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Interview

Jon Burlingame on 007 (PT. 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 23, 2012

When Skyfall opens in the U.S. on Nov. 9, it will be the 23rd film in the James Bond series. High-intensity action films are a dime a dozen these days, thanks largely to the successful mold pioneered by the Bond films. But the Bond franchise stands for more than just explosions, bridge leaps and car chases. Threaded neatly into each Bond film is music designed to enhance the action and adventure, and burnish the main character's cool and collected demeanor. ...

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Interview

Jon Burlingame on 007 (PT. 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 22, 2012

As I wrote recently in my Wall Street Journal article on the James Bond Theme, men of a certain age love the song with the machine-gun guitar solo. It makes them feel extra guy-ly. But so do some women, according to Louann Brizendine, professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of The Male Brain and The Female Brain. Something about yearning to be swept off their feet and why such guys are in such ...

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Interview

Interview: Australian Blues Guitarist Gus Mckay

Source: Harry Watters
October 20, 2012

Q: Where did the interest in music originate from? A: I have always had a love of music from as early as I can remember.Both sides of the family were musical; not professional, but keen and passionate. Q: Were your parents supportive of your musical ambitions? A: My parents supported me in the form of lessons and there was always music in my life growing up, but I really have kept my ambitions to myself. Q: Growing up, what artists ...

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Interview

Interview: Wanda Jackson (PT. 3)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 5, 2012

Wanda Jackson is still on the road performing. She'll be at the Highline Ballroom in New York on October 12. I caught her at a one-room blues bar on the outskirts of Memphis when I was down there. She was escorted to the stage by her husband Wendell Goodman and she proceeded to rock the house. When I saw Wanda the next evening at Graceland, we sat close together on two director's chairs, and I was able to look into ...

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Interview

Interview: Wanda Jackson (PT. 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 4, 2012

What was it like to sit in the Jungle Room at Graceland with Wanda Jackson? Pretty neat. If you've visited Graceland, you know that this room—with its grass-green carpeting and Hawaiian theme—is off limits on tours. Small by today's McMansion standards—the Housewives of Any City, USA, have have larger and more elaborate homes—Graceland remains larger than life. It's the place where Elvis Presley lived after he won the American Dream lottery—and was consumed by it. Rockabilly star Wanda Jackson knew ...

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Interview

Interview: Wanda Jackson (PT. 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 3, 2012

Rockabilly is nothing more than jazz, blues and country all mixed around. You can hear the jazz and blues influence in the Western swing artists of the late '40s and early '50s. And like blues players, many original rockabilly artists came from poverty, trying to use music as a way out of their family's plight. As I write in today's Wall Street Journal (or go here), there aren't many of these pioneer rockabilly artists left, particularly on the female side. ...

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Interview

Musician friends celebrate Thielemans' 90 years

Source: Michael Ricci
October 1, 2012

NEW YORK — Jazz harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans quipped that his legs don't work but his mouth does after he was pushed onstage in a wheelchair to a standing ovation during the first of two Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts this weekend celebrating his 90 years. And once he put his harmonica to his lips, he more than lived up to his words. Thielemans, who has been in poor health, had only played once this year at a summer jazz ...

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Interview

Belated Cheers to Buddy Guy

Source: RJ on Jazz by R.J. DeLuke
September 29, 2012

Buddy Guy is Best of the Blues A bit late on the draw, but one of the great blues man of all time has been named a recipient in the next round of Kennedy Center Honors, a prestigious national award in the field of the arts. Sonny Rollins is a recent recipient. Buddy Guy is one of the finest — Mount Rushmore finest — of any who ever played the blues, the root music for jazz and rock. He's been ...

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