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Jazz Articles about Billy Strayhorn
Omar Thomas, Mark Masters, Billy Strayhorn
by David Brown
This week showcases large band music from composer/arrangers Omar Thomas, Gerry Mulligan and Maria Schneider. Bandleader Mark Masters is next with a pair of new albums. With Sam Rivers 100, Masters honors the centenary of the avant-garde jazz pioneer, while on Dance, Eternal Spirits, Dance! Masters explores the music of spiritual jazz legend Billy Harper. Bird themes will follow with the David Murray Quartet's new release Birdy Serenade and Rahsaan Roland Kirk 's classic “Serenade to Cuckoo." Next is a ...
Continue ReadingPrescribing Jazz: A Top Ten
by Artur Moral
National Doctors' Day is celebrated unevenly across our mistreated planet. It is absent in most countries, while it is observed as a holiday in a few. Coinciding (in the United States and Australia) with this day of recognition for a vital profession, this article is especially directed to the entire jazz-loving medical community, focusing on six compositions related to this sector. The first four pieces will be balanced between two different renditions, while also attempting to maintain some stylistic chronology; ...
Continue ReadingThe Duke Ellington Carnegie Hall Concerts: January 1943
by Chuck Lenatti
Duke Ellington was one of the most popular and successful jazz musicians of the first half of the 20th century and according to composer Gunther Schuller and musicologist and historian Barry Kernfeld, “the most significant composer of the genre." Radio broadcasts from his residency at New York's Cotton Club beginning in 1927 extended Ellington's orchestra's national exposure and a parade of hit records, from “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" in 1926 to “C Jam Blues" in 1942, among many ...
Continue ReadingMy Brainwaves in His Head, and His in Mine - Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn (1941 - 1967)
by Russell Perry
Duke Ellington was the well-spring that flowed through many decades of jazz. In 1938, Ellington found his soul-mate in composer/arranger Billy Strayhorn. By the early 1940s, Strayhorn combined with bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster to reinvigorate both Ellington and his band. In this hour, we will feature the compositions and arrangements of Ellington's most important collaborator, Billy Strayhorn, from “Take the A Train" and “Chelsea Bridge" through “Satin Doll" and “Lush Life" to his dying lament--"Blood Count"--from ...
Continue ReadingPittsburgh Jazz: A Brief History
by Steve Rowland
This article was first published at the Explore PA History website. At first glance, Pittsburgh might not seem the most likely place to produce great jazz musicians. Situated on the western edge of the state, “Smoketown" was a gritty industrial city, better known for being the center of the nation's steel industry, than for its popular music or culture. Like Philadelphia, its industries attracted many African Americans from the south, men and women who were looking for decent ...
Continue ReadingOutbeat Jazz Festival 2014
by Victor L. Schermer
Outbeat Jazz Festival Philadelphia, PA September 18-21, 2014 The Outbeat Jazz Festival, touted as “America's First Queer Jazz Festival," where the “Q-word" has become an “in" word, proved to be an innovative event that brought the public's attention to the important role of gay (LGBT) jazz musicians and composers. A series of concerts and discussions drove the point home. It was no accident that the festival was held at venues in and around Center City, ...
Continue ReadingBilly Strayhorn: Out Of The Shadows
by Chris Mosey
An elaborate box set from the Danish Storyville label: seven CDs and one DVD, paying tribute to Duke Ellington's arranger and composer Billy Strayhorn that--alas--doesn't quite live up to the ambitions of it's makers. Ask yourself, was Strayhorn truly the shadowy figure implied by the title? While the bulk of his work was achieved out of the public eye, Billy Strayhorn was no shrinking violet. He “subbed" for Ellington on piano with the band ...
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