Jazz News

When Ambassadors Had Rhythm

Source: Michael Ricci
June 29, 2008

When Ambassadors Had Rhythm Louis Armstrong House Museum

HALF a century ago, when America was having problems with its image during the cold war, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the United States representative from Harlem, had an idea. Stop sending symphony orchestras and ballet companies on international tours, he told the State Department. Let the world experience what he called “real Americana": send out jazz bands instead. Jazz Ambassadors A photography exhibition of those concert tours, titled “Jam Session: ...

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Ira Tucker Sr. Lead Singer of Dixie Hummingbirds Gospel Group Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
June 29, 2008

Ira B. Tucker, lead singer of the Dixie Hummingbirds, performed a style of gospel music that erased boundaries

For 70 years Tucker and the Hummingbirds gave high-energy, emotion-drenched shows designed to please the Lord and wow audiences. He was 83 The group influenced a long list of R & B artists and could have crossed over from gospel to secular music. But that was one boundary Tucker and the group were not willing to erase. “I was in a record ...

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Tom Waits Dazzles with Glitter

Source: All About Jazz
June 29, 2008

What Ever Waits is Selling, his Unifyingly Strange Fan base is Buying

Do a quick internet search and there are more than 600 references of “Tom Waits" and the term “huckster" together. Snake oil, parodist, sly salesman, etc., a vocabulary of carnival-esque trickery have followed the man; as critic Robert Christgau quipped in the 1970's, “Waits is so full of shit..." (as he ripped the Pomona, Calif., native apart). But whatever Tom Waits is selling, his diverse and unifyingly strange ...

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Bad Plus Trio Goes Quartet at JVC

Source: Michael Ricci
June 29, 2008

A Close-Knit Trio Turns Itself Into a Quartet for a Night

Since officially declaring bandhood around the turn of the millennium, the Bad Plus has convincingly modeled a closed society. Its members -- the pianist Ethan Iverson, the bassist Reid Anderson and the drummer David King -- all hail from the upper Midwest, where they first played together as teenagers. Their chemistry is reactive but stable, and their methods don't avail much room for outside contributions. But on Tuesday night ...

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Joshua Redman Saxophone Leaps over Wall of Funk

Source: Michael Ricci
June 29, 2008

Joshua Redman and Soulive are not that unlikely a combination.

Redman is a saxophonist of such intelligence and energy that you could probably place him in any musical setting, and he would find a way to make himself at home. Sitting in with the trio Soulive on Thursday night for a JVC Jazz Festival performance at Le Poisson Rouge, he did just that. Although Mr. Redman is best known as a master of straight-ahead post-bop jazz, he has made some ...

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Leonard Cohen Montreal's Poet Son Heralds Its Festival

Source: Michael Ricci
June 29, 2008

Leonard Cohen played three concerts on the eve of the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

MONTREAL -- On Wednesday night, in the last of his three concerts presented as preludes to the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Leonard Cohen, the 73-year-old hometown poet-hero on tour for the first time in 15 years, said that on his last time through town he was “60 years old, just a kid with a crazy dream." Between waves of applause and hollers in French and English, ...

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Bob Szajner Triad II Release Live at the Detroit Montreux Jazz Fest 1981

Source: All About Jazz
June 29, 2008

CADENCE JAZZ 1215: Bob Szajner Triad II Live at the Detroit Montreux Jazz Fest 1981 Bob Szajner (p) with Ed Pickens (b) - Frank Isola (d) Bob Szajner is a bopster and prolific composer. He's been in and out of the Detroit Jazz scene since the 1950's. This release documents one of his last concerts and gives ample evidence of his talents and abilities. Complementing this package are extensive notes by the ...

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Marilyn Scott Releases Set of Jazz Standards "Every Time We Say Goodbye"

Source: All About Jazz
June 29, 2008

Although the physical CD is currently only available as a Japanese import, jazz fans can download the album on iTunes or purchase the CD from Marilyn's website, though soon it will also be available on Amazon.com. The 10-song collection is comprised of standards such as the Cole Porter-penned title track, which sets the pace for the album as Marilyn's exceptionally soothing vocals take the listener to another time and place.

The artist spreads her wings on Irving Berlin's “I Got ...

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