Home » Jazz Articles » Les McCann
Jazz Articles about Les McCann
Les McCann: Never A Dull Moment! Live from Coast to Coast 1966-1967
by Stefano Merighi
Vi sono sempre stati musicisti di jazz per i quali la musica è immediatezza, semplicità, gioia di vivere, empatia senza fronzoli. Les McCann era uno di questi. Il pianista del Kentucky, morto alla fine dello scorso anno, ha sempre privilegiato una comunicazione diretta con il suo pubblico, basata su quell'irresistibile mix di swing, soul con venature gospel che ne hanno messo a fuoco il marchio di fabbrica. Eppure, negli anni '70, anche Les ha subito una fascinazione per ...
Continue ReadingCTI Acid Jazz Grooves by Various Artists
by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
The CD you are holding in your hands is a very special compilation. It's the celebration of CTI as one of the most “sampled" labels on Earth! For the past ten years, many CTI tracks have been cut up, sampled, scratched and looped to create new songs for a new audience. Many of the selections on this album (all of them produced by Creed Taylor and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder) represented the basic inspiration and major influence in the ...
Continue ReadingLes McCann: Never Say No Again
by Chris M. Slawecki
"Be who you are and not who you ain't. Because when you are who you ain't, you're not who you are." Keyboardist, vocalist, bandleader, songwriter and photographer Les McCann really talks like this. About his music, about musicians, about his career--about everything. I learned this during the following interview, scheduled to discuss Omnivore Records' March 2015 reissue of McCann's improvisational landmark Invitation to Openness, generally out of print since its original 1972 Atlantic Records' release; this reissue was ...
Continue ReadingA Conversation With Les McCann
by AAJ Staff
Les McCann has a new release on Joel Dorn's 32 Records entitled How's Your Mother?. I had an opportunity to chat with the pianist/vocalist from his home about the release, his humble beginnings in Kentucky, his distaste for the current trends in music, and about the highly successful album with Eddie Harris, Swiss Movement, recorded live at the 1968 Montreux Jazz Festival. All About Jazz: Growing up in Kentucky, what made you want to play jazz music?
Continue ReadingNew Releases + Some Soul, Electric Funk and a Hot California set of '50s Cool
by David Brown
This week new releases from Chad Taylor and James Brandon Lewis, a soulful set of Ramsey Lewis (RIP), getting funky with the Electric Eddie Harris, Les McCann and Yusef Lateef, then a shift to a hot California set of '50s cool, and more. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 00:30 Don Byas Quintet “All The Things You Are" from Americans ihn Europe vol. 2 (Impulse! ) 02:00 Chad Taylor Trio “Subterfuge" from ...
Continue ReadingFree Association - Vol. 2 with Michael Blake
by Ludovico Granvassu
Free Association is a series of collaborative mixtapes curated by Mondo Jazz in association with musicians and selectors of various origins. Free Association mixtapes develop as a conversation. The first selector sends a tune cherry-picked to suit, and ideally surprise, the second selector who then, in turn, returns the favor. An hour or so into this exchange, after unexpected turns and joyful revelations, the two look back at the results of this game of ...
Continue ReadingFunk Jazz: '60s-'70s
by Douglas Payne
Somewhere between the soul-jazz of the early sixties (often called “funk" in its day) and the disco of the mid-seventies, funk jazz was born. Rock was already crossing over into jazz. And it just made sense that rock would inject soul jazz with a greater sense of urgency and a stronger feel for the groove. Funk had that thing that made soul and any other kinds of dance music what it was--a deep, true conviction to getting you ...
Continue Reading
