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News: Video / DVD

Sweden Meets the Beatles, 1963

March 24, 2022

On October 13, 1963, Beatlemania—the youthful hysteria over appearances by the impossibly charismatic Fab Four—began in London after their afternoon rehearsal at the London Palladium. Suburban teens rushed the Fab Four as they headed to their limo and newspapers picked up on the mania the next day. Ten days later, on October 23, the Beatles flew ...

News: Video / DVD

Backgrounder: Bossa Nova for Swinging Lovers

March 23, 2022

Today, I start an intermittent series I call “Backgrounder," featuring great, rare albums that are probably unknown to you. My intent is to provide you with superb music while you work or read that I'm listening to as well. So we'll be listening to the exact same music at the exact same time. Cool, right? Hopefully, ...

Article: Book Excerpts

Ode to a Tenor Titan

by Bill Milkowski
March 22, 2022

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 8, “Going Solo, The Pittbull and The EWI" from Bill Milkowski's Ode to a Tenor Titan: The Life and Times and Music of Michael Brecker (Backbeat Books, 2022). By early 1986, Michael began formulating plans for his long-overdue solo debut. He was 37, a universally respected ...

News: Video / DVD

Frank Foster: The Basie Touch

March 22, 2022

Shortly after being discharged from military service in 1953, tenor saxophonist Frank Foster joined Count Basie's band. By then, Basie's so-called New Testament band was in place and had been recording for a year. The orchestra was known as the New Testament band to differentiate it from the swing-era band that started in 1935 and lasted ...

News: Festival

Sarasota Jazz Festival hits 40 - under the stars

March 21, 2022

It took an extra two years to get there, thanks to the pandemic. The Jazz Club of Sarasota's long-running jazz festival, held its 40th evening concert series March 16-19 with a wide range of talent—and a new venue. The bulk of the festival was moved from indoor venues in and near downtown Sarasota to Nathan Benderson ...

News: Video / DVD

Toots Thielemans and Rob Franken

March 21, 2022

Every great jazz musician has his musical mate—an artist who perfectly complements his or her style and sound. Such jazz pairings that come to mind are Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Pepper Adams and Donald Byrd, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Rouse, Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Art Farmer and Benny Golson, Clifford Brown and Max Roach, ...

News: Obituary

Jessica Williams: 1948-2022

March 18, 2022

Jessica Williams, a jazz pianist and composer of extraordinary talent and imagination whose style touched on bebop, fusion and the avant-garde, died on March 12, She was 73. Williams was a mystery to many jazz fans and jazz writers—a name you heard every so often but never got to hear live or see on TV. Intensely ...

News: Obituary

Barbara Morrison: 1949-2022

March 17, 2022

Barbara Morrison, a soul-jazz singer whose artful vocal control and powerful delivery stunned club audiences and should have made her a household name, died on March 16. She was 72. Born in 1949, Morrison didn't start recording until the early 1970s. By then, a career in jazz and the blues had become a struggle for singers ...

News: Music Industry

Keeping Alive That Big-Band Swing And Spirit

March 16, 2022

The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, led by trumpeter and singer David Pruyn, drew the Charlotte County Jazz Society's largest audience of the 2021-22 season for its hard-swinging concert on Monday, March 14. For the audience, and the players, it was a journey back in musical time to the big band era of the 1930s, '40s and early ...

News: Recording

Alvin Queen: Night Train to Copenhagen

March 16, 2022

I missed this album when it came out last year, but I want you to know about it now in case you missed it, too. Alvin Queen is a superb drummer with a beautiful, sentimental touch on sticks and brushes. Born in the Bronx, Queen lived in Canada in the 1970s and then relocated to Switzerland ...