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Betty Bennett (1921-2020)
Betty Bennett, who in the 1940s sang with bands led by Alvino Rey, Claude Thornhill and Charlie Ventura before moving to Los Angeles and recording vocal albums for Trend, Atlantic, United Artists and Kapp, died April 7. She was 98. Betty was married to bassist Iggy Shevak, pianist Andre Previn and guitarist Mundell Lowe. Betty left ...
Interview: Nelson Riddle, 1982
In 1982, WNEW radio host Jonathan Schwartz conducted a superb interview with arranger Nelson Riddle, who was 61 at the time. Superb, because rather than impatiently thinking only of his next question, Schwartz was listening to Riddle and was shrewd enough to pepper his guest with cogent followup questions. Here's the complete interview: Here's Part 1... ...
Albums that had significant impacts on my thirst for jazz
In recent days, Facebook has been bubbling with users’ lists of celebrities or musicians that they have met or performed with, with one exception. Then it’s up to the followers to figure out which one was untrue. This is an interesting sheltering-in-place pastime. Thanks to my parents’ modest record collection, there was some music by jazz ...
NIna Simone: Lost Album, 1982
Nina Simone lived in Paris from 1981 to 1983. Like most American artists who take up residence there, the elegance and majesty of the city transforms them. During these years, Simone lived in southern Paris near the Parc Montsouris in the 14th arrondissement, in a small, 260-square foot apartment that was largely empty except for a ...
StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A jazz film mini-festival (shutdown edition)
With live music still shut down for the foreseeable future, this week we revisit an idea used in this space occasionally during the slow weeks of summer, and offer up a mini-festival of six feature-length films about jazz. The first film, embedded up above, is 1959, The Year That Changed Jazz, a 2009 documentary originally aired ...
Video: Milt Jackson, 1984
Vibraphonist Milt Jackson's earliest recordings were accompanying Dinah Washington on her first releases on Apollo Records in Los Angeles in 1945. He also was among the first to perform bop with Dizzy Gillespie's Rebop Six in December '45 (Groovin' High) and with Gillespie's big band of 1946. Through the years, he recorded with Miles Davis, Thelonious ...
Zoot Sims: Sweden, 1984
In November 1984, four months before tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims died at age 60, he performed at the library in the Sonet Records building in Lidingö, Sweden. Sims was backed by bassist Red Mitchell and guitarist Rune Gustafsson. They performed for nearly an hour, playing In a Sentimental Mood, Gone With the Wind, Castle Blues, Sweet ...
Ellis Marsalis (1934-2020)
Ellis Marsalis, an elegant jazz pianist who chose to remain in his native New Orleans for much of his career while raising a family that included musician sons Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason, died on April 1. He was 85. Marsalis wasn't widely known among jazz fans outside of New Orleans for many years, largely because ...
StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A David Sanborn retrospective
With no upcoming live shows to preview during the ongoing big shutdown, the last two installments of this weekly feature have spotlighted two of St. Louis' most famous jazz musicians, trumpeters Clark Terry and Miles Davis. This week, we're going for a trifecta of sorts, with a collection of clips looking back at various phases in ...
Ellis Marsalis Is Gone
The death this week of Ellis Marsalis recalls dozens of enounters with him when he was one of New Orleans’ premier jazz musicians. Long before Ellis became famous as the father of Wynton, Branford, Jason and Delfeo, he established himself as a nonpareil pianist and educator. I remember hearing the the young Marsalis when he was ...


