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Take Five with Singer-Songwriter Arnab Sengupta
by AAJ Staff
Meet Arnab Sengupta Arnab Sengupta is a contemporary singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based out of Bangalore, India. Growing up in the eastern cities of India, Arnab has absorbed a plethora of diverse musical styles, both local and international, and has diligently pursued the study and performance of contemporary music for over 30 years, while arriving at his ...
Backgrounder: Johnny Richards' Walk Softly
As West Coast arrangers go, Johnny Richards was spectacular. Like Bill Holman and Shorty Rogers, he had an authentic feel for the Hollywood scene and how to blend glamor with art. To stir this mood, Richards made wonderful use of French horns and piccolos, and he always threw in a touch of Latin flavor. His arrangements ...
Sy Oliver's Arrangements in 10 Clips
Yesterday's post on arranger, trumpeter and vocalist Sy Oliver generated many emails from readers who have long loved his work and those who weren't familiar with him. In yesterday's post, I shared some of Oliver's classic arrangements for Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra. To drive home Oliver's importance and influence, here are 10 of my favorite ...
Sy Oliver: Easy Walker and Sentimental Sy
Sy Oliver was one of the most important arrangers of the swing era. A trumpeter, singer and arranger in Jimmie Lunceford's orchestra in the 1930s, Oliver was hired by Tommy Dorsey in 1939 to give the band a more authentic Savoy Ballroom sound. Oliver's good fortune came the following January when Frank Sinatra joined Dorsey and ...
Backgrounders: Basie With Quincy and Hefti
In 1958, the French Vogue label put out a double LP in Europe entitled Count Basie Plays Quincy Jones & Neal Hefti. Essentially, it was a re-issue of two previous Roulette releases—Basie One More Time: Music From the Pen of Quincy Jones (1960) and Basie Plays Hefti (1958). Both are classics in the Basie canon and ...
Moonlighting With the Countsmen
Count Basie was able to hold onto players for long periods of time because the band was fun, it had enormous global prestige and the experience was like being with family. But there were other factors. So long as the band wasn't in the studio or didn't have to play that day, his sidemen were free ...
Documentary: Basie, The Kid From Redbank
Three days into the week, I'm still hooked on Count Basie. What can I say. The sound, the feel, the simplicity and the prowess—no band was as influential in jazz over the decades. Duke Ellington was a towering figure with a singular band, but I think it's fair to say that he didn't influence nearly as ...
12 Videos of Drummer Sonny Payne
By the time drummer Sonny Payne joined Count Basie in December 1954, he had played with bands led by Paul Bascomb, Hot Lips Page, Earl Bostic, Tiny Grimes and Erskine Hawkins. After he joined Basie, the band loved his novel approach to drumming—driving the swing with a steady beat while adding accents, polyrhythms and a rhythmic ...
Count Basie: Copenhagen, 1962
American jazz fans are often left wondering why Europeans, Scandinavians and the Japanese are so passionate about the music while listeners here don't seem to have much of an appetite for it. One reason is the vast amount of touring that American jazz musicians did in those parts of the world in the 1960s and beyond. ...
Take Five with Jon De Lucia
by AAJ Staff
Meet Jon De Lucia Jon De Lucia is a Brooklyn-based saxophonist, clarinetist and composer. Originally from Quincy, MA, he moved to New York City in 2005.Since then he has performed in the US and internationally at the Burlington Discover Jazz Fest, the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and the Tamana-shi Jazz Festival in Japan. In New York he ...
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