THE LIFE OF A JAZZ MUSICIAN, EVEN IN THE BEST OF TIMES, IS TENUOUS AT BEST. NINO TEMPO, GIFTED WITH A GOLDEN TONE ON THE TENOR SAX, HAD AN IMPRESSIVE START OF A CAREER WITH MAYNARD FERGUSON’S HOT AND TORRID BIG BAND IN THE 1950S. HE SOON SAW THE ECONOMIC WRITING ON THE WALL, AS THE ‘FAD’ CALLED ‘ROCK AND ROLL’ IN THE EARLY 1960S MADE SEISMIC CHANGES IN AMERICAN CULTURE AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
ALTERING HIS CAREER TRAJECTORY TO THE TIMES, TEMPO ADAPTED TO THE TIMES BY SINGING A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL POP RENDITION OF THE SWING ERA STANDARD ‘DEEP PURPLE’ THAT RACED TO THE POP OF THE CHARTS IN 1965. IN THE MEANTIME, TEMPO LEARNED THE TRADE OF THE LIFE OF STUDIO PRODUCTION BECOMING A MEMBER OF THE MUSICAL TEAM LATER KNOWN AS ‘THE WRECKING CREW’ THAT RECORDED COUNTLESS HITS FOR ATLANTIC RECORDS.
ALSO DURING HIS TENURE IN THE STUDIOS, TEMPO WAS AT GROUND ZERO TO THE BEGINNING OF PHIL SPECTOR’S LEGENDARY RECORDINGS THAT DEVELOPED THE SUI GENERIS ‘WALL OF SOUND’ THAT FILLED AM RADIOS WITH HITS LIKE ‘HE’S A REBEL’ AND ‘YOU’VE LOST THAT LOVIN’ FEELING.’
TEMPO TOOK SOME TIME TO TALK TO US ABOUT HIS EARLY JAZZ CAREER, HIS LIFE IN THE STUDIO DURING THESE CLASSIC RECORDING SESSIONS.
IN AN IRONIC TWIST, TEMPO’S JAZZ PAST HAS CAUGHT UP WITH HIM, AS A RECENT RETROSPECTIVE OF HIS CAREER AS A STAN GETZ-INSPIRED TENOR PLAYER HAS RESURFACED WITH A WONDEFUL REISSUE ENTITLED PURVEYOR OF BALLADRY, A DISC THAT WILL STUMP ALL OF YOUR JAZZ FRIENDS ON A BLINDFOLD TEST.
THIS INTERVIEW WITH MR. TEMPO IS PART HISTORY LESSON AND PART ‘OLD SCHOOL’ ADVICE ON HOW TO CONDUCT YOURSELF AS AN ARTIST, PROFESSIONAL AND FELLOW MEMBER OF THE HUMAN RACE.
WHAT DID YOUR PARENTS DO TO INCULCATE YOUR MUSICAL TALENTS?
When I was about 4 years old, my parents took me to New York and had me sing on the Major Bowes Radio (Amateur Hour) Radio Show, and I won it! There’s a picture of me with him on the liner notes of the album.
Then, when I was 7, they took me to see Benny Goodman, and my mom instructed me “you run up on stage, pull on his coat, and tell him that your grandfather bet you $10 that you could sing with his band.”
I had no fear, and I trusted mom, figuring it was just part of the program. I went up and pulled on his coat, and Benny goes, “What do you want?” I told him the story, and he picked me up, held me up to the microphone and said “I don’t know this kid, folks” and everyone was giving him catcalls.
He asked me “What do you want to sing?” I said “Rosetta, in the key of C with a tag at the end.” (laughs) I told the band, they struck it up, and we brought the house down.
Benny came over to my parents and asked them, “Could you have Nino come by every night and do the same thing for my engagement here?” Which is what I did.
WHEN I FIRST HEARD YOUR ALBUM, MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS “SOMEONE TOOK THEIR STAN GETZ PILLS EACH MORNING.” WAS HE YOUR FIRST INFLUENCE?
