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Carlos Lyra (1933-2023)
Carlos Lyra, a Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist, and one of the fathers of the bossa nova who, with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, Luiz Bonfá, Roberto Menescal and Ronaldo Bôscoli, among others, turned a new form of middle-class aspirational music into a global sensation, died in Rio de Janeiro on December 16. He was 90. ...
John La Barbera: Grooveyard
Jazz has long been blessed by a sizable number of sibling musicians. Most notably, there are the Joneses (Hank, Elvin and Thad), the Montgomerys (Wes, Buddy and Monk), the Mangiones (Chuck and Gap), the Heaths (Jimmy, Percy and Albert “Tootie" Heath), the Turrentines (Stanley and Tommy), the Adderleys (Cannonball and Nat), the Youngs (Lester and Lee), ...
Royce Campbell: Guitarist Extraordinaire
I've been familiar with Royce Campbell's music for nearly 30 years, ever since I bought his Tribute to Henry Mancini album in 1995. Royce played with Marvin Gaye, toured with Mancini for 19 years and has released more than 40 albums. Royce has a terrifically tasteful touch, he swings beautifully, his chord voicings are engaging and ...
Les McCann (1935-2023)
Les McCann, a self-taught soul-jazz pianist and singer whose essence and feel were deeply rooted in the black church of his youth and the bars in black neighborhoods where jukeboxes were stocked with early soul-pop and blues singers such as Al Hibbler, Arthur Prysock, Ray Charles. Brook Benton, Clyde McPhatter and Floyd Dixon, died on December ...
A Conversation With Les McCann
by AAJ Staff
Les McCann has a new release on Joel Dorn's 32 Records entitled How's Your Mother?. I had an opportunity to chat with the pianist/vocalist from his home about the release, his humble beginnings in Kentucky, his distaste for the current trends in music, and about the highly successful album with Eddie Harris, Swiss Movement, recorded live ...
Interview: Carol P. Chamberland
Back on December 2, I posted a 2.5-minute YouTube clip from a documentary unfamiliar to me called The Legend of Bop City. This particular Bop City wasn't the famous one in New York on the second floor of the Brill Building on 49th Street and Broadway. This one was in San Francisco and had been a ...
Backgrounder: Sidney Bechet/Martial Solal
Soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet was one of jazz's most complex giants. Born in New Orleans in 1897, four years earlier than Louis Armstrong, Bechet made his first recordings in early 1920, three years before the trumpeter. Unfortunately, these recordings were never issued. His first released recordings, for Okeh, came out the same year as Armstrong's earliest ...
Martial Solal Trio Recordings, 1953-1962
Martial Solal was born in Algiers in 1927, when the city was part of what was known then as French Algeria. At 6, he began taking piano lessons and for years played classical pieces. Then he discovered the extraordinary recordings of Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum, and turned to jazz. Solal moved to Paris in 1950 ...
Paul Smith: Swinging Elegance
In the late 1940s and 1950s, few pianists moved as effortlessly and deftly between jazz and pop as pianist Paul Smith. Instrumental pop, as a genre, came into its own after 1948, with the advent of the 10-inch LP. Pop back then still had plenty of swing but was really jazz-light—easy-going music that had a bit ...
Backgrounder: Art Blakey! Jazz Messengers!, 1961
One of my favorite albums by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers has a baffling title. For some reason, Impulse Records decided the title should be Art Blakey Jazz Messengers The confusing result is that some refer to the album as Impulse!!! or Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers!!! while those in Japan know the album ...
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