Jazz Articles about Pee Wee Russell

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Pee Wee Russell: Complete Live at Bovi's Town Tavern

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 2, 2011

Di Pee Wee Russell, classe 1906, nativo del Missouri, è noto il credito di cui gode sia presso i fan del jazz tradizionale (a cui di fatto appartiene) che tra i cultori dell'avanguardia. Nella parte finale della sua carriera, il grande, originalissimo clarinettista, da instancabile ricercatore qual era, oltre a esser diventato un astrattista (nel senso di pittore) di fama, aveva infatti abbracciato le istanze più innovative del verbo jazzistico, accompagnandosi ai vari Giuffre (fin dal '56, in questo caso) ...

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Pee Wee Russell: Portrait Of Pee Wee

by David Rickert
April 2, 2006

Pee Wee Russell was an early pioneer, a Dixieland veteran, and an inspired clarinetist with an unusual voice. No less than Gene Krupa once said that he had “the most fabulous musical mind... I've never run into anybody who had that much musical talent.

During the fifties, long after his style of music had fallen out of favor, he stayed at the top of his game by absorbing the new styles that had come along, recording Coleman tunes with a ...

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Pee Wee Russell: Ask Me Now!

by Joel Roberts
July 25, 2003

Who says you can't teach an old dog--or an old clarinetist--new tricks? Approaching his 60th birthday in the early '60s, Pee Wee Russell, long associated with Dixieland and traditional jazz, formed a new pianoless quartet with trombonist Marshall Brown and started exploring the more modern sounds of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and even Ornette Coleman. The finest fruit of that collaboration was Ask Me Now!, an exceptional 1963 session for Impulse! that seamlessly mixes the old with the ...

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Pee Wee Russell: Ask Me Now

by David Rickert
May 13, 2003

Pee Wee Russell enjoyed a significant comeback with the original release of this session. Not content to live in the past, Russell doesn’t gaze in the rearview mirror as far back as we would expect. First off, he has chosen a program of (at the time) modern works by the likes of Coleman, Monk, and Coltrane, instead of the earlier jazz tunes that were his forte. Second, Russell dispenses with a piano and instead shares the front line Marshall Brown ...

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Pee Wee Russell: Swingin' With Pee Wee

by Mike Neely
June 1, 2001

Pee Wee Russell was an odd-duck of a clarinetist who in his idiosyncratic way foreshadowed some of the innovations of modern jazz. His playing at times seems “off" in the way that some of the earliest jazz sounds almost otherworldly with its unique tones and timbres. Russell’s expressive slides and dips pre-figure the likes of the later Lester Young, and in our day Lee Konitz, especially when his playing became more voice-like, and the expectations of others seemed to matter ...

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Pee Wee Russell: Swingin' with Pee Wee

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 1999

“We just made a record,” he said at the bar. “And it was a good one – I think.” The formula was simple: after Buck Clayton was picked for the front line, the producer was told to get a rhythm section. “You go ahead and surprise me. I trust your judgment. But don’t make it a ‘Dixieland’ section.” What he got was Tommy Flanagan, and a modern sheen for the old horn. A similar tack was taken in 1958, on ...

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Pee Wee Russell: Swingin' with Pee Wee

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 1999

“We just made a record,” he said at the bar. “And it was a good one – I think.” The formula was simple: after Buck Clayton was picked for the front line, the producer was told to get a rhythm section. “You go ahead and surprise me. I trust your judgment. But don’t make it a ‘Dixieland’ section.” What he got was Tommy Flanagan, and a modern sheen for the old horn. A similar tack was taken in 1958, on ...