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Drummer Will Calhoun Pays Tribute to a Profound Influence on "Celebrating Elvin Jones" – Available Now on Motéma Music
Source:
All About Jazz
Although he's best known as the hard-driving, groove-oriented drummer for the pioneering rock group Living Colour, Will Calhoun has played in a staggering variety of styles and traditions over the course of his eclectic career. Straight-ahead jazz, fusion, traditional African percussion, funk, hip-hop, and of course hard rock—Calhoun has explored them all, and he traces the roots of all of them to one man: legendary drummer Elvin Jones. On his second album for Motéma Music, Celebrating Elvin Jones , Calhoun ...
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Joe Bushkin: At the Embers, '52
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Back in 1952, 161 E. 54th St. was home to the Embers, a Midtown Manhattan restaurant and nightclub that routinely featured jazz musicians and ensembles. Artists tended to play swing standards during their runs there so older patrons would feel at home. Among the great artists who recorded at the Embers were Art Tatum, Buck Clayton, Teddy Wilson, Dorothy Donegan and others. Early in 1952, pianist Joe Bushkin recorded there over a series of days with bassist Milt Hinton and ...
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Trombonist Chris Abelen Releases "A Day At The Office"
Source:
Chris Abelen
Trombonist Chris Abelen doesn’t think (or talk) like other composer bandleaders—the kind who work to further their careers. He lives just outside Amsterdam, and is plugged into the scene there, but he isn’t one for hanging in the Bimhuis café till all hours, or mounting bands to play international summer festivals. He has a disarming habit of describing his process as chaotic, or plain nuts: When I put this bassist and drummer together, each wrongly assumed the other would keep ...
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Chubby Jackson: Entitled to You
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
One of the hippest big-band albums of 1957 was Chubby Jackson's I'm Entitled to You. And that's saying something, since virtually everything Jackson recorded was with-it and explosive. Jackson not only was a pistol, he also was a brilliant bassist and band leader who attracted the most fiery arrangers and best players. From my conversations with the late Hal McKusick, much of Jackson's appeal had to do with his jolly sense of humor. He managed to combine brilliant artistic judgment ...
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Billy Byers: Byers' Guide
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Of the many great post-war jazz arrangers, the one we probably know least about is Billy Byers. Despite his superlative credits as an orchestrator and player, very little has been written about him. Part of the problem is that from the late 1950s onward, Byers operated behind the scenes as a ghost. In this capacity, Byers was paid by big-name arrangers to score for them, and the arrangers then took credit for the charts. The practice was fairly common in ...
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Monday Recommendation: Bill Charlap Trio
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Bill Charlap Trio: Notes From New York (Impulse!) In Thad Jones’s “Little Rascal On A Rock,” pianist Charlap, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington summon up the dynamics of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis big band’s 1976 debut recording of the piece. Their twenty years together have given them sensitivity to one another that allows the strength and subtlety needed for such a feat. Charlap and the Washingtons are masters of a kind of jazz piano trio playing that recalls ...
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Tubby Hayes: Split Kick
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
The year 1972 was the beginning of the end for Tubby Hayes. The British multi-instrumentalist, who was most often featured on the tenor saxophone, was a jazz giant, despite coming up in the '50s without the benefit of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles woodshedding. Something of a cross between Stan Getz and Hank Mobely on the tenor sax, with Zoot Sims's knack for delivering long ribbons of engaging improvisation, Hayes was tireless. On flute, Hayes was unmistakably beautiful, akin ...
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Happy Note Records Sampler 2016 Compilation Album Feat. Vinnie Colaiuta, Sam Riney, Warren Gayle, Tony Newton & Others
Source:
Glass Onyon PR - Keith James
Charles Xavier, aka “The Xman,” is a visionary producer, composer, electronic musician and percussionist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a work ethic matched only by his creative madness, Xavier is releasing his sixth full-length album, Happy Note Records Sampler 2016, on October 14, 2016. This powerful new compilation spans 20 plus years of The Xman’s releases, featuring contributions from Satori, The Messengers, and genres including Jazz, Electronic, New Age and Ambient music. In the past 30 years, ...
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