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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Clark Terry plays Duke Ellington

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
March 22, 2020

With live music in St. Louis shut down for at least a couple of months, this weekly feature—which frequently, though not exclusively, previews performances by jazz and creative music artists coming to town—will need a different focus for a while. While yr. humble editor isn't exactly sure right this minute what that will be, it likely will involve showcasing the work of St. Louis' own bands and musicians, with some sort of theme or unifying element to tie each post ...

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Video / DVD

Meredith d'Ambrosio in 10 Tracks

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 21, 2020

What I love most about vocalist Meredith D'Ambrosio is her ability to exude innocence and sophistication at the same time. Her first album, Lost in His Arms, was recorded in 1978 and from then on, Meredith has amazed me with her talent and artistry. She's a composer, an arranger, a painter (her paintings grace virtually all of her album covers), a mosaicist and a pianist. She's also a wonderful soul. Happy birthday, Meredith! Here are 10 favorite tracks by Meredith ...

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Video / DVD

Video: Brew Moore, 1961

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 19, 2020

Many tenor saxophonists in the late 1940s and '50s played like Lester Young—once they figured out how to run alternate melody lines on the chord changes of standards and blues in the upper register. One of the San Francisco's foremost disciples of Young was Brew Moore. He was so enamored of Young, he held his saxophone off to the side just as Young did. But rather than mimic his mentor, he combined the Young approach with Charlie Parker's ferocity. Sadly, ...

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Video / DVD

Sonny Rollins: Soundtrack

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 19, 2020

With the coronavirus forcing most people around the globe indoors, the lockdown has given us a chance to listen to music with more care and gratitude. While writing yesterday, I pulled nine recordings by Sonny Rollins that, when assembled, become the thematic soundtrack for this new age of sheltering in place: Here's Time on My Hands from 1951... Here's The Scene Is Clean, featuring Sonny with the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet in 1956... Here's Sonny's Pent-up House in 1956 on ...

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Video / DVD

Oliver Nelson + Eric Dolphy

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 17, 2020

The blues were in Oliver Nelson's blood. Virtually everything he wrote and arranged had an indigo hue. But Nelson's original works weren't your average blues. They were blues cathedrals constructed with flying-buttress passages, gargoyle phrases and stained-glass voicings. When Nelson played the alto or tenor saxophone on these blues, there was a warm clarity to his tone and a sweetness to how he dragged notes. Nelson recorded head-to-head albums with Eric Dolphy, a blues master of another stripe. Dolphy's blues ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Introducing Kandace Springs

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
March 15, 2020

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring singer, songwriter and keyboardist Kandace Springs, who will be making her St. Louis debut with performances starting Wednesday, March 18 and continuing through Sunday, March 22 at Jazz St. Louis. Springs, 31, grew up in a musical family in Nashville, and first came to wide attention after moving to New York City and signing with Blue Note Records in 2014. After releasing a self-titled EP that year, she subsequently has ...

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Video / DVD

Brazilian Jazz Quartet: Pepper Pot

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 13, 2020

Last week, I was listening to early Brazilian bossa nova albums from the late 1950s when I came across an obscure one from 1958. The album was by a Rio group known as the Brazilian Jazz Quartet. Recorded in 1958 for Columbia, Coffee and Jazz featured alto saxophonist José Ferreira Godinho Filho (better known as Casé), pianist Moacyr Peixoto, bassist Luiz Alves and drummer Rubens Alberto. What sets this album apart is that Casé sounds an awful lot like Art ...

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Video / DVD

Herbie Mann in 10 Tracks

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 12, 2020

Love him or hate him, flutist Herbie Mann was in the groove and on top of just about every major music trend between mid 1950s and the 1980s and paved the way for World Music in the '60s. Admittedly, not all of his albums were great, but he did have a knack for being in the right place at the right time to catch a wave. Here are 10 Herbie Mann tracks through a wide range of music genres: Here's ...

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