Jazz Articles
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Jimi Hendrix/Miles Davis: Rainy Day Chillin'
by Mike Jurkovic
Amid the swirling collateral from the societal and musical fever dream of the late 1960's, one could never tell who would show up at your door bearing gifts. Nor would you know for sure exactly how potent those gifts were. Within its thirty-eight minutes of chemically induced melancholia, magic, and spontaneous genius, Rainy Day Chillin' bears testimony to that and so much more. The upcoming Netflix doc goes likes this: In a penthouse atop the Hotel Navarro overlooking ...
read moreThe Dunbarton Oakes Trio: We Have Become Our Ancestors
by Karl Ackermann
"We didn't want just to deconstruct our catalog, we wanted to burn it down." So writes trumpeter Dunbarton Oakes in the liner notes for We Have Become Our Ancestors. His namesake trio (a group as old as the average U.S. Senator) did just that but torched Oakes' home studio in the process, resulting in a four-year delay in the recording session. The trio formed out of the 45th Airborne Division of the U.S. Army at the end of WWII. None ...
read moreGetting to the Jazz Point: An Exposé
by AAJ Staff
Jazz... famous for complex harmonies, syncopated rhythms and an emphasis on improvisation. The music at its best is a form of personal expression, valuing non-conformity and freedom. It has birthed and is to an extent, defined by musicianly quirks, idiosyncrasies and singularities. There are also a great many non-musical threads that bind the tradition together and perhaps none is more lasting and pervasive than the finger point. Ever notice how jazz musicians love to point at one another ...
read moreMarjorie Taylor Greene: Margie Shoot Your Gun
by Jack Bowers
In a previously undisclosed mega-blockbuster deal that has sent Hollywood into orbit and spinning its wheels, it was announced today that congressional maverick Marjorie Taylor Greene and former president Donald Trump have agreed to co-star in an updated film version of Irving Berlin's beloved Wild West magnum opus Annie Get Your Gun, to be retitled (in honor of Ms Greene) Margie Shoot Your Gun. The former president (whose singing voice as leading man Frank Butler will be dubbed ...
read moreMarvin Blague: Epistrophal Astronomy: The Hidden Code of Thelonious Monk
by Geno Thackara
If you've ever wondered what planet Thelonious Monk came from, you are not alone. According to Marvin Blague, you're not wrong to wonder either. Like most jazz listeners, he was not sure what to make of Monk's clunky-sounding playing style on first listen. But where many of us gradually come to enjoy how the pianist used harmonies in his own quirky way, this unassuming undergraduate student heard a deeper pattern. When a streaming playlist happened to turn up the weirdly ...
read moreWerner Klemperer: Colonel Klink Swings World War II
by Ken Dryden
Werner Klemperer was a veteran actor who escaped Germany with his family prior to the start of World War II. Classically trained as a violinist and the son of noted conductor Otto Klemperer, he played Colonel Klink, the bumbling commandant of Stalag XIII on the 1960s television series Hogan's Heroes," and was occasionally featured in the program playing violin badly. But what many viewers didn't realize is that he also picked up a love of jazz in his youth and ...
read moreMiles Davis & Bob Dorough: Tappin'!
by Ian Patterson
There is no end, it seems, to the stream of posthumous Miles Davis releases, with this live recording coming hot on the heels of The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 That's What Happened 1982-1985. But this one is very different. In fact, it is safe to say that there has never been a Davis recording quite like this one. For twenty-nine minutes, Davis and singer/pianist Bob Dorough trade back and forth, ply intricate unison lines and push each other to ever ...
read moreAdmiral Isoroku Yamamoto: The Real Tokyo Blues
by Ken Dryden
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (April 4, 1884-April 18, 1943) is a notorious military figure, as he was the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet during much of World War II. Yamamoto was responsible for planning and executing the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. But before Japan attacked the United States, Yamamoto spent significant time in North America, between 1921 and 1923 in Boston at Harvard, plus a stint as the Japanese naval attaché in Washington, ...
read moreHerbie Hancock In $3 Million 'Watermelon' Fight
by Ian Patterson
Jazz legend Herbie Hancock knows better than most that jazz is the sound of surprise, after all, the 81-year-old pianist has sprung plenty of musical surprises in a glittering six-decade-career that has seen him embrace modal jazz, hard-bop, jazz-funk and electronic disco. But imagine Hancock's surprise when he was recently hit with a $3 million lawsuit... for plagiarism. The song that Hancock is alleged to have ripped off is Watermelon Man," an uber-catchy number from his debut album, ...
read moreJimmy Page and Billy Gibbons Jazz Album Set For Upcoming Release
by Kyle Simpler
During the past few years, Blue Note Records has attracted new listeners by offering albums by emerging artists while repackaging many of their classic releases. Series such as the Tone Poet and Classic Vinyl reissues have proven particularly successful. Now, in an attempt to reach an even broader audience, Blue Note has decided to invite non-jazz musicians to record jazz-inspired albums. The first project scheduled featured former Led Zeppelin guitarist, Jimmy Page, and ZZ Top frontman, Billy Gibbons. In spite ...
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