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Marc Seales: People & Places
by Jack Bowers
When planning an album, one good idea can make a world of difference. If, for example, a trio is in place but a horn is needed to make it a quartet, asking the incomparable Ernie Watts to fill that chair is always a good idea. That is what Jazz Hall of Fame pianist Marc Seales has done on People & Places, at least his twenty-second album, leading various groups in a productive career that has spanned more than four decades. ...
Continue ReadingMarc Seales: People & Places
by Edward Blanco
Seattle pianist Marc Seales, an established sideman and retired educator from the University of Washington, maintained a long-time friendship and collaboration with such jazz luminaries as Mark Murphy and guitarist great Larry Coryell, both of whom have since passed, and last, but certainly not least, tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts. Seales reunites with saxman Watts on their latest outing entitled People & Places, a collection of six originals, plus the re-imagined Wayne Shorter classic “Palladium," and “Home Light," a tune composed ...
Continue ReadingMark Masters: Masters & Baron Meet Blanton & Webster
by Jack Bowers
It is an absolute pleasure to hear several of Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn's classic charts for Ellington's celebrated 1940-42 Blanton-Webster orchestra (named for a pair of its stars, bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster) adeptly rescored for a twenty-first century ensemble by the superlative arranger Mark Masters. And to ice the cake, the Masters ensemble welcomes to its ranks Art Baron, the last trombonist hired by Ellington, who anchored the plunger chair from 1973 until Ellington's death ...
Continue ReadingDiane Schuur: Running on Faith
by C. Michael Bailey
Pianist and vocalist Diane “Deedles" Schuur and Wessell “Warmdaddy" Anderson may be the last jazz artists to have musically-anointed monikers, from a genre replete with them (Lester “Prez" Young, Billie “Lady Day" Holiday, Johnny “Rabbit" Hodges, Julian “Cannonball" Adderley and “John Birks “Dizzy" Gillespie). Schuur was named “Deedles" as a child by her mother. The name stuck and proved both inspirational and descriptive for the accomplished singer and pianist, blind from birth, who has performed with the luminaries of jazz. ...
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