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Results for "Backgrounder"
Backgrounder: Clarke/Boland - Latin Kaleidoscope
Today, the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band still doesn't get the respect it deserves. Perhaps that's because the band was comprised of American and European musicians, many of whom were little known to record buyers. The band also did much of its touring abroad. But there were other reasons. Most of their records were released on ...
Backgrounder: Count Basie's Sinatra Tribute (1963)
In 1963, Count Basie was persuaded by producer Norman Granz to record a tribute album to singer Frank Sinatra. Though Creed Taylor was Verve's executive producer by then, Granz held onto several of his artists, including Basie and Ella Fitzgerald, after the label was sold to MGM. By then, Sinatra and Basie had recorded and released ...
Backgrounder: Tina Brooks - True Blue (1960)
No other category of artist in American history had to fight harder to have his or her creativity recognized than the jazz musician. This war was waged on three fronts—with themselves, with the culture and with their record label. If any one of these three battles was lost, the other two often collapsed as well. In ...
Backgrounder: Grant Green and Sonny Clark
Throughout jazz history, there have been magical pairings of musicians in recording studios. Sometimes the union was established jointly by the two musicians. At other times, producers brought them together. These couplings include Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden, Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Shirley Scott and ...
Backgrounder: Music To Listen To Barney Kessel By
By 1957, Los Angeles was Shangri-La for many jazz studio musicians. They had settled in the San Fernando Valley north of the city, married, had kids, no longer had to tour, the weather was great, the highways weren't impossible yet and the Pacific Ocean's beaches were waiting. Provided their car started, they were in business for ...
Backgrounder: Sonny Rollins - Alfie (1966)
No album better reflects Sonny Rollins's personality than his Alfie: Original Music From the Score, arranged by Oliver Nelson. Recorded in New York in January 1966, the original music has his energy, passion, tenderness and his melancholy in one fell swoop. It's all very mid-1960s. To learn more about the recording, consult my two-part post on ...
Backgrounder: Georgie Auld Plays the Winners, 1963
Tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld led many terrific groups. Ten years ago, I posted about his 1940s and early '50s ensembles (go here). Today, a 12-inch gem: Georgie Auld Quintet Plays the Winners. Recorded for Philips in Hollywood in April 1963, Auld's quintet featured Frank Rosolino (tb), Georgie Auld (ts), Lou Levy (p). Leroy Vinnegar (b) and ...
Backgrounder: Remo Rau - Evening at Cafe Africana
Zurich's Club Africana was a stronghold of modern Swiss jazz in the early 1960s, featuring musicians such as Abdullah Ibrahim, Chris McGregor and Dudu Pukwana. The club's program director, Remo Rau, a vibraphonist, also led a house-band quartet that consisted of Remo Rau (vib), Renato Anselmi (p), Roger Dannhauer (b) and Alex Bally (d). In May ...
Backgrounder: A.K. Salim on Savoy
One of the least researched and virtually forgotten master arrangers of the 1950s is Ahmad Khatab Salim—better known as A.K. Salim. He had a muscular, orchestral style and lyrical instrumental approach that caught the ear and packed a punch. Salim also arranged for Dizzy Gillespie and had one of the finest Latin-jazz pens, scoring Machito's Kenya ...
Backgrounder: Buddy Fite - Tasty (1975)
Unless you lived in western Oregon in the late 1960s and '70s or the 1990s, you probably have no idea who Buddy Fite was. I bumped into his jazz guitar playing by accident last week on YouTube and was astonished. So I did a little research in old newspapers. Born in Vancouver, Wash., in 1938, Ronald ...
