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Video / DVD

Doc: The Nocturnal Julie London

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 9, 2018

Recently over a weekend, I posted a few video clips of Julie London singing and appearing on the TV game show What's My Line? Many of you unfamiliar with London wrote to me fully understanding why I would write that she's my favorite female vocalist of the 1950s and '60s. As I noted, London's voice is the hippest, the coolest and the most detached and nocturnal. Forget her cinema looks. More important was her artistic integrity, her humility and her rejection ...

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Video / DVD

Hot Track: A Kick Out of You

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 8, 2018

In March 1954, a year before his death, Charlie Parker recorded a Cole Porter songbook album for Norman Granz's Verve label. Charlie Parker Plays Cole Porter would be Bird's final series of recordings. On March 31, 1954, Parker recorded I Get a Kick Out of You. There were two complete takes, one with Jerome Darr on guitar and the other with Darr sitting out. The take Granz used as the master was the one without Darr, probably because Darr's solo ...

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Video / DVD

Benny Green: Then & Now

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 6, 2018

At its finest, jazz is music of miraculous combinations. The best jazz recordings are a result of two or more artists working together with spectacular results—Clifford Brown and Max Roach, Lee Morgan and Benny Golson, Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall, Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons, and Bill Evans, Scot LaFarro and Paul Motian. Pianist Benny Green and vocalist Veronica Swift are just such a pair. On Green's new album, Then and Now (Sunnyside), the bop pianist and bop vocalist sound ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Ellen Fullman's Long String Instrument

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
November 3, 2018

Today, let's check out some videos featuring artist, musician, and instrument inventor Ellen Fullman, who will be in St. Louis next week for a residency sponsored by New Music Circle, culminating in a performance on Friday, November 9 at 560 Music Center. While she's here, Fullman also will make public presentations about her work on Wednesday, November 7 at St. Louis University and the 560 Music Center, and on Thursday, November 8 at Washington University's Sam Fox School; see the ...

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Video / DVD

10 Jazz Clips With Scary Titles

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 31, 2018

Today in the U.S., it's Halloween, an evening holiday where kids dress up in scary costumers and beg for candy at the doors of strangers by squealing, “Trick or treat." Since two companies now own all the candy brands here, kids arrive home with their bags only to dump out a mountain of four different types—M&Ms, Milky Way, Three Musketeers and Snickers. To make matters worse, parents gobble up much of their kids' candy by quietly filching their stash while ...

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Video / DVD

Dexter Gordon and Karin Krog

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 30, 2018

Dexter Gordon accompanied more vocalists than you might imagine. There was Helen Humes in 1950, Gladys Bentley in 1952, Kitty White in 1965, Pony Poindexter in 1966, Vi Redd in 1970, Miriam Klein in 1973, Eddie Jefferson in 1978 and Tony Bennett in 1990. In the mid-1940s, while in Lionel Hampton's band, Gordon accompanied Rubel Blakey; in Louis Armstrong's band in 1944, Gordon and the band accompanied Velma Middleton, Jimmy Ross and Pops himself; and with Benny Carter in 1946 ...

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Video / DVD

John Stubblefield + Nat Adderley

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 29, 2018

Chances are you are unfamiliar with John Stubblefield. The obscure saxophonist was versatile and could play soul-jazz, funk-jazz and avant-garde jazz in the 1970s and beyond. Which probably is why he recorded with so many different types of artists and groups over the course of his career. Stubblefield brought enormous heat and polish to his solos, often sounding different with each artist. He recorded with Anthony Braxton in May 1972, toured with Charles Mingus in early 1973 and recorded with ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Stefon Harris and Blackout's "Sonic Creed"

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
October 28, 2018

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring vibraphonist Stefon Harris, who's coming to St. Louis to perform starting next Wednesday, October 31 and continuing through Sunday, November 4 at Jazz St. Louis. Considered one of the top mallet percussionists in jazz, Harris has played here several times in the last few years, most recently as the guest artist with Jazz St. Louis' JazzU student ensemble in June, 2016 at the Bistro. This time, though, he's got a ...

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