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Lost and Found: Historic Jazz Recordings from the Swing Era
by Larry Slater
Lost recordings of the early decades of jazz are particularly rare and greatly valued, as the great soloists of the swing era were constrained by the length of the 78rpm shellac disc.Jazz fans and scholars were thrilled to learn about the Savory Collection, which was released in 2018. Bill Savory was a music lover who single handedly captured hundreds of hours of top-shelf music off the air in the six years preceding America's entry into World War II. ...
Continue ReadingCount Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong & John Coltrane
by Joe Dimino
Welcome to a special themed hour of jazz as we journey deep into the pages of Larry Tye's acclaimed book Jazz Men. This compelling work brings to life the triumphs, struggles, and sheer brilliance of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Louis Armstrong--three giants who not only shaped jazz but also helped move America forward during an era when civil rights were still finding their voice. Throughout this hour, we weave in Larry Tye's insights with a handpicked soundtrack that tells ...
Continue ReadingFletcher Henderson, Count Basie, Charlie Parker & Ella Fitzgerald
by Joe Dimino
We dedicate the entirety of the 843rd Episode of Neon Jazz to the history and culturally vital institution, Harlem's Apollo Theater. After finding an illustrated book on the history of this landmark institution in the history of African American culture, it was essential to cover the jazz side of things from the book's perspective. We begin with the legendary Duke Ellington and end with Tiny Bradshaw. In between, we get into classics from the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, ...
Continue ReadingThe Best of Basie
by Bob Bernotas
In 1935, pianist William “Count" Basie (born August 21, 1904), a fixture on the Kansas City jazz scene since the late 1920s, organized his own rocking, riffing, blues-based big band. The following year this freewheeling unit came east and took New York by storm. For the next decade and a half, Basie's stellar cast--which included such original jazz stylists as tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets" Edison, trombonist Dicky Wells, drummer Jo Jones, ...
Continue ReadingSubtle Is as Subtle Does
by Patrick Burnette
Ya want big bands? We got big bands. Sometimes we got one in each speaker. In this exploration of the more extroverted side of jazz, the boys check out works by a blazing trumpet player (and world-class womanizer), a so-so clarinetist with a heart of gold, two piano-playing band leaders who both worship Duke Ellington, and two (but it sounds like thirty) major-league skin-pounders. Much musing on the glory days of fifteen musicians criss-crossing the nation via bus routes, and ...
Continue ReadingDocumenting Jazz 2019
by Ian Patterson
Documenting Jazz Conservatory of Music and Drama TU Dublin Dublin, Ireland January 17-19, 2019 Jazz music, which has pretty much always meant different things to different people, has been comprehensively documented since its arrival in the first decades of the twentieth century. The most obvious form of documentation, that's to say studio recording, is almost as old as the music itself, whilst live recordings, both official releases and bootlegs, radio and ...
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