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Interview

Bass Trombonist/Jazz Educator Tom Everett Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz
October 18, 2011

It's no accident that forty years of jazz at Harvard coincides with forty years of Tom Everett at the esteemed university. Everett founded Harvard University's first student jazz band, taught its first jazz history course and welcomed the campus' first visiting jazz artist. He now leads two jazz bands at the prestigious university, continues to teach jazz history courses and welcomes a different visiting jazz artist each year, working with and commissioning works from Anthony Braxton, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, ...

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Interview

Saxophonist Achille Succi Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz
October 19, 2011

Saxophonist and bass clarinetist Achille Succi has recently been singled out as “one of the European musicians to keep an eye on in the next ten years" by (Bill Schoemaker in Giornale Della Musica (January 2010), while journalist Mario Gamba defines him as a “genius of Italian Jazz" in Alias (March 20th, 2010). Among the many artists he has collaborated with are Uri Caine, Louis Sclavis, Ernst Reijseger, Pierre Dørge and Franco D'Andrea; he has also participated in the recording ...

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Interview

Jazz Face: Irv Williams, Still Feisty After All These Years

Source: JazzINK by Andrea Canter
October 15, 2011

What will I be doing if and when I get to 92? Surely not playing the saxophone since I never have... But will I be working as I am today? With enough motivation and energy to sustain my activities at an admirable level? Although every year he hints at retirement, and with every CD release (nearly annually) he suggests it will be his last, saxman Irv Williams keeps chugging along. His gigs are fewer, his late nights earlier, but put ...

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Interview

The Poetry of Walter Bishop, Jr.

Source: The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins
October 14, 2011

Relaxin' With Max, The Invincible Roach By Walter Bishop, Jr. There was a Roach named Maxwell. He was unusual in that he could fly, having been born with wings. He also played the drums, of all things. From his home in South Carolina, he came to the Big City, via Brooklyn. There he got hooked up with some other insects. Let me see... there was a Yardbug that flew in from K.C. And man, he could play the blues on ...

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Interview

Interview: Rhoda Scott

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 14, 2011

Rhoda Scott is easily the finest Hammond B3 organist around today. Name unfamiliar to you? That's probably because Rhoda moved to Paris in 1968 and has resided there ever since. Over the past 43 years, Rhoda has become a jazz celebrity on the European jazz concert and club circuit. Over here, not so much. Nevertheless, organ buffs revere her albums, many of which were recorded in Paris and have a terrific relaxed feel. As you probably can tell, Rhoda is ...

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Interview

Something Else! Interview: Billy Sherwood, Formerly of Yes

Source: Something Else!
October 13, 2011

Billy Sherwood has had a busy year—producing the new solo album by former King Crimson/UK/Asia singer John Wetton, co-leading the terrific third release from Circa and then issuing his own well-conceived solo recording. He is, of course, best known for trying to sew together the frayed scraps of that ever-evolving prog-rock amalgam Yes in the 1990s, overseeing the initial reforming of the band's classic line up for the first time in decades. Through the course of the '90s, he would ...

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Interview

Interview: Sol Schlinger (Part 3)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 13, 2011

Sol Schlinger is a modest big-band legend. At first he was surprised I had tracked him down. Then he didn't quite understand why I or anyone else would care about his career. When it finally dawned on him that he must be worthy given my enthusiasm, he said, “Gosh, if I knew then I was going to be interviewed by you today, I would have kept a journal." That's the Schlinger touch. Other touches include saying, “Goodbye, babe" when getting ...

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Interview

Interview: Sol Schlinger (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 12, 2011

In the 1950s, the two baritone saxophonists who were mostoften called for studio sessions on the East Coast were Sol Schlinger and the late Danny Bank. Though Bank was a studied musician and tended to play forcefully in the lower register, Sol was a spirited swinger and sharp reader who favored playing a little higher. Both were section players, meaning they were hired because their particular sounds would mesh beautifully with the rest of the assembled section. [Photo, from left, ...

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