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Backgrounder: Herbie Mann - Yardbird Suite
By 1957, the West Coast jazz scene was firmly established and its musicians were working regularly in Los Angeles' many recording studios. The best ones worked relentlessly cranking out 12-inch LPs. The same was true of New York's jazz scene, where improvisers found themselves in strong demand by leading labels such as Blue Note, Prestige, Savoy ...
Joe Henderson: Power to the People
A new jazz style emerged in the late 1960s that wasn't an extension of hard bop or free jazz. For a brief period—following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968 and the onset of fusion in the mid-1970s—a new Black power expression wrapped in pan-Africanism appeared in the works of Black journalists, books ...
Backgrounder: Sonny Stitt - Tune-Up!
Perhaps the high points of Joe Fields's Cobblestone label were a pair of albums by Sonny Stitt released in 1972—Tune-Up! and Constellation. Both were produced by Don Schlitten. On Tunre-Up!, Stitt played alto and tenor saxophone and was accompanied by Barry Harris on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Alan Dawson on drums. What made this ...
12 YouTube Clips of Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day was one of jazz's first “slick chicks." Born Anita Colton in 1919, O'Day was raised in Chicago. She left home during the Depression at age 14 to become a walk-a-thon contestant—the last person standing after sleepless hours won a cash prize. Dance-a-thons would soon follow. In 1936, O'Day began singing professionally and fronted her ...
Impex's Getz/Gilberto; Plus a Chat With Abey Fonn
This month marks the 60th anniversary of Getz/Gilberto's release by Verve Records. The revolutionary bossa nova album recorded in 1963 and produced by Creed Taylor—with the inclusion of Astrud Gilberto singing The Girl From Ipanema and Corcovado—turned the infectious Brazilian beat into a global phenomenon with the young-adult market. In America, the Beatles and other British ...
Backgrounder: Quincy Jones - Americans in Paris
In 1957, Quincy Jones moved to Paris to study composition and theory with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. In his spare time, the producer, composer, arranger, bandleader and conductor became music director at Barclay, a French record company owned by Eddie Barclay, a composer-arranger and contractor. Barclay also was the licensee for Mercury in France. Jones's ...
Exotic Ivories: Hard Bop Piano and World Beat Rhythms
by AAJ Staff
This article was first published at All About Jazz in January 2002. Jazz piano and world music rhythm make an enchanting pair. With the popularization of world beat music, jazz musicians nurtured on straight-ahead precepts have incorporated instruments and musical concepts from other cultures into their art. Some, like saxophonist Sam Newsome on last ...
Bill Evans: Waltz for Debby
Bill Evans performed his composition Waltz for Debby at dozens of clubs and concert halls and recorded it several times in the studio between 1955 and 1980. In my opinion, he aced it only once. Waltz for Debby sounds deceptively easy to play but it isn't. Having played Bill Evans transcriptions in my teens, I can ...
Two-Trumpet Cacophony
by AAJ Staff
This article was first published at All About Jazz in February 2002. Miles had it figured out: never record with another trumpeter in a small group setting--it just don't work. Or was it his ego? Two, three, and multi-trumpet small group ensembles represent an obscure configuration in modern jazz. This position contrasts sharply ...
Backgrounder: Oliver Nelson - Taking Care of Business
Last week, following my series on organ combos, Bill Kirchner sent along a terrific Backgrounder suggestion: Oliver Nelson's Taking Care of Business, Nelson's second leadership date. Recorded in March 1960, the album featured Oliver Nelson (as,ts), Lem Winchester (vib), Johnny “Hammond" Smith (org), George Tucker (b) and Roy Haynes (d). The tracks: Trane Whistle (Oliver Nelson) ...
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