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Four Videos: Papa Jo Jones
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Few drummers make me smile more than Jo Jones. Jones began playing in the 1920s and is probably best known for playing with Count Basie's earliest band in 1934. He was one of the first drummers to make use of the brushes and among the first to steer timekeeping away from the bass drum and turn it over to the hi-hat cymbal, producing what today is jazz's familiar modern sound. In short, he was the Louis Armstrong of the drum ...
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More Japanese Big Bands
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Last week, I posted on top Japanese big bands that accompanied touring American singers in the early 1960s as well as a couple of top ones today. Your response was huge, so I decided to feature another post with readers' picks: The first three featuring the Free Hills Jazz Orchestra (FHJO) of Japan are from Dave Walker. Talk about girl power!: Here's the FHJO in 2018 playing Gordon Goodwin's The Check's in the Mail... Here's the FHJO last year at ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Branford Marsalis Quartet
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Today, let's take a look at some videos featuring the Branford Marsalis Quartet, who will be coming to St. Louis to perform starting this coming Tuesday, April 2 through Thursday, April 4 at Jazz St. Louis. Last seen here in 2017 with singer Kurt Elling, Marsalis and company are on tour in support of a new album, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul, released a month ago. While the long-running quartet- Marsalis on tenor and soprano saxophones, Eric ...
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Bill Perkins + J.C. Heard
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In late 1963, as gigs and recording work slowed in New York for drummer J.C. Heard, he began to listen more intently to his brother-in-law, bassist Al McKibbon. If you want more work, McKibbon said, come out to Los Angeles. A seasoned protege of Papa Jo Jones, Heard since 1939 had played with many of the top big bands and recorded behind virtually every major jazz leader. In the 1940s and '50s, he could play swing, bop, hard bop and ...
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5 Japanese Big Bands
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
When many American big-band singers toured Japan and Australia in the early 1960s, musical directors brought along the arrangements rather than 18 to 21 musicians. In some cases it was cheaper. In other situations, countries had regulations that insisted their own musicians were hired for the job. Like Australia, Japan had top-notch big-band players and still do. Here are five videos featuring terrific Japanese bands: Here's Anita O'Day in 1963... Here are the Four Freshmen in 1964... Here are the ...
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Perfect Album; Plays for Bird
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
It's hard to pick a perfect Sonny Rollins album. So many of them are great. They all have distinct personalities and nearly all are monumental achievements. So I made my decision based on feel. I know Sonny, and we often have two-hour phone conversations. I can hear on albums when he wasn't in a good mood, when he was ferociously competitive, when he wasn't fully engaged, when he wasn't happy about something and so on. The album I chose for ...
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Andy Martin Flies High
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Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
The jazz bands of the United States military services have long histories of impressive achievement. There are high levels of musicianship in the big jazz bands of the Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard. Now and then, Rifftides samples performances by these service bands. Frequently, established name musicians from civilian life join them in concert as featured soloists. Let’s see and hear the veteran Los Angeles trombonist Andy Martin with the US Air Force’s Airmen Of Note. ...
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Deodato: Os Catedráticos 73
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1972, around the time that Eumir Deodato was recording Prelude, an album for CTI that would become a massive hit, the Brazilian arranger and keyboardist also was recording Os Catedráticos 73 in Rio de Janeiro and New York. The album was a gentler and more lyrical ride than the fusion-y Prelude and has just been remastered and reissued by the U.K.'s Far Out Recordings. By the time these two albums were released in 1973, Deodato had already made a ...
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