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Drums 'n' Brass: 10 Video Clips
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
More swinging brass you say? Hey, why not. With the holidays upon us, what better way to usher in the season than with killer drummers driving powerful big bands. Here are 10 video clips of great big band drummers plus one of the finest drummers of the post-war years who also was a crackerjack arranger. Here's Big Sid Catlett, the father of modern jazz drumming, in the late 1930s, with Charlie Shavers (tp), Buster Bailey (cl), Russell Procope (as), Billy ...
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Four Maynard Ferguson Videos
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
What would the holidays be without brass. Here are a bunch of recently posted YouTube clips of Maynard Ferguson in action, including Christmas for Moderns, an Ed Sullivan Show performance in 1960 and a full album uninterrupted by ads [photo above of Maynard Ferguson and Rufus Jones on drums]: Here's the famed 1960 Maynard Ferguson Big Band on The Ed Sullivan Show in August 1960 playing Don Sebesky's composition and arrangement of Humbug, with Ferguson playing multiple instruments, Chet Ferretti ...
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New Nancy Wilson Videos
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
There has been a surge of new Nancy Wilson videos going up at YouTube this year, especially in past few months. The majestic magnificence of Nancy only grows with time—her jazz feel, her soulful swing, her signature phrasing and how she operated her mouth to produce notes that belonged to her and her alone. Here are 10 newly posted Nancy Wilson videos taped between 1967 and 1985: Here's Alright, OK, You Win, on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967... ...
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New Bill Evans on YouTube
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Four Bill Evans live recordings have surfaced over the past few months on YouTube. Since the last two weeks of the year are often contemplative, these clips should be most welcome: Here's the Bill Evans Trio, with Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass and Alan Dawson on drums, playing Beautiful Love in Denmark in 1965. This went up last month... Here's the Bill Evans Trio at the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, R.I., on July 2, 1967, with Eddie Gomez on ...
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Backgrounder: Lucky Thompson + Oscar Pettiford
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
After I posted Tuesday on saxophonist Lucky Thompson, the emails poured in. So I decided to make my Backgrounder this week one of the Thompson albums I love dearly: Lucky Thompson Featuring Oscar Pettiford. The material was recorded in January and February 1956. The four January tracks are Bo-Bi My Boy, OP Meets LT, Tricotism and Body and Soul. The trio was Lucky Thompson (ts), Skeeter Best (g) and Oscar Pettiford (b). The four February tracks are Tom-Kattin, Old Reliable, ...
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Eliane Elias: Tiny Desk Concert
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
On December 9, Eliane Elias visited NPR's offices in Washington, D.C., with Marc Johnson (b), Leandro Pellegrino (g) and Rafael Barata (d,percussion) to perform a Tiny Desk Concert. These concerts are a video series of live performances that began in 2008 and are hosted by NPR's Music near the desk of All Songs Considered's host Bob Boilen. The three songs the group performed were Eliane's originals—At First Sight, An Up Dawn and The Time Is Now. A special thanks to ...
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Video and Audio: Lucky Thompson
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In February 1960, Lucky Thompson led an octet at the Paris Blue Note. Featured on stage were Thompson (ts,ss) backed by Leonard C. Johnson (tp), Jimmy Cleveland (tb), Marcel Rasko, Joe Rasko and Sahib Shihab (saxophones), Buddy Catlett (b) and Kenny Clarke (d), with Thelma Thompson on vocals. Thelma was Lucky's wife and would die three years later from a stroke. I'll show you their performance in a moment. Lucky Thompson had moved to Paris in 1957 and would remain ...
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Backgrounder: Johnny Alf, 1971
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Two sides of a single released in Brazil in 1953 by Johnny Alf set the stage for the bossa nova four years later. For those sides, Alf assembled a trio that featured him on piano, guitarist Garoto and bassist Vidal. The instrumentals were Alf's own Falseta (or Deceit) and Luiz Bonfa's De Cigarro em Cigarro (or From Cigarette to Cigarette). The recordings weren't hits, by any measure, but they would be celebrated later as the start of the bossa movement's ...
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