The Mort Report

Hello, once again. Still above ground and taking nourishment while most any of my contemporaries who haven't left the building as of yet are listening to smooth jazz, taking their Lithium and writing with crayons. Having shared that thought with you, last month I had my 78th birthday--another strange custom (why do people celebrate one's arriving ...

It was some time in the early 1960s and this story finds me, still Mort Wise, and my band--still named the Wisemen--having just signed a contract with World Artist Management services, a very happening company whose roster had names like Red Skelton, Ray Charles, Jacqueline Fontaine and many others. I would be one of the many ...

Hello again. This remembrance takes us back to the early 1960s when I went under the name of Mort Wise and my band's name was The Wisemen. Go ahead and Google Mort Wise And The Wisemen, and you'll probably come up with the recording we did (on a 45 rpm) called “Wild Boy." Also, you might ...

The following is taken from the chronicles of a gold panel Committee of select persons from the international confines of various state institutions that hold such findings sacred--the long-term commitment of these individuals that have given rant to their multitudinous ravings on this highly personal topic. In my course of dumpster diving for salvation, I found ...

As a result of the efforts of one Michael Ricci and what he has given to the jazz world, the above title means just that! Michael has given you--musicians, club owners, booking agents, food and beverage servers, the people that provide such services, all concert and festival artistic directors, venue management, fans, transportation folks and music ...

The following will be an exercise in candor. I like to see my name in print on a Major--the major jazz web site. And I hope it will further better my record sales. I like to think that folks/people are finding things of interest in my remembrances that I've accumulated within my persona over a long ...

How the above title turned me on to the love of jazz. It was 1939 and I was four years old and my parents took me to my first moving picture show that being the above (I kinda had eyes for Gone with the Wind) and to hear Clark Gable say that filthy word at the ...

This is the story of two collaborations with Joey DeFrancesco that you almost never saw--or the difference between music ... and the music “business." The first unreleased album I recorded with Joey DeFrancesco is now known as the Mort Weiss Quartet CD featuring Joey, Ron Eschete and Ramon Banda, followed by 2006's The B3 and Me. ...

This time out, I'd like to delineate how it is for me when I go somewhere to appear as a guest artist. Specifically, I'm thinking about the time I headlined the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival in Portland, Oregon. The phone rings, and it's Joe Beeler, the artistic director and producer of said festival. We had talked ...

Let's set the scene: Actress Polly Bergen's Malibu Beach house, 1965. The cast of participants includes Jack Lemmon and his wife Felicia Farr, Kirk Douglas, Jackie Gleason, Steve Allen and his wife Jayne Meadows, Sandra Dee, Cary Grant, William Powell, a bevy of young starlets and many more show folks. And the bands! A Guy Lombardo ...

This question goes way back, but is still relevant in 2012: Who's the better musician--a jazz or classical player? I remember talking to someone, about someone, and the cat asking: Is he jazz or legit? For those of you who don't know what Mort Weiss is about, I will restate that when I use the word ...

When I first started doing these articles I gave no thought as to the chronological order in which they occurred. Because of all the response regarding these little tidbits of the various happenings in my life as a jazzman (hey, there's no other name for it is there?) I will endeavor to fill in the blanks ...

I was quite active in the early days of live television, most of which was shot in Hollywood, California. Sometime in the latter part of 1951, I got a call from the director and producer of many teen-oriented TV shows. His name is Al Burton, and he went on to become a mega-dude in the industry. ...

Los Angeles/Hollywood, California, in the late 1940s through the early 1960s was a happening place for jazz and jazz musicians. There was always a place to play a jam session, or more correctly session(s)--mostly in beer bars. (I'm not counting the ones that went on all night in some one's pad, if they were lucky enough ...