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The Fox
by Richard J Salvucci
There was once a legendary trumpet player named Jack Purvis who was a disciple of Louis Armstrong. Purvis was an excellent player, but he was in and out of trouble for most of his life. So he spent some time in jail. In fact, so much time that Purvis once led (documented in the Fort-Worth Star Telegram, March 30, 1938) a broadcast from a Texas prison in Huntsville. Purvis led many lives, and was sometimes spotted in odd places like ...
read moreCurtis Counce: You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce!
by Richard J Salvucci
When bassist Curtis Counce died of a heart attack at the age of 37 in 1963, the jazz world was deprived of a major talent. Not that one would have known much, for his death, while noted, was not extensively covered. Counce, a Midwesterner, had come to California and to jny:Los Angeles to learn his craft, where he played with such incubator orchestras at the Club Alabam as Johnny Otis (trumpeter Art Farmer started there too). He gigged in the ...
read moreHarold Land: Westward Bound!
by Peter J. Hoetjes
One can't help but wonder how large the stage may have been for tenor saxophonist Harold Land had he not tethered himself to the west coast for the majority of his career. In 1954 Land moved from Santa Monica to Los Angeles and quickly earned himself a place in the immensely popular Clifford Brown/Max Roach band, beginning with the aptly named Jam Session (EmArcy, 1954). Called back to Los Angeles in 1956 by the responsibilities of being a ...
read moreHarold Land: Westward Bound!
by Pierre Giroux
Until 1954 Harold Land was a relatively unknown tenor saxophonist. He experienced a surge in his standing with the release of Clifford Brown & Max Roach (Emarcy 1954) when he was part of this high-profile, but short lived, bebop quintet (1954-56). A decade later, this hard-bop player was recognized for his engaging ideas and robust tone and is the center of Westward Bound! a Reel To Real Limited Edition 180 gram 2LP gatefold release produced by Cory Weeds and Zev ...
read moreJazz in the Key of Japan: The J Jazz Masterclass Series on BBE
by Jakob Baekgaard
It's widely known that Japan is a country with a jazz-loving population. The audience appreciates the music and shows it proper respect. It has been that way for a long time. In fact, the history of jazz in Japan goes back to the 1920s when jazz was still popular dance music. Since then, the music has evolved with the times and made the transition from popular music to modern art music. The American influence has been there from the beginning, ...
read moreHarold Land: A New Shade Of Blue
by Chris May
If Harold Land had left nothing else behind him other than the 1960 Contemporary Records album The Fox, a place in jazz history would be secure. The disc not only featured some of the finest mid-period hard-bop tenor saxophone to come out of the West Coast, but in Land's frontline partner, Dupree Bolton, it showcased a trumpet soloist of outsize talent, one, tragically, who was cut down by heroin addiction and psychiatric problems almost as soon as the recording session ...
read moreHarold Land: A New Shade Of Blue
by Mark Corroto
What came first, craft beers or the revival of vinyl records? I ask because both revolutions have moved your collective attentions away from corporate culture to smaller more specialized boutiques. That means better beer and certainly a more diverse choice in music. Case in point, saxophonist Harold Land's A New Shade Of Blue originally issued on Los Angeles' Mainstream Records in 1971. When the big record companies were touting their answer to rock-and-roll with electric Miles and Herbie, producers like ...
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