Results for "Chris Connor"

Chris Connor

Chris Connor has won every conceivable critical and popular accolade in her half century reign as one of the most gifted and distinctive vocalists in jazz history. Born in 1927 in Kansas City, Missouri, Connor studied clarinet, but her career direction was clear at an early age. “I always knew I wanted to be a singer,” she said, “I never wanted to be anything else.” After completing her schooling, she took a secretarial job while commuting on weekends to the University of Missouri to perform with a Stan Kenton-influenced college jazz band. An admirer of Kenton singers Anita O’Day and June Christy, Connor recalls, “I had my sights set on singing with Kenton.” Frustrated by the lack of vocal musical opportunities in her hometown, Connor pulled up stakes and headed east in 1949

Two Twin-Tenor Duos

By JEROME WILSON

The idea of two tenor saxophonists playing together has a long, storied history in jazz through pairings like Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, and Zoot Sims and Al Cohn. Such duos have become harder to find in recent years but here are two newer examples. Jeff Rupert / ...

The Very Singular Mr. Ran Blake

By DUNCAN HEINING

There have been few American composers and musicians, with the ability to encapsulate their country's music in all its racial and ethnic complexity. We might perhaps point to Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ives and perhaps, in their own distaff ways, Harry Partch and Steve Reich. In jazz, their number is fewer still--Duke Ellington and George ...

Connor Sings — Kenton Swings

By CHRIS CONNOR

Label: Sounds of Yesteryear
Released: 2019
Track listing: Theme: Artistry in Rhythm; Jeepers Creepers; Everything Happens to Me (short version); There Will Never Be Another You; You’re Mine You; I Only Have Eyes for You; September in the Rain; Lullaby in Rhythm; All About Ronnie; Love Me or Leave Me; If I Should Lose You; Tenderly; I’ll Remember April; Taking a Chance on Love; Everything Happens to Me (long version); I Get a Kick Out of You; Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me; Stan Speaks About Chris; Darn That Dream; Artistry in Rhythm.

Allegra Levy: Looking at the Moon

By ANGELO LEONARDI

L'hanno già fatto Frank Sinatra e Mel Tormè ma non è vietato riprovarci, deve aver pensato Allegra Levy. Giunta al terzo disco, la giovane cantante statunitense esplora un repertorio di canzoni che si riferiscono alla luna, nel titolo e/o nel testo. Sono trascorsi più di cinquant'anni da Moonlingt Sinatra e Swingin' On The Moon (quest'ultimo ne ...

Judy Niemack: New York Stories

By ANGELO LEONARDI

Non è tra le cantanti più celebri del jazz moderno, ma è certamente tra le più brave. A differenza di quanto accade oggi nel mondo delle vocalist, Judy Niemack non fa surfing da uno stile all'altro ma continua a esaltare la tradizione vocale nata dal bop e dal cool jazz. E lo fa in maniera splendida, ...

Chris Connor with Stan Kenton And His Orchestra: Connor Sings — Kenton Swings

By JACK BOWERS

However listeners may receive this “new" album from Sounds of Yesteryear, there's no gainsaying its title, Connor Sings—Kenton Swings, as that secures its contents in a neat little box with no loose ends in sight. There's also no denying that these seventeen songs by vocalist Chris Connor and the dynamic Stan Kenton Orchestra were recorded more ...

Stan Kenton and West Coast Jazz (1950 - 1958)

By RUSSELL PERRY

In the last hour, we heard evidence of Woody Herman's capacity for talent development in the form of further work by reed players Stan Getz, Serge Chaloff, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Jimmy Giuffre. In this hour we turn the spotlight on alumni of the Stan Kenton Orchestra which produced several significant players in the West ...

Ran Blake & Jeanne Lee: The Newest Sound You Never Heard

By JEROME WILSON

Pianist Ran Blake has developed a reputation over the years for recording duets with vocalists, including in recent times, Sara Serpa, Dominique Eade and Christine Correa. That began back in 1961 when he released The Newest Sound Around (RCA), a remarkable set of duets with singer Jeanne Lee. The duo toured together occasionally in subsequent years ...

Erin McDougald: Outside the Soiree

By JEROME WILSON

Erin McDougald is a big-voiced Chicago-based singer who calls herself the “Flapper Girl" after the “flappers" of the 1920s,' looking back on them as emancipated, fearless women. That identity carries into her singing which comes across with a confidence and flair you rarely hear among younger jazz vocalists today. With her voice carrying a low, sultriness ...