Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

RADIO October 23, 2020

Last Dance (for Now)

So, this is our “last dance" at least for now, and we hope to have new Gifts & Messages shows in 2021. As many of you know, even this is only a two-hour show, it's almost a full-time job, with listening to new/old music, selecting tunes, doing the program-specific research and lots of reading, in addition to actually producing the show. I'm at a time of life where other business demands my attention. Rather than do a half-assed job each ...

MEET THE STAFF September 2, 2020

Meet Marc Cohn

By Marc Cohn

Meet Marc A. Cohn Dr. Cohn is a New Yorker-in-exile and has been doing jazz radio as an avocation since 1967. He is Professor Emeritus in Seed Biology at Louisiana State University, where he has won numerous teaching awards. He is a widely recognized authority on seed dormancy, is Editor Emeritus of Seed Science Research (the premier scientific journal in the field), and is a recipient of the Seed Science Award (nationally, the most prestigious research award in seed biology) ...

RADIO June 27, 2020

James Bond and other Secret Agents, Spies and Detectives - Part 2

By Ludovico Granvassu

In the first part of the show [click here to listen to it] we focused on jazz inspired by the music composed by James Barry for the James Bond series. Here we switch our attention to other great soundtrack composers like Lalo Schifrin, or Quincy Jones, and other movie characters like Sherlock Holmes, Ms. Marple, Nero Wolfe or Dirty Harry. And we look into how Charlie Parker became Charlie Chan. We then wrap things up with the daughter of the ...

REASSESSING June 20, 2020

Back At The Chicken Shack

By Thomas Fletcher

Back At The Chicken Shack celebrates 60 years since its recording date at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs. The same session produced Midnight Special (Blue Note, 1961), though Back At The Chicken Shack would have to wait three years for its release. The label's co-founder, Alfred Lion, later revealed that the healthy sales of this album, alongside many others from Jimmy Smith, kept the record company afloat. The album features, at the time, a youthful but ...

RADIO April 7, 2020

The Soul Jazz Organ of Jimmy Smith, Baby Face Willette, Shirley Scott (1957 - 1965)

By Russell Perry

Rarely has a jazz instrument been so completely redefined as the organ was at the hands of Jimmy Smith. In his wake, the Hammond B3 organ gained wide-spread popularity and attracted a suite of talented adherents. B3 players Jimmy Smith, Baby Face Willette and Shirley Scott in this hour of Jazz at 100 as we continue to explore Soul Jazz in the 1960s. Playlist Host Intro 0:00 Jimmy Smith Trio “After Hours" from Groovin' at Smalls' Paradise (Blue ...

MY BLUE NOTE OBSESSION October 1, 2015

Jimmy Smith: Groovin’ at Smalls Paradise – 1957

By Marc Davis

I love the jazz organ. I love Jimmy Smith. But I don't love Groovin' at Smalls Paradise. When Smith burst onto the scene in 1956, he was a genuine phenomenon. Not only was he wildly popular, but also wildly prolific. In just three years, from 1956 to 1958, Smith put out a mind-boggling 23 albums. Blue Note had a bona fide star, and the label sure knew how to milk the craze. Some of those records ...

BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY May 1, 2015

Jimmy Smith: Master of the Hammond B-3

By Mark Sabbatini

Jimmy Smith ignited a jazz revolution on an instrument associated at the time with ballparks, despite never playing one until the age of 28. His legendary multi-part technique on the Hammond B-3 organ, playing bass with the foot pedals and Charlie Parker-like single-line passages with his right hand, shook up the traditional trio as co-players could explore new roles. Yet, while the consensus is Smith's playing is a jazz landmark, his recordings fall short of such acclaim.