Home » Jazz Musicians » Melvin "Mellie Mel" Criswell
Melvin "Mellie Mel" Criswell
Documentary: Melvin Sparks
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Melvin Sparks was one of the finest and most important guitarists during the jazz-funk movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. For the Prestige label, Sparks recorded with Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer Jr., Johnny Hammond Smith, Caesar Frazier and many others. He was known for his Houston shuffle rhythm guitar and funky jazz lines. Sparks came out of the Houston blues and soul scene in the 1960s and began playing soul-jazz with organist Brother Jack McDuff mid-decade. ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Mel Torme
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Mel Torme's birthday today!
Mel Torme was among the most enduring singers from the big-band era, maligned by some as the epitome of lounge singer, acclaimed by many more as one of a talented and serious vocalist. Legend has it that Torme began singing for his supper a Chicago restaurant when he was four and was working the vaudeville circuit soon after. He worked as a child actor on radio, and began writing songs in ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Mel Torme
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Mel Torme's birthday today!
Mel Torme was among the most enduring singers from the big-band era, maligned by some as the epitome of lounge singer, acclaimed by many more as one of a talented and serious vocalist. Legend has it that Torme began singing for his supper a Chicago restaurant when he was four and was working the vaudeville circuit soon after. He worked as a child actor on radio, and began writing songs in ...
read more
Thad Jones/Mel Lewis: Groove Merchant
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra was one of the last great big bands. Formed in 1965, the orchestra played Monday nights at New York's Village Vanguard and recorded and toured extensively, including a swing through the Soviet Union in 1972. When Jones decided to move to Copenhagen in 1978, the band became known as the Mel Lewis Orchestra. When Lewis died in 1990, it became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. The band won two Grammys, one in 1979 and the other ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Mel Torme
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Mel Torme's birthday today!
Mel Torme was among the most enduring singers from the big-band era, maligned by some as the epitome of lounge singer, acclaimed by many more as one of a talented and serious vocalist. Legend has it that Torme began singing for his supper a Chicago restaurant when he was four and was working the vaudeville circuit soon after. He worked as a child actor on radio, and began writing songs in ...
read more
Melvin Sparks: Sparks!
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the late 1960s and early '70s, Prestige assembled a studio band that specialized in a new form of soul-jazz dominated by organ and horns. To keep everyone in the ensemble happy and to meet the label's production quotas, individual musicians in the band took turns as session leaders. The need for an efficient and prolific house band was two-fold: the surge in affordable component stereo systems from Japan and the rise of FM radio in African-American communities. In short, ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Mel Torme
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Mel Torme's birthday today!
Mel Torme was among the most enduring singers from the big-band era, maligned by some as the epitome of lounge singer, acclaimed by many more as one of a talented and serious vocalist. Legend has it that Torme began singing for his supper a Chicago restaurant when he was four and was working the vaudeville circuit soon after. He worked as a child actor on radio, and began writing songs in ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Mel Torme
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Mel Torme's birthday today!
Mel Torme was among the most enduring singers from the big-band era, maligned by some as the epitome of lounge singer, acclaimed by many more as one of a talented and serious vocalist. Legend has it that Torme began singing for his supper a Chicago restaurant when he was four and was working the vaudeville circuit soon after. He worked as a child actor on radio, and began writing songs in ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Mel Torme
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Mel Torme's birthday today!
Mel Torme was among the most enduring singers from the big-band era, maligned by some as the epitome of lounge singer, acclaimed by many more as one of a talented and serious vocalist. Legend has it that Torme began singing for his supper a Chicago restaurant when he was four and was working the vaudeville circuit soon after. He worked as a child actor on radio, and began writing songs in ...
read more
Melvin Sparks: Live at Nectar's
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Just three months before guitarist Melvin Sparks died on March 15, 2011 at age 64, he recorded at a club in Burlington, Vt., called Nectar's, a club that's still there today (go here). Sparks was backed by members of his working trio—organist Beau Sasser and drummer Bill Carbone. But on this night, he added alto saxophonist Dave Grippo and tenor saxophonist Brian McCarthy. It had been several years since Sparks last used horns. Now this live date has been released ...
read more
