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Joe Lovano Investigates Bird
Source:
RJ on Jazz by R.J. DeLuke
Joe Lovano's musical curiosity seems endless. Creativity is his credo. No what part of the forest he chooses to investigate, he's always looking for creativity. It's what he learned listening to the masters growing up, and playing with many of them over the years. Now, of course, he is one of today's elite jazz musicians, one who'll in his autumn years will be hailed as one of those masters. But that's later. Joe is in the here and now. He's ...
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Eyewitness: Toni Harper
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Back in December, I wrote about an exceptional album that teamed an up and coming vocalist with a well-known pianist. The album is Toni Harper Sings, with the Oscar Peterson Trio. Recorded in December 1955, the Verve album was a rare example of Peterson accompanying a singer relatively new to jazz at the time. Questions naturally came to mind: Who was Toni Harper? How did she manage to wind up on such a session? Why did she stop recording in ...
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Catherine Russell Arrives Fashionably Late to the Solo Jazz Vocal Party
Source:
All About Jazz @ Spinner
I first became aware of singer Catherine Russell through fellow singer Carolyn Leonhart, who had good things to say about her fellow Steely Dan backup singer. I then found Russell's 2006 debut album, 'Cat,' a beguiling mix of old-time jazz, early blues, swing and the great American songbook (in the broadest sense of the word). But for some reason, I never had the chance to chat with this singer. Although 'Inside This Heart of Mine' came out in 2010, I ...
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Photostory: Steve McQueen
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
After my article on driving the Bullitt car-chase route appeared in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, photographer Paul Slaughter sent along an email with two fabulous images he had taken of Steve McQueen, the late star of Bullitt. Rather than tell you about the photos, here's Paul to tell you in his own words: “In 1971 I was showing slides of my work to Sid Ganis, who at the time was a publicist for CBS Pictures and a prospective ...
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Esperanza Spalding stands tall, hair and all
Source:
Michael Ricci
NEW YORK—When Esperanza Spalding plays her upright bass, the bulky instrument extends over her unruly mass of curls by half a foot as she bobs and weaves to complex jazz rhythms. The pairing's a visual mismatch, but there's no doubt she's in comm “Maybe it looks like I'm working hard, but I'm pretty relaxed," says the lithe, 5-foot-6 (pre-hair) nominee for best new artist at the Feb. 13 Grammy Awards. “I'm conscious of playing with good technique and posture." Spalding, ...
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Alan Trustman on Bullitt
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Yesterday afternoon, an email arrived in my in-box with a curious subject line: “That's MY car chase. MINE!!" The writer was, of course, referring to my article in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal here on the famed car chase from Bullitt, the 1968 film starring Steve McQueen. Over the past weekend I was in San Francisco driving the movie's chase route in a new Mustang with Loren Janes, Steve McQueen's stunt double. [Photo of Steve McQueen in Palm Springs with albums ...
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Latin Jazz Conversations: Wayne Wallace (Part 2)
Source:
The Latin Jazz Corner by Chip Boaz
The evolution of jazz charges into the future with the ferocity of a tidal wave, and the strongest musicians ride the momentum into the future. The conglomeration of musical styles and improvisational approaches that shape emerging trends in jazz push the musician through a test of flexibility and durability. Sometimes the musician successfully sails over the crest of these diverse sounds with immense skill, while at other times they fall into the depths of the sea. Like any good surfer, ...
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