"His perfect marriage of church and swing captured the spirit of the times in the same way that Ray Charles' mixture of gospel and blues heralded the arrival of soul."
--Joel Dorn
The first time I heard Compared to What was in the Martin Scorsese movie, Casino starring Robert de Nero and Sharon Stone. It was a perfect accompaniment to the urgent and chaotic scene which added a lush layer of movement from this tune. It emphasized the characters mood and urgency at that moment. It was genius of Martin Scorsese to choose such a powerful and moving song to use in his film.
Les McCann was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1935. He is a self taught musician (although he took four piano lessons from a nice older lady in the neighborhood). In the early fifties, Les left Kentucky and joined the US Navy and was stationed in California.
Stationed in California, he frequent San Fransisco's jazz clubs, where he was exposed to the music of Miles Davis. Les' major music influence was pianist Errol Garner whom share the same exuberance and bursting vocalization.
After being discharged from the United States Navy, McCann made Los Angels his home and formed Les McCann Trio LTD., which became one of the favorite bands on Sunset Strip in the late fifties.
Les was recommended by Miles Davis to play with Cannon Ball Adderly, but turned it down to focus on his own band. In 1960, Nick Vent signed McCann to his LA based record label Pacific Jazz whom Vent was tuned into McCann's signature soul groove that ushered in the BACK TO THE ROOTS JAZZ movement. He co-headlined albums with label mates organist Richard "Groove" Holmes, Ben Webster, Jazz Crusaders, and the Gerald Wilson Orchestra.
His laid back personality made him a musician to go to for opening a set for many acts, the 1960 and 1962 Antibes Jazz Festival was a hit as he shared the stage with the likes of Ray Charles and Count Basie. A year later he toured with Zoot Sims and Charlie Byrd, afterwards he would co-produce Lou Rawls and headlined the debut album from Lou Rawls Stormy Monday (1960) and made guest appearance on Stanley Turrentine's That's It's At (1960). After a brief time on Limelight Records (subsidiary of Mercury Records), which had the roaster on the roster Dizzy Gillespie, Rasaahn Roland Kirk, and Art Blakely, McCann then signed to Atlantic Records... his first major label deal in 1967.
When Roberta Flack did a benefit concert for the Inner City Children's Library Fund. Les McCann happened to be in the audience. He later said, "Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and licked every emotion I've ever known. I laughed, cried, and screamed for more.......she alone had the voice." After that very moving experience he became her champion as well as Mahlia Jackson and Nancy Wilson.
Les is known for his work in the late 1960's and early 1970's with sax man/partner Eddie Harris whom he first met at the Montreux Jazz Festival resulting their first recording together, Swiss Movement (1968)was a top selling album and the single "Compared to What?" went platinum. The same year, Much Les, without Harris hit hard with the ballad, With these Hands.
After the success of Swiss Movement, McCann, primarily a piano player began concentrating on his vocal abilities. Les is the innovator of jazz/soul style merging jazz and funk, soul and world rhythms, much of the early seventies prefiguring the immense Stevie Wonder albums of the decade. McCann was among the first musicians to utilize the clavinet, electric piano, and synthesizer into his music.
In 1971, he and Harris were part of a group of soul, R&B, and rock performers — including Wilson Pickett, The Staple Singers, Santana and Ike & Tina Turner — who flew to Accra, Ghana for a historic 14-hour concert before more than 100,000 Ghanaians. The March 6 concert was recorded for the documentary film Soul To Soul. In 2004 the movie was released on DVD with an accompanying soundtrack album. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_McCann)
Les McCann is still performing after recovering from a stroke in the mid 1990's and released a recording in 2002 Pump it up. His music has been sampled by artist today.
DISCOGRAPHY:
- Plays The Truth, 1960, Pacific Jazz
- The Shout, 1960, Pacific Jazz
- Groove 1961, Pacific Jazz, with Richard "Groove" Holmes and Ben Webster
- In San Francisco 1961, Pacific Jazz
- Les McCann in New York, 1961, Pacific Jazz
- Stormy Monday, 1962, Capitol, with Lou Rawls
- Somethin' Special, 1962, Pacific Jazz, with Richard "Groove" Holmes
- In New York, 1962, Pacific Jazz, with Stanley Turrentine
- On Time, 1962, Pacific Jazz
- The Gospel Truth, 1963, Pacific Jazz
- Soul Hits, 1963, Pacific Jazz
- Plays The Shampoo At The Village Gate, 1963, Pacific Jazz
- Jazz Waltz, 1964, Pacific Jazz, with the Jazz Crusaders
- New From The Big City, 1964, Pacific Jazz
- Spanish Onions, 1964, Pacific Jazz
- McCanna, 1964, Pacific Jazz
- McCann/Wilson, 1965, Pacific Jazz, with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra
- But Not Really, 1965, Limelight Records
- Plays The Hits, 1967, Limelight
- Django, 1968, Sunset Records (a product of Liberty Records)
- Live At Shelly's Manne Hole, Limelight
- Beaux J. Pooboo, Limelight
- Bucket O' Grease, Limelight
- Live At The Bohemian Caverns, Washington, DC, Limelight
- Poo Boo, Limelight
- Much Les, 1969, Atlantic
- Swiss Movement, 1969, Atlantic, with Eddie Harris
- Comment, 1970, Atlantic
- Second Movement, 1971, Atlantic, with Eddie Harris
- Invitation to Openness, 1972, Atlantic
- Talk to the People, 1972, Atlantic
- Fish This Week, 1973, Blue Note/United Artists
- Layers, 1973, Atlantic
- Live at Montreux, 1973, Atlantic
- Another Beginning, 1974, Atlantic
- Hustle to Survive, 1975, Atlantic
- River High, River Low,1976, Atlantic
- Change Change Change; Live at the Roxy, 1977, ABC
- Music lets Me Be" 1977, ABC Impulse
- The Man, 1978, A&M
- Tall, Dark & Handsome, 1979, A&M
- The Longer You Wait, 1983, JAM
- McCann's Music Box, 1984, JAM
- The Butterfly, 1988, Stone
- More Of Les, 1989
- Relationships: The Les McCann Anthology, 1993, Rhino/Atlantic
- On The Soul Side, 1994, MusicMasters
- Piano Jazz, 1996, NPR Piano Jazz Series, featuring Marian McPartland
- Listen Up!!, 1996, Music Masters
- Pacifique, 1998, Music Masters, with Joja Wendt
- How's your mother?, 1998, 32JAZZ
- Pump it up, 2002, France
- Jazz Legend Project, 2004, Megaphon
- "Compared to What" was featured in "Lockdown", the season two episode of Lost.
- The live version of "Compared to What" was featured in the Martin Scorsese film Casino, during the scene where the organizational hierarchy of the casino is being explained.
- "Compared to What", has been a featured song in the 2007 tour of American Idol Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks.
- McCann's song "Valllarta(Skit)" was sampled by the late rapper The Notorious B.I.G. in the song "The Ten Crack Commandments) off his album Life After Death.
- The song "Roberta" was sampled on Afu-Ra's "Whirlwind Thru Cities".
- The beginning of "Sometimes I Cry" was sampled by Massive Attack to create their song "Teardrop".
- "Behind Bars" by Slick Rick also samples "Sometimes I Cry".
- "The song "Music lets me be" was used in the intro of Gang starr's "You know my steez"
- The beginning of the song "The Harlem Buck Dance Strut" is used in the Daddylonglegs (Howie B) song "Giddy up"
- McCann's song "Benjamin" (1969) was sampled by French rap band IAM (band) in the song "C'est donc ça nos vies" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_McCann)
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