Ken Nordine—Radio Icon and the Wizard of Word Jazz

Ken Nordine in his 80's was still a vital and creative force.

In our annual April National Poetry month series post we have featured young spoken word artists, including by happenstance two young women who had been refugees.  One of them uses all of the modern communications bells and whistles—social media and YouTube to spread her words with the speed of electrons around the world.  The other is a World Champion Slam poet who has come out of a world influenced by rap and the avante guard performance art scene.  Both, whether they know it or not owe a deep debt of gratitude to the marriage of Beat Generation coffee house performance, cool post-war jazz, and a Chicago radio guy with smooth golden pipes and the impeccable phrasing of an Ornette Coleman or Miles Davis.

Ken Nordine invented and perfected something called Word Jazz where sound disembodied from radio or recordings play inside the listeners mind.  He did it from the 1950s and almost to the end of his life on February 16, 2019 at age 98.  And all of it is still as fresh as any stuff out there.

Nordine was born in Cherokee, Iowa on April 13, 1920 but the family soon moved to Jazz Age Chicago.  His father was an architect who did work at the Century of Progress World’s Fair.  His extremely religious mother encouraged young Ken to ad lib sermons for her, early training for thinking and speaking quickly on his feet.  He attended Lane Tech on the North Side, one of the city’s elite high schools.

He went on to attend the University of Chicago where he founded the radio club spurred by his admiration for the work of Orson Welles, Norman Corwin, and Arch Obler.  He got a job running the Mimeograph and doing other odd jobs and clerical work on WBEZ, then an educational radio station serving Chicago Public Schools.  More importantly, his smooth, rich voice got him work in Chicago’s busy scene producing radio dramas, soap operas, sketch comedy, and situation comedies for local stations, network distribution, and syndication.  He worked as a voice actor and sometimes even as a host/presenter on anthology programs under several different names—Michael Scott, Ken Conrad, and Eric Lander among others.  Among the programs were The World’s Greatest Novels and Michel Scott Presents.

After graduation he wed Byryl with whom he would have a long and happy marriage which produced three sons.  The young couple moved around a lot at Nordine served the typical apprenticeship of a radio announcer, moving from station to station in small towns and increasingly larger markets.  There were stops in Bay City, Michigan, and West Palm Beach, Florida.  By the early ‘50s he was ensconced at WBBM, one of Chicago’s top stations and a CBS affiliate where he was a staff announcer.  

By mid-decade he was bored with just playing records on the late night show he hosted.  He was already occasionally reading poetry, short stories, or newspaper clippings.  He decided to add a jazz back drop to the readings and to punctuate the words, much like bongos and muted horns were being used in smoky coffee houses where poets read their stuff.  Initially most of the material was written by others but he mixed in unconventional sources—want ads, catalog listings, and other found material which elevated the sound of the words over their meaning.

Nordine recording an electric calculator.  Mundane sounds punctuated the riffs of Word Jazz

Nordine collaborated with a multi-instrumentalist studio musician.  They would discuss the presentation before the show.  He would make notes of what sounds and what instruments he wanted and where to drop them in.  He would add sound effects like dripping water, a clacking typewriter, or a revving engine.  The musician would add his suggestions.  Then they would go on the air.  They were loose enough so that they could improvise and jam together.

Eventually Nordine began mixing in his own words.  His pieces could be full of humor and whimsy or dark, foreboding, almost nightmarish.  On critic noted his work could be “more akin to Franz Kafka or Edgar Allan Poe” than to the Beats.  He called it simply Word Jazz.

People were fascinated by what he was doing and in 1957 Dot Records and inked a contract with him.  Nordine’s first LP Word Jazz featuring  cool jazz by the Fred Katz Group featuring Chico Hamilton recording under an alias due to contract restraints with Hamilton’s regular label.  The album was a cult hit and a strong catalog piece selling well year after year.  There were follow-up albums including Son of Word Jazz, Love Words, Next!, and Word Jam, Vol. II.

In the early '60's Nordine may have looked like a button down ad man, but something else entirely was going on in his mind.

