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Interview

Remembering Michael Brecker, Five Years Later

Source: Something Else!
January 15, 2012

Hard to wrap my mind around the fact that as of yesterday, Michael Brecker has been dead for five years, now. With over 900 recordings to his name, it's damned near impossible to avoid that singular sax sound of his whether the music is funk, rock, mainstream jazz or fusion jazz. Moreover, I find that more and more of the current crop of sax players are drawing major elements of their style from Brecker, perhaps the most significant indication of ...

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Interview

Interview: Anthony Ortega (Part 3)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 13, 2012

Lionel Hampton loved Anthony Ortega's playing in 1953, likening his sound on the alto sax to Charlie Parker's. There are indeed similarities, notably the yearning, bluesy tone and pushing off on the high notes. Anthony wound up in Hampton's band at just the right moment in time, when an amazing collection of musicians had assembled—including Quincy Jones, Art Farmer, Clifford Brown, Gigi Gryce, Jimmy Cleveland and Monk Montgomery. In Part 3 of my four-part series on Anthony Ortega, the alto ...

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Interview

Interview: Anthony Ortega (Part 4)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 13, 2012

Personalities don't come much sunnier than Anthony Ortega's and his wife Mona's. Every time I call, I'm welcomed by enormous warmth and kindness. But their dispositions go way beyond words. You can hear an orange glow in the sound of their voices, how happy they are to be with each other and how grateful they are for everything. It's the joy of living, something that has been forgotten over the past five years. [Pictured top: Anthony Ortega conducting, courtesy of ...

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Interview

Interview: Anthony Ortega (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 11, 2012

Before I launch into the remaining two parts of my Q&A conversation with saxophonist Anthony Ortega, I want to present you with The Street We Took (2007), a 15-minute documentary on Anthony and his wife Mona by filmmaker Andrew Rubin. Andrew generously made his short film available on YouTube after we spoke about its poetry and grace, and fans' need to see it... JazzWax note: To see a trailer for Andrew's next documentary project, Riding with Larry (to be released ...

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Interview

Ian Rogers Unveils New Haircut ...And Interviews Rhapsody President John Irwin

Source: HypeBot
January 10, 2012

Topspin CEO Ian Rogers is starting 2012 off with a new haircut. At the risk of sounding like there's some kind of man crush going on, Rogers has long been known for long hair (before photo to left) that made him look like a skateboarder (which he also is) rather than a CEO and father of a daughter about to graduate from MIT. Of course, the real reason for this new episode of ThisWeekInMusic is an informative interview with the ...

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Interview

Interview: Anthony Ortega (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 10, 2012

If you're a student of liner notes from the 1950s, the name Anthony Ortega should ring a bell. Anthony played saxophone on a range of well-known recordings during jazz's golden decade, including sessions led by Gigi Gryce, Art Farmer, Quincy Jones, Sonny Stitt, Dinah Washington, Billy Taylor, Nat Pierce, Maynard Ferguson and others. Anthony also led many fabulous recording sessions from the 1950s onward. [Top: Anthony Ortega in high school in the early 1940s, courtesy of Anthony Ortega] Interestingly, Anthony ...

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Interview

NEA Jazz Master Jack DeJohnette Week Begins at All About Jazz with Extensive Interview and More!

Source: All About Jazz
January 9, 2012

Approaching 70 later this year makes 2012 a special time for Jack DeJohnette. One of five artists to receive the 2012 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters Fellowship only makes it more so for the veteran drummer/pianist, who has appeared on hundreds of recordings over the past 45 years, including landmark sessions with artists including trumpeters Miles Davis and Kenny Wheeler, saxophonists Charles Lloyd and Joe Henderson, guitarists Pat Metheny and John Abercrombie, and pianists Bill Evans and ...

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Interview

Dorothy Ashby: Jazz Harpist

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 9, 2012

With the introduction of the 33 1/3 LP in the late 1940s and very early 1950s, harpists began appearing with greater regularity on jazz albums. At first, harpists were tag-alongs on record dates—the whipped cream on the sundae known as “with strings." But as jazz arrangers grew more and more ambitious later in the decade, and the jazz and pop markets began to overlap, harpists who had been chained to symphony orchestras found themselves being called regularly for jazz dates. Except, ...

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