Jazz Articles

John Lee Hooker: John Lee Hooker: Documenting the Sensation Recordings 1949-1952

by Jakob Baekgaard
June 15, 2020

Sam Phillips of Sun Records fame had an ear for musicians who stood out. He liked artists who were different, and he recognized the earth-shaking potential of John Lee Hooker's “Boogie Chillen,'" an early blueprint, it could be argued, for the rock 'n' roll sound pioneered by Sun. Phillips didn't get the chance to bring Hooker to Sun, but instead he found another unique blues personality to record, Howlin' Wolf, and the rest is history. Blues history ...

Gary McFarland: The In Sound & Soft Samba

by Rob Caldwell
July 27, 2018

Arranger, vibraphonist and singer Gary McFarland is regarded as one of the major purveyors of orchestral jazz--a type of jazz which had its heyday in the 1960s, but which is not heard as much anymore. A fine line separates orchestral jazz from the dreaded “easy listening" tag. A line so fine, they're often one and the same. McFarland, thankfully, managed to walk more on the jazz side, recording a series of albums for Verve and Impulse before his untimely death ...

The New Don Rendell Quintet: Roarin'

by Chris May
December 3, 2004

A fascinating snapshot of the British jazz and rhythm & blues interzone of the early '60s, Roarin' --unavailable for decades and here released on CD for the first time--is well titled. It's a raucous, sweaty, at times honking and screaming ruckus of hard bop, laced with jump jive and blues roots--and it's as enjoyable today as it must have been forty something years ago.

Recorded in '61, the album catches Don Rendell, aged 35, returning to the scene ...