Results for "Ahmad Jamal"

Ellington Today - Always Hip

by Russell Perry
April 27, 2021

Every year dozens of top-flight musicians cover tunes from the biggest book in jazz--the Duke Ellington Songbook--with some 1,100 entries. In this hour of Jazz at 100 Today!, we'll listen to a few of the diverse responses to this body of work ranging from pianists Frank Kimbrough, Ahmad Jamal, Fred Hersch and Norah Jones to guitarists ...

Richie Pratt

Born: March 11, 1943

Beginnings - Kansas City

Richie Pratt (March 11, 1943 – February 12, 2015, born Richard Dean Tyree) was an American jazz drummer. He embarked upon a career as a professional musician on the New York scene in the early 1970s, it was as much due to an unanticipated sporting injury as anything else. Pratt was born into a musical family (his mother was a church pianist and a brother is saxophonist, Chris Burnett) and grew up in the Kansas City metro city of Olathe, Kansas. He first studied music via the piano, as well as, attended various music camps as a youth prior to attending college as a music major at the University of Kansas.

Celebrated Bassist and Producer Leon Lee Dorsey Announces the Release of 'Thank You, Mr. Mabern!,' A Trio Recording Featuring The Late Jazz Luminary Harold Mabern

February 2, 2021

Leon Lee Dorsey is pleased to announce the release of Thank You, Mr. Mabern! Recorded in July 2019, two months prior to the passing of jazz luminary Harold Mabern, the album is the swan song for the great pianist and composer, his final recording. This posthumous release is not only Dorsey’s personal farewell to Mabern, it ...

Jihee Heo: Are You Ready?

by Paul Rauch
December 13, 2020

Since arriving in New York from Incheon, South Korea, via studies in Amsterdam, pianist/composer Jihee Heo has made a name for herself through a broad spectrum on the jazz scene in Gotham. Heo's debut album, Passion (Heonah Music, 2015), featured strong compositions and arrangements for large ensemble, with experimental elements sprinkled in the mix. With her ...

Lafayette Gilchrist: Now

by Ian Patterson
October 11, 2020

For much of the 2010s, Baltimore-based pianist/composer Lafayette Gilchrist has looked to larger ensembles to give voice to his expansive arrangements. In fact, you have to go back to Three (Hyena, 2007) to find his previous trio outing. With Now, Gilchrist embraces a more intimate setting in the company of drummer Eric Kennedy and bassist Herman ...

Dena Derose: Keeper Of The Song

by R.J. DeLuke
September 7, 2020

Dena DeRose has established a reputation as one of the finest jazz singers today--though never exclusively that. As others have done--Shirley Horn, a predecessor, or Karrin Allyson, a contemporary, among others--DeRose, in addition to her alluring voice, is a highly accomplished pianist who accompanies herself. Often that's in a trio setting, but she easily extends it ...

Pianist Michael Wolff, Drummer Mike Clark and Bassist Leon Lee Dorsey take on the iconic Beatles’ classic, 'Sgt. Pepper'

August 26, 2020

It was 53 years ago today, May 26, 1967, when the Beatles released the seminal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It has been hailed a milestone ("a joyful revelation," “the definitive Beatles album"), considered one of their best at the time of its release, and ranked “the greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone's ...

Bob James: Once Upon A Time: The Lost 1965 New York Studio Sessions

by Dan McClenaghan
August 19, 2020

Most people have heard the music of Bob James. He wrote “Angela," the theme song for the popular television comedy Taxi. The show ran from 1978 to 1983, and reruns are ongoing. The Bob James became one of the fathers and most successful purveyors of the smooth/fusion jazz sound, in recordings under his own name, with ...

Atlantic Records: More Giant Steps: An Alternative Top 20 Albums

by Chris May
July 13, 2020

Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun's Atlantic Records differs in one key respect from Prestige, Riverside, Impulse!, Strata-East and Flying Dutchman, the most prominent labels covered so far in this Building A Jazz Library series. Those labels' discographies consist almost exclusively of jazz. Atlantic had parallel interests in soul and rhythm-and-blues and, later, rock. This had consequences, as ...

Jazz Musician of the Day: Ahmad Jamal

July 2, 2020

All About Jazz is celebrating Ahmad Jamal's birthday today! In 1951, Mr. Jamal first recorded 'Ahmad's Blues' on Okeh Records. His arrangement of the folk tune 'Billy Boy', and 'Poinciana' (not his original composition), also stem from this period. In 1955, he recorded his first Argo (Chess) Records album that included 'New Rhumba', 'Excerpts From The ...