Mark
Winkler Sings 
Bobby Troup
Tracks
1) Hungry Man
2) You're Looking At Me
3) Three Bears
4) Lemon Twist
5) Meaning of the Blues
6) Route 66
7) Baby, Baby, All the Time
8) Walkin' shoes
9) Learn to Love
10) One October Morning
11) Girl Talk
12) A Young Man is Gone
13) Two Guys From the Coast
Musicians
- Jon Mayer Piano
- Kevin Axt Bass
- Ron McCurdy Drums
- Bob Sheppard Sax
- Joe Bagg Hammond B-3 organ
- Mark Ferber Drums
- Anthony Wilson Guitar
Review
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My |
wife and I are sitting down having dinner with the TV set to the cable jazz music channel and I hear this guy singing a sad song I hadn't heard before. Jumping up from the table to see who's singing and the name of the song, I find it's Mark Winkler singing a rarely heard Bobby Troup line about the late actor James Dean, "A Young Man is Gone." Itıs a moving piece and the lyrics have that sad, yet hip flavor you'd have expected from Bobby Troup. However, it's the singer that fascinates me. Immediately, I tell myself: I must hear more of this. Looking it up on the Internet, I find that Mark had made an entire CD made up of all Bobby Troup lines. With the exception of "Two Guys From the Coast" penned by Mark, the rest of the tunes all belong to Bobby Troup. "What a great idea," I think to myself. I don't know of anyone ever taking on such a cool task as this.
It's difficult to say where the whole "cool" attitude began in jazz. My first encounter was during the early fifties. Miles Davis with Lee Konitz and Gerry Mulligan changed the jazz temperature by thirty degrees cooler when they introduced "Birth of the Cool." But it would be a bit different on the West Coast. You know, like laid back, surf and smooth with a dry martini kind of cool.
After my first full hearing of this remarkable CD, it kind of brought me back to L.A. in the Sixties, the first time I moved out here. During that period I was a lot more active hitting the jazz clubs in the Southern California scene on a more regular basis. I would hear Terry Gibbs and the dream band at the "Summit." Then I'd swing over on a Monday or Tuesday night to catch Shelly Manne and his men at the "Mannehole" Sunday meant afternoons at the "Lighthouse" in Hermosa. Maybe once or twice I did get to see Bobby Troup perform. I can't exactly remember where it was. It could have been a club on La Cienega called "The Losers" or maybe it was Gene Normans club "The Crescendo." But anyway, I did catch up to him once or twice. A lot has already been said about the absolute hipness of Bobby Troup and the small circle that encompassed him. The fact is he was one of the most gifted songwriters and musician who spoke mostly to the jazz crowd.
And now Mark Winkler has brought it all back to us. He has done it dynamically capturing the correct nuances, sentiments, styles and general hipness that prevailed during Bobby Troup's time. Mark has a wonderfully controlled vocal delivery that suggests certain hip figures illustrated in his shadings and bending of particular words in the lyrics that hit home.
"Hungry Man" goes beyond being cute and contains much the same feeling described through listing, linking and rhyming things in a fun jazz way that prevailed in the Troup evergreen, "Route 66." Compare this to the melancholy lyrics of "One October Morning" and you come away with the wide range of music that Bobby Troup created and Mark Winkler interprets in his incomparable way.
Mark is at home with all the tunes and could have very well been around during the Sixties when these lines were blossoming. For example, "Girl Talk" comes into fruition, given Mark's interpretation, and has survived all of the feminine social advances and sounds hipper than ever with Mark's eloquent delivery.
The poignant tale of James Dean, "A Young Man is Gone" is done with moving delicacy and grace without being mushy or over sentimental.
"Walkin Shoes" is a complete surprise to me. Of course, I remember Gerry Mulligan's instrumental version many years ago. I never knew that Bobby put lyrics to it. Mark swings nice and easy and walks us through aided by a nice guitar solo by the inimitable Anthony Wilson.
"Learn to Love" was a collaboration between Matt Dennis and Bobby Troup. A beautiful and tender lyric with a simple yet caring message that Mark delivers with an ear and a heart toward the sensitivity this song reflects. Wouldn't it be a beautiful thing if the next CD by Mark Winkler were a set of Matt Dennis tunes?
This CD is a welcome breath of fresh air filtered out from the smog of the past. It could be a nice thing if some of those that did not have the good fortune to hang around and catch guys like Bobby Troup discover this gem for themselves and learn a little about this music. We couldn't ask for a better perception to that past than this wonderful package that Mark Winkler and company has delivered.