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Mixed Tape
Musicians, AAJ contributors, industry pros and fans share their favorite iTunes playlists.
Jazzy Christmas
Enduring holiday classics from Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Kenny Burrell, Bill Evans, Jimmy Smith, Vince Guaraldi and more. TrackNameTimeArtistAlbum1The Christmas Song3:30Ella FitzgeraldElla Wishes You A Swinging Christmas2Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!4:37Joe WilliamsVerve Presents: The Very Best Of Christmas Jazz3Santa Claus Is Coming To Town4:27Bill EvansThe Best Of Bill Evans On Verve4What Are You Doing New Years Eve2:24Nancy WilsonUltra-Lounge: Christmas Cocktails, Part One5Winter Wonderland2:28Chet BakerYule Struttin'6Greensleeves5:28Vince GuaraldiA Charlie Brown Christmas7Christmas Is3:12Lou RawlsStarbucks Holiday8Jingle Bells3:12Jimmy SmithVerve ...
read moreClassic Christmas
Time-honored classics for the most wonderful time of the year. Lights and snow not included. TrackNameTimeArtistAlbum1Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town2:38Tony BennettSnowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album2A Holly Jolly Christmas2:14Burl IvesClassic Christmas3Looks Like A Cold, Cold Winter3:50Bing Crosby with Sonny Burke's OrchestraClassic Christmas4Winter Wonderland2:16Ella FitzgeraldElla Wishes You A Swinging Christmas5Baby, It's Cold Outside2:20Dinah Shore & Buddy ClarkClassic Christmas6Sleigh Ride3:20Tex Beneke & Yhe Glenn Miller OrchestraClassic Christmas7Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season2:39Andy WilliamsThe Andy Williams Christmas Album8White Christmas2:30Dean MartinMy Kind ...
read moreTed Dunbar's Bebop List
Yeah, I know I went WAY over the 10-20 song, 70 minute limit, but this is a VERY important list. These are the tunes I practiced EVERY day (in this order) for several years from a list given to me by my teacher Ted Dunbar in 1990. TrackNameTimeArtistAlbum1 Confirmation5:53Charlie ParkerThe Charlie Parker Story2 Donna Lee2:32Charlie “Bird" ParkerThe Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes3 Four7:14Miles DavisWorkin'4 Little Willie Leaps2:50Charlie “Bird" ParkerThe Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes5 Freedom ...
read moreCharles Gayle: Holiday Selection
Downtown veteran, multi-instrumentalist Charles Gayle's style suits all sorts of situations. It works equally well as an irresistible morning wake-up call or an unusual choice of late night, post-coital soundtrack. Whether he is playing tenor saxophone or viola, once heard, Gayle is not quickly forgotten. With the holiday season upon us, the selection below is a great package to gift to in-laws. You may not see them often, but they are in your thoughts! ...
read moreDesmond After Dark (With the Dave Brubeck Quartet)
Alto saxophonist Paul Desmond's solos kept me connected to the Dave Brubeck Quartet's music. A perfect “dry martini" mix of boundless lyricism and musical excellence. The following tunes were selected from several albums included in the The Dave Brubeck Quartet: The Complete Columbia Studio Albums Collection 1954 to 1967 box set. TrackNameTimeArtistAlbum1The Night We Called it a Day6:11Dave BrubeckAngel Eyes2Take Five5:27The Dave Brubeck QuartetTime Out3Georgia On My Mind6:42The Dave Brubeck QuartetGone With The Wind4Angel Eyes7:27Dave BrubeckAngel Eyes5Coracao ...
read moreMcCoy Tyner: Vol. Three 1961
Vol. One, 1959-60 | Vol. Two, 1960-61 | Vol. Three, 1961 This music was recorded over a six month span but illustrates the breakneck speed with which the bleeding edge of jazz was transforming. In late May and early June 1961, McCoy Tyner was part of the John Coltrane group that recorded the ground-breaking Impulse! album Africa/Brass. By early November, the month that record was released, the core group of Coltrane, Tyner, Elvin Jones, Reggie Workman and notably, ...
read moreMy Influences
I find it funny when reviewers assert my influences; they are never correct and I'd prefer to acknowledge my sources. So here is a list of the music that helped inspire my forthcoming album, You Are Here. The whole list makes me euphoric, but highlights for me would be Jack DeJohnette's fevered drumming on “Down San Diego Way" and Andy Sheppard's seductive soprano on “Sol." Tomasz Stanko's trumpet similarly slays me: rich, magnificent and tragic like a crumbling empire. I ...
read moreMcCoy Tyner: Vol. Two, 1960-61
Vol. One, 1959-60 | Vol. Two, 1960-61 The jazz world ushered in the 1960s with a fury of innovative change. A bold avant-garde stretched the form while also making accessible and engaging records. Across just nine months in one corner of that world,pianist McCoy Tyner played on a variety of sessions that together serve as a concise illustration of the ground bop was ceding to modality, melody and more. He began his tenure and apprenticeship with saxophonist ...
read moreAlice Coltrane's Divine Ferocity
Alice Coltrane's death in 2007 did not bring about the critical reassessment her work deserves. Nothing less than a trailblazer in free and spiritual jazz, the pianist and harpist was a deeply sensitive blues player and top-rate composer. Working in the shadow of her husband, saxophonist John Coltrane, through his controversial, late-period work and her erratic recording career later in her own life have not helped her legacy but Alice Coltrane's work is Important with a capital “I." If you ...
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