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Interview: Nancy Harrow
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Vocalist Nancy Harrow may not be a household name, but in the early 1960s she recorded with some of the best jazz musicians in the business. The list included Dick Katz, Jim Hall, John Lewis, Phil Woods, Connie Kay and Gary McFarland. Modeling her vocal style of her favorite singer, Billie Holiday, Nancy specialized in a pre-war blues sound that faded soon after the rise of Songbook singers in the LP era of the 1950s. In all, Nancy has recorded ...
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The Swinging Shepherds
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the final installment of my three-part series on off-the-radar jazz supergroups of the 1950s, I'm turning today to Buddy Collette and His Swinging Shepherds—a West Coast quartet of superb flutists that regrettably recorded only two albums for Mercury. Both albums were arranged by Pete Rugolo, who pulled out all the stops in terms of writing complexity, since the four flutists in question were studio pros who could handle anything: Buddy Collette and Paul Horn (fl), Harry Klee (pic,fl) and ...
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Spike Wilner On Playing For Listeners
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Spike Wilner is a pianist who operates two jazz clubs in New York City with his partners Chris Borden and Lee Kostrinsky. Smalls and Mezzrow are within a short walk of one another in Greenwich Village. They present familiar artists like Lew Tabackin, Frank Lacy, Pete Malinverni, Johnny O'Neal and Wilner himself, as well as those emerging in the jazz community—trumpeter Phillip Harper, pianist Ehud Asherie and singer Marianne Solivan among them. Of Small’s, The New Yorker wrote: This subterranean ...
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Interview: Andy Waddell
Source:
Eric Taylor
Q: How do you feel you have developed creatively with your new album, Alive? A: This is an honest trip. It came like Sunday boredom, almost baptismal, a dip in the river after a week’s bend. I've been writing and creating my own music for a long time, but everything on this album came from a different source. My heart finally came up for air after a lifetime of experimental asphyxiation. Every piece came about like a drought’s first heavy ...
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Interview: Damjan Krajacic
Source:
Eric Taylor
Q: When did you start playing the flute? Did your family already know you had an interest in music? A: I was a bit late coming to the flute, at 19. My main instrument was electric bass, and I dabbled into classical guitar and piano a bit prior to that. Once I entered college, I was part of the jazz ensemble (on bass). Flutist Danilo Lozano was teaching it, and I fell in love with the percussive qualities of the ...
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Interview: Irma Curry (Part 2)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Irma Curry was a big band singer at a time when most big bands were shifting to the blues and the college dance circuit. Despite the trend, Irma developed a style all her own and stuck with it, with an emphasis on romantic ballads that she delivered with enormous feeling. In some respects, she had been hired by Lionel Hampton in 1950 as Little Jimmy Scott's female replacement when it appeared Scott would leave to become a solo act. Throughout ...
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Interview: Irma Curry (Part 1)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Irma Curry may not be a familiar name to you, but in the early 1950s she was a star vocalist in Lionel Hampton's band. In 1962, she recorded a superb album for Columbia called Love Is a Necessary Evil. The band arranged by Al Cohn and conducted by Don Elliot including Hal McKusick (as), Barry Galbraith and Chuck Wayne (g), Bill Crow (b) and Jo Jones (d). Irma also recorded several singles with Benny Carter in 1964 and with the Alan ...
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Interview: Slovak Bass Icon Juraj Griglak
Source:
Eric Taylor
Q: When did you learn to play the bass? A: My father chose for me to play classical upright bass; he was a clarinetist in symphony orchestra. I went to conservatory for six years and then four years at university. After finishing my studies, I started playing in the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and have been playing there for 25 years. I started playing bass guitar when I was 16. I taught myself to play because there was no school at ...
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