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Video / DVD

Thad, Hank and Elvin Jones

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 12, 2020

It's not surprising that Thad Jones, Hank Jones and Elvin Jones were jazz musicians. What is astonishing is that all three were exceptional, each with a distinctive and accomplished playing and recording career. By my count, the three brothers recorded together four times, on Keeping Up With the Joneses (1958), Herb Geller's Gypsy (1959) and Elvin Jones's And Then Again (1965) and Midnight Walk (1966). The first album was their best. Recorded for Metrojazz, an MGM subsidiary, in May 1958, ...

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Video / DVD

Ed Sullivan: Jazz and Pop

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 11, 2020

Yesterday I posted a new YouTube video clip of Carmen McRae on The Ed Sullivan Show. Today, here are a nine more recent jazz and pop additions to the Sullivan YouTube channel: Here's Nancy Wilson singing Face It, Girl It's Over in 1968 Nancy told me when I interviewed her that she was pregnant when she sang this song on Ed Sullivan and had this dress specially made. As with all Nancy Wilson clips, watch how she arches her mouth... ...

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Video / DVD

Tony Succar & Pablo Gil Raices Jazz Orchestra Premiere Video Release 'Raices Jam' From Self-Titled Debut CD!

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations
August 10, 2020

Tony Succar, Pablo Gil and RJO continue their ascending path with the release of their latest single and video, “Raices Jam." Succar and Gil deliver a strong statement by making Raices Jam the first track of their debut album. Just listening to the beginning groove hints at Michael Jackson's “Shake your Body" to the ground riff. It serves as the common thread between the spirit of Succar's acclaimed MJ tribute album Unity , and this one, in which he teams ...

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Video / DVD

Carmen McRae: London, 1961

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 10, 2020

In May 1961, singer Carmen McRae was booked into London's popular Flamingo jazz club for a two-week run. The Flamingo, at 33 Wardour Street in Soho, was a dodgy basement nightspot that on the weekends remained open until 6 a.m. On the bright side, the club was known for its sterling sound system. Just over a year later, in October 1962, the club would be the site of a knife fight between a former and current boyfriend of Christine Keeler, ...

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Video / DVD

J.J. Johnson and Bobby Jaspar

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 5, 2020

Tropical storm Isaias blew into New York around 11 a.m. yesterday, whipped things around and split at about 3 p.m. When it did, the sun came out and the 35-mph gusts began, cooling things off a bit. For some reason, I craved J.J. Johnson and his distinct, muffled trombone sound. The albums I turned to were the three he made with the Belgian woodwind player Bobby Jaspar. On J Is for Jazz (1956), Dial J.J. 5 (1957) and Live at ...

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Video / DVD

Earle Spencer: Early Progressive

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 4, 2020

The start of progressive orchestral jazz can be traced to the day Igor Stravinsky became a naturalized U.S. citizen in January 1946. The aristocratic Russian composer was at the forefront of modern classical music and long had ties to American classical institutions. After being sponsored for citizenship by actor Edward G. Robinson, Stravinsky was shrewd enough to move to Los Angeles and network with a wide range of prominent avant-garde artists, poets, writers, actors, choreographers and musicians who settled there ...

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Video / DVD

Roy Ayers + Maceo Parker

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 30, 2020

Roy Ayers and Maceo Parker are two of my favorite jazz-soul and jazz-funk artists. Both recently released new albums. And both musicians started out as jazz players but invented new R&B forms during their careers—Ayers as a neo-soul vibraphonist and Parker as a bump-and-funk alto saxophonist. Their new albums are moody, funky and chill. Ayers is probably best known for his 1976 album Everybody Loves the Sunshine. Parker emerged in the 1960s as a saxophonist for James Brown and then ...

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Video / DVD