Nordine and Hamilton brought the concept to television in 1960 on WNBQ (WMAQ-TV since 1965) Channel 5.  On a late night show called Faces in a Window Nordine sat on a stool illuminated with a single dim light on an otherwise darkened set and read poetry and his original material while the Fred Katz Group played.  Around the same time Fred Astaire danced to one of Nordine’s recordings, Now Baby on one of his TV specials.

Eventually Word Jazz became a stand-alone half hour program broadcast on WBBM-AM every Monday at Midnight.  That’s where I discovered and fell in love with Nordine and his work while I was a high school student in Skokie recently transplanted from Cheyenne.  His work influenced an original monologue I created for high school Forensics completions based on a Walter Mitty-esqe concept.  Although I initially won medals for the routine at speech meets, the officials of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) found the piece too weird and disqualified it.  I was so proud.

In addition to his successful radio stints Nordine has always had a parallel and highly lucrative career as a freelance voice-over artist.  He has appeared in everything from industrial and school instructional films to commercials and movie trailers.  Eventually he convinced advertisers and advertising executives to allow him to create his own spots and campaigns for both radio and television.  Among his memorable campaigns were those for the Chicago Film Festival, First Chicago Bank, Levis, Magnavox, and Taster’s Choice.  He was also the voice and creator of the memorable Chicago Blackhawks “Cold steel on ice.”

 

Nordine's psychedelic TV spot for Levis became a cult favorite and is often included in film festivals of breakthrough shorts.

In the ‘80s he moved to National Public Radio which commissioned 65 programs.  Some NPR stations continue to run that original batch.  But Nordine continued to create and syndicate new programs which he made in his Chicago home studio employing the latest computer technology.  He continued to produce new records on a variety of labels including Grateful Dead.  Stare With Your Ears in 1979 was nominated for a spoken word Grammy.

In 2005 Nordine added a visual component to Word Jazz with a DVD featuring abstract computer animation, The Eye Is Never Filled.  He was a guest artist on many programs and recordings including on DJ Food’s eclectic electronic album The Search Engine in 2012.  

 Ken Nordine in his 90's was still hipper than all of  us.

Nordine was not too old to be hipper than all of us.

I can’t reproduce Nordine’s spoken word poetry on a page.  It doesn’t remotely work.  You have to hear it.  So here is a small collection of his pieces on YouTube.

First up, My Baby from the first Word Jazz album—the cut Fred Astaire danced to.  Then Coffee Won’t Hurt You and Flibberty Jib.

                                                                    You're My Baby.

 

                                                                            Coffee.

 

                                                                        Flibberty Jib.

 

Full Poets in Resistance Again Program on YouTube

Now you can see the full Poets in Resistance Again program presented at Tree of Life UU Congregation in McHenry on Saturday, January 11 on YouTube.

Poets in Resistance Again program

This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom. Like art.  —Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize winning American novelist. 

Patrick Murfin is a poet, writer, blogger, amateur historian and lifelong social justice activist who organized the original Poets in Resistance program in 2017.   

Jan Boseman lives and writes in Woodstock. Poetry chose her to play on its team many years ago when she fell in love with The Prisoner of Chillon. She has been honing her skills ever since. Some call her a protest poet. 

Alan Sheer is a retired professor of philosophy, religion, ethics and history. Prior to his teaching career Alan was a congressional press secretary and pastor of several churches where he worked in a variety of social justice ministries.   

Tricia Alexander is an award-winning performing and healing artist, a performance poet, songwriter, and musician.  She said, “Writing has helped me understand and process this multi-dimensional experience of living.  I can’t imagine my life without the beauty and the depth that writing has not only brought  TO me—but also  what it has encouraged me to rise up and out of me.” 

Sam Miller is a Crystal Lake Resident and an art student at McHenry County College.

Kenneth Balmes was born in Waukegan and lives in Island Lake. He started writing poetry at age 65, inspired by persons, places and events in my life, especially those closest to him. Believes in trying to make this world a better place and to express and share beauty and love. 

Julie Ann Monroe is a writer of poetry, music, memoirs, essays and books, she is active in her world of photography as well.  She spends her time writing, playing guitar, hiking, hanging out with her horse. She lives in Woodstock works in Harvard and plays anywhere she can!  

