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Happy Birthday! Jazzwax Turns 3
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
On August 3, 2007, I started JazzWax on a dare. I vowed not to make the site about me but about the recordings and the artists, keeping myself in the background as much as possible. Rather than e-yammer about what I did each day, I decided to tap into my background as a journalist and historian and simply write about the jazz albums and legends I admire most. I also vowed to post daily—giving myself just one day off each ...
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The Jazz Seduce-O-Meter (PG-17)
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
Friends, I have seen the error of my ways and apologize for the sarcastic tone of my recent post on the scientific link between sex and jazz. Looking back at my own experience dispassionately, I see there is in fact a clear link between people's sex lives and their musical taste. “Getz-Gilberto" is guaranteed to get anyone into your bed faster and more efficiently than, say, Black Flag. That is statistically indisputable.
So, in the spirit of stretching this scientific ...
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The Unison. Matt Lavelle.
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
I'm not an expert on Alice Coltrane and her music,.but I do know that her music has reached out to me in the last few years,and acted as a guide in some way about how to process the relationship of spirit to music.Her music after Trane made the transition fascinates me,and I intend to listen to all of it at some point.That's the kind of box set we need these days if you ask me.Musing on the relationship ...
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Jazz Poetry - "Trane"
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Riffs on Jazz by John Anderson
"Trane" by Kamau Brathwaite Propped against the crowded barhe pours into the curved and silver hornhis old unhappy longing for a home the dancers twist and turnhe leans and wishes he could burnhis memories to ashes like some old notorious emperorof rome. but no stars blazed across the sky when he was bornno wise men found his hovel; this crowded barwhere dancers twist and turn,holds all the fame and recognition he will ever earnon earth or heaven. ...
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Safety in Numbers
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Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
The trigger for this was reading that today is Annie Ross' birthday. As far as I'm concerned (and it's a safe bet no one else is), there has never been a greater female 'parts' singer than Annie. Not just parts, but the vocalese solos she sang with Lambert and Hendricks. Fantastic range, intonation and phrasing. I never saw her live, but her recorded work isn't in the same league. There's a lot of ancillary reasons-inferior accompaniment and repertoire among them, ...
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England Swings!
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Jazz Lives by Michael Steinman
“like a pendulum do," is the Sixties refrain that comes to mind, but I have other evidence to present here.
Our UK sojourn so far has offered many charity shops and second-hand bookshops, and a few jazz oases, potential and real. The potential one was spotted in York: unfortunately, in the fashion of used CD shops, it didn't open until later than we could stay, but these two photos point to its engaging possibilities:
Mildly interesting from a distance . ...
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All Hail the Jazz Super-Stud
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
Pity the poor jazz musician. For about 75 years we were branded with a kind of anti-hero cultural status. To live up to that, we coughed up scores of booze-soaked and heroin-riddled deaths. Some-Artie Shaw, Harry James-were forced to march-step through scores of glamorous divorces.After that, the pressure eased off a bit. When people paid any attention at all, they saw us as only minor cultural anomalies, with a soupcon of romanticism; just enough to use in cigarette ...
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Welcome to 21st Century Jazz. Matt Lavelle.
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
One thing it's taken me 20 years to learn is that the Trumpet is a FEELING.To really unlock it's secrets you have to feel the sound that comes through it.My relationship with the horn is that sometimes there's feelings I MUST confront.I walked into a club the other day with a burning in my chest that had been building for several hours,.(no,.not heart burn).It's a feeling that MUST be released.The great trumpet players were caught live doing this,.often when they ...
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