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Videos: Freewheeling Peggy Lee
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
When Peggy Lee wasn't stuffed into elaborate ball gowns with cinched waists and forced to appear on TV with a glazed, ice- queen expression, she could be downright soulful and bluesy. Personally, I never cared much for Fever or any of the other hyper-stylized slow-burn songs that turned Lee into an emotionless caricature of herself. I much more prefer the down-and-dirty Peggy Lee, the emotional earthy singer who let it all out. Here are five videos of the Peggy Lee ...
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Sonny Rollins: Koenig's Leaders
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Yesterday afternoon I spoke at length with Sonny Rollins. We talk fairly regularly by phone, and this time we spoke about a wide range of career topics, from his time in India to his visits to the West Coast, where he recorded two remarkable albums for Contemporary Records in 1957 and '58. On his first trip to Los Angeles, Sonny was a member of the Max Roach Quintet, featuring Kenny Dorham (tp), Sonny Rollins (ts), Ray Bryant (p), George Morrow ...
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Teddy Wilson: Jan. 1, 1955
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Sixty-three years ago, on New Year's Day in 1955, pianist Teddy Wilson, bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Jo Jones went into a studio for Norgran Records and recorded The Creative Teddy Wilson, a 7-inch 45-rpm set. The tracks were soon reissued on Verve as a 12-inch LP called Teddy Wilson: For Quiet Lovers. You'll find it at Spotify or at Amazon. Here's are a handful of songs from the album: Here's Blues for the Oldest Profession... Here's It Had ...
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Video: Cannonball in 1958
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
On May 7, 1958, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley appeared on an NBC-TV broadcast called The Subject Is Bop. He was part of the Billy Taylor All-Stars. The show was hosted by Gilbert Seldes, a music writer and critic who each week showcased a different jazz style illustrated by different guests. In the case of Adderley, he's captured here at a very interesting moment in his career. Two months earlier he had recorded the seminal Somethin' Else for Blue Note. Later ...
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James Moody: Overbrook
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
James Moody remains one of jazz's most soulful saxophonists and flutists. He had a huge, friendly personality and an ear for taking standards and re-inventing original melodies as a much brighter and hipper renditions. He also was a dynamic songwriter in his own right. But in 1957, at age 32, he enduring a near-catastrophic life-changing turning point. First, let's back up for a bit of context. During World War II, Moody played in the segregated Army band, and upon his ...
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12 Videos of Christmas
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Television has always done a blissful job of capturing the warm, kind spirit of the holiday season. Over the decades, twinkly TV specials with popular singers and sugary sets have showered viewers with music and post-card imagery. No matter your background or religion, these shows had a way of reminding everyone that goodness was a universal virtue. Here are 12 stand-out videos from holiday specials of yore: Here's Patti Page in 1955 singing Home for the Holidays... Here's Page singing ...
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Michel Sardaby: Gail
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
One of France's best kept secrets is pianist Michel Sardaby. Born in Martinique in 1935, Sardaby moved to Paris in the early 1960s and has recorded there as well as in New York and Tokyo with a range of leading American and French jazz artists. A bluesy, soulful player, Sardaby gently coaxes all of the feeling out of a song, especially his originals. According to Choc's, a French blog, Sardaby lives in Paris and still has the piano his father ...
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