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Philip Larkin: Larkin's Jazz
by Chris May
The author of the immortal opening couplet, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad/They may not mean to, but they do," the poet Philip Larkin (1922-85) was in 2008 voted “the greatest British writer" of the last half century by the readers of The Times. No longer the newspaper of record it was in the ...
Take Five With Antoinette Montague
by AAJ Staff
Meet Antoinette Montague:Antoinette Montague likes to say she simply sings “people music." Make no mistake about it, she is a jazz singer through and through, but one who pushes the genre's boundaries. On her new recording, Behind the Smile, Montague sings classic jazz standards (new and old), resurrects lovely-but-obscure melodies, blends in blues and ...
Catherine Russell: Inside This Heart Of Mine
by Marcia Hillman
Singer Catherine Russell covers a lot of jazz territory on her new CD--performing material from vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, New Orleans, Delta blues, the Swing Era and the Django-esque '30s. Accompanying her on this journey is a full battery of musicians that replicate the sounds of each of the styles covered: musical director Matt Munisteri (guitar ...
Jazz Musician of the Day: Bessie Smith
All About Jazz is celebrating Bessie Smith's birthday today! JAZZ MUSICIAN OF THE DAY Bessie SmithBessie Smith- vocalist, composer, recording artist (1894-1937) “Empress of the Blues” She embodied the meaning of the blues, living the life she sang about. Bessie Smith set the standard for blues singers on how ...
Various Artists: Murder. Songs From The Dark Side Of The Soul
by Nic Jones
Themed compilations such as Murder. Songs From The Dark Side Of The Soul afford opportunity to hear just how diverse a range of interpretations a theme can provoke. Here the title is self-explanatory and that element of diversity exists in abundance. Sonny Boy Williamson's “Your Funeral My Trial" is still as irresistible as ever; ...
Terry Waldo: The Ohio Theatre Concert
by Andrew Velez
No less a ragtime icon than composer Eubie Blake himself endorsed pianist, musical director, arranger and early jazz scholar Terry Waldo as being “an extension of my own musical self." Waldo's irresistible way with this music is in full glory on this 1974 concert. Blake himself was to have participated, but missed the concert due to ...
Roberta Gambarini: Making Listeners Fall 'So In Love'
by R.J. DeLuke
It's been an out-of-the-ordinary career trip for Roberta Gambarini--a trip that's seen her go from a young girl in Italy, scatting along with records by American singers Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, to struggling to get singing gigs in her native land, to grabbing an opportunity to come to the United States, to gaining recognition by ...
Amiri Baraka: Perspectives on Music and Race
by Lloyd N. Peterson Jr.
Amiri Baraka is the author of the insightful and comprehensive book, Blues People. It is a book that has opened many minds and readers to the African American Diaspora along with the history and roots of African American music. Baraka has now published a new book of essays titled, Digging (The Afro-American Soul of American Classical ...
Mia Vermillion: Alone Together With the Blues
by C. Michael Bailey
Mia Vermillion has a big vocal presence. She sings with the wild abandon of Janis Joplin controlled by the fluid precision of Bonnie Bramlett, the gusto of Big Mama Thornton, and the blues foundation of Bessie Smith. She infuses her singing with more humidity than Ma Rainey and more sex than Lena Horn. Tacitly a blues ...
Billie Holiday Fifty Years Later: A Tribute and Reassessment
by Victor L. Schermer
Fifty years ago, on July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday died an untimely death at age 44 in a New York hospital from complications of drug and alcohol dependency. Now, half a century after her passing, it is an appropriate hommage to reflect once again on her legacy as a singer, an African American woman, a victim-- ...
