Articles by C. Michael Bailey
C. Michael Bailey's Holiday Bundle 2025
by C. Michael Bailey
Holiday music in the twenty-first century embraces both the old and new with equal creative consideration. Without a new recording of Handel's Messiah, we must rely on the inevitable evolution of the Christmas Canon. Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra The Nutcracker Remix Self Produced 2025 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker has been a holiday staple since 1892. The ballet has a long history of jazz adaptations, beginning with Les Brown and His Band of ...
Continue ReadingRed Garland Revisited!
by C. Michael Bailey
Prestige Records released Red Garland Revisited in 1969. However, Rudy Van Gelder recorded the eight selections comprising the album 12 years earlier at his Hackensack, New Jersey studio. Using bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor as his rhythm section, adding guitarist Kenny Burrell on two pieces--Miles Davis's “Four" and “Walkin.'" Recorded May 24, 1957, this session took place during a busy period for Garland, between a date for trombonist Curtis Fuller on May 14 resulting in Curtis Fuller with ...
Continue ReadingKelly Blue
by C. Michael Bailey
The classic Wynton Kelly Trio comprised Kelly on piano, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. Besides being Kelly's most stable trio, this rhythm section provided the underpinning for several important recordings and tours for Miles Davis in the late '50s and early '60s. These include Kind of Blue (Columbia Records, 1959) and Davis' 1960 European Tours, Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia Records, 1961), In Person, Vol. 1--Friday Night at the Blackhawk (Columbia Records, 1961), In Person, Vol. 2--Saturday ...
Continue ReadingTrio and Quintet
by C. Michael Bailey
Pianist and composer Elmo Hope has more in common with Tadd Dameron than most of his other jazz peers. Both men were primarily composers and arrangers who concentrated on their own music rather than standards. Both men spent their professional lives in New York City during the twilight of bebop and the flourishing of hard bop. Neither man boasted large discographies as leaders, but appeared on a significant number of recordings as sidemen. Their careers were both shortened dramatically by ...
Continue ReadingThe Blues According To Rory Block
by C. Michael Bailey
Being a household name depends as much on the household as it does the name. Not all reading this will know who Rory Block is, but in the households with fans of the rural blues, slide guitar and innovative women in music, to not know would be criminal. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Block grew up in Manhattan where her father had Allan Block's Sandal Shop on Positively 4th Street in Greenwich Village. Block grew up hanging out ...
Continue ReadingFive Views From The Piano Bench
by C. Michael Bailey
The piano is a versatile instrument that provides different trajectories for those who play it. The view from the piano bench can vary as dramatically as the artist playing it. Yuja Wang The Vienna Recital Deutsche Grammophon 2024 From the biggest of stages... In 2009, Chinese wunderkind pianist Yuja Wang released her debut recording, Sonatas & Etudes (Deutsche Grammophon), and for the past 15 years has proven herself the ...
Continue ReadingThe Allman Brothers Band In Five Covers
by C. Michael Bailey
The original Allman Brothers Band, the pre-October 29, 1971 version, was the brainchild of Duane Allman. The aural record of the band from this period has been augmented substantially since the advent of compact discs and streaming. A review of this music reveals that Allman intentionally kept the band's setlist limited, ostensibly so the band could perfect their sound and musical approach. The early band can be characterized by five song covers that were included in the majority of sets ...
Continue ReadingLate-Period Art Pepper Box Sets
by C. Michael Bailey
In his essay, “Endgame," which opens the liner notes to Art Pepper: The Complete Galaxy Recordings (Galaxy, 1989), music critic Gary Giddens said of Art Pepper's professional comeback: “Pepper's sudden reappearance in 1975 was something of a second coming in musical circles. For the next seven years, his frequent recordings and tours, and the publication in 1979 of the autobiography he and his wife Laurie wrote, Straight Life, transformed him from a gifted altoist who had made ...
Continue ReadingAn Embarrassment of Riches From Hamburg: Recent Releases From Nagel-Heyer
by C. Michael Bailey
This article was first published at All About Jazz in February 2001. While Nagel-Heyer Records is breaking ground with contemporary jazz releases with their Nagel-Heyer 2000 Series, showcasing music by Terell Stafford, Wycliffe Gordon, Byron Stripling, and many others, the Hamburg-centered label's catalog continues to populate itself with the fine traditional jazz recitals that have long been their forte. I recently had the good fortune of receiving a glut of these recordings for my consideration and decided to ...
Continue ReadingJoel Dorn's Nine Lives: Label M and Live at the Left Bank
by C. Michael Bailey
This article was first published at All About Jazz on March 6, 2001. It wasn't but a few years ago that veteran record producer Joel Dorn and a business partner founded 32 Records, a label devoted to re-releasing the old Muse and Landmark catalogs and releasing previously unheard live recordings by major jazz artists. Previous to that, Dorn had been the founder of Night records and a producer and A&R guy for Nesuhi Ertegun's Atlantic Records. He has ...
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