I first idolized (Goodman saxist) Vido Musso. I then heard a Battle of the Saxes with Wardell Gray, and when I heard Vido against Wardell I said “ I think I chose wrong.” From there I went to Charlie Parker and bebop.
I then went to see Woody Herman’s famous Four Brothers Second Herd with Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Serge Chaloff and Herbie Stewart. I heard that sound and knew that was the way I want to go.
I also liked Al Cohn, but Stan seemed to be the one I gravitated to the most, until I started hearing people say, “Gee, you sound a lot like Stan Getz.” It got a little old.
Then, one day he came to hear me play at a little club.
Outside he and I were outside talking, and he pointed to himself, and he said, “You and me, Nino. You and me.” It was a big complement.
From then on I still adored his playing, but I stopped listening to him because I didn’t want to pick up all of the little licks that he was so well known for. But it was too late, even though the licks were mine, I had developed his sound. I figured I’d just play the way I play, and that’s it.
THERE ARE MANY WORSE PEOPLE TO SOUND LIKE!
Exactly. John Coltrane even said that we’d all try to sound like Getz if we could.
YOU’RE KNOWN FOR YOUR STUDIO WORK. WAS THAT A CONSCIOUS DECISION NOT TO BE IN A TOURING BAND?
Right out of high school I worked with Maynard Ferguson’s band in LA for four years. Just a great band; Herb Geller was sitting next to me on one side, Richie Kamuca on the other, Ernie Royal, and later Pepper Adams on the baritone, Mel Lewis on the drums! A hot band!
I started becoming known as a jazz player, but you starve.
So, when the opportunity came to play in the studios, arranger Jimmie Haskell heard me play and he said “Bobby Darin has a session coming up.” So I said, “Sure!” It was money! It was $50 for a three hour session, and that was big money.
I was throwing little licks out when the arranger would ask “What can you play to fill in this spot?” like on “Irresistable You” and I came up with a little “doo do-lo doo” with Plas Johnson and me.
Bobby Darin takes a break, and I go up to him and ask him if I can show him a song that I wrote. That was a turning point in my life
We sat at the piano, he learned the song in 8 bars, he was harmonizing with me, and Ahmet Ertugun came up and said, “I know that you play the horn, but I sense that you can do other things. What else do you do?”
I then began my association with Ahmet (of Atlantic Records) which continued until the day he died. We became the closest of friends.
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“I started becoming known as a jazz player, but you starve”
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YOU WERE WITH BOBBY DARIN DURING HIS HALCYON DAYS
Bobby was doing well. He had “Mack the Knife” and “Somewhere Across the Sea” but was looking for a different direction, which is why he was doing things like “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.”
Ahmet asked me what I wanted to do, and I started playing tenor and with my sister April Stevens singing with me, and he didn’t like it. He said with a very stern voice “The most popular music in the world is rock and roll. Don’t give me any of this good music stuff; I want to sell records.”
BESIDES ALL OF THE WORK YOU DID FOR ATLANTIC, YOU WERE INFLUENTIAL IN CREATING PHIL SPECTOR’S FAMOUS “WALL OF SOUND”
Phil Spector and I ran into each other at (famed composers) Lieber and Stoller’s office in New York, 1959. We became friends and started writing songs together, being broke together in New York. We had five bucks between us for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
When he was invited to take care of Jerry Lieber’s townhouse, I was living at the YMCA (to give you an idea how well I was doing). He said, “Why don’t you come over?” so I hung out there with my sister and we did some recording with Don Costa.
I went back to LA, and one day I was driving around Wilshire with my mom, and someone blew a horn at me; it was Phil. He said, “I’m recording tonight at Gold Star. It would be good to have an extra pair of ears.”
As soon as I heard him do “Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah” with Bob B. Soxx I knew it would be a hit. Phil said, “Why don’t you play piano?” so I went and sat next to Leon Russell. Both of us on the same piano, just to make that “Wall of Sound.”
