The O'Zone | COOKIN' (FAVORITE DISHES OF JAZZ GREATS)
In this missive, we will have a bit of fun looking into the favorite foods of some favorite jazz musicians.
BEANS FOR LOUIS:
Let’s start at the beginning of the music with Louis Armstrong and his favorite food, which he spoke of often, even though he was also very partial to other dishes.
Pops was especially fond of Creole Red Beans and Rice: home cookin’ that connects to his New Orleans upbringing and the cooking of his fourth and final wife Lucille. He even would sign letters off with the following…
“Red Beans and Ricely Yours, Louis”
COOKIN’ WITH MILES:
It wasn’t just an album title; Miles was a pretty good cook in his own right. A dish he was known for was Chili Mack, detailed below.
Miles’s South Side Chicago Chili Mack. (serves six)
1/4 lb. suet (beef fat)
1 large onion
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. ground veal
1/2 lb. ground pork
salt and pepper
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin seed
2 cans of kidney beans, drained
1 can beef consommé
1 drop red wine vinegar
3 lb. spaghetti
parmesan cheese
oyster crackers
Heineken beer
Instructions:
Melt suet in a large heavy pot until the liquid fat is about an inch high. Remove solid pieces of suet from the pot and discard.
In the same pot, sauté the onion.
Combine meats in a bowl; season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and cumin.
In another bowl, season the kidney beans with salt and pepper.
Add meat to onions; sauté until brown.
Add kidney beans, consommé, and vinegar; simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally.
Add more seasonings to taste, if desired.
Cook spaghetti according to package directions, and then divide among six plates.
Spoon meat mixture over each plate of spaghetti.
Top with Parmesan and serve oyster crackers on the side.
Open a Heineken.
…which Miles recommended you drink instead of putting it in the chili.
A paraphrased quote from Miles when the band would come by his flat to practice (or jam) was' “ You motherf**k*rs want some motherf**k*n chili?” Six plates? Miles, Paul Chambers, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Philly Joe Jones…Was the other plate for Bob Weinstock or Rudy Van Gelder?
Man, THAT’S Cookin’!
Miles owed four records to Prestige Records before he could sign with Columbia Records, and Prestige wasn’t interested in losing Miles and didn’t have nearly the bank as mighty Columbia. Consequently, four albums were recorded on the cheap, paid for by Miles from his own pocket on May 11 and October 26, 1956, at Rudy Van Gelder’s in Hackensack. They were respectively titled Cookin’ with, Relaxin’ with, Steamin’ with, and Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet.
Miles knew that Columbia could sustain his musical, cultural, and financial growth with massive amounts of cash and their huge publicity machine... Just signing with the label made headlines. His last four records on Prestige, however, were almost overlooked by the non-jazz press.
With Columbia, his musical vision expanded with the great albums Miles Ahead, Porgy & Bess, Sketches of Spain, and the iconic Kind of Blue, not a bad run. Plenty of Chili Mack money!
Chicken and Waffles: A Jazz Thing
Traditionally, jazz musicians often found themselves playing late into the night, and discovered as they arrived to eat it was too late for dinner and too early for breakfast, leading to the pairing of leftover fried chicken with waffles. This compromise meal caught on especially at Wells Supper Club in Harlem, founded by Ann and Joseph Wells. The pair were residents of Harlem keeping the chicken kickin’ and waffles lawful! Imagine you’ve just finished playing at Minton’s or The Apollo and that after-gig hunger sets in…
“Let’s go to Wells,” you might say, winding up rubbing elbows with the likes of Langston Hughes, Charles Mingus and Sammy Davis, Jr.
Composer and reedist and flutist Karl Denson has used food as inspiration for many songs like “Chicken and Waffles”. He’s also spoken about the classic soul food dish. He, in fact, prefers a healthier, baked version of the chicken rather than fried.
And while he thinks that Roscoe's makes superior waffles, he prefers the healthier version he makes himself.
MINGUS’S EGGNOG
Although Charles Mingus and Denson have both brought out the yardbird magic (Mingus’s “Eat That Chicken” is a bonafide classic), Mingus was notorious for his Top Secret Eggnog recipe:
Enough Alcohol to put down an Elephant
Separate one egg for one person. Each person gets an egg.
Two sugars for each egg, each person.
One shot of rum, one shot of brandy per person.
Put all the yolks into one big pan, with some milk.
That’s where the 151 proof rum goes. Put it in gradually, or it’ll burn the eggs,
OK. The whites are separate, and the cream is separate.
In another pot- depending on how many people- put in one shot of each, rum and brandy. (This is after you whip your whites and your cream.)
Pour it over the top of the milk and yolks.
One teaspoon of sugar. Brandy and rum.
Actually, you mix it all together.
Yes, a lot of nutmeg. Fresh nutmeg. And stir it up.
You don’t need ice cream unless you’ve got people coming and you need to keep it cold. Vanilla ice cream. You can use eggnog. I use vanilla ice cream.
Right, taste for flavor. Bourbon? I use Jamaican Rum in there. Jamaican Rums. Or I’ll put rye in it. Scotch. It depends.
See, it depends on how drunk I get while I’m tasting it.
NOTE: If you’re drinking tonight, make sure you drink responsibly!
Mingus did not play around when it came to this eggnog, and many great musicians are fabulous cooks. This is worth delving into at some future point in time. In researching this column, I found enough knowledge to make a cookbook…there are a few already, but I couldn’t lay my hands on them as they are out of print.
Let’s cap things off with a poem I wrote about a great man that seems to fit in here:
CHARLES BURRELL
I was working as a busboy at a place named after Basin Street
That was my money job, but my career was playing Bass.
My shift would end at 10
that is when
I would find Charles at the bar with a Cohiba and a cognac.
“Have a seat young man” he would say
That would soon become the highlight of my daycall it tra
I told him I loved to hear him play
The Vern Baumer Trio specializing in New Orleans Jazz
“It’s not Dixieland, that’s what the tourists call it,
I call it traditional”
1976 and the popular thing is jazz fusion but working there
I learned where it came from
He told me it was important to hear the origins of music.
He walked history on that Upright every night.
I learned a lot of Bass Fiddle skills watching him
showed me how to gliss with swing
mentioned how to pull off notes on a string
but the true mentorship was in life
“if it has a built-in tip it’s not a cigar, try this it’s a REAL cigar”
He taught me about jazz living
vices peculiar to the species jazz sapiens
how to make red beans and rice or goulash.
When to wear a tux and when to wear a blazer.
How to get paid and stand up for yourself on a bandstand.
How to rosin my bow
How to quietly steal the show.
How to be a man in music.
Thank you Charles!
Stay connected to KUVO’s programs and our community! Sign up for the Oasis E-News today!
