Cherry Red’s él label is in a jazz mood with three recent releases from two late legends of the guitar, Django Reinhardt and Grant Green, and one fondly-remembered group, The Temperance Seven!

Though Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) lived to just 43 years of age, the Belgian-born French guitarist of Romani descent invented a wholly new vocabulary for jazz guitar, sometimes referred to as “gypsy jazz.”  Able to use just two fingers on his left hand, he created a singular style of swing thanks to his boundless musical imagination and flawless technique.  At the Movies explores Reinhardt’s music through the selections heard in films by two auteurs of cinema – Woody Allen and Louis Malle.

Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories (1980) starred Allen as Sandy Bates, who reflects on his life and loves while attending a retrospective tribute.  Though the filmmaker has bristled at the suggestion that the movie is autobiographical, he nonetheless considers it one of his best works.  It’s hard to deny the similarities between Allen and Bates, whose fans prefer his “earlier, funnier movies,” but truth or not, the movie is one of the director’s most personal.  Hence, the inclusion of two selections on the jazz soundtrack by Reinhardt, one of clarinetist Allen’s favorite musicians.  Reinhardt’s 1937 rendition of “Body and Soul” and 1939 “I’ll See You in My Dreams” were featured in the movie alongside songs by Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Dick Hyman, and the bands of Glenn Miller and Count Basie.  Allen returned to Reinhardt’s music in a big way for 1999’s Sweet and Lowdown.  Sean Penn played guitarist Emmet Ray, who considers himself the second best guitarist in the world (after Reinhardt, of course).  “I’m the greatest guitar player in the world,” he notes.  “Except maybe this gypsy…”  Django’s swing guitar sound was celebrated in the film by players including Howard Alden and Bucky Pizzarelli, under the musical direction of Dick Hyman.  This release features the original Reinhardt recordings of such famous tunes as “Limehouse Blues,” “All of Me” and “Sweet Georgia Brown.”

The late Louis Malle, too, was captivated with the music of Django Reinhardt.  His 1974 film Lacombe, Lucien drew on his own experiences during the German occupation of France during World War II.  Malle almost exclusively used Reinhardt’s music to bring this period to vivid life, concentrating on Reinhardt’s joyful early period with another legend, violinist Stephane Grappelli, and his later, 1940s-era recordings with clarinet players that took on a moodier hue.  Thirteen selections are drawn from Malle’s film, many of which were penned by Reinhardt including “Nuages” and “Minor Swing,” the latter co-written by Grappelli.  At the Movies includes a 12-page booklet with information as to each film and Reinhardt’s contributions.  Like all of the titles discussed here, this release has been made available in accordance with current U.K. public domain laws.

Grant Green (1935-1979) also made his mark on guitar, first in the hard bop genre and later in the soul-jazz idiom.  A mainstay of the Blue Note label as both leader and sideman, Green made almost thirty records as leader between 1960 and 1972.  Other recordings were made for labels including Verve and Creed Taylor’s Kudu.  Racing Green – Guitar Solos 1959/62 is a slipcased, two-CD set with 22 tracks from the earliest part of Green’s career.

Disc One, “Grant Green as Leader,” presents ten highlights drawn from Green’s first four Blue Note long-players (all, amazingly, released in 1961) and one from a 1962 album.  On these performances, he’s backed by a variety of musicians in trio, quartet and sextet formations; his sidemen include Yusef Lateef (tenor sax/flute), Jack McDuff (organ) and Al Harewood (drums) on Grantstand; and Johnny Acea (piano), Wendell Marshall (bass), Willie Bobo (drums), Carlos “Potato” Valdez (congas) and Garvin Masseaux (African percussion instrument, the shekere) on A Latin Bit.   The second disc in the set, “Grant Green as Featured Session Guitarist,” has twelve tracks in which Green supports a variety of the day’s leading lights, such as tenor sax men Stanley Turrentine (“Yesterdays”), Hank Mobley (“Uh Huh”), Sonny Red (“The Mode”) and Ike Quebec (“Minor Impulse”) as well as alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson (“Funky Mama”), organists Sam Lazar (“Space Flight”), Brother Jack McDuff (Henry Mancini’s “Mr. Lucky”) and “Baby Face” Willette (“Willow, Weep for Me”), and drummer Dave Bailey (“Reaching Out”).  A 16-page booklet is included with Racing Green featuring credits and track-by-track annotations largely derived from the LPs’ original liner notes.

When the British public’s taste for traditional, 1920s-style jazz reached an all-time high, The Temperance Seven was there to sate that appetite.  The 2-CD slipcased collection with the unwieldy title of The Temperance Seven + 1/Music for Metro-Land/Music for Monitor reissues the jazz group’s debut long-player along with music from the 1973 documentary Metro-Land on its first disc.  The second disc features performances heard in director Ken Russell’s short films and feature-length documentaries celebrating early twentieth century music in its varied forms.

Founded in the mid-1950s by trombonist Paul McDowell, banjo player Philip Harrison and vocalist/washboard player Brian Innes, The Temperance Seven soon swelled to eight players, or “one over the seven.”  Despite their humorous performance style and period clothing, the group members were serious about music.  Their debut album was recorded in Hampstead, London, in 1957, with their vintage-style takes on standards like “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby,” “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home” and “Hard-Hearted Hannah.”  The album was released in 1960, and the next year future Beatles producer George Martin signed the group to Parlophone.  There, they landed a No. 1 hit with a revival of “You’re Driving Me Crazy” and a Top 5 hit with “Home in Pasadena,” which followed just weeks later.

