Video: '60s Studio Musicians

Many jazz fans think of the 1960s and '70s as a time when pop-rock radio hits marginalized jazz artists while young, sub-par musicians raked in the dough. The truth is a little different. Many of the young rock bands of the 1960s and '70s may have looked cool in magazines and on TV, but the music you heard on the radio was almost always recorded by studio musicians so accomplished they could play virtually anything. Many of these musicians were jazz musicians, particularly on the East and West coasts. In Los Angeles, those studio musicians became known as the Wrecking Crew.

A few years ago, Denny Tedesco, son of the late guitarist Tommy Tedesco, produced and directed a documentary on these studio musicians. He recently raised more than $300,000 on Kickstarter to pay the financial licensing fees so the film can be finally be released commercially on DVD. Way to go, Denny!

Interestingly, another film on studio musicians in the '60s was being made around the same time by director Gil Baker. I've never seen Session Men fully assembled, but Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine sent along a couple of clips from the film that he found at YouTube...

Wrecking Crew segment...



American Studio house band...



And here's footage of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys rehearsing Good Vibrations with Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew...