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State and Mainstream: The Jazz Ambassadors and the U.S. State Department
by Karl Ackermann
The Cold War that began in 1947 and ran for forty-four years, had jazz music as its primary deterrent to global tensions, and it did more to foster good will between the U.S. and global citizens than any previous program launched by the U.S. Department of State. Jazz music, even in its Golden Age, was seldom ...
Missing Iconic Photo of Carmen McRae Found and Restored
The photo sat in an antique frame in the subject's guest room in Beverly Hills, California. Canadian author Robert Joseph Greene recalls how mesmerized he was by it. “The technique, the pose, and her whole persona. It really encompassed how I visualized my cousin singing," said Greene. Greene had just graduated from the University of San ...
Melba and Her Horn - Accomplishments of the Great Melba Liston
by Ava Louise
Born in 1926 in Kansas City, Missouri, Melba Liston had an early interest in music. She saw a trombone when she was young and was taken by its beauty. Her family encouraged her interest in music and in learning to play the trombone. When her family moved to Los Angeles, she began to study music formally. ...
Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday
All About Jazz is celebrating Billie Holiday's birthday today! Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a ...
Douye': Daddy Said So
by Jim Worsley
Daddy Said So, and clearly father knows best. Raised with the epic jazz renderings of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and Etta James, Douye' harkens back to a jazz era rich with elegance and timbre. Her silky and deliciously subdued voice pulsates through a set list of choice jazz standards. With quiet intensity Douye' whispers ...
Various Artists: Stax Singles, Vol. 4: Rarities & Best of the Rest
by Jim Trageser
Stax Records defined the “Memphis Sound" of soul music in the 1960s. With a roster that took in Otis Redding, Booker T & The MGs, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas and Isaac Hayes, Stax and its sister label Volt provided the main competition to Motown as a home to classic soul acts. Three separate ...
The Timeless Voice Of Billie Holiday
by Ava Louise
The name Billie Holiday seems indelibly linked with jazz. Her vocal quality and style were unique and masterful, and her work helped to define the genre. Modern jazz musicians and vocalists earn their chops from refining their performance of standards and many of these were recorded and performed for the first time by Holiday. She was ...
Abby Lee: Born to Sing
by Victor L. Schermer
The early development of jazz singers tells us a lot about them. Often, they struggle until they are finally recognized. Jimmy Scott was unknown for many years. Billie Holiday took whatever jobs she could get until she made her first recordings. Ella Fitzgerald's childhood was uprooted and traumatic, and music helped her find her way to ...
Alicia Hall Moran: Here Today
by Angelo Leonardi
Le sintesi tra canto operistico e universo musicale afroamericano sono state sporadiche. In generale la relazione tra i due mondi è apparsa difficilmente compatibile per la forte diversità tra le due estetiche: mi sembra che l'esempio più riuscito di conciliazione resti l'opera Porgy and Bess . Di recente un significativo passo avanti lo sta compiendo il ...
Zara McFarlane: Embodying the Spirit of Jamaica
by David Burke
Zara McFarlane may have been made in Britain, but she belongs to Jamaica. The land of her mother and father is written in her soul and vibrates through her music. You can feel it in the bewitching rhythms and hear it in the socio-conscious words—both elements of reggae -that inform her distinctive version of jazz, especially ...
