Interview News

Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
February 22, 2010

It is almost inevitable for most people to think of Billie Holiday as a wounded human being who suffered, struggled and eased her pain with drugs and song lyrics on her way to self destruction in 1959. In her greatness, Billie was as devastating and as devastated as a summer with no water. And yet her magnetism, her very soul picking through her vocal chords and reaching out to the world, her goodness as a citizen of a world that ...

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Arturo Sandoval Can Freely Trumpet His Affinity for Jazz

Source: Michael Ricci
February 21, 2010

Anyone who thinks Cuban-born trumpet great Arturo Sandoval's dramatic life story is worthy of being made into a movie is absolutely correct -- and a decade too late. “There is a movie about me that HBO made in 2000. Andy Garcia played me, and Charles Dutton played Dizzy," said Sandoval, who rose to international fame in the 1990s as a protg of his hero, jazz trumpet icon Dizzy Gillespie. Sandoval, who performs with his band Saturday at the Birch North ...

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Interview: John Levy (Part 5)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 21, 2010

Bassist John Levy spent the first half of his career as a jazz musician. Then, in 1951, he changed jobs and became a personal manager of jazz musicians. He had long yearned to be on the business side, and the surging popularity of the George Shearing Quintet gave him the opportunity. At first John represented only Shearing and the quintet. But by 1958, John had branched out and his client list included pianist Ahmad Jamal and singer Dakota Staton. [Photo ...

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Saxophonist David S. Ware - Featured Artist

Source: JazzStage.net
February 21, 2010

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Stripling Remains True to Armstrong's Roots

Source: Michael Ricci
February 21, 2010

"This music changed my life," said Byron Stripling, who paid homage to Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings from the Roaring '20s in an extraordinary concert last night in the Lincoln Theatre. Stripling, artistic director of the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, led seven other musicians in 17 mostly great renditions of Satchmo's signature tunes from that era. A trumpeter-conductor who sometimes doesn't play enough when his big band is on the stage, Stripling more than made up for that ...

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Interview: John Levy (Part 4)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 19, 2010

In May 1947, Billie Holiday was arrested in New York for drug possession. After her conviction, she was sentenced to a year and a day at a West Virginia prison. She served 10 months. Upon her release in early March 1948, Holiday returned to the New York area. Upon her arrival, Holiday learned that her manager had arranged for her to sing at Carnegie Hall in just a few weeks. Holiday protested, saying she hadn't sung a note while incarcerated. ...

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Two on Two: Courvoisier & Feldman Are Both Jazz and Life Partners

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
February 19, 2010

By Tad Hendrickson

Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman have had a long and creative partnership, performing onstage together since 1995 and collaborating on that life project called marriage since 2000. It's an interesting balancing act that some creative couples are never able to reconcile, but these two couldn't see it any other way. “It would be trickier if one of us was the district attorney or a gym teacher or something," Feldman points out. ...

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Ace of Bass: Carol Kaye

Source: All About Jazz
February 19, 2010

One of the most recorded bassists in history, she has a purported 10,000-plus tracks to her credit

You may not know Carol Kaye's name, but you know her work. You've probably heard at least a few dozen examples, and all the words, too. She spent the '60s as the most requested session bassist in L.A., playing on many of the tracks and albums that form the American pop canon: the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, the Righteous ...

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