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Interview

Bill Charlap: West Coast Jazz

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 8, 2013

West Coast jazz has many definitions, depending on your perspective. To some, this 1950s jazz style conjures up images of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet playing contrapuntal lines at the Haig in Los Angeles. To others, West Coast jazz means Hampton Hawes, Curtis Counce and Harold Land swinging hard at Shelly's Manne Hole. On Thursday July 18, at 8 p.m., pianist Bill Charlap will attempt to crystalize and illustrate West Coast jazz's many influences and styles when he performs in New ...

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Interview

Mike Metheny And The Kansas City Trumpet Summit In The Blue Room

Source: C. L. Burnett, American Jazz Museum
July 4, 2013

A modest man stands behind the spotlight as he lets the audience soak in the tasteful music. He gazes around the room, looks at his band members, smiles, and picks up his trumpet. The joy, passion, and free living spirit suddenly takes over the room as the three trumpet players begin to play in unity. Mike Metheny, a musician, educator, and music journalist held a performance with his band, the Kansas City Trumpet Summit in the Blue Room near downtown ...

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Interview

Jazz Vocalist Beats The Odds To Relaunch Singing Career

Source: Dorothy Riley
July 2, 2013

Columbus, OH: “I've suffered two broken necks and I'm still singing Jazz, not singing the Blues." Eight years after breaking her neck for the second time, experienced Jazz vocalist Kate Ross is relaunching her singing career both on stage and with a planned debut CD. Titled People Make the World Go Round the CD will be available on CDBaby, iTunes and Amazon in September. Over the years her distinctive contralto and Jazz/R&B style have graced dozens of venues in the ...

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Interview

Interview: Phil Everly

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 28, 2013

The Everly Brothers were among the most influential vocal groups of the late 1950s and early '60s. Starting with By e Bye Love in '57, the duo transformed the way rock and folk sounded through 1967 after their string of hits crossed over from country to the pop charts. What's especially remarkable about their widespread impact is that rock's primary influence at the time was R&B—expressive, big-beat music that helped white rock acts add energy and freedom to performances and ...

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Interview

Dave Pell on Boots Brown

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 25, 2013

Yesterday I posted about Shorty Rogers and his rock-and-roll recordings for RCA as Boots Brown and His Blockbusters. Those recordings included the cream of the West Coast jazz scene, including tenor saxophonist Dave Pell. Today, I gave Dave a buzz to find out why Rogers—and everyone else—bothered and shunned credit. First, a word about Dave, who was an instrumental part of the West Coast jazz sound in the '50s. He was one of the first to have success with the ...

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Interview

Interview: Davide Recchia

Source: Eric Taylor
June 19, 2013

Q: Where did the interest in music originate from? A: I started becoming interested in music when I listened to some blues artist like Son House, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, and many others of that kind of blues. So I start to play my guitar to became a bluesman like that. Q: Were your parents supportive of your musical ambitions? A: Oh yes, my father taught me how to play the first thing on guitar, but in my house there ...

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Interview

David Allyn: Where You At?

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 14, 2013

Singer David Allyn joined Jack Teagarden's band in early 1940—just months after Frank Sinatra began singing with Tommy Dorsey. Both singers learned a great deal about phrasing from their trombonist bosses. When Sinatra left Dorsey in '42 to record as a solo artist at Columbia, Allyn went into the Army. After Allyn returned to the States in the mid-40s and recovered from battle shock suffered in North Africa, he began singing with Boyd Raeburn's band. While Sinatra became a heartthrob ...

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Interview

Interview: David Crosby

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 7, 2013

A month ago, I spent nearly two hours with David Crosby in New York at the duplex of his friend. The apartment was on a perilously high floor of the Time Warner condo apartments in New York and had a majestic view of Central Park. David was in town to appear with bandmates Stephen Stills and Graham Nash at a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert celebrating Crosby, Stills & Nash's (CSN) music. My conversation with David appears in today's Wall ...

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