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Interview

Who Were the Kim Loo Sisters?

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 27, 2015

The Andrews Sisters were from Minneapolis. So were the Kim Loo Sisters (above). In all probability, you've heard of the former but not the latter. For every headliner in the late 1930s and '40s, there were dozens if not hundreds of artists who didn't become huge. Reasons vary, ranging from bad breaks or lacking that little something extra. In the case of the Kim Loo Sisters, that variable was less about talent and charm (wait until you see the following ...

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Interview

Interview: Carlos Lyra

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 18, 2015

Just before the British Invasion turned American teens into screaming consumers, a new style of romantic music with a jazzy Latin feel captured the hearts of young adults in the States. Known as the bossa nova, the music was a cooler cousin of Cuba's cha-cha-cha and a sophisticated folk form that was highly melodic and notably relaxed. What's more, the bossa nova crossed borders effortlessly and was highly addictive not only in Brazil but also in France and the U.S. ...

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Interview

Interview: Nancy Harrow

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 12, 2015

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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Interview

The Swinging Shepherds

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 23, 2015

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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Interview

Spike Wilner On Playing For Listeners

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
March 23, 2015

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

Interview: Andy Waddell

Source: Eric Taylor
March 21, 2015

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

Interview: Damjan Krajacic

Source: Eric Taylor
March 13, 2015

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

Interview: Irma Curry (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 10, 2015

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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