The O'Zone: How a Beatle Boomer Found Jazz

Since they appeared on the radio and subsequently on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, my musical interests tended towards The Beatles. Almost immediately, I was under their sway. The catchy songs, the positive vibe, and how it looked so cool to play in a band. Popular music was my jam. The British invasion, Motown, Surf Music, and even my mom’s record collection received most of my attention. In 1960, something really caught my ear. It was the Everly Brothers song “Cathy’s Clown.” There was something about the tight harmonies (peculiar to siblings singing together), but that cool drum break! It turned out to be a loop, making it sound like two drummers…wow, how cool was THAT! Top Forty radio was the primary source for delivering the music I dug. Before radio programming became more regimented in specific formats, now and then something would appear in the charts that spoke to me in a completely different way.

In 1962, a Vince Guaraldi “B Side” became a hit on pop radio. The song was called “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” it reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and it won the Grammy for Best Original Jazz Composition in 1963. It was on the radio frequently for an instrumental at the time, and although I didn’t know it then, it was distinctive for being in the key of A-flat minor, and the sweet melody and swing got my attention. It also got the attention of Charles Schultz, who enlisted Vince to do the ongoing music for his animated Peanuts programs, so this was the first Jazz I liked, but I was far from being a Jazz fan.

In 1964, Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder” made it to number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but didn’t make it to the top forty, so I didn’t hear that until later; however, Ramsey Lewis had a hit with “The In Crowd” in 1965. The Dobie Gray tune reached number 5 on The Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the R&B charts that same year, and I took notice, especially of the reaction of the live audience clapping along exactly right. You couldn’t help but groove to that!

In fact, my Mom dug Ramsey Lewis and brought home his 1968 Cadet release “Mother Nature’s Son” it hit the stores just two months after “The Beatles” (the White Album) which she brought home just weeks before the Ramsey Lewis record. Ramsey expressed skepticism about doing a Beatles cover album, but his producer Charles Stepney wrote some arrangements that convinced Ramsey that the fab four “Really had something.” Mom told me, “It’s all Beatles songs,” but I was not convinced. I made myself sit down and listen to side one, and was not sophisticated enough to dig it until the last song on side one. “Dear Prudence!” Now we are talking! I played that cut several times over and over. “Oh, you like THAT one, huh?” I sure did and still do. I flipped it over and found Ramsey on electric piano playing “Cry Baby Cry,” so the other cut I took to was “Sexy Sadie,” another electric piano dominated piece. Three out of ten, not overwhelming, but all these years later, I find those three tracks still hold my interest the most. Between Vince Guaraldi and Ramsey Lewis, I was finding more interest in jazz music. Incidentally, Ramsey’s band featured two names I would eventually come to know: Cleveland Eaton (still a favorite bassist) and the eventual leader of Earth, Wind and Fire, Maurice White, on drums.