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Herb Geller, Activist
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
At eighty, Herb Geller is playing alto saxophone even better than when he was a key jazz figure in the 1950s and '60s. He is performing not with the gravity of Brahmsian old age but with full vigor. Nor has he lost the force of his convictions, witness this political song for which he wrote words and music. In the interest of fairness, the Rifftides staff searched long and hard on the internet for John McCain campaign music to balance Geller's ...
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Stony Plain Records Signs Joe Louis Walker
Source:
All About Jazz
Stony Plain Records has announced the signing of multi-award winning singer/guitarist Joe Louis Walker and the release of his label debut, Witness to the Blues, on 9/30. Produced by fellow Stony Plain artist and award-winner Duke Robillard, Witness to the Blues features a scintillating duet by Walker and Shemekia Copeland in a reprise of the Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson R&B classic, “Lover's Holiday." Stony Plain Records is distributed in the U.S. by Koch Entertainment; in Canada by Warner ...
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Rollins on Rollins
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
In an interview a few days before the Newport performance, Rollins told Rick Massimo of the Providence Journal why he has kept bassist Bob Cranshaw in his band for more than four decades...
...because he maintained the fixed portion of it, and that would allow me to extemporize freely and the song would still be maintained. It was a contrast; if he had the fixed part, then I could go into all of my wild dreams.
...and why ...
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Other Places: A Newport Report
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
It is now called the JVC Jazz Festival, but it still takes place in Newport, Rhode Island. If the festival no longer has the jazz purity of its beginnings in the 1950s, at least it has survived. It continues to include major jazz artists among the tangential pop figures who attract the big crowds that pay the bills. In today's Boston Globe, Steve Greenlee summarizes the two days of Newport and evaluates the highlights as if he were scoring Olympic events. ...
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Bix and Dick
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
A British company is releasing a two-CD package tracing Bix Beiderbecke's influence on musicians of his era. Proceeds from sale of the set will be devoted to medical care of Dick Sudhalter, a musical descendant of Beiderbecke and his greatest biographer. Sudhalter is in bad health with MSA (muscular system atrophy) and getting worse. He needs help. From the Jass Masters news release:
The CD set contains a number of tracks that are being re-issued for the first ...
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When Music Barely Pays the Bills
Source:
Michael Ricci
COLUMN ONE Front page Los Angeles Times Professional musicians need more than gigs to stay afloat. One way they can make a little cash is to teach their future competitors.
Tim Eckert's job requires a light touch and a measure of heavy lifting. As a workaday classical musician, he lugs a 40-pound double bass from downtown Los Angeles to Century City to Azusa and points in between.
In the most reductionist terms, I am paid to come in with my ...
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Away from the Spaceways: John Gilmore
Source:
Night Lights Classic Jazz
Tenor saxophonist John Gilmore, who influenced John Coltrane and helped to pioneer the challenging techniques of 1960s avant-garde saxophone, spent most of his career with Sun Ra and his Arkestra, recording outside of Sun Ras band on only a handful of occasions. His powerful, edgy style combined aspects of hardbop and outside playing; well hear examples of it with pianists Andrew Hill and Paul Bley, as well as recordings that Gilmore made with McCoy Tyner, Elmo Hope, Pete LaRoca, and ...
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About The Corey Cook Ensemble
Source:
All About Jazz
Corey Cook & his associates represent a diverse range of New York City's most promising artists & music business impresarios, from graduates of prominent conservatories such as The Julliard School, New Jersey City University, and The Manhattan School of Music to seasoned veterans of the music industry who've toured the United States and abroad. Among Mr. Cook's most esteemed associates is the veritable Harold V. Zinno, Jr., whose famed colleagues have included such legendary entertainers as Sammy Davis, Jr. and ...
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