So, we’re at the end of the record, it was a one break take, with Billy Strange playing a wonderful guitar solo. We did one more take with Strange doing an even better over the top solo. So Phil is asking “Which take do you like more?” I played air guitar of the first take, saying “The first one” so from that point on I was helping him in the studio with ideas.
DID THAT INITIAL RECORDING REALLY SOUND THAT RADICAL TO YOU?
It wasn’t quite the Wall of Sound yet, but it was great. It was just a large band playing at the same time. Little by little, we put in a little more echo and it finally got to a place where it became that Wall of Sound.
Phil’s over at my house having spaghetti the night that we were going to record “Be My Baby.” We had the piano at my house and he says “Here’s the song we’re going to do.” He started singing it and I had a sour look on my face. He said, “I know it doesn’t sound good now, but it will.”
We went into the studio and began to run it down, and again he looked at my face and said, “What’s wrong?”
“The drum part; it’s boring.”
He put my feet to the fire, “Well, what would you do?”
So I thought, and said, “Kick, kick kick snare. Kick, kick kick snare.”
I hummed it to Hal Blaine, and that was it! And I never got even a thank you (laughs).
HOW ABOUT WHEN YOU PLAYED WITH JOHN LENNON FOR HIS ROCK AND ROLL TRIBUTE WITH SPECTOR?
He was a bit standoff-ish. He was drunk during one of the sessions, going around kissing all of the guys on the cheek. Nothing got done; it was a waste of money, but a great party.
YOU ALSO WORKED WITH KENNY RANKIN QUITE A BIT
Kenny Rankin was one of the finest singers and artists I’ve ever worked with. Musically and artistically…tops. He was a little nuts, though.
He also was on drugs, and made a terrible, terrible error that ended his big career.
He was the opening act for Flip Wilson. They brought me along because I played on the album that was doing so well.
He comes out on stage and just starts going “How the F– is everyone? You all having a good F— time?” You don’t say things like that in Lake Tahoe, salt of the earth, country folks. You don’t do that. The crowd gets angry.
So Kenny walks off stage; he had broken the guitar on stage to make a statement. I don’t know what the statement was, but he now threw it with a big thud.
Flip came out and apologized to the audience, and told them they could get a refund if they wanted.
So Kenny blew his big chance
RULE NUMBER ONE IN LIFE; DON’T BE A JERK, AND BE HUMBLE
And know your audience. Oh, boy.
HOW DID THE WHOLE IDEA OF THE WRECKING CREW COME ABOUT?
There really was no “Wrecking Crew”; that was a name in retrospect.
It started in 1960 when Phil started coming up to LA. 2106 He began hiring the same guys that became The Wrecking Crew, and always wanted me in as an extra pair of ears. I played saxophone, piano, percussion or singing in the background; I did everything. I was there to help.
I realized I was learning a lot. It was like going to school.
YOU’RE INVOLVED ON A TON OF GREAT ALBUMS. DID ANY OF THEM STICK OUT WHEN YOU WERE MAKING THEM TO MAKE YOU SAY, “THIS IS A CLASSIC” AT THE TIME? OR WERE YOU SURPRISED WHEN SOME BECAME HITS?
Many songs surprised me. When we did “Deep Purple” we had done 3 other songs that chewed up all of the studio time. Ahmet told me “We’re going to have to forget ‘Deep Purple’ as we have only 14 minutes left in the studio before going overtime.” And he wouldn’t go overtime!
I ran around. Glen Campbell was still a sideman at the time and I told him how I thought he should approach this. I told drummer Earl Palmer to switch the drum around to a New Orleans beat, and told pianist Ray Johnson “No fills; just roll the piano.” Then, (vocal group) The Blossoms came up to me and said, “Nino, we don’t know how to read music! What do we do?” I told them to keep their fingers crossed.
We did the first take, and there were only 3 minutes to go. (Guitarist) Tommy Tedesco said “If we start now, we can continue until we finish.”
So we did a second take, I grabbed a harmonica and got on the mic. Ahmet pointed to me and I didn’t know what to play, but I just blew towards the end. I got out and went home so dejected.