Their spirited album classic is joined on the first disc by music from the 1973 BBC documentary Metro-Land, about the suburban developments to the northwest of London which sprang up as a result of the building of the Metropolitan Railway.  These tracks by the likes of Roy Fox and His Band (c. 1934) and The Savoy Havana Band (c. 1926) are followed on this disc and the second one by varied performances utilized by director Ken Russell (Tommy, The Boy Friend) in his films for Monitor (the BBC arts program that ran between 1958 and 1965) and Omnibus (its 1967-1993 successor).  Artists represented include Lotte Lenya, with her husband Kurt Weill’s “Moritat von Mackie Messer” (a.k.a. “Mack the Knife”) recorded in 1955, and classical compositions by Elgar, Debussy, Satie, Delius and others.

All three of these diverse titles from él are available now at the links below!

Django Reinhardt, Django at the Movies (él ACMEM288CD, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. I’ll See You in My Dreams (rec. 6/30/39)
2. Body and Soul (4/22/37)
3. When Day is Done (4/22/37)
4. Limehouse Blues (5/4/36)
5. Liebestraum No. 3 (4/26/37)
6. Mystery Pacific (4/26/37)
7. Out of Nowhere (6/30/39)
8. Shine (10/15/36)
9. All of Me (12/17/40)
10. Sweet Georgia Brown (12/31/37)
11. Avalon (7/35)
12. It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) (10/21/35)
13. Just a Gigolo (1-2/49)
14. Minor Swing (11/25/37)
15. Manoir de Mes Reves (2/17/43)
16. Nuages (10/1/40)
17. Douce Ambiance (2/17/43)
18. Fleur D’Ennui (2/26/43)
19. Lentement, Mademoiselle (3/31/42)
20. Rhythme Futur (10/1/40)
21. Belleville (3/31/42)
22. Troublant Bolero (1-2/49)
23. Cavalerie (2/17/43)
24. Blues Clair (2/26/43)
25. Swing 41 (12/13/40)
26. Echoes of France (1/31/46)

Grant Green, Racing Green/Guitar Solos 1959-1962 (él  ACMEMD 285CD, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1

1. Miss Ann’s Tempo (from Grant’s First Stand, 1961)
2. Blues for Willarene (from Grant’s First Stand, 1961)
3. Green with Envy (from Green Street, 1961)
4. God Bless the Child (from Sunday Mornin’, 1961)
5. Come Sunrise (from Sunday Mornin’, 1961)
6. So What (from Sunday Mornin’, 1961)
7. Blues in Maude’s Flat (from Grantstand, 1961)
8. Grantstand (from Grantstand, 1961)
9. Old Folks (from Grantstand, 1961)
10. Mambo Inn (from The Latin Bit, 1962)

CD 2

1. All the Gin is Gone – Jimmy Forrest Quartet (1959)
2. Space Flight – Sam Lazar Quartet (1960)
3. Lucky – Brother Jack McDuff Quartet (1961)
4. Yesterdays – Stanley Turrentine Quintet (1961)
5. Reaching Out – Dave Bailey Quintet (1961)
6. Uh Huh – Hank Mobley Quintet (1961)
7. Willow Weep for Me – Baby Face Willette (1961)
8. The Mode – Sonny Red Quintet (1961)
9. Minor Impulse – Ike Quebec Quartet (1961)
10. Get Your Kicks on Route 66 – Joe Carroll (1962)
11. Have You Got a Penny, Benny – Joe Carroll (1962)
12. Funky Mama – Lou Donaldson Quintet (1962)

The Temperance Seven + 1/Music for Metro-Land/Music for Monitor (él ACMEMD286CD, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1 (Tracks 1-12 by The Temperance Seven)

1. Tiger Rag
2. Seven and Eleven
3. The Eton Boating Song
4. Laughing Blues
5. Hard-Hearted Hannah
6. When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam’
7. Yes Sir, That’s My Baby
8. My Mamma’s in Town
9. I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles
10. Abie, Abie, My Boy
11. Alexander’s Ragtime Band
12. Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home
13. Build a Little Home – Roy Fox and His Band
14. Masculine Women and Feminine Men – The Savoy Havana Band
15. The Sunny Side of the Street – Jack Hylton and His Orchestra
16. Golfing Love – Melville Gideon
17. Marcia (from Serenade for Strings) – Dag Wiren
18. Olympic Girl – John Betjeman
19. Symphony Mathis der maler – Paul Hindemith
20. Moritat von Mackie Messer – Lotte Lenya
21. Piano Concerto No. 2/Adagio (Bartok) – Gyorgy Sandor

CD 2

1. Nimrod (Elgar) – The Philharmonia Orchestra
2. Introduction and Allegro No. 47 (Elgar) – Sinfonia of London
3. Synrinx (for solo flute) (Debussy) – Severino Gazzelloni
4. Jardins Sous La Pluie (Debussy) – Walter Gieseking
5. Prelude a L’Apres-Midi D’un Faune (Debussy) – Orchestra du Theatre National De L’Opera, Paris
6. De L’Aube A Midi Sur La Mer (Debussy) – Orchestre de la Societe Des Concerts du Conservatoire
7. Danse Profane (Debussy) – Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureaux
8. Gymnopedie No. 1 (Satie) – Francis Poulenc
9. The Forgotten Rite – Prelude for Orchestra (Ireland) – The Halle Orchestra
10. Touch Her Soft Lips and Part (Walton) – The Philharmonia String Orchestra
11. On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (Delius) – Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
12. A Song of Summer (Delius) – The Halle Orchestra