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Results for "Billie Holiday"
José James: Why The Female Of The Species Is Groovier Than The Male
by Peter Jones
Jazz singer José James considers Erykah Badu to be the Joni Mitchell of his generation, a woman who has constructed a world of her own in order to tell her own alternative story. To prove the point, earlier this year he released On & On (Rainbow Blonde), a whole album of Badu songs, which he has ...
Bob Perkins: The Art of Listening
by Victor L. Schermer
This article was first published in November 2009. Bob is without a doubt an NEA Jazz Master. Please nominate him for an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. “It's BP with the GM!" That's how the famed and venerable jazz disc jockey Bob Perkins signs on the air, with the code for “Bob Perkins with the ...
Billy Lester: Unabridged
by Howard Mandel
Pianist Billy Lester is a musical original. That's obvious from the first, oh, 17 seconds of Unabridged, his sixth album and second all-solo recording. Listen to the unusual, brief motif with which Lester opens “Overture: Passionate Musings," then develops, complicates and completes it faster than you'd tie a shoelace. Pause--and he continues. Not to ...
Simona Smirnova: Cultivating Timelessness
by Matthew Vasiliauskas
Earl Hines once said, “I always thought jazz was like the trunk of a tree. After the tree has grown, many branches have spread out. They're all with different leaves and they all look beautiful. But at the end of the season, they fold back up and it's still the tree trunk." For the ...
Joe Pass: Meditation
by Ken Dryden
Although a few jazz guitarists still perform solo concerts in the early days of the 21st century, none of them has produced anything approaching the series of live recordings by Joe Pass during his two decades as a Pablo artist. Incredibly, Pass maintained that playing unaccompanied on stage wasn't even his idea. During my November 1993 ...
Mary Lou Williams: Into the Zone of Music
by Jakob Baekgaard
Few musicians have embraced the entire history of jazz like Mary Lou Williams, and at the same time shaped its development compositionally and instrumentally. She brought jazz into contact with classical music and played spiritual jazz before it became hip, but she was also a treasured teacher and mentor. Mary Lou Williams was born ...
Leonard E. Jones: Taking Control Of Destiny
by Barbara Ina Frenz
Bassist and photographer Leonard E. Jones laid the foundation of his musical and artistic ideas as an original member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. The AACM ranks as the most well-known and influential organization of the 1960s under African American leadership that created American experimental music through challenging “racialized limitations on venues ...
Feel Good Music Show
by David Brown
It's New Year's Eve here on the Jazz Continuum. Weather you're getting gussied up to go out, or laying low for the evening, we're here to present an evening of Feel-Good Music to keep you company. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 00:30 Terry Pollard “Scrapple From ...
2022: The Year in Jazz
by Ken Franckling
Current events impacted the jazz world in significant ways throughout 2022. In its third year, the coronavirus pandemic continued to lurk in some settings, while others recovered in robust fashion. Russia's war on Ukraine was felt by musicians and triggered an outpouring of support for its victims. Initiatives to ensure greater equity in jazz advanced. The ...
Christy Bennett's Fumee: Good Morning Heartache: The Music of Irene Higginbotham
by Jerome Wilson
Vocalist Christy Bennett has made a specialty of unearthing the work of forgotten songwriters from the past, particularly women. That has led to this album where she presents ten songs written by Irene Higginbotham, a jazz composer active in the '40s. Higginbotham's name is not well known today but a couple of her songs ...
