Results for "Carl Fontana"

Carl Fontana

It is an odd fact that all the really outstanding jazz trombonists were very low on ego. Carl Fontana, perhaps the most gifted player of his time, certainly was. He played potent and dazzling music in such a facile way that it was rather like Leonardo da Vinci sawing off a length of picture on demand. Fontana first surfaced in 1951. The Woody Herman band was playing at the Blue Room in New Orleans when its virtuoso trombone soloist Urbie Green had to return to New York for three weeks when his wife gave birth. A young local musician hired as a temporary replacement arrived in the band room. "Can I help you?" asked the tenor player Dick Hafer

In a Lighter Vein

By STAN KENTON

Label: Sounds of Yesteryear
Released: 2020
Track listing: Theme and Introduction; Young Blood; Laura; ‘S Wonderful; Sophisticated Lady; In a Lighter Vein; It’s a Blue World; Jump for Joe; I’ve Got You Under My Skin; Autumn in New York; Taboo; Moonlight in Vermont; Jeepers Creepers; Harlem Nocturne; Body and Soul; Zoot; April in Paris; Intermission Riff; My Funny Valentine; Stompin’ at the Savoy; Lullaby of Birdland; Theme and Sign Off.

Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: In a Lighter Vein

By JACK BOWERS

Stan Kenton was a man of many moods, as was his intrepid and popular orchestra, which endured until his passing in August 1979 and whose renown is kept alive even today by the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra. Kenton dons his carefree hat on In a Lighter Vein, an assortment of straight-ahead themes from the orchestra's jazz ...

Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival - Woodchopper's Ball: Part 2-4

By SIMON PILBROW

Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival “Woodchoppers' Ball" Four Points by Sheraton at LAX Los Angeles, CA May 23-27, 2018 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Concert 4: Keen and Peachy: Music of the Woody Herman Second Herd -Directed by Michael Berkowitz ...

Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival - Woodchopper's Ball: Part 1-4

By SIMON PILBROW

Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival “Woodchoppers' Ball" Four Points by Sheraton at LAX Los Angeles, CA May 23-27, 2018 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The Los Angeles Jazz Institute (LAJI), under Ken Poston, has continued for some thirty years to ...

Kurt Jarnberg: Down Memory Lane, Vols 3 and 4

By JACK BOWERS

For some of us, Memory Lane is much longer and far more crowded than it once was. Be that as it may, any trip there remains a pleasurable experience, more so when the guide is Swedish trombonist / trumpeter Kurt Jarnberg who employs his quartet, quintet, big band and a host of talented guest artists to ...

Take Five with Ralph Hepola

By RALPH HEPOLA

About Ralph Hepola Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota in the United States, Ralph Hepola studied piano before starting on the tuba at age twelve. At seventeen, he was chosen to play before the British Royal Family in the Manitoba All-Province Band at Brandon, Manitoba in Canada. While still in high school, Ralph began performing ...

Transcendent Trombone - Jazz Survivor: The Rick Stepton Story

By NICHOLAS F. MONDELLO

Transcendent Trombone Frank McGowan Self Published 2017 “Jazz Luck"--a phrase I pull out of the hat every so often that aptly describes those oddball and, in some cases, unfortunate events which practitioners of the art encounter in the business. It's a more apropos term that the commonly-used “Stuff Happens," because ...

Scott Whitfield: New Jazz Standards, Volume 2

By JACK BOWERS

On New Jazz Standards, Volume 2 (yes, the title may seem a tad optimistic at first glance; more about that later), trombonist Scott Whitfield leads a well-honed quartet playing the music of Carl Saunders. If the name Carl Saunders is new to you, he is quite simply one of the finest jazz trumpeters you've never heard--and ...

Kurt Jarnberg Quintet: Down Memory Lane 2 / Down Memory Lane Vol. 3, The Power Package

By JACK BOWERS

In the late 1960s, trombonist and sometime trumpeter Kurt Jarnberg led a popular jazz quintet in his native Sweden, one that lasted for only a couple of years before disbanding. Jarnberg came back with another small group in the mid-'70s, adding vocalist Ruth Asenlund (Jarnberg) to the mix, disbanded again, then returned to action with yet ...