Results for "AAJ Staff"

Backgrounder: Tina Brooks - True Blue (1960)

June 20, 2025

No other category of artist in American history had to fight harder to have his or her creativity recognized than the jazz musician. This war was waged on three fronts—with themselves, with the culture and with their record label. If any one of these three battles was lost, the other two often collapsed as well. In ...

Perfection: Dexter Gordon - I Want More (1961)

June 19, 2025

Take Five with pianist, composer Itamar Dahan

by AAJ Staff
June 14, 2025

Meet Itamar Dahan Itamar Dahan is a Brooklyn-based jazz pianist, composer, and producer originally from Israel. Known for his deeply lyrical style and bold harmonic language, he has performed with legendary artists including NEA Jazz Master Reggie Workman, Billy Hart, Omer Avital, and David Broza. A graduate of The New School's Jazz program on a full ...

Backgrounder: Joe Puma - East Coast Jazz/3

June 13, 2025

I love precious jazz guitarists who place a premium on harmony, swing and compelling chords. One of the best in this category was Joe Puma. In the 1950s, Puma was a session sideman on many recordings and led his own groups. He recorded into the 1990s and died in 2000 at age 72. One of his ...

Roger Nichols (1940-2025)

June 11, 2025

Roger Nichols, a sunshine-pop songwriter whose late 1960s and 1970s melodies were among the richest and catchiest of the genre, particularly when teamed with lyricist Paul Williams and groups such as the Carpenters and Three Dog Night, died May 17. He was 84. Nichols also wrote with lyricists Tony Asher and Bill Lane, and was noted ...

Sly Stone (1943-2025)

June 10, 2025

Sly Stone, whose late-1960s eclectic brand of polished Bay Area funk-pop launched a music revolution that influenced artists ranging from Miles Davis to Stevie Wonder, Prince and all the major funk bands that followed in the 1970s and beyond, died yesterday. He was 82. The singer-songwriter, arranger and multi-instrumentalist was a fashion trend-setter and tireless composer ...

Denny Zeitlin: With a Song in My Heart

June 9, 2025

Pianist Denny Zeitlin's very first recording was for Columbia in 1963, as a sideman on Jeremy Steig's Flute Fever. His first trio leadership album, Cathexis, came next for Columbia in February 1964, with Cecil McBee on bass and Freddie Waits on drums. Carnival followed in October, with Charlie Haden on bass and Jerry Granelli on drums. ...

Backgrounder: Sam Lazar - 'Playback' (1962)

June 6, 2025

Odds are you have no idea who Sam Lazar is and that you're hearing about him now for the first time. Don't feel bad. The organist is one of jazz's most puzzling figures.  Born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1933, he played piano and was in a St. Louis group led by Ernie Wilkins. When Wilkins ...

Perfection: Hal McKusick: You're Everywhere (1958)

June 6, 2025

By now, vocalists and musicians are surely tired of hearing me urge them to find great little-known songs to record and perform instead of tired old songbook standards. You don't stand out by following the crowd. A perfect example of a great little-known song is You're Everywhere, by Robert Nemiroff and Burt D'Lugoff, who were often ...

Ryan Truesdell: Gil Evans and Shades of Sound

June 4, 2025

I love producers and performers who fall madly in love with legacy jazz artists and go the distance to pay tribute to them. I'm thinking of what producer-director Kristian St. Clair did with his 2006 documentary and album This Is Gary McFarland and what jazz historian and album producer Gary Carner did in 2012 with baritone ...