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Perfection: Barney Kessel - Like Someone in Love
Soaring is one of Barney Kessel's finest albums of the 1970s. Recorded in August 1976 for Concord, the guitarist was backed by Monty Budwig on bass and Jake Hanna on drums. The entire record is perfect in every way. What I like most is how Kessel is isolated, allowing us to hear how gifted he was ...
My Conversation with John Fedchock
by AAJ Staff
This article was first published on All About Jazz in December 2000. Hit The Bricks, John Fedchock's first small-group record as a leader, has been eagerly awaited by old friends and long time fans who know him not only as the confident and competent leader of big bands, but as a lyrical, innovative soloist ...
Gene Ammons: The All-Star Sessions
Like many musicians who performed in Billy Eckstine's big band between 1944 and '46, tenor saxophonist Gene “Jug" Ammons went on to jazz fame in the independent record label era of the late 1940s. He also did well in the blues 78 market (he was the first artist to record for Chess in Chicago) and the ...
My Conversation with Anthony Braxton
by AAJ Staff
This article first appeared on All About Jazz in September 2001. In Puccini's Tosca, the lead heroine sings “Vissi d'arte" in the second act. It is with passion and anguish then that the audience understands the opera singer Floria Tosca is asking the heavens why she has suffered so much for her art when ...
Backgrounder: Gene Ammons - Boss Tenor, 1960
During the second half of the 1950s, tenor saxophonist recorded mostly jam session albums for Prestige. In June 1960, the label's founder and producer, Bob Weinstock, figured out that Ammons could also record with just a rhythm section behind him. The result was one of Ammons's finest albums—Boss Tenor. The LP featured Gene Ammons (ts), Tommy ...
Remembering All About Jazz's Dave Binder / John Kelman
by AAJ Staff
It is with great sadness that All About Jazz must announce the death of Dave Binder, better known to millions of readers as John Kelman. Dave died of a heart attack on August 10th, after a long bout of illness. For twenty years Dave was the most internationally renowned of all AAJ's contributors, penning over 2,700 ...
Perfection: Dexter Gordon's Society Red, 1961
In her memoir, Sophisticated Giant, Maxine Gordon writes this about her late husband, tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon: “Dexter Gordon was known as 'Society Red.' He got this name when he was with the Lionel Hampton band as a 17-year-old in 1940—just about the same time Malcolm X (then Malcolm Little) was being called Detroit Red. Dexter ...
Gino Paoli: 'Senza Fine,' 1961
Italian pop between the late 1950s and early '60s was unbeatable. Aimed at romantic single adults, many of the new love songs were composed with passion, sung with vulnerability and backed by large orchestration. One can only assume that Chet Baker's voice played a role in inspiring a wave of pale, aching voices and lyrical music. ...
Meredith d'Ambrosio on Horace Silver
Meredith d’Ambrosio is one of the finest and most distinctive jazz singer-songwriters around today. And she’s a terrific pianist and a superb traditionalist painter. Her artwork is on the covers of all but one of her 17 albums. Most of all, Meredith’s playing and singing style are all her own and deeply intimate. She never mirrored ...
Franco Ambrosetti: Sweet Caress
Back in 2022, I reviewed Nora, a beautiful album by Swiss flugelhornist Franco Ambrosetti backed by strings lushly arranged by Alan Broadbent (go here). Now, Franco and Alan have released a second album, Sweet Caress (Enja), recorded at the end of 2023. It features that same sterling group of musicians: Franco Ambrosetti (flhrn), Alan Broadbent (p,arr,cond), ...
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