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Neal Hefti at the Movies
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Like Henry Mancini, arranger-composer Neal Hefti turned to the movies for work in the 1960s and beyond. Best known in the '50s for updating the swing of Count Basie's band, Hefti wrote movie scores in the '60s that were distinctly jaunty, jovial and wistful They crystallized the young-adult mood of those years. He knew how to write simple, catchy melodies and bring strings together with horns and reeds in a way that kept the music hip and light. [Photo above ...
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Betty Carter: Music Never Stops
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
After singing with Lionel Hampton in the late 1940s, vocalist Betty Carter had her first hit with Red Top. Teamed with vocalist King Pleasure in 1952, their vocalese duet put words to the solo melodies of tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons and trumpeter Gail Brockman on their 1947 version of Red Top. Between 1956 and 1964, Carter recorded six studio albums and then took a break to raise a family. By the time she returned at the end of the decade, ...
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Alan Broadbent: New York Notes
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
I began paying attention to pianist-arranger Alan Broadbent in 1973, when Woody Herman's Giant Steps came out. It was my senior year in high school, and the wife of the band's drummer, Ed Soph, was one of my teachers. I wasn't much of a student during high school until my last year, when I began acing everything. I have no idea what motivated the turnaround. Perhaps the editorship of the high school newspaper straightened me out. Or maybe it was ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The percussive prowess of Pedrito Martinez
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring percussionist and vocalist Pedrito Martinez, who's coming to St. Louis to perform Wednesday, April 24 through Sunday, April 28 at Jazz St. Louis. Martinez, 45, was born and raised in Havana, Cuba, where he learned to play popular Cuban styles as well as Afro-Cuban folkloric and religious music on a variety of percussion instruments. He came to the U.S. from Havana in 1998, and over the past 20 years has ...
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Gene Cipriano: First Time Out
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Since 1947, reed player Gene “Cip" Cipriano has recorded on thousands of albums, singles, TV shows and movies. He's one of the most recorded session musicians in the business. Cip can be heard playing the E-flat clarinet solo on Henry Mancini's Baby Elephant Walk in Hatari! and soloing on tenor sax for Tony Curtis in Billy Wilder's film Some Like It Hot (1959). He's on albums with Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney and dozens of others. ...
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Dexter in Denmark, 1962
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
At a New York bar In 1962, Dexter Gordon ran into saxophonist Ronnie Scott, the co-owner of Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. Scott asked Gordon if he wanted to work there. Gorden, as his wife, Maxine, notes in her 2018 book, The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, had never been out of the country except for a brief visit to Mexico just over the border. Gordon surely asked Scott about pay and any other incentives he wanted. Then ...
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Sahib Shihab: Danish Group
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
As a member of the Quincy Jones Big Band, saxophonist and flutist Sahib Shihab had a chance to travel extensively abroad. The band was in Paris for in 1959 and '60, where Sahib had an opportunity to experience Europe at length for the first time. He found Paris relaxed, racially tolerant, art-focused and beautiful during the day and late at night. I know, because Sahib told me this when I interviewed him at Rutgers University in the early 1980s, when ...
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Gary McFarland: Departure Point
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the late 1950s and early '60s, a new breed of jazz arranger began to surface. Some were deeply influenced by modern classical orchestral music. Others such as Johnny Mandel, Manny Albam, Johnny Pate and Oliver Nelson were swayed by the drama and subtle incidental melodies of television and the movies. Among the latter group, the most innovative and musically dashing was Gary McFarland. Born in Oregon in 1933, McFarland was something of a savant, teaching himself to play boogie-woogie ...
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