Edward Philip Denofrio  was the former and inaugural Poet-in-Residence at Raue Center of the Arts in Crystal Lake, IL. Since his time there, he spent his time organizing poetry-readings in McHenry and Lake County; writing and reading about the natural world and joy in the face of the never ceasing advancement of evil. 

Julie Huddle grew up in McHenry County, returning after living in a variety of places including Nepal, as a Peace Corps volunteer and Colorado. She finds her inspiration primarily in nature, her dog Clarice, and her community.  

Joe Calvillo is a local McHenry County writer, poet, and founder of the poetry group Paladins of Poetry.  He has been an active poet in the area with many associations including Sanctuary Poets, Atrocious Poets and hosted a monthly poetry night in Crystal Lake.  Joe's poetry publication is Azule-A Collections of Poems  and has maintained a writer's Blogspot on Google since 2010. 

James Hamilton is from Wisconsin and is a  seasoned spoken word performance artist,  and motivational speaker.  He is a member of Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and P.O.E.T (People Of Extraordinary Talent).  James has made a significant impact on the literary scene in Wisconsin.   

Jessica Kemery is a Crystal Lake author who writes fantasy and secretly loves poetry.

Luke Welch lives in Northern Illinois where he works as a sign language interpreter.  He has published poems in various small press magazines.   

Christopher D. Sims has been writing and reciting Resistance Poetry for better than twenty years now. A nationally known artist, activist, and truth-teller, his words seek to empower, impact, or inform. Christopher is known as The People’s Poet in his hometown Rockford, IL.  

The Social Justice Team of Tree of Life UU Congregation would like to thank everyone who made the evening special and possible—our poets, Paladins of Poetry and the McHenry County poetry community;  the staff of Tree of Life especially Congregation Administer Judy Stettner;  our tech crew Ryan Broussard and Julie Huddle; our volunteers; and Lisa Messinger for sponsoring the bar;  our beneficiaries and front line organizations Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants (ICDI), McHenry County Citizens for Choice (MCCC), McHenry County NOW, and Woodstock Pride.  A shout out to everyone who helped promote the event on social media and elsewhere.

We hope you have been inspired and motivated to dare to personally step up and actively join in the Resistance to oppression.

Revisiting a Whale of a Tale—Blowing up Blubber

Early in November 1970, a 45-foot long, 8 ton sperm whale beached itself near Florence on the central Oregon Coast.  This turned out to be fatal for the unfortunate whale which, which, based on its size—about half the length of a full grown bull, was likely an adolescent female.

Sperm whales were still being actively hunted by several countries, most notably the Japanese, Soviets, and Norwegians though their numbers had been reduced to the point where the species was threatened.  Although the United States was out of the business, its fleets of whalers had roamed the globe from New England ports from the late 18th Century to the early mid-20th Century and had taken the biggest toll on the population of the world’s largest toothed predator.  The waxy substance known as spermaceti which is encased in a large compartment comprising most of the animal’s large, boxy head produced oils which were the most commonly used lamp fuels in North America and Northern Europe up until the development of kerosene.  It was also a fine lubricant for industrial machinery.  Bi-products including parts of the skeleton provided the tough but flexible whale bone required in ladies’ corsets and ambergris, a waste product from the digestive system, is still used as a fixative in perfumes.

                                            The dead Oregon whale should not be confused with Moby Dick....

The great American whale fleets—think Moby Dick, Captain Ahab, and the Pequod—generated great fortunes.  But when progress—and petroleum—replaced prime market for whale oil and ladies’ undergarments became all about the latex and wire, there was no profit left and Americans turned to other occupations.  The Japanese pioneered in new uses for whale carcasses, including as pet food, and developed modern factory ships to process the kill and were thus still in the business.

Various whale species, including the great krill sifting Humpbacks and Blues as well as more diminutive Minkes were a common sight in the waters off the Pacific Northwest coast.  But sperm whales were rare.  So uncommon that despite the beached animal’s distinctive blunt block head, it was commonly reported that the animal on the sands at Florence was a Gray Whale.

The beaching of whale species was not unknown, although it was then far less common than it is today when various factors—infections and destruction of hearing by underwater explosives and Navy sonar technology—is suspected.  But this sperm whale carcass, which quickly began to emit a tangy aroma, was much bigger than anyone called upon had ever had to deal with. 

