did at all. Perhaps it was stuff from this album. The show I saw was in early 1975. Criss was great, the ensemble was having some problems though. Only other show I saw at this venue was Nancy Wilson with Cannonball Adderley. A fantastic show.
I love the Criss Craft album tracks you put up. Nice.
I've heard of all those NYC DJ's and have read some of the books & liner notes they authored. I'm from Southern California. KPPC was "THE" station for as long as it lasted. They ceased in the early 1970's. They started with Tom Donahue, Ed Mitchell, B. Mitchel Reed, Les Carter, Don Hall, Charles Laquidara and Ted Alvy aka Cosmos Topper. Later came Johnny Otis, Tom Gamache aka "T", Zach Zenor, DR. Demento, Steven Clean, Firesign Theatre, Outrageous Nevada, Ron Inor aka Ron Middag, Mississippi Fats, Cousin Zino, Credibility Gap, Art Laboe, Barbara Birdfeather, Ted Longmaire. Station ID's and promos were done by the Persuasions. Not an overwhelmingly famous group of air personalities, but what a station. Les Carter was God. Truly free form. I remember sets with Stones, Herbie Mann, Kaleidoscope, Coltrane, King Crimson, Grateful Dead, Buck Owens and Dusty Springfield. One of the few channels playing Pink Floyd and Spirit from the get go. KPPC was a wild time.
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During the the late '60's early '70's, when my parents went out on errands I'd crank KPPC and get an education.
I never got the chance to experience awesome radio with deejays choosing what they want to play from any genre that struck their fancy. Even in college, our student radio station was totally geared towards training them for a job and so it was boringly professional and sounded like every other radio station that plays the same hits over and over. Maybe that's why I always wanna be the deejay AND am not a singles guy. I'm all about the album because that's entirely how I consumed music. Albums I chose and played. Wasn't even into mixtapes and never heard the radio and who would want to try and cue up a song on a cassette and then take it out and find another song on another cassette and cue THAT up?
I've got a family health crisis and just don't want lyrics for some reason. It's been all jazz. That Sonny Rollins sure is great! :) While Ornette is a little too cerebral for me at the moment, much as I admired This Is The Music. Now Sonny Criss has a terrific album cover! And you lighted on what many consider one of his best, along with Sonny's Dream. Looking forward to checking it out after I finish the awesome album Clifford Brown and Max Roach: Study In Brown.
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