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Video / DVD

Video: McCoy Tyner, 1986

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 10, 2020

Yesterday, Jimi Mentis sent along a link to a terrific concert video featuring pianist McCoy Tyner with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Louis Hayes. The concert was recorded at the Jazz Ost-West Festival in Nürmberg, Germany, in 1986. The songs were Birdlike, Just Feeling, As Me Now, Caravan and Inner Glimpse. Here's where the songs fall along the time bar: Birdlike at 00:00 (full quintet), Just Feeling at 05:25 (just the trio), As ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: SFJAZZ Collective plays Sly and Miles

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
March 8, 2020

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring the SFJAZZ Collective, who will be coming back to St. Louis to perform next Saturday, March 14 at The Sheldon. Formed in 2004, the SFJAZZ Collective is an eight-member, all-star group that's based at San Francisco's presenting and producing organization SFJAZZ, while drawing players from all over the country. The band's personnel has evolved over the years, as individual members have moved on and been replaced, but they've continued to ...

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Video / DVD

Melvin Sparks: Sparks!

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 6, 2020

In the late 1960s and early '70s, Prestige assembled a studio band that specialized in a new form of soul-jazz dominated by organ and horns. To keep everyone in the ensemble happy and to meet the label's production quotas, individual musicians in the band took turns as session leaders. The need for an efficient and prolific house band was two-fold: the surge in affordable component stereo systems from Japan and the rise of FM radio in African-American communities. In short, ...

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Video / DVD

Stan Getz + Horace Silver

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 5, 2020

Born in Norwalk, Conn., in 1928, pianist Horace Silver found himself leading the house trio at a Hartford club called the Sundown in 1950. That year, the club brought in Stan Getz, and the Silver trio played behind him. Getz liked their feel so much he promised to call them. Yeah, right, they thought. But two weeks later, Getz did call and hired all three musicians—Silver on piano, Joe Calloway on bass and Walter Bolden on drums. They joined him ...

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Video / DVD

Frank Wess + Kenny Burrell

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 4, 2020

Some of the hippest small-group albums recorded in the mid-1950s were those by Frank Wess for Savoy. These include Flutes and Reeds (1955), Opus de Jazz (1955) led by Milt Jackson, North South East Wess (1956), Trombones & Flutes (1956), No Count led by Frank Foster, Jazz for Playboys (1957), Flute Suite and Jazz Is Busting Out All Over led by A.K. Salim, and Opus De Blues (1959). One of my favorites is Opus in Swing. Recorded in June 1956, ...

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Video / DVD

Art Tatum and Ben Webster

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 3, 2020

For me, jazz is divided between those who recorded with Art Tatum and those who didn't. Tatum remains king of the jazz piano—a briskly shaken cocktail of unrivaled technique, impeccable taste and a staggering ability to make you fall in love whatever song he's playing. Every one of his recordings is a gem, exhibiting daring, speed and lyricism. In solo and trio recordings, you are exposed to raw Tatum in all his centipedic glory. But in group settings, you get ...

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Video / DVD

8 Clips: Boss Tenors

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 1, 2020

Boss tenors take charge. I don't know how else to put it. When a boss tenor plays a ballad, a mid-tempo tune or a barn-burner, the saxophone's sound is assertive and commanding, with a deep, forceful push in the lower register and a bluesy wail up top. Let me illustrate with eight clips: Here's Ben Webster playing That's All in 1953, with pianist Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown bowing his bass and alto saxophonist Benny Carter chiming in toward the end... ...

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Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: From New Orleans to the cosmos with Galactic

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
March 1, 2020

This week, let's check out some videos featuring the New Orleans funk/jazz band Galactic, who are coming back to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, March 12 at Delmar Hall. Since their last appearance here in March 2018 at The Pageant, Galactic made big news in their hometown by becoming the new owners of Tipitina's, long known as one of New Orleans' top music venues. Though that venture has consumed some of their collective time and attention, they also released ...

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