Results for "Artie Shaw"

Artie Shaw

Artie Shaw, a brilliant jazz clarinetist, was one of the most enigmatic, daring and adventurous bandleaders of the swing-era. An intellectual, he hated public life and the music industry. Over the course of his short career he formed ten orchestras and disbanding most of them after only a few months. At the peak of his career in the years just before World War II, Shaw was matched by few other musicians in popularity and technical skill. Born Arthur Arshawsky in New York City and raised in Connecticut, Shaw took up the saxophone at an early age and began playing professionally when he was only 14

Rahsaan Roland Kirk: An Alternative Top Ten Albums Guaranteed To Bend Your Head

By CHRIS MAY

Jazz musicians are rarely called shamanistic but the description fits Rahsaan Roland Kirk precisely. Clad in black leather trousers and heavy duty shades (he was blind from the age of two), a truckload of strange looking horns strung round his neck—two or three of which he often played simultaneously--twisting, shaking and otherwise contorting his body, stamping ...

Susie Meissner: Tea for Two

By C. MICHAEL BAILEY

Natural but determined evolution makes for well conceived and produced projects. Vocalist Susie Meissner has proved this statement as she progressed from her debut recording I'll Remember April (Lydian Jazz, 2009), through her sophomore effort, I'm Confessin' (Lydian Jazz, 2011) to the present Tea for Two. Using a well-worn repertoire, Meissner, mostly with the support of ...

Greg Abate: Man on a Journey

By ROB ROSENBLUM

After a warm up tune by the trio of Frank Puzzullo on piano, Sam Edwards on bass and Edwin Hamilton on drums, a medium sized fellow with slicked back hair and very casual attire walks on stage. He seems almost reticent as he acknowledges his audience at Fox's Music House in North Charleston, South Carolina—most of ...

Michel Herr: Positive: Music For Sextet And String Quartet

By IAN PATTERSON

Although perhaps best known as a jazz pianist who has worked with the likes of Archie Shepp, Bill Frisell, Philip Catherine, Joe Lovano, Zbigniew Seifert and Toots Thielemans, Michel Herr has long enjoyed a parallel career as a conductor / musical director, and as an arranger for cinema, television and radio productions. It is in these ...

Jeff Hamilton Trio: Catch Me If You Can

By JACK BOWERS

Any trio anchored by drummer Jeff Hamilton has a clear head start when compared to any would-be rivals. That's because Hamilton's unerring and tasteful timekeeping and resourceful use of brushes and sticks would be any trio's dream come true. In this case it's Hamilton's own trio, recording at least the sixteenth album under that name, the ...

Eddie Daniels: 'Sings' Ivan Lins

By R.J. DELUKE

Eddie Daniels, one of the finest of clarinetists during his decades in jazz, is still an active, curious, exploring musician. He welcomes new things. His latest album, Night Kisses: A Tribute to Ivan Lins (Resonance Records), set to be released at the end of July, represents something new for him. Music is an art ...

Chuck Granata: On Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Johnny Mandel

By NICHOLAS F. MONDELLO

Chuck Granata is a record and radio producer, author, music historian and archivist. He has written four books on music and sound recording: Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording (Chicago Review Press, A Capella Books, 1999), Wouldn't it be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (Chicago ...

Drummers as Bandleaders: An Alternative Top Ten Albums

By CHRIS MAY

Drummers have been key members of every band which has changed the course of jazz history, from Max Roach with Charlie Parker to Elvin Jones with John Coltrane and onwards. Yet drummers have been the leaders of a surprisingly small proportion of landmark bands themselves. Chick Webb in the 1920s was the first of the few. ...