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Take Five with Guitarist Jamie Pye

by AAJ Staff
Meet Jamie Pye Jamie Pye is a London-based jazz guitarist and composer with roots in both Australia and New Zealand. He performs in various line ups and contexts; from intimate duo residencies to headline performances as a bandleader showcasing his original music. He is often part of house bands for jam sessions around town, or as ...
Backgrounder: Bossa Session (1964)

Happy Thanksgiving to my readers in the U.S. and abroad! To provide you with an after-dinner musical digestivo, I've chosen a wonderful bossa nova album on Elenco. Elenco was one of the most influential Brazilian record labels. Founded by producer Aloysio de Oliveira (above) in 1963, the label was instrumental in widening the popularity of the ...
Perfection: Frank Sinatra - There's a Small Hotel

Readers often ask me for my favorite Frank Sinatra track and arrangement from the singer's Capitol years (1953-1962). While I can't tell you which is No. 1 on my list—there are simply too many great ones—I can tell you which recording is in my top 3: There's a Small Hotel. For the film Pal Joey (1957), ...
Remembering All About Jazz's Chris May

by AAJ Staff
With profound sadness, the All About Jazz family mourns the loss of Chris May (1946-2024), a luminous soul whose passion and dedication took AAJ to new heights during his 20 year tenure. Chris was more than a colleague--he was a beloved writer, a brilliant editor, and a cherished friend whose words dazzled with grace and insight. ...
Miles Davis: Miles 54, the Prestige Recordings

In 1954, Miles Davis's future meant considerably more than his past. Recording for Prestige since 1951 (The New Sounds was his first album for the label), the trumpeter came into his own in 1954. Returning to New York in February of that year after kicking his heroin habit, Davis had also kicked his bebop fixation. What ...
Backgrounder: Hank Mobley - Soul Station (1960)

Soul Station was Hank Mobley's finest album. The trio behind him on the Blue Note release was tough, sensitive and swinging, and the song choices make this a perfect album. The four originals by the tenor saxophonist are among his best, and the two standards chosen are in the pocket for this quartet. Recorded in February ...
Perfection: Herb Pomeroy - 'Down Home Outing' ('58)

From my perspective, one of the only big bands in 1958 that rivaled Maynard Ferguson's in terms of innovation was Herb Pomeroy's. Pomeroy was an exquisite and much-admired Boston trumpeter, and his late-1950s band was first rate in terms of arrangements and individual talent. His finest album was Band in Boston, recorded in November 1958. Bob ...
Roy Haynes: 1925-2024

Roy Haynes, whose power and sensitivity on the drums made him a first choice for leading jazz instrumentalists and singers and whose tasteful pokes, polyrhythms and grooves landed him on swing, bebop, cool, Third Stream, spiritual, free jazz and fusion recording sessions, died on November 12. He was 99. Born eight years after the first jazz ...
Backgrounder: My Fair Lady Loves Jazz (1956)

Broadway musical scores didn't become fair game for small jazz groups until Lerner and Loewe's successful My Fair Lady score hit the stage in 1956. Of course, individual songs from theatrical shows were always played and recorded by dance bands dating back to the 1920s. But jazz interpretations of full Broadway scores didn't arrive until after ...
Summer Samba: Astrud Gilberto in Italy, 1967

By 1967, Brazilian bossa-nova singer Astrud Gilberto had become a solo artist. She was finally out from under the menacing tyranny and harassment of tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. Astrud had been fronting Getz's groups ever since the album Getz/Gilberto came out in March 1964 and became a massive hit. When Getz/Gilberto was recorded in 1963, Verve ...