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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), ...
Backgrounder: Bill Watrous - In Love Again, 1967
There are trombone albums—and then there are trombone albums. This is the latter, a positively beautiful recording by Bill Watrous, who had a beautiful ballad tone, rivaled only by Urbie Green and a few others. Recorded in New York in 1968 and backed by the Richard Behrke Strings, Bill Watrous's In Love Again: William Russell Watrous ...
Take Five with Guitarist Jacob Johnson
by AAJ Staff
Meet Jacob Johnson Since dropping out of college in 2007, Jacob Johnson has journeyed across the country in six minivans (so far), captivating audiences with his highly caffeinated brand of acoustic guitar playing. Known for his energetic performances, Jacob has had the privilege of sharing the stage with Grammy winners like Tommy Emmanuel, and Victor Wooten, ...
My Conversation with Steve Coleman
by AAJ Staff
This article first appeared at All About Jazz in July 1999. The pressure to succeed in music is so heavy, the monkey on artists' backs must feel like King Kong. With so many fearing the guillotine of inconsequentiality, it is no wonder artists feel the inherent need to dress in see-through chain mail to ...
Perfection: Horace Parlan - Up & Down
In June 1961, pianist Harlan Parlan recorded the album Up & Down for Blue Note. On the session were Parlan (p), Booker Ervin (ts), Grant Green (g), George Tucker (b) and Al Harewood (d). The title track was composed by Parlan, who on this LP plays superbly. As Leonard Feather wrote in his liner note... “Up ...
10 Tracks by Pianist Ross Tompkins
Yesterday I posted on Solo, a 1963 album by trombonist Kai Winding for Verve. Accompanying Winding on the three days of recording was pianist Ross Tompkins. Who was he? Tompkins was probably best known as the pianist on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1971 to 1992, when the show folded. Born in Detroit in ...
