Festival Reviews L.A. Jazz Scene Some Thoughts and Fun Ideas
A new jazz trivia quiz will be posted every two weeks along with the answers to the previous one.
The answers for Quiz #5 have been posted; the link for the answers is at the bottom of this page.
Quiz #6 will be posted in the near future.
TRIVIA QUIZ #5 - JAZZ ON FILM
1. Bessie Smith's only film appearance was in:
A) The Jazz Singer
B) Hallelujah
C) St. Louis Blues
D) Flaming Youth
2. The only one of these 1930s singers to appear in a film:
A) Lee Wiley
B) Mildred Bailey
C) Ivie Anderson
D) Helen Ward
3. This big band is seen playing the title song in the 1941 movie “Blues In The Night”:
A) Kay Kyser
B) Erskine Hawkins
C) Jimmie Lunceford
D) Benny Goodman
4. In the 1942 Ethel Waters film “Cabin In The Sky,” Lena Horne sings this song:
A) Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe
B) Honey In The Honeycomb
C) Takin' A Chance On Love
D) Cabin In The Sky
5. The famous 1944 short “Jammin' The Blues” which stars Lester Young has this pianist who in his later years
switched to organ:
A) Milt Buckner
B) Wild Bill Davis
C) Bill Doggett
D) Marlowe Morris
6. 1945's “The Crimson Canary” is highlighted by a hot number played by:
A) Coleman Hawkins
B) Ben Webster
C) Roy Eldridge
D) Benny Carter
7. The only one of these musicians not to play in the 1946 Louis Armstrong film “New Orleans”:
A) Jack Teagarden
B) Barney Bigard
C) Charlie Beal
D) Red Callender
8. This song became popular due to it being performed in “New Orleans”.
A) New Orleans
B) Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?
C) Bourbon Street Parade
D) When The Saints Go Marching In
9. This is the only Hollywood movie that has an appearance by Art Tatum:
A) Rhapsody In Blue
B) The Big Broadcast
C) The Fabulous Dorseys
D) The Glenn Miller Story
10. He played Benny Goodman in the fictional but fun “Benny Goodman Story”:
A) Artie Shaw
B) Jimmy Stewart
C) Danny Kaye
D) Steve Allen
11. The 1958 film “Jazz On A Summer's Day” does not feature:
A) Anita O'Day
B) Ella Fitzgerald
C) Dinah Washington
D) Mahalia Jackson
12. The classic film “The Five Pennies” was loosely based on the life of:
A) Sammy Price
B) Red Nichols
C) Herbie Nichols
D) Danny Kaye
13. “The Sweet Smell Of Success” has brief appearances by this popular 1950s West Coast jazz group:
A) Shorty Rogers and his Giants
B) The Lighthouse All-Stars
C) The Dave Pell Octet
D) The Chico Hamilton Quintet
14. The film “Get Yourself A College Girl” is most notable for including this hit song:
A) Take Five
B) The Girl From Ipanema
C) The In Crowd
D) Midnight In Moscow
15. In the 1966 film “Sweet Love, Bitter,” he plays a character who is similar to ways to Charlie Parker:
A) Sidney Poitier
B) Dick Gregory
C) Bill Cosby
D) Flip Wilson
16. Billy Dee Williams plays a pianist who has similarities to Thelonious Monk in this film:
A) Giant Steps
B) Straight, No Chaser
C) Nostalgia In Times Square
D) The Sound Of Music
17. “The Gig,” a fictional story about an amateur dixieland band, is particularly notable for giving this musician a
major role:
A) Jon-Erik Kellso
B) Ruby Braff
C) Warren Vache
D) Wild Bill Davison
18. 1990's “Dingo” has a major role for:
A) Clark Terry
B) Jack Sheldon
C) Dizzy Gillespie
D) Miles Davis
19. In “The Legend Of 1900,” the lead character has a piano battle with an actor who portrays this pianist:
A) James P. Johnson
B) Jelly Roll Morton
C) Fats Waller
D) Cecil Taylor
20. In the 2004 film “The Terminal,” he makes a surprise appearance in the plot:
A) Wynton Marsalis
B) Arturo Sandoval
C) Benny Golson
D) Brian Lynch
TRIVIA QUIZ #4 - A JAZZ POTPOURRI
1. The Six Brown Brothers, a popular vaudeville group circa 1915 that predated jazz, featured:
A) 6 Banjos
B) 6 Saxophones
C) 6 Pianos
D) 6 Slide Whistles
2. In 1929 Duke Ellington recorded with a pickup group that used this name:
A) The Fly By Night Jazz Band
B) Mills' Musical Clowns
C) The Scandalous Syncopators
D) The Six Jolly Jesters
3. Harry James made his recording debut with:
A) Alex Jackson's Plantation Orchestra
B) Benny Goodman
C) Paul Whiteman
D) Ben Pollack
4. This actor led a swing band in the 1930s:
A) Clark Gable
B) Cary Grant
C) Ozzie Nelson
D) Mickey Rooney
5. His piano solos with Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band helped spark a revival of interest in ragtime:
