Jazz Articles

Chris Connor: Chris Connor Sings Gentle Bossa Nova

by David Rickert
October 10, 2011

If you were a jazz singer in the mid-sixties, chances are you recorded a bossa nova album. It might have been great, it might have been terrible, but it most likely fell somewhere in-between. You may not have wanted to record one, but bossa nova was too popular a fad to resist, and not many people were buying jazz records anyway. And, at least, bossa nova records allowed you the opportunity to use your jazz chops on something deliberately commercial.

John Patton: Soul Connection

by Jerry D'Souza
July 15, 2008

The Hammond B-3 soul-jazz sound of Big John Patton (as he was then called) was perfect for the 1960s. It was the groove that drew attention and Patton made several albums for Blue Note. As his style went out of favor, some of the recordings never saw the light of day until almost 20 years later and at the same time Patton slipped into the background. He resurfaced in the 1980s and went into the studio. Among his albums Soul ...

Alvin Queen: Jammin' Uptown

by Jerry D'Souza
July 12, 2008

Back in 1985, drummer Alvin Queen put together a band of American musicians to record Jammin' Uptown for his Nilva Records label. Queen, who was living in Europe, visited the United States to play live concerts and to record. This band reflected his vision as he brought together young musicians Terence Blanchard (trumpet) and Robin Eubanks (trombone) along with veterans John Hicks (piano) and Manny Boyd (tenor, alto and soprano sax) with Ray Drummond (bass) as the bridge. ...

Trudy Desmond: A Dream Come True

by Jim Santella
August 19, 2005

Trudy Desmond made four studio recordings in her lifetime. Cancer took the vocalist from us all too soon. She could interpret a song convincingly, and she always gave us a warm musical performance. This compilation gives us the best of Trudy Desmond through excerpts from RSVP (1988), Tailor Made (1991), Make Me Rainbows (1995), and My One and Only (1998).

Her clear vocal delivery makes each song come to life. Desmond is accompanied by great friends, and her ...

Nina Simone: Let It Be Me

by Jim Santella
August 17, 2005

Recorded in 1980 at a Quebec concert performance before thousands of adoring fans at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts in Montreal, this just-reissued 33-minute album provides a personal glimpse of the persona that Nina Simone brought us.

The concert is unique. Simone performs some of the material alone, involves the audience on occasion, and works with bass and drums for a portion. Her audience rapport works well, since she talks to them in English and French. Informal ...

Dizzy Gillespie: Salt Peanuts

by Terrell Kent Holmes
March 31, 2005

Ted Williams could go one for four. Maria Callas wasn't always in perfect voice. Words sometimes failed Hemingway. Even legends have normal days. Salt Peanuts is a recently discovered recording of a Dizzy Gillespie concert date in Montréal in 1981 and although his playing was still strong, it frankly isn't one of his better moments. Gillespie fires off a few of his trademark lightning riffs on “On Green Dolphin Street, with flutist Sayyd Abdul Al-Khabyyr kicking in a ...

Dizzy Gillespie: Salt Peanuts

by Trevor MacLaren
November 30, 2004

Salt Peanuts is a Dizzy Gillespie show recorded in July 1981 at The Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club in Montreal. Though Dizzy's work from the '70s on is patchy at best, this show is a real killer. It seemed Gillespie and his crew were really into a groove while hanging out in Canada's jazz Mecca.

The disc opens on a weak note with “On Green Dolphin Street." The solos have their moments, but nowhere within the track is the melody. ...

Dizzy Gillespie: Salt Peanuts

by Jim Santella
October 13, 2004

Dizzy Gillespie, the remarkable trumpeter who helped pioneer bebop in the 1940s with his magnetic presence, was 64 when these recordings were captured at The Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club in Montreal. While not his best work, these intimate July 1981 sessions manage to capture the lovable artist at work, passing the mainstream jazz torch on to like-minded compatriots. He continued to do so for another eleven years, setting the example and working actively with the jazz mainstream until his ...

Oscar Peterson Trio: Vancouver, 1958

by AAJ Staff
November 16, 2003

Vancouver, 1958, a sequel to last year's Tenderly, documents a live performance toward the end of the lifespan of the early Peterson/Ellis/Brown trio, displaying the same patient warmth, outrageous swing, calculated calm, and lightning flashes that have always been essential to the Peterson sound.Some say Oscar Peterson is just a (highly capable) mechanic, and those would probably be the same folks who dismiss Art Tatum as a technical prodigy without invention. Whatever. You can look at it that ...

James Cotton: It Was A Very Good Year

by Jim Santella
May 1, 2001

Singing traditional blues, James Cotton captures the original foundation as it was created centuries ago. How many times have you been working hard all day long at some particular task and just felt like singing “It's been a hard journey, baby, but I don't have to cry no more." Cotton's original, “One More Mile," moves slow and emotional. He manages to interpret a field holler mood that gave rise to the blues long before worldwide acceptance. Cotton was 32 when ...