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10 Favorite Movie Trumpet Solos
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
No instrument better expresses dignity, loneliness and wistfulness in movie themes than the trumpet. For more than two decades after the arrival of talkies, movie themes were largely an orchestral affair, especially after arranger-conductors who had escaped Nazi Germany in the late 1930s went to work in Hollywood. The exception during this period was Harry James's trumpet on Young Man With a Horn, in 1950. By 1958, when Miles Davis's moody trumpet appeared on the score of the French film, ...
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BBC Documentary: Jac Holzman's Elektra Records
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Rock 'n' roll in the 1950s and pop rock in the early '60s had largely been a 45rpm affair. Even the Beatles' and Stones' early 12-inch albums were merely collections of three-minute singles. Then in 1966, along came Elektra Records, which had been founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman as a folk label. Thanks to lush proceeds from Elektra's budget classical subsidiary Nonesuch, Holtzman began to expand into pop. In 1966 and '67, Elektra signed a new generation of American ...
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Echoes Of Tradition: New Documentary By Award-winning Director Ben Makinen Honors Native American And LGBTQ+ Contributions To Jazz – Watch Free On Patreon
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Ben Makinen
ECHOES OF TRADITION A Film by Ben Makinen “Echoes is beautifully shot and edited with a relaxed feel that flows like water.” —Bruce Boyd Raeburn, former Curator, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University “Ben Makinen’s latest documentary is a comprehensive and absorbing work that breaks tradition by highlighting exceptional and groundbreaking musicians while calling for change.” —The Sleepless Critic “All the credit's gone to the Africans for the wonderful rhythm in jazz, but I think a lot of it should go ...
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On April 25, Explore The Life And Times Of A Singular Jazz Icon With 'Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got', Winner Of The 1986 Oscar For Best Documentary, Now Restored In 4k
Source:
Michael Krause
Outspoken, manipulative, independent thinking and oftentimes controversial, Artie Shaw (1910-2004) was one of the most popular stars of the Swing Era, who famously broke the color barrier by hiring the legendary Billie Holiday, Hot Lips Page and Roy Eldridge for his bands. His complex love-hate relationship with his own celebrity caused him to walk away from performing almost as many times as he walked away from his marriages. Winner of the 1986 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Artie Shaw: ...
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Documentary: Melvin Sparks
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Melvin Sparks was one of the finest and most important guitarists during the jazz-funk movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. For the Prestige label, Sparks recorded with Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Leon Spencer Jr., Johnny Hammond Smith, Caesar Frazier and many others. He was known for his Houston shuffle rhythm guitar and funky jazz lines. Sparks came out of the Houston blues and soul scene in the 1960s and began playing soul-jazz with organist Brother Jack McDuff mid-decade. ...
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Doc: The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
From 1957 to 1965, photographer W Eugene Smith lived in loft space at 821 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Smith had already established himself as a pioneer of the journalistic photo essay—a collection of images that told a story in magazines, most notably Life. Before the rise of the documentary in the early 1960s with the advent of the portable shoulder camera, Smith's photo montages served the same purpose in still images. In 1957, Smith left his wife and four children ...
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Documentary: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Sister Rosetta Tharpe began recording on the electric guitar in 1941, for her first Decca sides with Lucky Millinder's band. She was one of the first true fusion artists, combining multiple styles of music in her delivery. At this point in time, hundreds of thousands of black Americans were on the move, leaving the farms of the South and Southwest for better-paying manufacturing jobs up North and out West, where blacks' lives weren't at the same level of risk. Since ...
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