Next week, Dottie Patrick called me and said, “You’ve got a smash! The engineers have been playing it all week. Get over here to the studio!”
There was magic in it; I don’t know how.
I called Ahmet and asked him what he thought. He said “I played it for my partners. They think it’s unreleasable. It’s the worst record you’ve ever made.”
Phil Spector wanted me out of my contract with Ahmet, but Ahmet said, “We’ve got too much money in you. We’ll try one more record. If it’s a hit, we’ll keep you. If it’s a flop, you’ve got your contract back.”
I was hoping for a flop, as Phil was hotter than a pistol back then.
I get a call from Jerry Wexler who tells me “Deep Purple” is breaking all these records. thI first thought “Oh, No!” But then I realized “that’s good trouble.”
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“If they made a mistake I wouldn’t know it.They are playing intellectually and not emotionally”
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WHAT WAS YOUR IMPETUS FOR PUTTING OUT THIS LATEST RECORD OF YOUR JAZZIER RECORDINGS, THE PURVEYOR OF BALLADRY?
When Ahmet’s brother Nesuhi died, I played “Darn that Dream.” I made such an impression that Ahmet said, “I had no idea you could play like that. We’ve got to make some jazz records.” So we started doing it. 25 years ago.
Omnivore records wanted to reissue the best of material. Leonard Feather said I was the most eloquent as a purveyor of balladry. I suggested that as the title, and they loved it.
WHEN YOU HEAR THAT ALBUM, AND COMPARE IT TO TODAY’S MUSIC, WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND? DO YOU THINK ANYTHING IS MISSING?
It’s not so much as what’s missing, as too much is added. Too many cooks spoil the soup.
What these guys do today, in my humble opinion, is that they are so educated. They go to music schools, the study and practice their heads off. The develop such technique, and listen to a guy like Coltrane who played outside of the chord structure. If they made a mistake I wouldn’t know it.
They are playing intellectually and not emotionally.
When you listen to the great players from the 30s and 40s, they didn’t have a power over the instrument. They didn’t play it so well, but they played with heart.
Barney Bigard; not a great clarinet player, but he had so much soul with Armstrong and Ellington. Now, it’s all too intellectual.
YOU HAD TO MAKE A BIG CONSCIOUS DECISION TO GO FROM JAZZ TO POP/ROCK
I’ve been blessed, or cursed, by being versatile.
Cary Grant was a good friend of my family. He said, “Sometimes it’s better to be the very best at one thing, better than anybody, to be a jack of all trades.” I was a jack of all trades. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be, so I did a little singing, saxophone, songwriting and producing. I was able to cover all of those bases.
The opportunity just came at Atlantic. I saw the possibility for some fame, money, and to help April, so I took it. I put my saxophone aside.
Then the Beatles came and changed the culture of the whole country. I got out of the business for awhile until I played at Nesuhi’s service, which revitalized my saxophone playing.
IS THERE ANYTHING THAT HAS MOTIVATED OR INSPIRED YOU DURING YOUR CAREER?
I read a book by Dale Carnegie one time, How to Make Friends and Influence People. A great book, and he wrote something I never forgot. He said, “if you see someone, and there’s something about them that is special, if it’s honest, tell them about it. But don’t just “tell” them; be lavish in your praise. Because, if you lavish and you’re honest, they will sense it and your words will stick with them the rest of their lives.”
IT’S NINO TEMPO’S VERSATILTY AS AN ARTIST THAT HAS MADE HIM AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE APOTHEOSIS OF POPULAR MUSIC. HIS ETERNAL VALUES OF HARD WORK, FOLLOWING THE GOLDEN RULE, AND KEEPING YOURSELF HUMBLE HAS HELPED HIM TO CARVE AN IMPORTANT MARK IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC.
HIS COMPILATION ALBUM WILL SURPRISE YOU, AS IT’S FILLED WITH WONDEFUL SOUNDS AND MELODIES, AS TIMELESS AS THE VALUES THAT EXUDE FROM HIS CAREER.