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Jazz Articles about Les McCann

83
Interview

Les McCann: Never Say No Again

Read "Les McCann: Never Say No Again" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


"Be who you are and not who you ain't. Because when you are who you ain't, you're not who you are." Keyboardist, vocalist, bandleader, songwriter and photographer Les McCann really talks like this. About his music, about musicians, about his career--about everything. I learned this during the following interview, scheduled to discuss Omnivore Records' March 2015 reissue of McCann's improvisational landmark Invitation to Openness, generally out of print since its original 1972 Atlantic Records' release; this reissue was ...

1
Interview

A Conversation With Les McCann

Read "A Conversation With Les McCann" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Les McCann has a new release on Joel Dorn's 32 Records entitled How's Your Mother?. I had an opportunity to chat with the pianist/vocalist from his home about the release, his humble beginnings in Kentucky, his distaste for the current trends in music, and about the highly successful album with Eddie Harris, Swiss Movement, recorded live at the 1968 Montreux Jazz Festival. All About Jazz: Growing up in Kentucky, what made you want to play jazz music?

2
Radio & Podcasts

New Releases + Some Soul, Electric Funk and a Hot California set of '50s Cool

Read "New Releases + Some Soul, Electric Funk and a Hot California set of '50s Cool" reviewed by David Brown


This week new releases from Chad Taylor and James Brandon Lewis, a soulful set of Ramsey Lewis (RIP), getting funky with the Electric Eddie Harris, Les McCann and Yusef Lateef, then a shift to a hot California set of '50s cool, and more. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 00:30 Don Byas Quintet “All The Things You Are" from Americans ihn Europe vol. 2 (Impulse! ) 02:00 Chad Taylor Trio “Subterfuge" from ...

1
Radio & Podcasts

Free Association - Vol. 2 with Michael Blake

Read "Free Association - Vol. 2 with Michael Blake" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


Free Association is a series of collaborative mixtapes curated by Mondo Jazz in association with musicians and selectors of various origins. Free Association mixtapes develop as a conversation. The first selector sends a tune cherry-picked to suit, and ideally surprise, the second selector who then, in turn, returns the favor. An hour or so into this exchange, after unexpected turns and joyful revelations, the two look back at the results of this game of ...

1,099
Building a Jazz Library

Funk Jazz: '60s-'70s

Read "Funk Jazz: '60s-'70s" reviewed by Douglas Payne


Somewhere between the soul-jazz of the early sixties (often called “funk" in its day) and the disco of the mid-seventies, funk jazz was born. Rock was already crossing over into jazz. And it just made sense that rock would inject soul jazz with a greater sense of urgency and a stronger feel for the groove. Funk had that thing that made soul and any other kinds of dance music what it was--a deep, true conviction to getting you ...

10
Album Review

Les McCann: Invitation to Openness

Read "Invitation to Openness" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


It is a simple matter of acid-base stoichiometry like that learned in any quantitative chemical analysis or medicinal chemistry course. If one treats the acid element of Parliament Funkadelic's Maggot Brain (Westbound, 1971) with the sweet bass of Leroy Vinnegar, then infuse as with juniper with gin, with honey and morphine: Les McCann's monumental Invitation to Openness would result. Ornette Coleman may have detonated a nuclear music device with Free Jazz; A Collective Improvisation (Atlantic, 1961), but it was McCann ...

320
Album Review

Les McCann: Invitation to Openness

Read "Invitation to Openness" reviewed by Germein Linares


Les McCann is an interesting figure in jazz. After winning a talent contest on the Ed Sullivan Show in '56, McCann turned down an opportunity to join Cannonball Adderley's group, deciding instead to form his own jazz trio in Los Angeles. Playing a popular blend of hard bop and soul jazz, he signed with Pacific Jazz in '60, produced several enjoyable albums, and continued to develop and define the sound he wanted. That sound, a restless brew of jazz, funk, ...


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