Jazz Articles about Ben Webster

Ben Webster: Ben Webster: The Brute & The Beautiful

by Michael Steinman
May 30, 2009

Ben Webster (1909-73), perhaps the least acknowledged of the great jazz tenor saxophonists, was fortunate enough to have a varied 40-year recording career. His ballads were immensely tender and his blues and faster tunes could be nearly violent in their intensity. Hence the title of this two-disc set, a centennial issue that celebrates this musical duality. Webster's career found him in so many contexts (accompanying Billie Holiday, early and late; an integral member of the classic 1940-41 Ellington orchestra; leading ...

Ben Webster: Centennial Celebration

by Martin Gladu
April 5, 2009

Remembered for his seminal solos on such classics as “Cotton Tail" and “All Too Soon" as much as for his historic clashes with boss Duke Ellington, hot-tempered saxophonist Ben Webster's legacy truly stands the test of time. The year 2009, being the centennial of the tenor titan's birth, Concord Records marks the occasion with this 9-track compilation taken from four different sessions spanning the years 1956 to 1963.Borrowed from Soulmates (Riverside, 1963)--his collaboration with Austrian piano whiz Joe ...

Ben Webster / Stan Tracey: Soho Nights, Vol. 1

by Graham L. Flanagan
March 21, 2009

This month celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of jazz's titans: Ben Webster. His career spanned over 40 years, from being a journeyman in the Ellington orchestra to becoming one of that group's biggest stars and subsequently emerging as one of the most iconic figures of the tenor sax. On the heels of 2008's Dig Ben, Storyville's mammoth, eight-disc box set chronicling Webster's European years, British label Resteamed is rolling out a series of ...

Ben Webster: Dig Ben!

by Graham L. Flanagan
October 12, 2008

To have been young and Danish in the ‘60s! If you happened to live in Copenhagen during that period, then you had a strong chance of catching the great Ben Webster performing live in a random club, or perhaps on a radio broadcast. Webster sailed from New York to the Continent in 1964 and, after playing a club gig in London that led to subsequent European engagements, never again set foot on American soil. This set provides an ...

Someone To Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster

by Bob Jacobson
November 21, 2007

Someone To Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster Frank Buchmann-Moller Hardcover; 400 pages ISBN: 0472114700 University Of Michigan Press 2007

Unless you already know a tremendous amount about saxophonist Ben Webster, you'll learn so much from Frank Buchmann-Moller's new biography. Unless I'm mistaken, you'll soon want to hear more of the unique Webster sound.

Danish jazz archivist Buchmann-Moller presents an extremely comprehensive ...

Ben Webster: Soulville

by John Ballon
October 27, 2003

I accidentally lucked into the music of Ben Webster while sifting through the “W" section of some dusty used record bin years ago. The cover looked cool, with its classic profile shot of an unsmiling, world-weary Webster featured beneath the boldly printed title, Soulville. I impulsively bought the disc, took it home, and a few days later got around to playing it. Whoa! Had I stumbled onto something BIG? From that record on, I no longer thought of jazz as ...

Ben Webster: Soulville

by David Rickert
May 11, 2003

A photograph on the inside of Soulville 's CD cover shows Webster with his head tilted back, eyelids drooping and a cigarette dangling from his mouth. It’s a great photo, simply because Webster approaches soloing in much the same way. A relaxed and patient improviser who first made his name with Ellington’s band playing one definitive solo after another, the tenor saxophonist really blossomed once he struck out as a solo artist where he wasn’t boxed in by the confines ...