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Coleman Hawkins on Video
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Yesterday, I spent a chunk of the day listening to tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins while writing. Hawkins, or Hawk, remains a marvel. The first modern tenor saxophonist, Hawk could blow hot and soft, and had more to do with the invention of bebop than he's been given credit for. He was formidable his entire career, which spanned a good chunk of jazz history. His first recording was in 1921 and his last was in 1968. He died in 1969. But ...
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Art Pepper and Warne Marsh
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
There are great jazz musicians. And then there are great pairings of great jazz musicians. Some of these pairings you know, some may be less familiar. A duo in the latter category was West Coast alto saxophonist Art Pepper and New York tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh. On the recordings by these two players, you get two artists who personified a cooler, drier sound on the reed instrument. By cooler and drier, I mean smooth, no vibrato, relaxed and behind the ...
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Bill Evans: My Bells
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
The car-crash death of bassist Scott LaFaro in July 1961 left Bill Evans despondent. Thrilled with the evolution of his conversational trio featuring LaFaro and Paul Motian on drums, Evans felt the group had made a major breakthrough during its run at the Village Vanguard in June. Then the bottom fell out. In the months following LaFaro's death, Evans eased his anxiety and depression with an accelerated use of heroin. By early 1962, Evans was in a jam. Desperate for ...
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Red Garland: Rojo
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Red Garland's Rojo doesn't exist as a download. It also hasn't been released for streaming at Spotify, though it is available at Deezer, the free, French streaming platform. Recorded in 1958 and released in 1961, the album made it onto CD 30 years ago but was never remastered and fell through the cracks for some reason as the digital era advanced. Which is a shame, since it's one of my favorite recordings by the pianist, especially on You Better Go ...
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Art Taylor: Two Hours at the Village Vanguard
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Art Taylor was a jazz drummer whose name, sadly, rarely comes up these days. But starting in 1951, Art was in huge demand as a sideman and recording artist. Over the course of his career, according to the Jazz Discography, he recorded on 323 sessions, a sizable number. Nicknamed A.T., or, to those in the know, Mr. Cool, Art established a new, straight-ahead drumming style that was less scattered and more consistently intense, like a pot of water coming to ...
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YouTubers Dig Bud Powell
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
To the average ear, Bud Powell's piano playing seems impossible to duplicate. And yet, hundreds of jazz students each year make transcriptions of his bebop recordings and take a shot. As part of my ongoing series on musicians playing favorite jazz musicians' pieces on YouTube, today here are a bunch (along with one older gentleman and a famed woman) playing the music of the pianist: Here's Ellie playing Powell's Celia... Here's Michael Feldman playing Strictly Confidential... Here's Jun Satsuma playing ...
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Jimmy Forrest and Night Train
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Yesterday I posted 10 audio clips by tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest. Among them was Night Train, a blues Forrest recorded in 1951 that became a big jukebox hit in '52 and beyond as others covered the song. After my post went up, I heard from Bill Kirchner, who educated me on the song's origins and drama. Bill noted that Forrest's famous Night Train actually dates back to Happy Go Lucky Local by Duke Ellington in 1946 from The Deep South ...
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10 Tracks by Jimmy Forrest
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jimmy Forrest remains one of the most exquisite and assertive swing tenor saxophonists of the post-war years. His driving solos and sense of time were always fluid and seamless, and he had an extraordinary grasp of how to maximize the impact of a song, especially a blues. Born in 1920 (the same year as Charlie Parker), Forrest grew up in St. Louis, Mo., and began playing with Jay McShann and Andy Kirk before World War II. He spent the late ...
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