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Video / DVD

Documentary: Bix Beiderbecke

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 7, 2015

In 1981, director Brigitte Berman released Bix: 'Ain't None of Them Play Like Him,' a documentary on cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. The short-sentence narration and interviews with Beiderbecke's bandmates are remarkable. You may know Berman best as the winner of an Oscar for Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got, which she shared in 1987 with Down and Out in America, directed by Lee Grant. Berman's most recent documentary is Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel (2009). Here's the Bix documentary, ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2015 jazz preview, part 3

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
January 4, 2015

Today, it's part three of StLJN's preview of touring jazz and creative music performers who will be coming to St. Louis in the first part of 2015. (You can see parts one and two, covering January and the first part of February, here and here.) Our first two clips feature cellist Okkyung Lee and saxophonist Lotte Anker, who will be performing separate sets in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, February 21 at Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury ...

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Video / DVD

Videos: Martha Davis and Spouse

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 2, 2015

Even if you're up on past female jazz stars, odds are you've never heard boogie-woogie pianist Martha Davis. Davis came up in the 1930s playing in Chicago clubs and in 1939 married her bassist, Calvin Ponder. In the late 1940s, as the number of Los Angeles record labels proliferated following the settlement of the first musicians' ban in 1944, Davis and Ponder moved to California and began recording for Jewel Records in late 1947, with Ralph Williams on guitar and ...

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Video / DVD

Video: Sad Story of Jackie Wilson

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 1, 2015

Video / DVD

Videos: Sonny Stitt, London 1964

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 31, 2014

When I was a kid in the '70s, Sonny Stitt was my favorite saxophonist. I loved his lyricism, aggression and intensity. Then I tried to collect him and found it impossible. There were simply too many recordings, and back then albums cost real money, which didn't come easy to teens. I'm still collecting Stitt all these years later and still not done. Here are three terrific videos of the saxophonist... Here's Sonny Stitt on London's Jazz 625 on Oct. 18, ...

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Video / DVD

Chet Baker: Belgium, 1964

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 30, 2014

Video / DVD

Video: Cafe Montmartre, '59-'76

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 30, 2014

Oscar Pettiford was one of the great jazz bassists on the New York recording scene in the 1940s and '50s. Sadly, his name today is slipping into obscurity. In 1958, Pettiford moved to Copenhagen, where he died in 1960 at age 37. He was the first to play jazz cello in 1949, and few could match his strength and speed. Featured in different segments are Pettiford, Bud Powell, Stuff Smith, Ben Webster, Charlie Shavers, Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus and others. ...

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Video / DVD

Video: Stan Kenton, 1962

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 29, 2014

In October 1962, Stan Kenton and his Mellophonium Orchestra appeared on Jazz Scene USA, hosted by Oscar Brown Jr. The spectacular band featured Conte Candoli, Marvin Stamm, Bob Behrendt, Dalton Smith and Keith LaMotte (tp); Bud Parker, Tom Ringo and Bob Fitzpatrick (tb); Jim Amlotte (b-tb); Dave Wheeler (b-tb, tuba); Dwight Carver, Joe Burnett, Lou Gasca and Ray Starling (mellophone); Gabe Baltazar (as); Don Menza and Ray Florian (ts); Allan Beutler (bar-sax); Joel Kaye (bar-sax, bass sax); Stan Kenton (p); ...

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