Interview News

Franca Masu Interview

Source: All About Jazz
May 24, 2009

This interview is part of the book project Under your skin which will include Interviews with: TM Stevens, Anthony Braxton, Ornette Coleman, Zap Mama, Chuck D / Public Enemy, Les Nubians, Taj Mahal, Yusef Lateef, Dj Vadim, Bob James, Living Colour, Marilyn Crispell, Dick Griffin, Bill Frisell, Billy Bang, Kahil El'Zabar, Michael Ricci / Allaboutjazz.com, Val-Inc, Lonnie Liston Smith, Roy Nathanson, J Mascis/Dinosaur Jr, Lydia Lunch, Fred Frith, Elliot ...

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Interview: Jackie Cain (Part 4)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 23, 2009

The popularization of the 12-inch LP in 1956 boosted the fortunes of Jackie Cain and Roy Kral. On the larger color covers, the attractive duo was portrayed as hopelessly upbeat lovebirds, while their vocals inside sounded more like personal diary entries than the works of third-party songwriters. Producers and LP art directors cast Jackie and Roy as typical fun-loving suburbanites, but nothing could have been further from the truth.

By the mid-1950s, Jackie and Roy were the parents of two ...

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Interview: Jackie Cain (Part 5)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 23, 2009

By the mid-1960s, Jackie Cain and Roy Kral were slowly becoming victims of a dramatic shift in music tastes. As rock swept away a generation of young listeners, Jackie and Roy's tightly choreographed vocal sound no longer was as radical as it once had been. The couple recorded from time to time and, to reach their already established fan base, they toured extensively. No matter what the couple sang, they always adhered to the same formula of swing, clever chord ...

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Interview: Jackie Cain (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 21, 2009

By age 17, Jackie Cain was earning a living in Chicago as a big-band and small-group singer. But unlike many up-and-coming club singers who emerged during the late 1940s, Jackie had not spent a single day on New York's 52nd Street. Instead, the Milwaukee native listened carefully to records, studied with a vocal coach and sang with local jazz groups, one of which featured pianist Roy Kral. At first, Roy was hesitant to accompany a female vocalist. But once he ...

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Interview: Jackie Cain (Part 3)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 21, 2009

Working with Charlie Ventura in 1948 and 1949 thrust Jackie Cain and her singing partner Roy Kral into a high-anxiety environment. In addition to performing with Ventura almost nightly, Roy had to arrange the band's book, rehearse the Ventura group when charts were completed, and work with Jackie on complex vocalese treatments. During this period of high stress and little sleep, the duo fell in love as they provided each other with emotional and creative support. But by mid-1949, the ...

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Trumpeter Cindy Bradley Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 20, 2009

Cindy Bradley first picked up the trumpet in the fourth grade and hasn't put it down since. She learned the importance of professionalism early on, playing at the age of 12 in a Buffalo area jazz band. Bradley would go on to earn a bachelor's degree in Jazz Studies from Ithaca College and a Master's degree in jazz trumpet performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with, and was greatly influenced by, jazz greats such as ...

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Interview: Jackie Cain (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 19, 2009

There is no cheerier voice in jazz than Jackie Cain's. A teenage singing sensation in Milwaukee and then Chicago in the mid-1940s, Jackie met her life-long husband and singing partner Roy Kral by accident after dropping in at a local club. Shortly after the vocalese duo joined Charlie Ventura in 1948, they rose rapidly to prominence and were featured in the high-octane “Bop for the People" concert in Pasadena, CA, in May 1949. In the 1950s, Jackie and Roy's popularity ...

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Notes from the Net: An 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis, David Sanborn Interviewed, Plus News, Reviews, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
May 19, 2009

Here's this week's compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:* As is customary, we begin with the Miles Davis beat, where the news is that an exhibition of Davis' drawings and oil paintings will be showcased during the first week of June at The Exchange Court Gallery in ...

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