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Ray Draper: Tuba Sounds
by Derek Taylor
“A Promise Derailed.” Such of phrase could easily have been etched on Ray Draper’s tombstone to describe the tubaist’s trials in life and music. Killed in a botched robbery at the tragic age of 42 his troubles both personal and musical hounded him for much of his life. But reading the original liners to this reissue penned by Ira Gitler it’s difficult to prognosticate such a future for Draper. Member of the All-City High School Symphony, a budding playwright and ...
Continue ReadingRay Draper: Tuba Sounds
by Derek Taylor
“A Promise Derailed.” Such of phrase could easily have been etched on Ray Draper’s tombstone to describe the tubaist’s trials in life and music. Killed in a botched robbery at the tragic age of 42 his troubles both personal and musical hounded him for much of his life. But reading the original liners to this reissue penned by Ira Gitler it’s difficult to prognosticate such a future for Draper. Member of the All-City High School Symphony, a budding playwright and ...
Continue ReadingRay Draper: Tuba Sounds
by Derek Taylor
“A Promise Derailed.” Such of phrase could easily have been etched on Ray Draper’s tombstone to describe the tubaist’s trials in life and music. Killed in a botched robbery at the tragic age of 42 his troubles both personal and musical hounded him for much of his life. But reading the original liners to this reissue penned by Ira Gitler it’s difficult to prognosticate such a future for Draper. Member of the All-City High School Symphony, a budding playwright and ...
Continue ReadingJackie McLean: Nature Boy
by Mark Corroto
The best analogy I could use to describe alto saxophonist Jackie McLean’s sound is that of a boxer. Maybe Rocky Graziano or Jake LaMotta, scratching, clawing and always coming at you with everything he’s got. McLean, a childhood friend of Sonny Rollins, studied with Bud Powell and eventually Charlie Parker. His musical bloodline runs directly from the bebop inventors. Jackie Mac recorded first, at age 19, with Miles Davis and soon became a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. His ...
Continue ReadingJackie McLean: Nature Boy
by Jim Santella
At 67, Jackie McLean sounds better than ever. Highly recommended, his latest album surrounds that distinctive alto saxophone tone with a seasoned trio, presenting classic songs – the kinds of songs that got us interested in jazz in the first place. “Nature Boy" swings lightly with a loose bebop flavor after McLean first offers the melody straight and with serene melodic shades. The dramatic changes in mood and tempo take the listener on a trip from dreamy ballad land to ...
Continue ReadingJackie McLean & The MacBand: Fire & Love
by AAJ Staff
After not doing nearly enough recording in the 1980s, Jackie McLean has been quite active in the 1990s--first on Triloka, then Antilles and now Blue Note with the excellent Fire & Love. The Macband is a hard-driving septet that unites the bracing and distinctive altoist with his tenor-playing son Rene McLean, trumpeter Raymond Williams, trombonist Steve Davis, pianist Alan Jay Palmer, bassist Phil Bowler and drummer Eric McPherson. McLean has been playing better than ever in the 1990s, and anyone ...
Continue ReadingJackie McLean: New and Old Gospel
by Robert Spencer
After Jackie Mac praised Ornette to the skies for a few years, pronounced him his new inspiration, and started tending toward the free thing on his own albums, their fateful meeting finally occured in 1967: Jackie McLean and Ornette Coleman together, with Lamont Johnson on piano, Scott Holt on bass, and the redoubtable Billy Higgins from the original and legendary Ornette Coleman Quartet on the drum kit. Ornette, of course, hadn't recorded with a piano since he was forced to ...
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