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Beverly Kenney at Play

As noted in my last post on Beverly Kenney, the singer was a tragic figure. She recorded a clutch of albums for Roost in 1956 and '57 before upgrading to Decca in '58 and '59. Then for whatever reason—insufficient friends in the right places, not enough TV charisma or the general shifting of priorities and budgets at record labels in the wake of rock's rise—she wasn't able to gain traction. Kenney also likely suffered from depression, since at age 28 in 1960 she committed suicide.  [Pictured above: Beverly Kenney dancing with Jack Duffy in Toronto, circa 1956]

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Documentary: Ronnie Scott's

Maybe you've visited Ronnie Scott's on vacation in London. If you're a musician, maybe you've played there. Or you probably have albums that were recorded live there. Whatever your relationship with the fabled club, odds are you know virtually nothing about its history. That ends today.

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Tommy Flanagan + Jaki Byard

Piano duets date back to the days when the instrument developed its curves. In fact, I've long wondered whether the piano's undulating casing design was fashioned specifically so two instruments could be spooned for musical dialogue. [Pictured above, from left: Jaki Byard and Tommy Flanagan]

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Phil Spector: BBC Documentary

One day, there will be an opera called Phil Spector. For now, we'll have to be satisfied with The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector, an unusual and brilliant documentary by the BBC. Recently, HBO aired Phil Spector—a docu-drama of the famed producer's murder trial starring Al Pacino and Helen Mirren. But the David Mamet-directed film received something of a critical "whatever."

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Dexter Gordon: "Ernie's Tune"

In the late '50s, Jack Gelber wrote a play called The Connection, which dramatized the lure of narcotics and the stark perils of addiction. The play—which opened in New York at the Living Theatre on July 15, 1959—featured jazz musicians who were initially going to improvise music on stage.

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