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Jon Eardley: Horn A-Plenty
Yesterday I posted on a new Chet Baker streaming album with flugelhornist Jon Eardley and alto saxophonist Bob Mover. Many of you asked about Eardley, so today, let's give a look and listen. His pointed, crisp style and moody feel on ballads was favored by a long list of top jazz leaders, most notably Gerry Mulligan, ...
Chet Baker and Jon Eardley in Cologne
On May 21 and 23 of 1981, trumpeter Chet Baker performed at the Salt Peanuts Club in Cologne, Germany. Backing him were Jon Eardley (fhrn), Bob Mover (as), Dennis Luxion (p), Rocky Knauer (b) and Burkhart Ruckert (d, only on the first three tracks). Now Germany's Circle Records has released a streaming remaster of the performance ...
Backgrounder: Russ Garcia - 4 Horns and a Lush Life
There are great jazz albums and then there are tasty great jazz albums. This is the latter—Russ Garcia's Four Horns and a Lush Life (Bethlehem). Recorded in Hollywood in November 1955, the band featured four gorgeous trombonists: Frank Rosolino, Herb Harper, Maynard Ferguson and Tommy Pederson (tb) joined by Dick Houlgate (bs), Marty Paich (p), Red ...
Who Was Joe Holiday?
The beauty of jazz is its vast territory. No matter how many years you listen to this music, you invariably come across artists who will be new to you. The delight of new discoveries is largely the result of foreign labels releasing jazz that has been overlooked, forgotten or newly unearthed. No label does this better ...
Astrud Gilberto (1940-2023)
Astrud Gilberto, who as the wife of Brazilian singer João Gilberto was urged to record The Girl From Ipanema" and Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars" in English in March 1963 because he didn't speak the language and whose hit vocals helped send the bossa nova into the pop stratosphere and her into stardom, died on June ...
Backgrounder: Horace Parlan - Movin' & Groovin'
Horace Parlan is probably best known as the pianist on Dexter Gordon's 1961 Blue Note album Doin' Allright. It's hard to imagine anyone but Parlan playing on that record, adding dramatic zest to songs like Doing All Right, For Regulars Only and Society Red. He also played piano on Charles Mingus's Mingus Ah Um (1959) and ...
Bill Le Sage: New Directions in Jazz
If British pianist, vibraphonist, arranger, composer and bandleader Bill Le Sage had an American counterpart, that musician would probably be Mundell Lowe. Like Mundy, Le Sage (pronounced like massage) was exemplary on his instruments, and he arranged and composed for groups of all sizes and wrote for TV and the movies. Le Sage was so busy ...
Before the Music Had a Name
When music genres wind up with a name, it's usually because the style became so commercially viable that someone in the media decided to label it with a clever word or phrase. To illustrate my point, let's look at three demarcation points in 20th century music, each 10 years apart: Swing existed years before Benny Goodman's ...
Backgrounder: Eumir Deodato Plays Marcos Valle
In 1964, Brazil's Equipe label released Impulso!, an album by a 20-year-old studio keyboardist and arranger named Eumir Deodato. Today, Deodato is probably best known for his 1973 album Prelude and his work for producer Creed Taylor and his CTI label in the 1970s. Back in Brazil in the early 1960s, Deodato played organ in the ...
Tina Turner (1939-2023)
The moment I heard that Tina Turner had died yesterday at 2:45 p.m., I started writing. I knew what was about to happen. Within minutes, I heard from the arts editor asking for an appreciation needed asap. An hour and 45 minutes later, my essay was done, fact-checked and filed. Tina was a force of nature. ...


