Articles by Chris M. Slawecki
Chuck Mangione: Friend For Lovers
by Chris M. Slawecki
This article first appeared on All About Jazz in September 2000. Chuck Mangione is best known as the trumpet player and composer of that ubiquitous tune, which taught millions worldwide that music “Feels So Good." But Chuck Mangione boasts serious Jazz chops: Before flying solo, he cut his teeth in the Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson big bands and in Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, where he assumed the trumpet chair previously occupied by Clifford ...
Continue ReadingMeet Andy Bey
by Chris M. Slawecki
From the 1995-2003 archive: This article first appeared on All About Jazz in February 2000. Listening for the first time to Andy Bey is like stepping into a quiet, still lake. Your foot first parts a surface that's smooth and tranquil, but you can't really tell from that surface how deeply your foot must go to reach bottom. The first time you hear Bey's delicate yet muscular voice alone, accompanied only by his own piano, or in larger ...
Continue ReadingRoy Haynes: Still Lighting It Up
by Chris M. Slawecki
This article was first published on All About Jazz in June 1997. Drummer Roy Haynes isn't just cool--he's cooooolllll. In conversation, Roy Haynes is languid and relaxed yet full of fire, yet playful, mysterious and serious. Similarly, his music--and he's played alongside the best--is simultaneously passionate and precise, free-swinging and loose, but erudite and eloquent. In short, the Roy Haynes you meet in conversation speaks volumes about his drumming; and Haynes' music, more than with many ...
Continue ReadingA Classic Jazz Curriculum with Label M's Joel Dorn
by Chris M. Slawecki
This article was first published at All About Jazz in April 2001. Ah, the classics. In every art form painting, literature, architecture, dance, music there are works which possess timeless beauty, works with themes that resonate emotionally across decades, through centuries, and are masterfully presented. Joel Dorn's name is indelibly written in the book of jazz classics, though he's never written, hummed, strummed, blown, or otherwise struck a single musical note. He produced albums, in the ...
Continue ReadingBlue Note Series of Rare Summer Grooves
by Chris M. Slawecki
This article was first published at All About Jazz in September 2002 under the old Combing the Blue Note Catalog column. The Rascals knew all about it. They expressed it perfectly in one of their biggest hit singles: Ain't nothing like groovin' on a Sunday afternoon. Not much serves the purpose of that groove better than the right music. To enjoy an exceptional groove, you often need some exceptionally groovin' music. Exceptional grooves--or, if you prefer, Rare Grooves. ...
Continue ReadingMeet Grammy Award Winning Producer Joel Dorn
by Chris M. Slawecki
This article was first published at All About Jazz in 1997. The Song Remains The Same If you're a serious jazz fan, even if you're any kind of jazz fan at all, there's an excellent chance that in your collection you've got at least one piece of music that was produced by Joel Dorn. In the 1960s, Dorn parlayed his tenure as a disc jockey on WHAT-FM, a pioneer 24-hour jazz station, into a slot as ...
Continue ReadingLes McCann: Never Say No Again
by Chris M. Slawecki
"Be who you are and not who you ain't. Because when you are who you ain't, you're not who you are." Keyboardist, vocalist, bandleader, songwriter and photographer Les McCann really talks like this. About his music, about musicians, about his career--about everything. I learned this during the following interview, scheduled to discuss Omnivore Records' March 2015 reissue of McCann's improvisational landmark Invitation to Openness, generally out of print since its original 1972 Atlantic Records' release; this reissue was ...
Continue ReadingLuiz Millan: Brazilian Match
by Chris M. Slawecki
Brazilian Match is a tour-de-force of classic and contemporary Brazilian music written by and featuring singer-songwriter Luiz Millan. Millan's fifth album is a leader is his first for Jazz Station Records and Brazilian jazz impresario Arnaldo DeSouteiro, whose storied history includes working with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Eumir Deodato, Dom Um Romão, João Donato, and other legends, and who called Millan “a composer's composer." “A great melodist who also happens to be a great poet, a fabulous storyteller; a ...
Continue ReadingClint Eastwood Presents: Tony Bennett - The Music Never Ends
by Chris M. Slawecki
This article was first published on All About Jazz on April 11, 2008. Tony Bennett Clint Eastwood Presents: Tony Bennett--The Music Never Ends Warner Home Video 2007 No matter how much you know, or think you know, about the life and artistry of Tony Bennett, you will learn something new from Clint Eastwood's lovingly rendered, impeccably produced two-DVD documentary Tony Bennett--The Music Never Ends. Eastwood and director Bruce Ricker weave together performance ...
Continue ReadingThe Best of Tony Bennett
by Chris M. Slawecki
"Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business, the best exponent of a song," Frank Sinatra once said. “He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more. There's a feeling in back of it." Tony Bennett began his career as a singing waiter in his Queens, NY neighborhood. He served in WWII as part of “the greatest generation" and returned home to his music. Two enduring career hallmarks--his inexhaustible ...
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