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TOM WAITS "NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER"

post #1 of 6
9/8/07 at 3:27am
Thread Starter 
This is one of my all time favorite albums.

Parts of it are very jazzy - 1950's B-movies style jazz feeling.

I know nothing about jazz. (Well, I do know thing - "light jazz" makes me nauseated and leads to projectile vomiting and uncontrolled diarrhea). I do have 2 questions:

1) What is the style of jazz heard on this album?
2) What are recommended recordings with this style of jazz?

Thanks.
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post #2 of 6
9/8/07 at 3:33am
Hey Roach,

I've never hears of that song before so I'm probably of no help to your questions, but there is one song that I can very easily call a most favorite, the name if the song is, "Cold Cold Ground" the live version.
Hope you like it as much as do.
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post #3 of 6
9/8/07 at 7:15am
A harder question than one might think. That album is more about the vibe created by the mix of elements (voice, subject matter, music, poetry) than the jazz, so it's very possible that whatever's recommended to you won't give you the same visceral response. But here's a stab: I suggest you try to find a quartet record by tenor saxist Coleman Hawkins from that period, say 1956–62. Pete Christlieb, the saxist on Nighthawks, could duplicate just about anybody's sound—which is why he was so important to Doc Severinson's Tonight Show band, and is still beloved by the guys in Steely Dan. Waits was looking for sort of a transitional bluesy swing-into-bebop thing; that's Hawkins.

Interestingly enough, the first disc that actually comes to mind is…(wait for it)…Night Hawk, a two-sax quintet with Hawkins and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis—another throaty tenor with a big sound. (Never thought of it before, but "Lockjaw" sounds like a character in a Waits tune.)

If you want to reach further, you might also search out sax quartets by Gene "Jug" Ammons, Dexter Gordon (maybe try Daddy Plays the Horn) or Sonny Rollins. Hope this helps…
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post #4 of 6
9/8/07 at 8:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tru blu View Post
A harder question than one might think. That album is more about the vibe created by the mix of elements (voice, subject matter, music, poetry) than the jazz, so it's very possible that whatever's recommended to you won't give you the same visceral response. But here's a stab: I suggest you try to find a quartet record by tenor saxist Coleman Hawkins from that period, say 1956–62. Pete Christlieb, the saxist on Nighthawks, could duplicate just about anybody's sound—which is why he was so important to Doc Severinson's Tonight Show band, and is still beloved by the guys in Steely Dan. Waits was looking for sort of a transitional bluesy swing-into-bebop thing; that's Hawkins.

Interestingly enough, the first disc that actually comes to mind is…(wait for it)…Night Hawk, a two-sax quintet with Hawkins and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis—another throaty tenor with a big sound. (Never thought of it before, but "Lockjaw" sounds like a character in a Waits tune.)

If you want to reach further, you might also search out sax quartets by Gene "Jug" Ammons, Dexter Gordon (maybe try Daddy Plays the Horn) or Sonny Rollins. Hope this helps…
tru blu,
Excellent response! "Swing-into-bebop," yeah that's it, Hawkins, Ben Webster, Ammons, et al.
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post #5 of 6
9/8/07 at 11:53pm
Tom Waits really isn't jazz... It's more like cinematic "influence rock". Others in that genre include, John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards, John Zorn, and the Clubfoot Orchestra.

See ya
Steve
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post #6 of 6
9/9/07 at 12:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigshot View Post
Tom Waits really isn't jazz... It's more like cinematic "influence rock". Others in that genre include, John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards, John Zorn, and the Clubfoot Orchestra.

Not trying to start a war or anything, but have you listened to Nighthawks at the Diner? It's absolutely nothing like Zorn or Lurie (who'd probably call his music "fake jazz" before he called it "cinematic influence rock"). Waits hired a full-fledged sax quartet for Nighthawks; it's a live recording, and he was indeed going for "a 1950's B-movie style jazz feeling," which I think the OP is trying to pick up on. Waits' later work is more what you're describing (he hired guitarist Marc Ribot from the Lounge Lizards), but Nighthawks is from 1975, a bit before he transformed his sound on Swordfishtrombones. Just trying to alleviate confusion…
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