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About Herbie Nichols

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Musician

Herbie Nichols

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Herbie Nichols is a perennially neglected jazz pianist and composer. He recorded less than half of his 170 compositions on three classic trio albums for Blue Note and one for Bethlehem before dying of leukemia at the age of 43 in 1963. He is often compared to Thelonious Monk, and his piano playing and compositions certainly do have some of the harmonic angularity people associate with Monk. But he had a very distinctive sound of his own, more melancholy and, for lack of a better word, poetic than Monk in many ways. In fact, Nichols was something of a poet, as the titles to his tunes suggest

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Article: Album Review

Darren Litzie: On My Own Time

Read "On My Own Time" reviewed by Don Ball


Pianist Darren Litzie's sophomore release as a leader, On My Own Time, eschews the horns of his first release and takes a simpler approach, with bassist Chris DeAngelis and drummer John Riley providing the solid rhythm backing. Litzie also wrote two-thirds of the tunes and shows an imaginative approach to composition, writing in different beat-centric genres ...

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Article: Building a Jazz Library

Mal Waldron: His Journey Across 12 Albums

Read "Mal Waldron: His Journey Across 12 Albums" reviewed by Carl Medsker


Mal Waldron's life story is compelling, and to mark his 2025 centenary, this article aims to introduce his work to those less familiar with it by tracing his journey across 12 distinctive recordings.  Max Roach once singled him out, along with Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, Hasaan Ibn Ali and Randy Weston, as uniquely original ...

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Article: Album Review

Misha Mengelberg / Sabu Toyozumi: The Analects Of Confucius

Read "The Analects Of Confucius" reviewed by John Sharpe


As the reputations of Japanese free players grew during the 1970s, they lured a procession of Europeans and Americans eager to collaborate, among them Steve Lacy, Peter Brotzmann, Derek Bailey, and John Zorn. Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg also made the journey, first with the Instant Composers Pool (ICP) in 1982 and later independently. One of the ...

Article: Album Review

Carmen Staaf: Sounding Line

Read "Sounding Line" reviewed by Vic Albani


Carmen Staaf è una forza emergente della scena musicale di New York e, più in generale, del panorama jazz internazionale. Pianista originaria di Seattle--allieva di Danilo Perez--ha suonato e registrato con alcuni dei musicisti più influenti della nostra epoca. È stata ascoltata al Village Vanguard, al Blue Note, allo SFJAZZ e in numerosi festival di primo ...

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Article: Album Review

Jaki Byard: Blues For Smoke

Read "Blues For Smoke" reviewed by Fran Kursztejn


If Jaki Byard is most commonly categorized as a proud progenitor of the 'new jazz,' as his seminal work with Eric Dolphy on Outward Bound and Charles Mingus on Black Saint and the Sinner Lady would suggest, then a record like Blues for Smoke may throw listeners for a loop. Byard's notoriously difficult to pin down--a ...

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Article: Radio & Podcasts

Nichols for Your Thoughts

Read "Nichols for Your Thoughts" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


Normal service resumes with a podcast devoted to tributes celebrating the still-obscure pianist and composer Herbie Nichols. Nichols spent his truncated career in the shadow of Thelonious Monk (a big guy who cast a big shadow). He released roughly four albums in his lifetime and spent much of his career scuffling in Dixieland bands, but those ...

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Article: Radio & Podcasts

Trio Jungle (A "Classic" Episode)

Read "Trio Jungle (A "Classic" Episode)" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


As we noted so succinctly way back in 2014: Some trios play nicer together than others--Pat and Mike investigate.Playlist Discussion of Duke Ellington's album Money Jungle (United Artists) 4:09 Discussion of Terri Lyne Carrington's album Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue (Concord) 26:29 Discussion of Jean Michel Pilc's album Welcome Home (Dreyfus) 40:16 Discussion of ...

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Article: Album Review

Edition Redux: Broadcast Transformer

Read "Broadcast Transformer" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Ken Vandermark has long made it a priority to dedicate nearly all of his compositions to other artists. From painters and photographers to writers, poets and fellow musicians, his influences span a wide artistic spectrum. Film, in particular, has been a significant source of inspiration for this long-time Chicago resident. While Vandermark has composed two commissioned ...

News: Video / DVD

Backgrounder: Herbie Nichols Trio - Master Takes

Backgrounder: Herbie Nichols Trio - Master Takes

Pianist Herbie Nichols has long been considered a Thelonious Monk disciple. In truth, Nichols had his own modernist bag that combined bebop's jagged attack and Dixieland's hard syncopation. A fascinating artist who was largely ignored during his lifetime (1919-1963), Nichols is perhaps best known for penning the jazz standard Lady Sings the Blues. Nichols began recording ...


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