Interview News

Interview: Buddy de Franco, '43

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 10, 2009

In January 1943, Gene Krupa's 17-year-old band boy did something stupid. After receiving his draft notice, he decided that as a going-away present, he'd buy Krupa [pictured] a few joints. When he arrived at the theater in San Francisco where the Krupa band was playing, he handed Krupa his gift. The drummer placed the joints in the pocket of his overcoat and had the band boy take the coat up to his hotel room.

A short time later, San Francisco ...

Continue Reading...

Interview: Buddy de Franco, Opus 1

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 10, 2009

There's a scene early in Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977) when Robert De Niro walks into a large dance club in Times Square on V-E Day prowling for a date. In the background, a big band is playing Opus One. As the camera pans the massive room on a boom, closing in on the musicians and trombone-playing bandleader, you realize the orchestra is meant to be Tommy Dorsey's.

I obviously wasn't around back in 1945. But I get ...

Continue Reading...

Tom Waits X Beck Hansen : PT. 1

Source: All About Jazz
July 9, 2009

Irrelevant Topics in a new section featuring conversations between musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction.

For the first in this series of conversations, the legendary musician and performer, Tom Waits agreed lend an hour of his time to talk about anything and nothing in particular.

In Part 1 of their conversation together, Hanson and Waits provide so many good moments that you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading the whole thing. Beck ...

Continue Reading...

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Genius Set Free

Source: JamBase
July 6, 2009

By: Kayceman

Omar Rodriguez Lopez There will come a time, many many years from now, long after the dust has settled, when we look back at this point in music's vast history, and Omar Rodriguez Lopez will be left standing. There will be others for sure - luminaries like Jack White, Prince, Trent Reznor, Eddie Vedder, OutKast, obviously Radiohead, probably Trey, Jim James, Jeff Tweedy, perhaps Patterson Hood and ...

Continue Reading...

Chembo Corniel: Wanting and Doing

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 6, 2009

While hanging out with Harry Sepulveda last week, I had to interrupt him mid-sentence. Pointing to the speakers high up on the walls of his Latin-jazz record store, I said, “Hold it, who's this playing?" “Ahhh, Papa, you dig?" Harry said. “It's Chembo Corniel. A monster." I wasn't aware of Chembo [pictured], who plays conga and percussion. But as the CD played on, I had to agree with Harry. Chembo Corniel (pronounced CORN-yell) is one seriously soulful conga player and ...

Continue Reading...

Trumpeter/Vocalist Kermit Ruffins Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
June 30, 2009

There's a rebirth occurring in New Orleans music, and trumpeter/vocalist Kermit Ruffins finds himself front and center. While the post-Katrina recovery has meant many things for the Crescent City, in a number of ways it's been musicians who have taken the lead in bringing the city back to its traditions.

New Orleans is Ruffins' muse and it provides the fuel for a creative fire that started years ago when he first discovered the music he so loves today. But more ...

Continue Reading...

Grant Stewart: Plays Ellington

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 30, 2009

In early 1943, the Duke Ellington Orchestra began an extended stay at the Hurricane Restaurant in New York on 49th St. and Broadway. During the orchestra's engagement that June, the band performed Tonight I Shall Sleep for the first time, a song Ellington had composed only weeks earlier. The ballad was written to spotlight tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, who delivered a full-bodied, patient solo almost nightly, bringing down the house. Grant Stewart can relate. The tenor saxophonist includes the piece ...

Continue Reading...

Saxophonist Chris Potter Interviewed at AAJ...And More

Source: All About Jazz
June 29, 2009

Saxophonist Chris Potter, at age 38, has long been fast-tracked to the head of his class to become regarded as one of the strongest players on the scene. It doesn't seem that long ago that he was first making waves on recordings, and then became part of the superb Dave Holland quintet, where his strengths were put on display all over the globe.

Fact is, Potter has earned his stripes every step of the way. He's made his bones with ...

Continue Reading...