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422 IN NEW YORK - Jazz activity in New York City got a major boost from the
completed Kool Jazz Festival. Aside from festival -sponsored concerts, indepenoduced
events like Omette Coleman's performance at the Public Theater and
k azz Magazine's awards reception also helped to make the city a summer haven
)vers. Pictured in the top row are (l -r): Freddie Watts and Ray Mantilla of M'Boom;
id drummer Arthur Taylor; Dr. George Butler, vice president, jazz A&R. Columbia
Max Roach of M'Boom; Julius Hemphill of the World Saxophone Quartet; and
Coleman talking with ASCAP membership representative Tyron Jenkins backstage at the
Public Theater. Shown in the bottom row are (l -r): Ella Fitzgerald acceprino a bouquet of
roses from Ken Sunshine, ASCAP communications coordinator, during a break between
her two shows at Carnegie Hall; and Panama Francis, Roy Eldridge. Sur Ra, Papa Jo
Jones, Johnny Hartman, Jimmy Heath, Vic Dickerson and Bob Ottenhotf o' radio station
WBGO at the New York Jazz Magazine awards ceremony at the Savoy. Highlight of the Kool
Festival was Miles Davis' first public appearance in Several years.
rbara Mandrell: Crossing Over To Mass Appeal Via TV
Fro n page 24)
r I want it to do."
re1l was born on Christmas Day in
it 1948. By the time she was f ve
playing the accordion. "Before I
to read English," she says, "I lear-
ºad music ... both treble and bass
years later, while playing with two
she discovered she could sing
t. 'I remember making everybody
me like at a family gathering," she
'I'd go from person to person and
w, listen to this.' I sure they
it I could sing harmony."
Mandrell was 11, her mother,
Id father, Irby, began playing bass
ar, respectively, at home for entert
on weekends with Norm Hamlet, a
aver noted for his work in Merle
is oand. Mandrell was immediately
3d by Hamlet's instrument, and
iim into teaching her how to play it.
veeks later, she added the sax -
to -ier studies when she enrolled in
school. As she puts it, "Once you
yirg for free and start playing for
you've gone professional." Six
ater, Mandrell was a pro.
y after, the family formed a musical
Iv andrells, along with two other
en, one of them a drummer named
Iney. Mandrell began dating Dud -
she was 14, and, four years later,
aduation from high school, the two
rri=d. Disavowing her musical in -
she became a serviceman's wile,
D idney was overseas, she moved
family to Tennessee.
One night, upon arrival in Nashville, she
attended tie Grand Ole Opry at the original
Ryman Auditorium. In the middle of the
show, she turned to her father and said, "If
you'll manage me, I'd like to try to get on the
other side of the microphone again. I wasn't
cut out to be n the audience."
It was no time at all before she was performing
at Nashville's nightspots and Printer's
Alley, and, just four months after her
move to Music City, Mandrell signed with
CBS Records. Under the direction of Billy
Sherrill, she stayed with the label five years,
joining the Grand Ole Opry in 1972. In 1975,
she jumped to ABC Records (now owned
by MCA) and, since working with producer
Tom Collins, has put together a long string
of hit material ranging from the slow, moving
"Years" to her spunky "Sleeping Single
In A Double Bed" to the R&B-flavored
remake of Luther Ingram's "(If Loving You
Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right."
Prime Time Sisters
It wasn't until the Mandrell sisters began
appearing on prime time though, that Barbara
became a household name. The sudden
splurge in recognition has caused its
share of p-oblems. "TV is very powerful,"
she notes. "It's visual; it's a saturated, concentrated
effort. I can't go anywhere now
without being recognized."
Her biggest worry, a drop in record sales
that seems to accompany the transition of
most recording artists who become regular
television personalities, failed to surface.
"The show has actually increased my
record sales," says Mandrell. "It was a concern
of mine before doing the television
show - I
thought it might hurt. MCA told
me, though, that the retailers say they have
people come in asking for a Barbara Mandrell
record - they're not looking for
anything in particular - they're just looking
for anything."
Mandrell surrounds herself with
business associates who double as
relatives (aside from Collins and Dennis
Morgan and Kye Fleming, who write most of
her songs). Her sisters, Louise and Irlene,
are, of course, regulars on the show, and
Louise performs alongside her husband,
R.C. Bannon. Barbara's husband is her
financial manager ("He has to make sure
that we have a future because there's no
retirement in our business. You don't know
when your retirement comes; it comes
when the fans say it comes"), and her
mother is responsible for managing her
Nashville office. Even her mother-in-law is
a part of the team, running the fan club,
which has become a major task since the
TV show began.
Credits Father
Mandrell has the utmost respect for her
father, Irby, who acts as personal manager
for both Barbara and Louise. "My entire
career," she says, "my entire existence -a
lot of the credit goes to my father. He's the
greatest manager - not just because he's
my dad. He's got a lot of artists asking for
him, but he doesn't have the time. It's a fulltime
job with me and Louise."
With all that she has accomplished in just
32 years, Mandrell maintains that she has
"just scratched the surface." It doesn't take
her long to come up with new endeavors for
the future.
"There are some great ideas in recording
that I haven't gotten to do yet," she says.
"We're about to attempt it. but it's going to
take awhile to get all the tracks down." After
a brief summer tour, she's scheduled to
begin work on her next album Aug. 9.
After a couple months of deliberation,
she has also agreed to return to Hollywood
in Seotember and begin a second year with
NBC. "In television our ratings actually went
higher when they started showing reruns,"
boasts Mandrell. "It's one of those shows
where new people discover you all the time,
so I e