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Chico Hamilton: At Strollers
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In August 1955, promoter Maynard Sloate booked a quirky quintet into Strollers, a jazz club at 27 Locust Avenue in Long Beach, Calif. The quintet led by drummer Chico Hamilton featured Buddy Collette (as,ts,cl,fl), Fred Katz (cello), Jim Hall (g), Carson Smith (b) and Hamilton (d). There was no cover or minimum. Branded a chamber jazz group, the quintet took its lumps from critics who found the ensemble precious and overrefined. In all fairness to Chico, a few years earlier ...
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Tadd Dameron: Magic Continues
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Tadd Dameron's final album was The Magic Touch for Riverside Records in 1962. Dameron would die three years later. In 2017, alto saxophonist Kent Engelhardt, coordinator of jazz studies at Ohio's Youngstown State University, and Steve Enos, a trumpeter and director of jazz studies at Ohio's Cuyahoga Community College, co-formed Madd for Tadd. The 15-piece band was dedicated to recreating and preserving Dameron's music. Engelhardt transcribed, edited and arranged the 10 songs that Dameron had scored for his Magic Touch ...
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Jimmy Raney and Brookmeyer
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jimmy Raney was one of the finest East Coast jazz guitarists of the 1950s. Raney possessed a terrific sense of swing, an urgent, lyrical technique and wonderful taste on solos. Two of his best albums at the start of the 12-inch album era were Jimmy Raney in Three Attitudes and Jimmy Raney Featuring Bob Brookmeyer. Recorded for ABC-Paramount in May, June and July of 1956, and produced by Creed Taylor, who had just joined the label from Bethlehem, the two ...
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Carmen McRae: At Ratso's
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Ratso's was one of Chicago's leading jazz restaurant-clubs in the 1970s. It stood on Lincoln Avenue, between West Altgeld and West Montana streets. Bob Briggs owned the club from 1969 to 1977 and named the place after Ratso Rizzo, the Dustin Hoffman character in Midnight Cowboy. By 1975, several major Chicago jazz clubs had folded, including Mr. Kelly's, the Happy Medium and the London House. Ratso's was among those that had diversified by showcasing jazz as well as other music ...
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Erskine Hawkins: At Midnight
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the mid-1930s, just as the jazz trumpet was becoming popular in the swing era, Erskine Hawkins formed his 'Bama State Collegians in Montgomery, Ala. The band would go on to create a new swing sound that was more relaxed with a strolling groove. Born in Birmingham, Ala., Hawkins started playing the drums and trombone as a child before switching to trumpet at age 13. In 1930, when he was 16, Hawkins graduated from Birmingham Industrial and relocated to Montgomery ...
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An Evening With Chet Baker, 1980
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
On February 29, 1980, Chet Baker performed at the Dreher Club in Paris. He was backed by Maurizio Bianmarco (ts), Dennis Luxion (p), Rcardo Del Fra (b) and Donny Donable (d). Fortunately director Leon Terjania was there with three cameramen to capture the set. The Dreher was located at Place du Châtelet, on the corner of Rue Saint-Denis, a few blocks from Île de la Cité and Notre-Dame cathedral. By the mid-1980s, the establishment ceased to be a jazz club. ...
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David Brubeck Trio: 1949-'50
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1950, New York had the George Shearing Quintet, a group that Shearing harmonized by combining the voicing of the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the block-chords piano style of Milt Buckner. In San Francisco, the Dave Brubeck Trio was equally delicious to the ear. The trio consisted of Dave Brubeck (piano), Ron Crotty (bass) and Cal Tjader (drums, bongo, conga and vibes). Thanks to Tjader's versatility on percussion instrument, particularly the vibes, the trio sounded more like a quintet. While ...
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Gene Rodgers: At the Astor
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Gene Rodgers was the pianist on Coleman Hawkins' seminal recording of Body and Soul in 1939. For some reason, Rodgers didn't record nearly as often as he should have given his ability. Perhaps he preferred playing live rather than sweating re-takes in the studio. Or he wasn't as outgoing as others when it came to networking and bonding with producers. Or he slipped through the cracks and he became a secret. It's impossible to say. What is evident is that ...
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