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Perfection: Wes Montgomery - Lolita
Pianist Barry Harris composed the song Lolita in 1960. He first recorded it for his album Barry Harris at the Jazz Workshop, recorded live at San Francisco's Jazz Workshop in May 1960. Barry's recording is alternating between bop and Latin. Guitarist Wes Montgomery picked up on this feel when he recorded the song in 1963 for ...
Concert Video: Frank Sinatra in Tokyo, 1962
In 1962, Frank Sinatra went out on a world tour to raise money for underprivileged children. He personally funded the tour, with stops in Mexico, Japan, China, Israel, Greece, England, France, Italy and Monaco. A large chunk of the tour involved performing at benefit concerts and visiting hospitals and orphanage. Accompanying him on stage were Emil ...
Take Five with Trumpeter Gregory Haubrich of Butter And The Genre
by AAJ Staff
Meet Gregory “Butter" Haubrich Gregory “Butter" Haubrich is a lifelong musician, songwriter and arranger whose sound bridges the soulful roots of jazz with accessible melodies and spontaneous storytelling. A trumpet player with a deep emotional range and a background that includes keys, harmonica and vocals, Butter brings both grit and grace to every performance. From rural ...
Sir Charles Thompson in 15 Tracks
Pianist Sir John Thompson could play anything. And he did, from swing and jump blues to bebop and pop, on recording session after recording session. Lester Young dubbed him “Sir" in the early 1940s when they were both performing at Cafe Society in New York. Prez laid the moniker on Thompson to honor his elegant keyboard ...
Backgrounder: George Braith - 'Extension' (1967)
Imagine recording an album and waiting three years for it to come out. That's what happened to saxophonist George Braith with Extension (Blue Note), after recording it in 1964 The delay surely had something to do with the fact that he had already released two other LPs for the label—Soulstream (1963) and Laughing Soul (1966). Or ...
Take Five with vocalist Diana Hamilton
by AAJ Staff
Meet vocalist Diana Hamilton I'm an instinctive artist--meaning, I didn't choose to be a singer. Singing chose me. It began during a moment of deep torment when my three-year-old son, Nairobi, was subjected to racism at a daycare in France. I had never experienced such cruelty growing up as a Black child in the Bahamas. I ...
Perfection: Paul Smith - Under My Skin (1957)
Last weekend, I posted a video clip that included pianist Paul Smith accompanying Frank Sinatra. Smith belonged to a small group of superb West Coast jazz studio pianists that included Lou Levy, Jimmy Rowles and Pete Jolly. In the late 1950s, Smith recorded four albums for Capitol that became known as the Liquid Sound sessions. One ...
Video: Kenny Clarke Plays 'Black Knight' (1957)
On November 12, 1957, drummer Kenny Clarke was in a recording studio in Paris recording Kenny Clarke Plays Christian Chevallier for French Columbia. His band included composer-arranger Christian Chevallier, Ack van Rooyen (tp), Nat Peck (tb), Hubert Fol and Jean Aldegon (as), Georges Grenu (ts), Armand Migiani (bar), Maurice Vander (p) and Pierre Michelot (b). They ...
Vinnie Riccitelli (1926-2025)
Vinnie Riccitelli, a jazz composer-arranger, pianist and alto saxophonist who recorded one superb album as a playing leader in 1956 and then became a leading fixture in Broadway pit bands and jazz combos that played gigs and events in New York's tri-state area, died on July 9. He was 99. Riccitelli's desire to stay local in ...
Backgrounder: Spud Murphy - Gone With the Woodwinds
Lyle “Spud" Murphy was one of the more fascinating figures in jazz and today is among the least known. Murphy was a multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and arranger. He was one of Benny Goodman's arrangers in the mid-1930s and wrote charts for many other bands. But his claim to fame was his 12-volume course in composing, arranging, and ...
