Articles by C. Michael Bailey
Late-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 ...
read moreAn 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 ...
read moreJoel 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 ...
read moreC. Michael Bailey Best Recordings of 2022
by C. Michael Bailey
This best-releases-of-the-year article does not reflect all of the music that I have listened to in the past year, rather I restrict myself to only the music that I have reviewed, with one exception: the Waiting For Columbus Super Deluxe Edition for which I have pined away for 40 years. I leave you in the gentle hands of Mike Jacobs for that. Happy Holidays, Pilgrims. You are in the right place. Paul Jost While We Were Gone ...
read moreNovember 2022: Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration
by C. Michael Bailey
Lyn Stanley Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration A. T. Music 2022 Vocalist Lyn Stanley ironically calls her ensemble the Big Band Jazz Maverick when it is she who is the maverick, the evidence being how seamlessly she expands the holiday canon on Novel Noël: A Jingle Jazz Celebration. Over the past decade, Stanley has done two significant things: one, she has methodically and with carefully considered concepts addressed in the Great American Songbook, ...
read moreJerry Lee Lewis: 1935 - 2022
by C. Michael Bailey
And then there were none. The last patrician of the church of rock & roll is no more. Jerry Lee Lewis died at the age of 87 at his Nesbit home in Desoto County, Mississippi on Friday morning, October 28, 2022. Larger than life, in death, Lewis emerges a deeply divided figure: one justly praised for his unequaled artistic achievement and significance and, one vilified for his legion of human foibles. Lewis was one ...
read moreOctober 2022: Smile
by C. Michael Bailey
Tawanda Smile Resonance Records 2022 Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim, known professionally as Tawanda, tied for first place in the 9th annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition held in June 2021. That is fresh talent. Tawanda won this award only a year after making her stage debut, a feat, surpassed only by the aptitude and maturity revealed on her debut recording, Smile. Tawanda seems to go from zero to belonging in the esteemed company of Veronica ...
read moreKristina Socanski: Philip Glass Solo Piano
by C. Michael Bailey
American composer Philip Glass's solo piano works have become staples in the recording studio. The composer's minimalist approach has produced a body of work welcoming interpretation found on releases by Bojan Gorišek (Philip Glass: Solo Piano (Vinyl Passion Classical, 2018)), Sally Whitwell (Philip Glass: Complete Etudes for Solo Piano (ABC, 2018)), Víkingur Ólafsson (Philip Glass: Piano Works (Deutsche Grammophon, 2017)), Nicolas Horvath (Glassworlds (Grand Piano, 2016), and Jeremy Limb (The Piano Music of Philip Glass (Quartz, 2013)). Serbian-Norwegian pianist Kristina ...
read moreNaama Gheber: If I Knew Then
by C. Michael Bailey
New York City-based vocalist Naama Gheber released her debut recording, Dearly Beloved (Cellar Music) in 2020, just before the global COVID-19 pandemic. With live entertainment brought to a halt, Gheber found herself with time on her hands and no way to promote her considerable talent in live performance. Israeli by birth, Gheber was an enfant terrible who ascended quickly professionally. After being trained at the Center for Jazz Studies in Tel Aviv, Gheber was accepted into the jazz program at ...
read moreSeptember 2022: Jazz Child
by C. Michael Bailey
Sheila Jordan Live At Mezzrow's Cellar Music 2022 Nonagenarian Sheila Jordan is a jazz singer enjoying an incandescent twilight. In late 2021, Jordan appeared on Roseanna Vitro's Sing A Song of Bird (Skyline Records, 2021) singing a song contra-composed in her honor from Charlie Parker's “Cheryl," -"Sheila, Jazz Child." Jordan, along with drummer Roy Haynes, remains the last living connection to the famous alto saxophonist, who is generously represented on Jordan's Live at Mezzrow. ...
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