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10 Favorite Fender Rhodes Albums
Back in March, I posted about John Von Ohlen's The Baron (1973), a superb Fender Rhodes album. As mentioned back then, I'm a bit of a Rhodes nut, having fallen in love with the electric piano in the early 1970s in high school. I also hinted in my post that I planned on sharing my top ...
Backgrounder: O'Donel Levy - Black Velvet (1971)
The early 1970s was an explosive time for pop music. Trade quotas were lifted on Japanese electronic products, and America was flooded with affordable component stereo systems. Stores helped you match a turntable to an integrated receiver and speakers based on your budget. If you didn't have the money, you could always go with a Japanese-made ...
Perfection: Stan Getz - 'Stella by Starlight'
The very first song Stan Getz recorded for Norman Granz's Clef label, in December 1952, was Victor Young's Stella by Starlight. At the time, the Stan Getz Quintet was comprised of Stan Getz (ts), Duke Jordan (p), Jimmy Raney (g), Bill Crow (b) and Frank Isola (d). By then, the group had already been playing the ...
CTI: The Brilliance of Hubert Laws
If you asked me to name one artist whose albums for Creed Taylor's CTI label hold up best today, I'd have to say Hubert Laws. Laws is probably jazz's finest flutist and is still with us, yet you barely hear or read much about him. In fact, if I had to sell off all of my ...
Take Five with Saxophonist/Singer/Guitarist Vanessa Collier
by AAJ Staff
Meet Vanessa Collier Vanessa Collier's sixth album Do It My Own Way was recently released on Phenix Fire Records. Recorded on analog gear with the musicians largely in one room, Do It My Own Way is sonically inspired by the classic Memphis soul sound of Stax and Hi Records, especially that of the Staples Singers. The ...
Miles Davis: Walkin' and Musings
The 1950s produced two pop superstars—Elvis Presley and Miles Davis. Both began the decade recording for smaller labels and were launched into the mainstream by larger ones—Presley on Sun and then RCA, and Davis on Prestige and then Columbia. Both were perceived as ultra cool and a departure from the norm, both were viewed as sex ...
Backgrounder: East Coast - West Coast Scene (1954)
By 1954, the 10-inch 33 1/3 and seven-inch 45 album formats had made inroads with consumers and were quickly replacing the 78. On the West Coast, labels that had been cultivating Los Angeles musicians came to realize that jazz out there had its own sound. With the 10-inch LP expected to expand to 12 inches within ...
Perfection: Tommy Flanagan: In the Blue of Evening
In 1960, pianist Tommy Flanagan recorded The Tommy Flanagan Trio, an album of easy-going jazz for Prestige's Moodsville line. Joining Flanagan was the exceptional Tommy Potter of bass and superb Roy Haynes on drums. By then, Flanagan had made a name for himself as a first-call sideman and would soon become Ella Fitzgerald's accompanist. While the ...
Jimmy Mundy: Swing Era Barnstormer
Like Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Edgar Sampson and Sy Oliver, Jimmy Mundy was one of the architects of the swing era in the early 1930s. Born in Cincinnatti, Ohio, in 1907, Mundy played the tenor saxophone in regional bands, where he developed an ear for arranging. He first worked as an arranger for Earl Hines in ...
Take Five with Singer, Guitarist and Pianist Martina Fiserova
by AAJ Staff
Meet Martina Fiserova Martina Fišerová is a New York-based singer, guitarist, songwriter and lyricist. Born and raised in Bohemia, Czech Republic, she graduated as a vocalist from the jazz-focused Jaroslav Ježek College, in addition to studying anthroposophical music therapy. She has performed alongside a number of prominent artists at music festivals and venues throughout Europe, as ...
