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Bob Gordon + Jack Montrose
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Bob Gordon was a fabulous West Coast baritone saxophonist whose brilliant jazz career was cut short at age 24 in a car accident. On August 28, 1955, Gordon and trumpeter Earl McCrea were driving to San Diego to play in a Pete Rugolo concert. Gordon's car was proceeding north on St. Andrew Place in Los Angeles when he was broadsided on the left side at Browning Blvd. by Emmett York, 22. Gordon was killed but McCrea, who complained of neck ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Trombone Shorty
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring Trombone Shorty and his band Orleans Avenue, who will be returning to St. Louis to perform next Friday, June 7 at The Pageant. Since he last played here in 2015, Shorty (aka Troy Andrews) has continued to enjoy crossover success, touring frequently in the USA and overseas and putting out the album Parking Lot Symphony, released in 2017 on Blue Note Records. This year, he also was selected as the ...
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Listen: Gerry Mulligan Doc
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan was exceptional. He was an arranger, composer, lyricist, singer, conductor, pianist, jazz-movement transformer, educator, a bandleader and an actor. Shortly after Mulligan's death in 1996, director Thor Raxlen released Listen: Gerry Mulligan, a documentary sponsored by the Library of Congress and produced by his wife, Franca Rota Mulligan. It runs an hour and a half and looks at his contribution to jazz and his love for life and music. It will move you to tears in ...
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Hank Mobley in Vocalese
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
How lyrical are Hank Mobley's tenor saxophone solos? Lyrical enough that singers seem to like putting words to them or just scatting along. Yesterday, I was on YouTube and found a bunch of Mobley warblers, many of whom chose songs from his 1960 album, Soul Station: Here's Alexandra Baird, who set words to Mobley's This I Dig of You... Here's Emanuele Maia, scatting along to Remember... Here's Camille Bertault adding French lyrics to If I Should Lose You... Here's Hannah ...
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Sonny Clark: My Conception
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Pianist Sonny Clark recorded five albums with tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley. Three were Mobley leadership sessions and two were led by Clark. They united on Hank Mobley (in June 1957), Dial S for Sonny (in July 1957), Hank Mobley Quintet Featuring Sonny Clark (in August 1957), Mobley's Poppin' (in October 1957) and Clark's My Conception (in March 1959). It's hard to pick a favorite among these albums, just as it's hard to isolate a Clark recording as superior to all ...
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The Music of Memorial Day
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Today is Memorial Day in the U.S., a day when Americans celebrate the start of summer and honor the soldiers who died while in the service of the U.S. Armed Forces (and our allies worldwide). The holiday's origins can be tracked to 1861, when the graves of fallen soldiers began to be decorated in the U.S. The music of wars has an interesting history. Over the past 244 years, songs have captured the spirit of courage, the frustration over bad ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A Miles Davis birthday celebration
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Tomorrow is the 93rd anniversary of the birth of Miles Davis, and so it's time once again for StLJN's annual tribute to the most famous and influential jazz musician ever to come from this area. Here are nine videos from throughout Davis' career, selected as personal favorites of yr. editor and first posted here with annotations in 2016.The first, embedded up above the text, is the by-now-at-least semi-famous live version of “So What," the leadoff track from Kind of Blue, ...
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Wes Montgomery: 1964-65
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Yesterday I found two fantastic videos of guitarist Wes Montgomery at YouTube, one in Hamburg in 1964 and the other in Belgium in 1965 (from the Jazz Icons DVD). In both cases, dig Montgomery's thumb. Here's an exciting five-song rehearsal captured on tape featuring Montgomery with a powerhouse reed-driven group: Hans Koller (as), Johnny Griffin and Ronnie Scott (ts), Ronnie Ross (bs), Martial Solal (p), Michel Gaudry (b) and Ronnie Stephenson (d)... And here's Montgomery in Belgium in 1965 playing ...
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