The authority in charge, due to a quirk in the Oregon law at the time which classified the state’s beaches as public highways, was the Oregon Highway Division evidently because it had the heavy equipment and manpower to deal with damage and beach erosion after heavy storms.  Unfortunately, it did not have expertise in this kind of mortuary disposal.

Evidently someone at the Highway Division consulted someone at the Navy.  The concern was that if the carcass was buried on the beach under the sands, it could become exposed again by surf erosion and that it was too big to haul away without being cut into pieces.  Nobody seemed to have the stomach to do that.  So, the Navy, which had a hammer and saw all problems as nails, cheerfully suggested blowing the damn thing up and letting scavenging birds take care of the pieces.  Unfortunately, they provided no suggestions on just how to do it.

That job fell to career civil engineer George Thornton, who got the job because the chief district engineer was conveniently away on a hunting trip.  Although Thornton may have been a whizz at designing ramps, widening lanes, and overseeing heavy equipment, he had little experience with explosives—and none at all with explosives and tons of soft tissue.  Before carrying out his job he blithely told Portland TV newsman Paul Linnman that he wasn’t exactly sure how much dynamite would be needed.

Finally, he figured that 20 cases of dynamite—half a ton—of explosives would do the trick and blow the whale away like a boulder that had rolled onto a highway in an earthquake.  Sand was scooped out under the body and the dynamite shoved underneath.

By chance among the growing crowd gathering to watch the unusual operations was Walter Umenhofer, a veteran with experience in blowing things up with the Army Corps of Engineers.  He just happened to be in the area scouting the location for a new manufacturing facility for his employer.  Umenhofer was aghast by what he was seeing.  He hastily advised Thornton that he was using far too much dynamite—ten strategically placed sticks would do the job.  Thornton was not open to unsolicited advice.  He proceeded as planned.

A KATU-TV cameraman, covering the operation with Linnman, was set up to capture the blast.

And it was one hell of a blast.  The explosion threw huge chunks of whale flesh over 800 feet away, raining down on buildings, businesses, autos, and an actual State highway that separated the beach from the town.  One huge chunk fell on Umenhofer’s almost new Oldsmobile 98 which he had recently bought at a dealer’s Whale of a Sale.  Despite being built like a Sherman tank, the shiny new Olds was crushed.

Yet only part of the whale was actually removed—the part directly over the explosives, which also dug a deep hole in the sand underneath it.  Most of the carcass remained on the beach.  Worse, the scavenger birds counted on to devour the leftovers were frightened away by the blast and did not quickly return.

Linnman filed a pun-filled report with his Portland station, “land-lubber newsmen became land-blubber newsmen ... for the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds.”  The report was aired locally that night and was a one-day local sensation, soon faded from memory.

...or Willy the Singing Whale

Highway Division workers had to come in and bury the bulky remains anyway, pretty much where they laid—and of course had to assist the local populace clean up the shreds and chunks of rotting flesh on their property. Thornton maintained that the operation had been “largely successful in meeting its objectives.”  He was promoted within a few months and served out a distinguished career until retiring from the Highway Division’s successor, the Oregon Department of Transportation.  He would be plagued by questions about the operation for the rest of his career and steadfastly stood by his assessment of his own success.

Someone at the Division, however, must have learned something.  A few years later in 1979 and not far away a whole pod of 40 sperm whales beached themselves and the Department burned and buried the remains in the sand.

Within a few years the exploding whale had become something of an urban legend of suspect reliability.  Then almost 20 years later on of May 20, 1990 humor columnist Dave Barry in his popular nationally syndicated Miami Herald column claimed to be in possession of footage of an explosion.  Without mentioning that it had occurred decades earlier he wrote, “Here at the Exploding Animal Research Institute we watch it often, especially at parties.”  An excerpt from the longer article ran in many newspapers as The Far Side Comes to Life in Oregon—a reference to the popular comic panel by Gary Larson.

In 1990 columnist Dave Barry resurrected the story of the exploding whale propelling it to the realm of an Urban Legend with a cult following.

The Highway Department was deluged with calls, many of which were from outraged animal lovers who were convinced the dastards had blown up a still living whale.  And although they gradually tapered off, they never disappeared.