A) Marvin Hamlisch
B) James Dapogny
C) Wally Rose
D) Dick Cary
6. The up-and-coming bebop trumpeter Howard McGhee recorded his feature “McGhee Special” in 1942 with:
A) Andy Kirk
B) Earl Hines
C) Count Basie
D) Claude Hopkins
7. In 1943 Oscar Pettiford and Chubby Jackson were for a time the two bassists in this orchestra:
A) Woody Herman
B) Charlie Barnet
C) Stan Kenton
D) Duke Ellington
8. This pianist spent 30 years as a groundskeeper at Comiskey Park in Chicago:
A) George Shearing
B) Albert Ammons
C) Jimmy Yancey
D) George Wallington
9. Not recorded by tenor-saxophonist Brew Moore on Oct. 22, 1948:
A) Brew Blew
B) Blue Brew
C) Brew More
D) No More Brew
10. In his will, this bandleader decreed that no ghost orchestra would appear after his death:
A) Glenn Miller
B) Boyd Raeburn
C) Duke Ellington
D) Stan Kenton
11. He had the unusual distinction of turning down regular jobs with both the Louis Armstrong All-Stars and Duke
Ellington's orchestra
A) Red Callender
B) Kenny Clarke
C) Edmond Hall
D) Vic Dickenson
12. B.B. King's first recording sessions included this pianist in his band:
A) Ray Charles
B) Ellis Marsalis
C) Phineas Newborn
D) Elmo Hope
13. The original tenor-saxophonist with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers:
A) Benny Golson
B) Hank Mobley
C) Teddy Edwards
D) Harold Land
14. In 1958 Miles Davis and John Coltrane recorded such unlikely material as “Wild Man Blues” and “Jitterburg Waltz”
on a session led by:
A) Don Redman
B) Marty Paich
C) Michel Legrand
D) Johnny Mandel
15. This vibraphonist spent a year as a member of the Al Grey-Billy Mitchell Sextet
A) Lem Winchester
B) Bobby Hutcherson
C) Gary Burton
D) Victor Feldman
16. Cousin of pianist Wynton Kelly:
A) Miles Davis
B) Wynton Marsalis
C) Marcus Roberts
D) Marcus Miller
17. After Bill Connors left Return To Forever, this guitarist played a few concerts with the group before Al DiMeola
joined:
A) George Benson
B) Earl Klugh
C) Scott Henderson
D) Derek Bailey
18. Wynton Marsalis was not pleased when his brother Branford left his group to join:
A) Steely Dan
B) Twisted Sister
C) Andy Williams
D) Sting
19. Art Pepper's final recordings were duets with:
A) Niels Henning Orsted Pederson
B) Jim Hall
C) Stanley Cowell
D) George Cables
20. This vocalist sings with the group B.E.D.
A) Sophie Milman
B) Daryl Sherman
C) Rebecca Kilgore
D) Banu Gibson
TRIVIA QUIZ #3 - THE JAZZ SINGERS
1. He took the first recorded scat vocal:
A) Louis Armstrong
B) Don Redman
C) Cliff Edwards
D) Gene Greene “The Ragtime King”
2. In the late 1920s as a child, she recorded a series of risque double-entendre blues songs, later claiming that she
did not understand the words she was singing.
A) Bessie Smith
B) Lee Wiley
C) Helen Humes
D) Ivie Anderson
3. Ethel Waters was not largely responsible for this song becoming famous:
A) On The Sunny Side Of The Street
B) Dinah
C) Stormy Weather
D) Am I Blue
4. In 1934 she won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater:
A) Billie Holiday
B) Ella Fitzgerald
C) Dale Evans
D) Helen Humes
5. Prior to joining Gene Krupa's Orchestra in 1941, Anita O'Day worked with his band:
A) Max Miller
B) Mitch Miller
C) Glenn Miller
D) Emmett Miller
6. The earliest example of vocalese (singing words set to recorded solos) was by
A) Eddie Jefferson
B) Marion Harris
C) Bee Palmer
D) Annie Ross
7. She sang with the John Kirby Sextet in 1946:
A) Anita O'Day
B) Sarah Vaughan
C) Mildred Bailey
D) Ernestine Anderson
8. Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong only recorded two duets. This was one of them:
A) Baby, It's Cold Outside
B) Someday You'll Be Sorry
C) That's My Desire
D) My Sweet Hunk O' Trash
9. Ella Fitzgerald always said that she considered this singer to be her main influence.
A) Annette Hanshaw
B) Fanny Brice
C) Bessie Smith
D) Connie Boswell
10. Doris Day once portrayed this early singer in a film:
A) Lee Wiley
B) Annette Hanshaw
C) Ruth Etting
D) Kate Smith
11. She had a hit with “The Late Late Show”
A) Peggy Lee
B) Helen Merrill
C) Abbey Lincoln
D) Dakota Staton
12. In 1961, she was a stand-in for Annie Ross with Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, singing for a week with the classic
vocal ensemble.
