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Musician

Ben Webster

Born:

Ben Webster was considered one of the "big three" of swing tenors along with Coleman Hawkins (his main influence) and Lester Young. He had a tough, raspy, and brutal tone on stomps (with his own distinctive growls) yet on ballads he would turn into a pussy cat and play with warmth and sentiment. After violin lessons as a child, Webster learned how to play rudimentary piano (his neighbor Pete Johnson taught him to play blues). But after Budd Johnson showed him some basics on the saxophone, Webster played sax in the Young Family Band (which at the time included Lester Young). He had stints with Jap Allen and Blanche Calloway (making his recording debut with the latter) before joining Bennie Moten's Orchestra in time to be one of the stars on a classic session in 1932. Webster spent time with quite a few orchestras in the 1930s (including Andy Kirk, Fletcher Henderson in 1934, Benny Carter, Willie Bryant, Cab Calloway, and the short-lived Teddy Wilson big band). In 1940 (after short stints in 1935 and 1936), Ben Webster became Duke Ellington's first major tenor soloist

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Article: Interview

Fernando Trueba & They Shot the Piano Player

Read "Fernando Trueba & They Shot the Piano Player" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba has long been a jazz fan, and has made several films with a jazz focus. Calle 54 (2000) is still a notable documentary on Latin jazz. The film primarily consists of studio performances by a wide array of Latin Jazz musicians. Artists featured include Chucho Valdés, Bebo Valdés, Cachao, Eliane Elias, Gato ...

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Article: Live Review

Artemis at Finney Chapel

Read "Artemis at Finney Chapel" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


Artemis Finney Chapel Artist Recital Series Oberlin, OH March 13, 2024 Much like society in general, women in the jazz arena have historically had a hard road to travel in a space that is clearly dominated by males. In recent years, the pendulum has thankfully shifted towards acknowledging the talents ...

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Article: Album Review

Lucien Johnson: Ancient Relics

Read "Ancient Relics" reviewed by Chris May


The astral jazz of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane is among the most mimicked jazz to be heard in 2024. Mimicked as in superficial, cynical, clichéd, travesty. So it is a rare pleasure to come across an album as singular and substantial as New Zealand-based tenor saxophonist Lucien Johnson's Ancient Relics. The album is ...

Article: Album Review

Aaron Diehl & The Knights: Zodiac Suite

Read "Zodiac Suite" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Composta da Mary Lou Williams nella prima metà degli anni quaranta e registrata per la prima volta in trio nel 1945, la “Zodiac Suite" è stata eseguita dalla stessa pianista in versioni orchestrali sfortunate (alla Town Hall con Ben Webster, alla Carnegie Hall) e ripresa nel 2006 da Geri Allen e di recente dalla New York ...

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Article: Profile

Autumn Jazz Weathers Well in San Francisco

Read "Autumn Jazz Weathers Well in San Francisco" reviewed by Arthur R George


Autumn is a special season for jazz in jny: San Francisco. The weather at other times of the year variously drives one indoors for warmth, a good enough reason to seek shelter in jazz. But in the autumn, mostly gone is the bone-chilling summer fog that pours into the city from the cold Pacific Ocean. Not ...

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Article: Book Review

The Gerry Mulligan 1950s Quartets

Read "The Gerry Mulligan 1950s Quartets" reviewed by Ian Patterson


The Gerry Mulligan 1950s Quartets Alyn Shipton240 Pages ISBN: 978-0197579763 Oxford University Press 2023 Several are the biographies of Gerry Mulligan, arguably jazz's most celebrated baritone saxophonist. None, however, have focused as specifically and as closely as this tome does on the quartets with which Mulligan made his name ...

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Article: Album Review

The Harry Allen Orchestra: With Roses

Read "With Roses" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Harry Allen is a tenor saxophonist's tenor saxophonist with an elegant tone and swinging style in the manner of Scott Hamilton, Lester Young or Ben Webster. He has a well-rounded discography of over 70 releases as a leader and many others as a sideman. Over the course of his prolific career, Allen has appeared with the ...

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Article: Album Review

Mary Stallings: Songs Were Made to Sing

Read "Songs Were Made to Sing" reviewed by Dave Linn


One of eleven children, Mary Stallings was born in San Francisco in 1939. In her teens, she began singing in San Francisco night clubs and performed with Ben Webster, Earl Hines, Red Mitchell, Teddy Edwards, and Wes Montgomery. Before graduating from high school, she joined R&B singer Louis Jordan's Tympani Five. In the early '60s, she ...

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Article: Interview

John Apelgren: Jazz, Resilience, and the Forbidden People

Read "John Apelgren: Jazz, Resilience, and the Forbidden People" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


With a career spanning 30 years in the music scene, John Apelgren can boast experiences like few others. As an integral part of what is called the jazz scene or jazz culture in Macedonia, he has performed with various jazz ensembles, ranging from the old Radio Television Skopje (RTS) Big Band to performances with the new ...


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