However, a story this good has legs.  The original TV story, or clips from it, became a sensation on the Internet circulated by a web site called explodingwhale.com, alas no longer up, which featured all sorts of coverage of exploding whales—usually blown up by expanding gasses in their rotting corpses.  YouTube spread it further.  At one point it was reported to be the most watched local TV news story in history and had racked up over 350 million hits world-wide.

And every time an anniversary rolls around or some asshole with a cheeky blog like Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout files a story, the folks at Oregon DOT are deluged anew with calls and the long retired Thornton has to fend off new generations of reporters.

 

Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah— The Murfin Winter Holidays Music Festival

                                                        Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah performed by early childhood musicians the Kiboomers.

It will be night 7 of Hanukkah this evening.  It seems the vast majority of newer songs for the Festival of Light are written for children.  Most come in two broad categories.  First are instructional songs meant to explain the celebration’s meaning, origins, and customs.  The second are novelty songs meant to be catchy alternatives to the one holiday song that is used over and over in public holiday observances, school programs, and gets regular air play on holiday radio channels—Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel.  The songs also come with colorful videos and are often targeted to specific age groups.

The Kiboomers  have been creating:

…songs to help teachers achieve success in the Preschool, Kindergarten and ESL classroom!  We create kids songs to help teachers with transitions, holding children's attention, as a change of pace, helping children remember, reducing stress, and having fun.

For over 20 years they have created hundreds of bouncy, cheerful, colorful songs, and videos which they have posted on their own YouTube channel and which can be ordered as downloadable albums from their web site.  Their holiday music is equal opportunity.  They have a Christmas Album and songs that celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, and other holidays.

Hanukkah Songs for Kids includes 11 short tunes, most of them in the klezmer style of today’s selection, Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah.

Ken Nordine Wizard of Word Jazz Passes

Ken Nordine.

 

Note—Ken Nordine died Saturday at the age of 98. His unparalleled, smooth baritone guided WBEZ listeners through "Word Jazz" for more than 40 years. This post is adapted from one that originally ran during the National Poetry Month series in 2016.

And now, as they say, time for something completely different.  We have featured a couple of young spoken word artists, both by happenstance young women who had been refugees.  One uses all of the modern communications bells and whistles—social media and YouTube to spread her words with the speed of electrons around the world.  The other is a World Champion Slam poet who has come out of a world influenced by rap and the avante guard performance art scene.  Both, whether they know it or not owe a deep debt of gratitude to the marriage of Beat Generation coffee house performance, cool post-war jazz, and a Chicago Radio guy with smooth golden pipes and the impeccable phrasing of an Ornette Coleman or Miles Davis. 

Ken Nordine invented and perfected something called Word Jazz where sound disembodied from radio or recordings play inside the listeners mind.  He did it since the ‘50’s and almost to the end of his life today at it age 98.  And all of it is as fresh as the most  stuff out there.

Nordine was born in Cherokee, Iowa on April 13, 1920 but the family soon moved to jazz age Chicago.  His father was an architect who did work at the Century of Progress World’s Fair.  His extremely religious mother encouraged young Ken to ad lib sermons for her, early training for thinking and speaking quickly on his feet.  He attended Lane Tech on the North Side, one of the city’s elite high schools.

He went on to attend the University of Chicago where he founded the radio club spurred by his admiration for the work of Orson Welles, Norman Corwin, and Arch Obler.  He got a job running the Mimeograph and doing other odd jobs and clerical work on WBEZ, then an educational radio station serving Chicago Public Schools.  More importantly, his smooth, rich voice got him work in Chicago’s busy scene producing radio dramas, soap operas, sketch comedy, and situation comedies for local stations, network distribution, and syndication.  He worked as a voice actor and sometimes even as a host/presenter on anthology programs under several different names—Michael Scott, Ken Conrad, and Eric Lander among others.  Among the programs were The World’s Greatest Novels and Michel Scott Presents.

After graduation he wed Byryl with whom he would have a long and happy marriage which produced three sons.  The young couple moved around a lot at Nordine served the typical apprenticeship of a radio announcer, moving from station to station in small towns and increasingly larger markets.  There were stops in Bay City, Michigan, and West Palm Beach, Florida.  By the early ‘50’s he was ensconced at WBBM, one of Chicago’s top stations and a CBS affiliate where he was a staff announcer. 