A) Sheila Jordan
B) Abbey Lincoln
C) Carol Sloane
D) Big Maybelle
13. Sheila Jordan worked for a long period as a:
A) Munitions expert
B) Nurse
C) Secretary
D) College professor
14. In addition to drums, Mel Torme also recorded on:
A) Trumpet
B) Piano
C) Clarinet
D) Contrabass Sarussophone
15. She recorded with Duke Ellington, Stephane Grappelli, Count Basie and Earl Hines
A) Teresa Brewer
B) Della Reese
C) Petula Clark
D) Nancy Wilson
16. She occasionally played valve trombone:
A) Abbey Lincoln
B) Sarah Vaughan
C) Maxine Sullivan
D) Susannah McCorkle
17. He was a student at a divinity school for three years:
A) Mark Murphy
B) Mel Torme
C) Kurt Elling
D) Bing Crosby
18. Roberta Gambarini led her first album in:
A) 2006
B) 2005
C) 1999
D) 1991
19. She was born in the Soviet Union:
A) Banu Gibson
B) Rebecca Kilgore
C) Sophie Millman
D) Dee Dee Bridgewater
20. Her original name was Lillie Mae Jones
A) Dinah Washington
B) Betty Carter
C) Carmen McRae
D) Karrin Allyson
JAZZ TRIVIA QUIZ #2 - THE TRUMPETERS
1. “Hot Lips” was a hit for:
A) Henry Busse
B) Hot Lips Page
C) Henry “Hot Lips” Levine
D) Henry “Red” Allen
2. Star trumpeter with the Georgians in the early 1920s.
A) Phil Napoleon
B) Paul Mares
C) Frank Guarente
D) Freddie Keppard
3. In addition to cornet and trumpet, in the 1920s Louis Armstrong also recorded on this :
A) Valve Trombone
B) Ophicleide
C) Sackbut
D) Slide whistle
4. When Bix Beiderbecke became unreliable in 1929, this cornetist was hired by Paul Whiteman because he sounded
so much like Bix:
A) Red Nichols
B) Andy Secrest
C) Sterling Bose
D) Natty Dominique
5. The singer on Harry James' hit version of “You Made Me Love You”:
A) Helen Forrest
B) Judy Garland
C) Al Jolson
D) It was an instrumental
6. Not a member of Cootie Williams' big band in 1944:
A) Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson
B) Sam “The Man” Taylor
C) Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis
D) Willis “Gator” Jackson
7. Not recorded by Hot Lips Page in the mid-1940s:
A) The Lady In Red
B) The Lady In Bed
C) The Lady In Debt
D) Race Horse Mama
8. Miles Davis' Birth Of The Cool Nonet of 1948-50 was partly based on the sound of:
A) Duke Ellington
B) Jimmie Lunceford
C) Claude Thornhill
D) Clyde McCoy
9. Miles Davis said, “Once a year every jazz musician should get on their knees and thank ......”
A) Louis Armstrong
B) Duke Ellington
C) Charlie Parker
D) Miles Davis
10. His original name was Robert Chudwick:
A) Miles Davis
B) Ziggy Elman
C) Woody Shaw
D) Red Rodney
11. This female trumpeter played with Woody Herman's Orchestra:
A) Valaida Snow
B) Dolly Jones
C) Billie Rogers
D) Ingrid Jensen
12. He gave Chuck Mangione his first trumpet:
A) Dizzy Gillespie
B) Louis Armstrong
C) Harry James
D) Wooden Joe Nicholas
13. When Don Cherry left the Ornette Coleman Quartet, this trumpeter was his replacement:
A) Norman Howard
B) Freddie Hubbard
C) Bobby Bradford
D) Frank Assunto
14. This trumpeter played alongside Freddie Hubbard on John Coltrane's groundbreaking 1965 album Ascension:
A) Donald Ayler
B) Dewey Johnson
C) Bill Dixon
D) Al Hirt
15. The only trumpeter to ever star on his own television series:
A) Louis Armstrong
B) Jack Sheldon
C) Chet Baker
D) Clark Terry
16. Cornetist Ruby Braff co-led a quartet with this guitarist:
A) Cal Collins
B) George Barnes
C) Bucky Pizzarelli
D) John Scofield
17. This trumpeter recorded such selections as “F Troop Rides Again,” “It's Howdy Doody Time” and “Miles Davis
Meets Donald Duck.”
