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Duke Ellington: Copenhagen 1958
by Ken Dryden
Duke Ellington left a formidable discography at his death at the age of 75 in 1974, and it has expanded greatly with the number of concerts that have been uncovered and issued since then. This CD is drawn from two 1958 concerts at KB Hallen in Copenhagen, though they are not sourced from the original, long lost broadcast tapes, but dubs evidently made by a fan. What makes this a valuable find is that the band is in top form ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington: Copenhagen 1958
by Jack Kenny
Duke Ellington hated flying so, in 1958, Ellington and Co sailed into Southampton UK to prepare for a tour of Europe. Before going on to Copenhagen, Ellington completed a tour of the UK, taking in Leeds where he met Queen Elizabeth, an event which eventually resulted in the “Queen's Suite." Earlier in the year, his strange obsession with royalty had produced a piece for Princess Margaret, “Princess Blue'" The band was particularly strong in this part of its ...
Continue ReadingDuke Ellington: Uppsala 1971
by Chris Mosey
From his first visit in 1939 to a concert a few months before his death in 1973, Duke Ellington took special pleasure in visiting Sweden. He composed a “Serenade to Sweden" and wrote a new arrangement for a very Swedish pop song, “I en rod liten stuga (In a Red Little Cottage)." He also entered into a fruitful collaboration with Swedish vocalist Alice Babs. This album, recorded at a concert in the great hall of Uppsala University on ...
Continue ReadingNew Orleans Jazz Orchestra: Songs - The Music of Allen Toussaint
by C. Michael Bailey
After a harrowing experience of administrative scandal, followed by near extinction, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of drummer Adonis Rose, rises phoenix-like from the ashes to release the first large orchestra consideration of New Orleans son Allen Toussaint. Songs: The Music of Allen Toussaint is a celebration of the late composer, featuring nine selections either penned by or associated with him. Toussaint is NOLA royalty, whose name exists in the same breath as Cosimo Matassa, the Neville ...
Continue ReadingNew Orleans Jazz Orchestra: Songs: The Music of Allen Toussaint
by Jack Bowers
Allen Toussaint (1938-2015), a composer / producer who made his mark in the broad spheres of R&B, rock and roll, funk, country and pop music, may seem at first glance an unusual choice for a big-band jazz tribute. On the other hand, the New Orleans native never strayed far from the pivotal music of his home city, embracing and supporting jazz even as he found other musical worlds to conquer. So when vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater remarked to Adonis Rose, ...
Continue ReadingBen Webster: Ben Webster's First Concert in Denmark
by Chris Mosey
This is a small piece of jazz history. In January 1965, Ben Webster, newly arrived in Europe from America, was working out where to settle down. This concert shows why he decided on Copenhagen. The album starts with Webster making a point about the playing of his former boss Duke Ellington's “In A Mellotone." Webster argues his case on piano, an instrument he played well, while brusquely growling instructions to producer Børge Roger Henrichsen. There is a ...
Continue ReadingThomas Fonnesbæk: Sharing
by Chris Mosey
The title is apt and perhaps a trifle ironic. Danish bassist Thomas Fonnesbaek and the blind young American pianist Justin Kauflin share a condition known as synaesthesia, in which their senses overlap and they experience music as color. For this, their second album together and recorded in Gothenburg, Sweden, they are joined on by Kauflin's childhood friend, drummer Billy Williams, who has worked with a number of first-class jazz musicians including Benny Golson, Ellis Marsalis and Christian ...
Continue ReadingLars Jansson: Just This
by Chris Mosey
Swedish pianist/composer Lars Jansson is a Zen Buddhist, concerned primarily with being in the moment. There can be difficulties--"To experience and accept all that happens in our lives is no easy matter," says Jansson. “It takes practice and an open mind (beginner's mind) to ignore expectations and preconceived attitudes and completely immerse oneself in the present as it unfolds." There are two songs on Just This that deal with this problem: the title track and “No Purpose." ...
Continue ReadingMorten Haxholm: Vestigium
by Friedrich Kunzmann
The world of bass players in modern and post-bop jazz can be divided into two currents. On the one hand, you'll find the dominant character who leads the compositions with a decisive hand and frequent moments of striking ostinatos. On the other, one finds a personality who seems to walk through the composition and, like camouflage, conceal moments of pure bliss within the harmonic context and overall texture. While the former at times seems to have the song serving his ...
Continue ReadingMorten Haxholm: Vestigium
by Chris Mosey
Other nationalities find the double bass a cumbersome instrument. But, perhaps because they are, in the main, tall, healthy and strong and thus can handle it with relative ease, Danes love it. Since its introduction by the great native American bassist Oscar Pettiford in the late 1950s, it has come to play a major role on the local scene. The thing is Danes take their jazz seriously. There is now a Rhythmical Music Conservatory, or university of ...
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