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Results for "Ella Fitzgerald"
Veronica Swift: Veronica Swift
by Katchie Cartwright
Veronica Swift is a masterful jazz singer. Her craft is immaculate. She scats like nobody's business and her texted improvisations are inventive. What's more, she always seems to sing straight from the heart. All that might be enough for some people, not Swift. She is an artistic adventurer who wonders aloud on social media: “What would ...
Shear Brass: Celebrating Sir George Shearing
by Neil Duggan
The work of the late George Shearing, or Sir George Shearing OBE to give him his full title, is the subject of the debut album from Shear Brass, a band dedicated to playing new arrangements of his music. They are led by Shearing's great nephew, drummer Carl Gorham. The album, Celebrating Sir George Shearing, features eleven ...
Jimmy Rowles
by Carol Sloane
Part 1 I had just finished my night's work at a long-since vanished jazz club in Greenwich Village called Hopper's. I was singing with The New York Jazz Quartet: Sir Roland Hanna, George Mraz, Richie Pratt, and Frank Wess. The year was 1977. Mraz said he was going to walk over to Bradley's* to listen to ...
The Continuing Evolution of Kurt Elling
by Mathew Bahl
"I feel like at this point in my career I don't have to prove that I can do fifteen different things to greater or lesser degrees of expertise." Kurt Elling is discussing the genesis of his latest record, Flirting With Twilight. “I've made these roller coaster rides every time," says the Chicago-based jazz singer ...
Paula West and the Art of Making Art
by Mathew Bahl
Jazz singing is like a horse race. To the casual eye, all the horses in the stall look the same. But they aren't. Some have more talent. Some are better trained. Some have better jockeys. Some are more exciting to watch. But no matter what we see or don't see, what the odds might be, or ...
Tierney Sutton: An Instrumentalist’s Singer
by Mathew Bahl
"Jazz demands something of you," says Tierney Sutton. The Los Angeles based singer is discussing the challenge of selling complicated, improvised music in a culture addicted to simple, pre-packaged formulas. “Being barraged in the media teaches people not to engage, not to seek great art, not to listen with their own ears, not to ...
The Jazz Education of Ian Shaw
by Mathew Bahl
A few notable exceptions aside, great jazz musicians are not born; they are created. Most young musicians start by absorbing the work of important influences and then, through practice and live performance, decide what to keep, what to modify and what to discard. Ultimately, originality is less a byproduct of inspiration and more the end result ...
Carol Sloane on Singers and Songs: A Blindfold Test
by Mathew Bahl
Tell Carol Sloane you like one of her records and you will probably get the same reaction every time. She will smile graciously, thank you sincerely and then proceed politely to explain how she could have done the song better. Given her own exacting standards, not to mention her experience as a disc jockey and as ...
Why René Marie Can't Keep from Singing
by Mathew Bahl
"I don't like being bored while I'm singing," laughs René Marie. The Virginia-based vocalist and MAXJAZZ recording artist is explaining why she sings jazz. “You don't know what somebody's going to say, musically, or what somebody's going to do. If you go to a rock concert or pop, they want to hear the ...
The Jazz Historian: John Edward Hasse
by B.D. Lenz
Jazz is not simply a style of music; it is also a culture. The impact of this cultural force has had many ups and downs throughout the last century but, undeniably, has been felt worldwide across all nations and all languages. With such a storied past, it's important that an account of its beginnings and those ...
