Home » Jazz News
Video / DVD News
Timely announcements covering new album releases, tours, concert series, special events, job postings, crowdfunding campaigns and more. You can find more news by searching our website, viewing our news stream, seeing what's trending or reading our blog posts. Subscribe to our news RSS feed and/or embed AAJ news content on your website or blog. Learn about our news service here. Submit news here.
Henry Mancini: Thief at Dinner
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Most of Henry Mancini's scores are easy on the ear and many have a 1960s melancholy optimism that was so much a part of the feel back then. His soundtracks nearly always inhale and exhale uniformly and build a mood with jazzy pearls-and-champagne grace that's unmatched in Hollywood. Much of this luster and sparkle came from Mancini's inventive instrumentation—such as putting a harpsichord on top of strings with flutes or a bass clarinet. His textures were always inventive and lustrous. ...
Continue Reading
Bill Evans: What Is There to Say?
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
If there's a single song that represents a turning point in the career of pianist Bill Evans from soloist to leader, it might be What Is There to Say? from his trio album Everybody Digs Bill Evans (Riverside). Recorded in December 1958, the song provides a glimpse of what's to come in Evans's development as a leader. Up until this point, Evans had largely been a sideman, a quiet, cerebral accompanist whose job was to support and frame the session ...
Continue Reading
Could Video Save The Radio Star?
Source:
HypeBot
Many artists may think of music videos as being the be all and end all of video, but the medium has much greater potential beyond that. As artists like Fugazi, the Foo Fighters, and Action Bronson have shown, subscription based video content can be an excellent way to engage with fans while generating some supplementary income. Guest Post by Cortney Harding on Medium A few years ago, Fugazi delighted punk rock nerds like myself by announcing that they were going to start making ...
Continue Reading
Fats Domino: Birthday Doc
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
It's hard today to fully appreciate the innovation and influence of Fats Domino. Back in the spring of 1952, Domino already had three hits on the R&B chart and was about to have his first No. 1 with Going Home. Up until Fats, R&B in the post-war years was largely a “jump blues" affair, powered by the success of Lionel Hampton and Louis Jordan and followed up by at the end of the 1940s by “wild man" saxophonists like “Big ...
Continue Reading
Surfing on a Reed
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1947, Jimmy Giuffre wrote and arranged a song called Four Brothers for Woody Herman. The arrangement was designed to showcase the band's new lineup of three tenor saxophones and a baritone saxophone, which was unusual, since most bands featured two altos, two tenors and a baritone. Herman's new band, known as the Second Herd, had its premiere concert in October 1947 and in December the band recorded Four Brothers for Columbia. The Herman saxophonists on the recording were Herbie ...
Continue Reading
Bill Evans: Live at Town Hall
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Yesterday, long-time reader Kurt Kolstad sent along the program sheet (front and back) for the Feb. 21, 1966 concert by pianist Bill Evans at New York's Town Hall. The album, Bill Evans at Town Hall, has always had a “Volume One" tagged onto the end of the title. Yet a “volume two" was never issued by Verve, not even in the digital age. As the New York Times concert review that Kurt sent along below indicates, the material buried Evans ...
Continue Reading
StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: James Carter's Organ Trio and more
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This week, let's check out some videos featuring the versatile saxophonist James Carter, who will be back in St. Louis with his organ trio to perform starting Wednesday, March 2 through Saturday, March 5 at Jazz at the Bistro. Carter, who was here most recently in 2013 for a week with organist Dr. Lonnie Smith at the Bistro, concentrates mostly on tenor and soprano saxophones, but also plays alto and baritone saxophones, flute, bass clarinet, and pretty much any other ...
Continue Reading
Phil Urso and Carl Saunders
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
One of the finest albums of the early 2000s is Phil Urso and Carl Saunders Salute Chet Baker. Recorded in 2002 for the Jazzed Media label, the album featured tenor saxophonist Phil Urso and trumpeter Carl Saunders backed by a trio of Keith Waters (p), Colin Gieg (b) and Paul Romaine (d). The album revived the 1956 pairing of Urso and Baker and mid-1960s reunification of the pair, and featured several songs from what is perhaps their best album, Playboys, ...
Continue Reading
