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Brother Jack Meets the Boss
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
If organists were vehicles, Brother Jack McDuff's sound would be one of those oversized off-road trucks with huge tires. His attack on the Hammond was massive and rock solid, laying down a double-thick bass line and meaty chords. McDuff came on the scene in the late 1950s, when establishments along the Midwest club circuit hired jazz-soul organists to replace more expensive ensembles. The organ, with its big-band feel, was a natural to pair with a saxophone, which is how McDuff ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Six from Harry Connick, Jr.
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This week, let's check in via video with singer and pianist Harry Connick Jr., who will be performing in St. Louis this coming Tuesday, July 28 at the Peabody Opera House. If you're enough of a jazz fan to have found your way here, you're likely already familiar with Connick, as he's among the most prominent of the relatively small number of jazz musicians who have crossed over to significant pop success in the last couple of decades. (If not, ...
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Dick Hyman in Concert
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Last Friday, I drove down to Princeton University to hear jazz pianist Dick Hyman perform and review the concert for today's Wall Street Journal (go here). Dick, at 88, remains astonishing. If you're unfamiliar with him, Dick is a one-man Smithsonian when it comes to playing jazz keyboard styles. Jazz, today, is hardly easy music, but it was a much tougher physical challenge years ago, when ragtime and stride were in vogue. Dick is a master of those and every ...
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Sassy and Ronnell Bright
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
I had a lovely phone chat with Ronnell Bright last week. As is the case whenever we talk, the conversation turned to Sarah Vaughan. Ronnell accompanied Sassy in the late 1950s and early '60s before working with Nancy Wilson. As readers of this blog know, Ronnell is my favorite accompanist. I love his chord voicings and how he lushly supported singers without getting in their way. In the case of Vaughan, their choreography is remarkable. Ronnell is there but he ...
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Cal Tjader’s 90th
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Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
This is the 90th birthday of Cal Tjader (1925-1982). Tjader may have been best known for his pioneering Latin jazz, but in the late 1940s and early ‘50s with the Dave Brubeck Trio, he was respected for his mainstream drumming. Pianist Hank Jones told me that when he played on Tjader’s 1953 record session for Savoy, Tjader became one of his favorite drummers. After he formed his own band and concentrated on vibraharp, Tjader’s Latin recordings with sidemen like Mongo ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Remembering Ray Kennedy
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Next Friday, July 17 at the Sheldon Concert Hall, musical colleagues of the late pianist Ray Kennedy will present a concert paying tribute to the St. Louis native, who died in May after a long bout with multiple sclerosis. With proceeds benefiting Kennedy's widow and two young daughters, the show will be headlined by singer-guitarist John Pizzarelli, who featured Kennedy as the pianist in his working group for more than a decade, and Pizzarelli's dad Bucky, the veteran jazz guitarist ...
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Weekend Extra: Horace Silver
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
In the course of his career as a leader, Horace Silver (1928-2014) included in his band many of the most prominent young jazz musicians of the twentieth century. The quintet he took to Denmark in 1968 for the Jazz Omkring Midnat (Jazz Around Midnight) series was not together long, but the chemistry they developed made it one of the pianist’s most satisfying groups. Here are Silver, piano; Bill Hardman, trumpet; Bennie Maupin, tenor saxophone; John Williams, bass; and Billy Cobham, ...
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