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Videos: Shorty Rogers, '80s
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Arranger and trumpeter-flugelhornist Shorty Rogers was one of the primary architects of West Coast jazz in the early 1950s. The dry, harmony-driven style reflected the enormous optimism and drive of superb young musician-arrangers, many of whom who settled in the Los Angeles suburbs and found abundant work in the studios and clubs just as television and new record formats emerged to create an explosion in interest and demand. In the early 1980s, Rogers was a guest conductor for the National ...
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The Milt Jackson Quartet, Then And Then
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Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
A video of The Modern Jazz Quartet has been getting wide viewership on the internet. The YouTube presentation does not disclose that the group we see and hear is the MJQ’s predecessor, the rhythm section of Dizzy Gillespie’s big band from 1946 to the early fifties. To give his brass section rests during concerts, Gillespie occasionally featured interludeswith vibraharpist Milt Jackson, pianist John Lewis, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Kenny Clarke. They first recorded as an entity in 1951 as ...
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Warne Marsh: Dahoud
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the fall of 1953, while on tour in North Africa with Lionel Hampton, trumpeter Clifford Brown and the band stopped in Algeria. There, it is assumed the essence of his composition Daahoud came together. It's unclear who Daahoud was, Daahoud being Arabic for David. When Brown returned to the States and began to record as a leader, starting with the Pacific Jazz label in July 1954, his new composition Daahoud was part of the session with Stu Williamson (v-tb) ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: 90 years of Miles Davis
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
The 90th anniversary of Miles Davis' birth was this past Thursday, May 26, and although StLJN shared a variety of tributes from others on social media, there was no “happy birthday" post here that day as in many years past, for a couple of reasons. First, the “Miles On Monday" feature, which has been a fixture here for more than a year now, serves as a regular tribute to the trumpeter every week. (And in case you missed them, some ...
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Phineas Newborn Jr: 1962
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Yesterday I was listening to the recordings of Phineas Newborn Jr. and was struck, yet again, at how remarkable a jazz pianist he was. His strength, poetic poise and, most of all, phrasing, were stunning. Born in Whiteville, Tenn., Newborn played often in Memphis with his father and other relatives in the late 1940s in an R&B band, but he shifted to jazz in the mid-1950s after being discovered by Count Basie. He recorded steadily as a leader and sideman ...
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