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The String Cheese Incident: Back on the Road Again
Source:
JamBase
By Dennis Cook To say there's been a pent-up desire for The String Cheese Incident to return to active duty would be a fairly gross understatement. For the SCI faithful, nothing else fills the hole this singular Colorado institution fits. A great American band in the broad, positive sense, String Cheese throws together elements no other band would put in the same mixing bowl, and then proceeds to make them tasty, sometimes against all expectations. The sustained appetite for this ...
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Interview: Dick Hafer (Part 3)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
After tenor saxophonist Dick Hafer left Woody Herman's band in 1955, he spent eight years recording top-shelf albums as a sideman on other musicians' dates. From 1964 on, Dick played in the orchestras of Broadway musicals and television shows. What's interesting about his 1956-63 period is that all of the albums all terrific. Not a dud among them. What's more, the breadth of his work during this period ranged from big bands and Dixieland to small-group swing and the music of ...
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Jazz Face: Sue Orfield
Source:
JazzINK by Andrea Canter
She was once known as “Seattle's Best Horn," but tenor saxophonist Sue Orfield, now based in Eau Claire, WI, should have recognition far beyond either locale. Playing this past weekend at the Artists Quarter with an organ trio already known for its playful, zesty firepower—the Tuesday Night Band—Orfield turned up the heat beyond boil. The TNB+1 didn't sizzle, they nearly vaporized. If there was a grin meter to measure artist satisfaction, then B-3 man Bill Brown, guitarist Billy Franze and ...
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Interview: Dick Hafer (Part 2)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
When you speak with tenor saxophonist Dick Hafer, you notice that his voice is as cool and easy-going as his horn. It's a gentle voice, a voice that has a mellifluous sound that makes you want to keep him talking just to hear it. Because his voice putsyou at ease. Like many tenor saxophonists who came up in the late 40s, Dick was deeply influenced by Lester Young's linear, swinging style. Which made Dick an ideal section player, especially as ...
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The Granz Memory
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Tadd Hershorn's biography of Norman Granz (see below) is full of instances of the mentalacuity and toughness that helped see the promoter and record executive through countless challenging situations as he presented jazz and fought discrimination. He had a memory that was legendary among the musicians he worked with. Here is a story not in Hershorn's book. When I was a college student in Seattle in the 1950s, I became acquainted with Percy Heath, the bassist of the Modern Jazz ...
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Interview: Dick Hafer (Part 1)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Starting in the late 1940s, Dick Hafer (pronounced HAY-fer)was one of the finest big-band tenor saxophonists and soloists. Dick's sound rested somewhere between Lester Young's smooth linear delivery and Wardell Gray's eely bop attack. [Pictured: Dick Hafer in Woody Herman's 1952 band] As a result, Dick wound up in the sax sections of some of the finest bands ofthe period—Charlie Barnet, Woody Herman, Nat Pierce, Larry Sonn, Tommy Dorsey, Urbie Green and Benny Goodman. On small group sessions, Dick was featured ...
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Ola Onabule Releases "Seven Shades Darker"
Source:
Maria Avgoulis
Soul and Jazz, Singer and songwriter, Ola Onabule returns to British Columbia this November for his third visit to Canada after his magnificent debut in 2009 on the main stage of the Montreal Jazz Festival on their 30th Anniversary. Ola Onabule will perform material from his 7th studio album, Seven Shades Darker, which will be released in Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, France, UK, Belgium, Holland and Poland from late Autumn through to early Spring 2012. The album features 14 ...
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A Conversation with Rich Robinson
Source:
JamBase
By Dennis Cook [Rich Robinson is currently on a North American tour. He plays tonight, November 8th in Toronto, and tomorrow, November 9th, in Seattle, WA. Find full tour dates here.] Rich Robinson has a lot to say as a musician. Even after 20-plus years co-helming The Black Crowes, Robinson keeps offering up fresh facets. To wit, Through A Crooked Sun (released October 11 on Thirty Tigers), his sophomore solo album, which showcases the considerable range he's developed over the ...
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