Trick Or Treat With A Beat: Halloween Jazz
When I was a kid, Halloween meant dressing up with my friends and looking for the spots with the best candy, stopping for pranks along the way — which, if attempted now, would land me in some sort of correctional facility to contemplate that idle-mind/devil's-workshop thing. Now that I'm older, I'm stuck handing out rather than filling up when the ghosts and goblins come knocking. Today, as a season, Halloween has a different sense of rhythm, but some of the best Halloween ear candy hasn't changed.
For more entries in NPR Music's weekly Take Five: A Weekly Jazz Sampler series, click here.
Trick Or Treat With A Beat: Halloween Jazz
Nina Simone
- Album: To Be Free
- Song: I Put a Spell on You
Screamin' Jay Hawkins needed a coffin on stage when he performed this one live. Nina Simone just needed that voice and that attitude. Once, in front of a group of aspiring actors, John Malkovich was asked to name one of his inspirations; he said it was his next-door neighbor, but he was afraid to knock on her door and tell her so. His neighbor, and inspiration, was Nina Simone.
Wayne Shorter
- Album: Speak No Evil
- Song: Witch Hunt
This classic was actually recorded on Christmas Eve 1964. It's a Wayne Shorter story, made even hipper by the likes of Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Elvin Jones. Many consider this to be Shorter's finest hour.
Purchase Featured Music
- "Witch Hunt"
- Album: Speak No Evil
- Artist: Wayne Shorter
- Label: JCT
- Released: 1964
![Cover for Hottest New Group in Jazz [Compilation]](http://media.npr.org/music/features/2008/10/lambert200.jpg?t=1248635970&s=1 "Cover for Hottest New Group in Jazz [Compilation]")
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
- Album: Hottest New Group in Jazz [Compilation]
- Song: Halloween Spooks
While the Ike Isaacs Trio lays down the ghostly groove, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross prove to be a gruesome threesome. Open the windows, crank "Halloween Spooks," turn up the volume and take bets on how long before the authorities arrive.
Purchase Featured Music
- "Halloween Spooks"
- Album: Hottest New Group in Jazz [Compilation]
- Artist: Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
- Label: Sony International
- Released: 1959
Raymond Scott
- Album: The Music of Raymond Scott: Reckless Nights & Turkish Twilights
- Song: New Year's Eve in a Haunted House
People who knew him said he didn't go out much. But his music did; the early cartoons of Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and others all featured Raymond Scott's compositions. Scott gained a new audience in the '90s when the producers of Ren & Stimpy found his creations to be the perfect sidecar to their own cartoon antics. Scott's titles were hallucinatory: You can practically see the habitants of the haunted house inviting you to their New Year's party in this 1938 recording.
Purchase Featured Music
- "New Year's Eve in a Haunted House"
- Album: The Music of Raymond Scott: Reckless Nights & Turkish Twilights
- Artist: Raymond Scott
- Label: Columbia
Philly Joe Jones
- Album: Blues for Dracula
- Song: Blues for Dracula
When I moved to New York in the early '80s, Philly Joe Jones had his Dameronia band working around town. Between sets at The Jazz Forum one night, to the delight of those of us holding milk glasses half-emptied of their cognac, Jones didn't miss a beat with his spot-on take on Count Dracula, originally performed in this 1958 date with Johnny Griffin, Julian Priester, Tommy Flanagan, Jimmy Garrison and Nat Adderley.
More From This Series
A Blog Supreme
Five Jazz Piano Trios For Fans Of BADBADNOTGOOD
Many instrumental bands conversant with today's pop music have more creativity — if not attention.
A Blog Supreme
Ron Carter: 75 Years Of Superb Bass
He's a phenomenal soloist, but his reliability is what's landed him on more than 2,000 recordings.
A Blog Supreme
Yip Harburg: A Lyricist For The Ages
Hear five singers take on one of the chief architects of the American popular song canon.
Comments
Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use. See also the Community FAQ.
NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.