Home » Search Center » Results: AAJ Staff

Results for "AAJ Staff"

Advanced search options

News: Recording

Backgrounder: Sonny Stitt - Tune-Up!

Backgrounder: Sonny Stitt - Tune-Up!

Perhaps the high points of Joe Fields's Cobblestone label were a pair of albums by Sonny Stitt released in 1972—Tune-Up! and Constellation. Both were produced by Don Schlitten. On Tunre-Up!, Stitt played alto and tenor saxophone and was accompanied by Barry Harris on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Alan Dawson on drums. What made this ...

News: Video / DVD

12 YouTube Clips of Anita O'Day

12 YouTube Clips of Anita O'Day

Anita O'Day was one of jazz's first “slick chicks." Born Anita Colton in 1919, O'Day was raised in Chicago. She left home during the Depression at age 14 to become a walk-a-thon contestant—the last person standing after sleepless hours won a cash prize. Dance-a-thons would soon follow. In 1936, O'Day began singing professionally and fronted her ...

1

News: Music Industry

Impex's Getz/Gilberto; Plus a Chat With Abey Fonn

Impex's Getz/Gilberto; Plus a Chat With Abey Fonn

This month marks the 60th anniversary of Getz/Gilberto's release by Verve Records. The revolutionary bossa nova album recorded in 1963 and produced by Creed Taylor—with the inclusion of Astrud Gilberto singing The Girl From Ipanema and Corcovado—turned the infectious Brazilian beat into a global phenomenon with the young-adult market. In America, the Beatles and other British ...

1

News: Video / DVD

Backgrounder: Quincy Jones - Americans in Paris

Backgrounder: Quincy Jones - Americans in Paris

In 1957, Quincy Jones moved to Paris to study composition and theory with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. In his spare time, the producer, composer, arranger, bandleader and conductor became music director at Barclay, a French record company owned by Eddie Barclay, a composer-arranger and contractor. Barclay also was the licensee for Mercury in France. Jones's ...

3

Article: Multiple Reviews

Exotic Ivories: Hard Bop Piano and World Beat Rhythms

Read "Exotic Ivories: Hard Bop Piano and World Beat Rhythms" reviewed by AAJ Staff


This article was first published at All About Jazz in January 2002. Jazz piano and world music rhythm make an enchanting pair. With the popularization of world beat music, jazz musicians nurtured on straight-ahead precepts have incorporated instruments and musical concepts from other cultures into their art. Some, like saxophonist Sam Newsome on last ...

1

News: Recording

Bill Evans: Waltz for Debby

Bill Evans: Waltz for Debby

Bill Evans performed his composition Waltz for Debby at dozens of clubs and concert halls and recorded it several times in the studio between 1955 and 1980. In my opinion, he aced it only once. Waltz for Debby sounds deceptively easy to play but it isn't. Having played Bill Evans transcriptions in my teens, I can ...

3

Article: Multiple Reviews

Two-Trumpet Cacophony

Read "Two-Trumpet Cacophony" reviewed by AAJ Staff


This article was first published at All About Jazz in February 2002. Miles had it figured out: never record with another trumpeter in a small group setting--it just don't work. Or was it his ego? Two, three, and multi-trumpet small group ensembles represent an obscure configuration in modern jazz. This position contrasts sharply ...

1

News: Recording

Backgrounder: Oliver Nelson - Taking Care of Business

Backgrounder: Oliver Nelson - Taking Care of Business

Last week, following my series on organ combos, Bill Kirchner sent along a terrific Backgrounder suggestion: Oliver Nelson's Taking Care of Business, Nelson's second leadership date. Recorded in March 1960, the album featured Oliver Nelson (as,ts), Lem Winchester (vib), Johnny “Hammond" Smith (org), George Tucker (b) and Roy Haynes (d). The tracks: Trane Whistle (Oliver Nelson) ...

1

News: Recording

Abdullah Ibrahim: 3

Abdullah Ibrahim: 3

When I interviewed pianist Abdullah Ibrahim by phone in South Africa in 2011, he told me how much he looked forward to the arrival of the ice cream truck growing up in Cape Town in the late 1940s. But ice cream was only part of the joy. The truck blared recordings by Louis Jordan and his ...

1

News: Recording

Art Pepper: Smack Up, 1960

Art Pepper: Smack Up, 1960

Recorded over two days in October 1960 for Los Angeles's Contemporary Records, Art Pepper's Smack Up featured six compositions by saxophonists, five of whom had recorded their songs for the label years earlier. It's unclear whether Pepper was compelled to do this by Contemporary or the idea was suggested to him. It's doubtful he came up ...


Engage

Contest Giveaways
Enter our latest contest giveaway sponsored by Calligram Records
Polls & Surveys
Vote for your favorite musicians and participate in our brief surveys.
Publisher's Desk
How To Follow Staff Writers
Read on...

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.