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Dave Brubeck: One Year
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Today, one year following Dave Brubeck’s death, a new website celebrates his life and music. And, we relay an announcement that one of the finest jazz repertory orchestras will broadcast a program of Brubeck compositions. As John Bolger’s DaveBrubeckJazz.com debuts, the Irish Brubeck maven has unveiled an impressive site. In the “About” section, he outlines his ambitious goal: The primary purpose was to detail the entire catalogue of Dave‘s music, recorded over eightdecades, so that fans, music lovers, collectors, musicians ...
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Nancy Wilson: Jazz Scene USA '62
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1962, Nancy Wilson was still being positioned by Capitol Records as a jazz-pop singer. In the years after she signed with the label in 1959, her first five albums were examples of this hybrid: Like in Love, with Willie Smith on alto sax, Something Wonderful (1960) with Ben Webster on tenor sax, The Swingin's Mutual (1961) with the George Shearing Quintet, Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley (1962) and Hello Young Lovers (1962). Nancy's pure pop breakout would come in ...
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Interview: Alysa Haas
Source:
Eric Taylor
Q: What started your love for music, and how old were you at the time? A: I have always been surrounded by music. My grandmother, who unfortunately passed before I was born, was a Yiddish folk singer. My mother Bira Rabushka is a violinist; my father Georges Haas was a world famous oboist; and my stepfather Joseph Rabushka is also a violinist. I was raised listening to classical music. I was lucky enough to be able to attend and sit ...
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Alex Skolnick: The 1st Artistshare Profile Interview
Source:
Brian Camelio
We are pleased to announce the launch of the ArtistShare Profile series featuring exclusive interviews with ArtistShare artists focusing on inspirations, current projects, and the creative process. The first interview in the ArtistShare Profile series features acclaimed guitarist Alex Skolnick. Check out Alex's interview here. This series is part of our 10-year anniversary celebration. On October 15, 2013 ArtistShare, the pioneer of crowdfunding, celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the launch of its first project - Maria Schneider's Concert in the ...
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Interview: Ginger Baker
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Ginger Baker is not a rock drummer. His words, not mine. In today's Wall Street Journal (go here or please buy the paper), I profile Ginger, who, as a founding member of Cream in 1966, revolutionized rock drumming with lengthy, poly-rhythmic solos. In two short years, Ginger put the drums on par with the electric guitar and bass, casting himself as a manic, wild-eyed beat-keeper. [Photo of Ginger Baker above by David Levene] My interview with Ginger took place at ...
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Who Was Doc Pomus?
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Few white pop-rock songwriters of the 1950s and '60s started out as miserably as Jerome Felder. Polio-stricken at age 7, Felder was placed in body casts and then an iron lung before he wound up in leg braces and crutches. Stuck in bed for years, Felder spent a lot of time listening to the radio, which is where he discovered Big Joe Turner belting out Piney Brown Blues. Felder identified with the blues, which spoke to his own misfortune. One ...
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Ronnell Bright: Japan, 1990
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
As long-term readers of this blog know, I'm a huge Ronnell Bright fan. My love for the pianist's playing is well documented in my interviews with him (go here) and in videos in which I've been asked about him. It all started with my passion for Sarah Vaughan's After Hours at the London House (1958)—an album of exquisite singing by the vocalist and extraordinary playing by Ronnell, her accompanist at the time. It's in my Top 10 jazz albums of ...
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Interview: Graham Nash
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
At 11 a.m. on Labor Day, the front door of Graham Nash's anonymous house on an unassuming street in a beach community near the Los Angeles airport was wide open. From the outside, the house looked like a cottage out of a nursery rhyme—the kind where three bears eat porridge or the grandmother of a red-caped girl lives. Just as I was about to knock, I saw Graham through two rooms sitting at his kitchen table in front of his ...
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