By mid-decade he was bored with just playing records on the late night show he hosted.  He was already occasionally reading poetry, short stories, or newspaper clippings.  He decided to add a jazz back drop to the readings and to punctuate the words, much like bongos and muted horns were being used in smoky coffee houses where poets read their stuff.  Initially most of the material was written by others but he mixed in unconventional sources—want ads, catalog listing, and other found material which elevated the sound of the words over their meaning.

Nordine recording an electric calculatore.  Mundane sounds punctuated the riffs of Word Jazz

Nordine collaborated with a multi-instrumentalist studio musician.  They would discuss the presentation before the show.  He would make notes of what sounds and what instruments he wanted and where to drop them in.  He would add sound effects like dripping water, a clacking typewriter, or a revving engine.  The musician would add his suggestions.  Then they would go on the air.  They were loose enough so that they could improvise and jam together.

Eventually Nordine began mixing in his own words.  His pieces could be full of humor and whimsy or dark, foreboding, almost nightmarish.  On critic noted his work could be “more akin to Franz Kafka or Edgar Allan Poe” than to the Beats.  He called it simply Word Jazz.

People were fascinated by what he was doing and in 1957 Dot Records and inked a contract with him.  Nordine’s first LP Word Jazz featuring  cool jazz by the Fred Katz Group featuring Chico Hamilton recording under an alias due to contract restraints with Hamilton’s regular label.  The album was a cult hit and a strong catalog piece selling well year after year.  There were follow-up albums including Son of Word Jazz, Love Words, Next!, and Word Jam, Vol. II.

In the early '60's Nordine may have looked like a button down ad man, but something else entirely was going on in his mind.

Nordine and Hamilton brought the concept to Television in 1960 on WNBQ (WMAQ-TV since 1965) Channel 5.  On a late night show called Faces in a Window Nordine sat on a stool illuminated with a single dim light on an otherwise darkened set and read poetry and his original material while the Fred Katz Group played.  Around the same time Fred Astaire danced to one of Nordine’s recordings, Now Baby on one of his TV specials.

Eventually Word Jazz became a stand-alone half hour program broadcast on WBBM-AM every Monday at Midnight.  That’s where I discovered and fell in love with Nordine and his work while I was a high school student in Skokie recently transplanted from Cheyenne.  His work influenced an original monologue I created for Forensics completions based on a Walter Mitty-esqe concept.  Although I initially won medals for the routine at speech meets, the officials of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) found the piece too weird and disqualified it.  I was so proud.

In addition to his successful radio stints Nordine has always had a parallel and highly lucrative parallel career as a free lance voice-over artist.  He has appeared in everything from industrial and school instructional films to commercials and movie trailers.  Eventually he convinced advertisers and advertising executives to allow him to create his own spots and campaigns for both radio and television.  Among his memorable campaigns were those for the Chicago Film Festival, First Chicago Bank, Levis, Magnavox, and Taster’s Choice.  He was also the voice and creator of the memorable Chicago Blackhawks “Cold steel on ice.”

Nordine's psycadelic TV spot for Levis became a cult favorite and is often included in film festivals of breakthrough shorts.

In the ‘80’ Word Jazz moved to National Public Radio which commission 65 programs.  Some NPR stations continue to run that original batch.  But Nordine continued to create and syndicate new programs which he made in his Chicago home studio employing the latest computer technology.  He continued to produce new records on a variety of labels including Grateful Dead.  Stare With Your Ears in 1979 was nominated for a spoken word Grammy.

In 2005 Nordine added a visual component to Word Jazz with a DVD featuring abstract computer animation, The Eye Is Never Filled.  He was a guest artist on many programs and recordings including on DJ Food’s eclectic electronic album The Search Engine in 2012.  

Ken Nordine in his 90's was still hipper than all of  us

Nordine was not too old to be hipper than all of us.

I can’t reproduce Nordine’s spoken word poetry on a page.  It doesn’t remotely work.  You have to hear it.  So here is a small collection of his pieces on YouTube.

First up, My Baby from the first Word Jazz album—the cut Fred Astaire danced to.  Then Coffee Won’t Hurt You and Flibberty Jib.