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Perfection: Harry James in the Late '50s/Early '60s
Two big bands that knock me out from the late 1950s and early 1960s are the ones led by Count Basie and Harry James. Both could swing the house sideways, but both knew when enough was enough. Basie, of course, invented the concept of just enough, but James's decade-straddling band is often overlooked for the same ...
Who Was George Adams?
The reason you may not be familiar with George Adams or his music is that much of it was recorded in Italy. Born in Covington, Ga., in 1940, the tenor saxophonist and flutist did most of his recording as a leader or co-leader in a range of Italian studios. Adams is probably best known for his ...
BBC Documentary: Jac Holzman's Elektra Records
Rock 'n' roll in the 1950s and pop rock in the early '60s had largely been a 45rpm affair. Even the Beatles' and Stones' early 12-inch albums were merely collections of three-minute singles. Then in 1966, along came Elektra Records, which had been founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman as a folk label. Thanks to lush ...
John Cameron: Off Centre (1969)
John Cameron has had some career. The British jazz pianist, arranger and composer of film, TV and stages scores came up at the height of Swinging London in the mid-1960s. He had been playing piano professionally since age 14 in his hometown of Croydon and he attended Cambridge University. One of his first pop jobs was ...
Backgrounder: Grant Green and Sonny Clark
Throughout jazz history, there have been magical pairings of musicians in recording studios. Sometimes the union was established jointly by the two musicians. At other times, producers brought them together. These couplings include Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden, Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Shirley Scott and ...
Perfection: Jimmy Forrest - 'Soul Street' (1960)
Dial Records initiated the “tenor battle" concept in 1947 when the label brought bebop saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray into the studio to record Gordon's composition The Chase. Prestige Records then perfected and exploited the dueling-tenors format, starting in 1950, with Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons recording of Blues Up and Down and other 78 ...
Kandace Springs: Lady in Satin
You'd have to be out of your mind to cover Lady in Satin (1958), one of Billie Holiday's final LPs and widely considered a masterpiece today. Unless, of course, you can pull it off, and vocalist Kandace Springs does just that on her new SRP release. She has the voice, the phrasing and the feel—without making ...
Art Pepper: An Afternoon in Norway (1980)
Art Pepper spent much of his life in search of the love and admiration that eluded him in childhood. Throughout his career, he carried around the trauma inflicted on him by his parents. For Pepper, he entered the world in 1925 as a mistake, and his very presence quickly intruded on his mother’s alcohol-fueled good times. ...
Backgrounder: Music To Listen To Barney Kessel By
By 1957, Los Angeles was Shangri-La for many jazz studio musicians. They had settled in the San Fernando Valley north of the city, married, had kids, no longer had to tour, the weather was great, the highways weren't impossible yet and the Pacific Ocean's beaches were waiting. Provided their car started, they were in business for ...
Steve Allee: Naptown Sound
by Steve Allee
Submitted on behalf of Kyle Long, Producer/Host at WFYI in Indianapolis.If you ask the average music fan to name the greatest jazz cities in America, it's unlikely that Indianapolis would top their list. That's a shame, as those familiar with the city's history know better. They see the unique fingerprints of Indianapolis musicians across ...