A) Miles Davis
B) Wild Bill Davison
C) Don Cherry
D) Lester Bowie
18. In the early 1980s, multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan co-led a quintet with this trumpeter:
A) Wild Bill Davison
B) Red Rodney
C) Conte Candoli
D) Leo Smith
19. He played trumpet with Horace Silver's band during the late 1980s:
A) Dave Douglas
B) Dennis Gonzalez
C) Eddie Henderson
D) Terell Stafford
20. This trumpeter is not in the Down Beat Hall of Fame:
A) Bunny Berigan
B) Lester Bowie
C) Maynard Ferguson
D) Fats Navarro
JAZZ TRIVIA QUIZ #1 - A GRAB BAG
1. The first jazz recording to ever be released was by:
A) The Original New Orleans Jazz Band
B) The Original Dixieland Jazz Band
C) The Original Creole Jazz Band
D) Buddy Bolden
2. In the 1920s, he was billed as “The King Of Jazz.”
A) Al Jolson
B) Louis Armstrong
C) Paul Whiteman
D) Ted Lewis
3. Benny Goodman's famous Carnegie Hall concert took place in:
A) 1929
B) 1935
C) 1938
D) 1945
4. In 1933, the young Dizzy Gillespie had an opportunity to play with:
A) King Oliver
B) Jelly Roll Morton
C) Duke Ellington
D) Charlie Parker
5. Once he ordered so much food that a waiter refused to serve him until “the other three people show up.”
A) Fats Waller
B) Fats Navarro
C) Big Joe Turner
D) Big Tiny Little
6. In 1949, guitarist Wes Montgomery made his recording debut with:
A) Benny Goodman
B) Lionel Hampton
C) Dizzy Gillespie
D) Miles Davis
7. The name of Artie Shaw's rather rambling autobiography:
A) The Trouble With Cinderella
B) Music Is My Mistress
C) Beneath The Underdog
D) 7 Bands, 6 Wives and 1 Clarinet
8. Among the songs that he recorded through the years were “The Pesky Serpent,” “Tale Of An African Lobster,”
“The Sweetheart Of Sigmund Freud,” “March Of The Martians,” “Saturnian Sleigh Ride,” and “Wail Of Two Cities.”
A) Sun Ra
B) Raymond Scott
C) Gerry Mulligan
D) Shorty Rogers
9. What name did Yusef Lateef often go by in the late 1940s?
A) Herbie Hancock
B) Oscar Peterson
C) Bill Evans
D) Cannonball Adderley
10. Composer of “Georgia On My Mind”
A) Ray Charles
B) Harold Arlen
C) Hoagy Carmichael
D) Georgia Gibbs
11. At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, tenor-saxophonist Paul Gonsalves with Duke Ellington's orchestra created a
sensation when he took this many choruses on “Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue.”
A) 19
B) 27
C) 68
D) 142
12. Eddie Condon said of this bandleader, “Music of his school ought only to be played close to elephants and
listened to by clowns.”
A) Paul Whiteman
B) Glenn Miller
C) Stan Kenton
D) Dizzy Gillespie
13. He was a member of the John Coltrane Sextet for a few months in 1961:
A) Freddie Hubbard
B) Pharoah Sanders
C) Wes Montgomery
D) Al Hirt
14. She was the first female member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers:
A) Melba Liston
B) Jessica Williams
C) Jane Ira Bloom
D) Joanne Brackeen
15. He played tenor and soprano with the first version of Return To Forever:
A) Boots Randolph
B) Tom Scott
C) Joe Farrell
D) Michael Brecker
16. His proposed book, which unfortunately was never written, was to be titled “How Many Members Are There In
Your Quartet?”
A) John Lewis
B) Ornette Coleman
C) Benny Goodman
D) Paul Desmond
17. On a recording with the Gil Evans Orchestra in the 1970s, he was featured on Jelly Roll Morton's “King Porter
Stomp”:
A) Cannonball Adderley
B) Phil Woods
C) Lee Konitz
D) David Sanborn
18. He said of bebop, “It was like humming along with Mitch Miller. It was too simple.”
A) Mezz Mezzrow
B) Charlie Parker
C) Albert Ayler
D) Ornette Coleman
19. Pat Metheny first became widely known as a sideman with:
A) Art Blakey
B) Gary Burton
C) Keith Jarrett
D) Pete Fountain
20. As a youth, Wynton Marsalis received his first trumpet from:
A) Miles Davis
B) Louis Armstrong
C) Don Cherry
D) Al Hirt
THE JAZZ TRIVIA QUIZ ANSWERS