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Interview

Interview: Heidi Glow on Bernie Glow

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 9, 2022

Hollywood in the 1950s and '60s had its share of top pop studio trumpeters, including Conrad Gozzo, Uan Rasey, Shorty Rogers, Maynard Ferguson, Harry “Sweets" Edison, Don Fagerquist, Pete and Conte Candoli, Ray Linn, Manny Klein, Jimmy Zito, Shorty Sherock, Jack Sheldon and Joe Triscari, to name a bunch. New York had plenty of greats, too, including Ernie Royal, Al Porcino, Al Stewart, Dick Collins, Nick Travis, Jimmy Maxwell, Al Derisi, Billy Butterfield, Jimmy Maxwell, Clark Terry, Burt Collins, Doug ...

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Interview

Interview: Marshall Rogers on Shorty

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 15, 2022

Ninety-eight years ago today, Milton Rajonsky was born in Great Barrington, Mass. Milton would later become better known as Shorty Rogers, a trumpeter and flugelhornist and composer-arranger who was one of West Coast jazz's primary architects in the early 1950s. He also pioneered a brassy cool sound for TV shows and his music inspired Henry Mancini. Rogers died in 1994 at age 70. Among Rogers's milestone albums are Modern Sounds : Shorty Rogers And His Giants (1951), Cool & Crazy ...

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Interview

Interview: Angela Verbrugge

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 4, 2022

Canadian singer Angela Verbrugge recently released her second studio album, Love for Connoisseurs (Gut String). I loved one of her video clips, read how hard she's been working and decided to interview her by email. Her new album is so beautiful and original. All 12 songs feature her lyrics to new or existing jazz compositions by modern-day composers. Her vision is to create a new vocal jazz repertoire by collaborating with composers who write innovative, catchy melodies in the style ...

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Interview

Interview: Tammy Burdett

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 15, 2022

Back in February, I posted on Larry Coryell's and Ralph Towner's first videos on YouTube from the early 1960s. Before they became huge jazz stars, they were in a Seattle jazzy pop group called the Individuals that played fancy restaurants and appeared on local TV. What caught my attention and the attention of many readers who viewed the videos was Tammy Burdett, the group's charismatic bassist and singer. Dozens of JazzWax readers wrote in wanting to know more about her. ...

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Interview

Interview: Jenn D'Eugenio of Women in Vinyl

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 14, 2022

Over the weekend, my piece on the surging popularity of vinyl records among millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) ran in The Wall Street Journal's Review section. Amazingly, new LPs last year surpassed the CDs and digital downloads in units sold. What I also found during my reporting is that millennials, who were especially hard hit emotionally during the pandemic, found serenity in vinyl albums. As I wrote in my piece: “Stressed out by fears of climate change, political ...

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Interview

Interview: SteepleChase's Nils Winther

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 24, 2022

Denmark's SteepleChase Records remains one of the great jazz labels. Founded by Nils Winther in 1972, SteepleChase early on recorded many American jazz giants who began to tour regularly in Europe or had moved there for steady work. If not for Nils, we wouldn't have important recordings by Horace Parlan, Doug Raney, Kenny Drew, Joe Albany, Jackie McLean, Connie Crothers, Duke Jordan, Dexter Gordon and so many others. That's because by the 1970s, most American labels had all but given ...

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Interview

Interview: Michael Weiss

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 19, 2022

I love listening to pianist Michael Weiss. He has a jazz sound all his own that reminds me of the 1980s. It's a feel and seasoning that comes from playing with hard bop masters. His mid-tempo playing is reminiscent of Horace Silver's precise pecking and moody chord voicings, but with Michael's own flavor stirred in. On up-tempo numbers, Michael's hands fly along and retain Silver's soulful precision. When I hear him play, I'm taken back to the nights I first ...

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Interview

Interview: Giacomo Gates, 'You'

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 29, 2022

It's no secret that Giacomo Gates is among my favorite male jazz singers today. His voice is meaty thick and his jazz sense is limber and always happening. He swings and bops with the confidence of the masters. Out today is Gates's new album, entitled You (Savant), a generous collection of 18 songs that have the word “you" in the title. He's backed by a smart trio and he gives each song an (Eddie) Jeffersonian spin complete with a flatted ...

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