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Ahmad Jamal Interview - American Classical Music
This interview is part of the book/dvd project “Under your skin" which includes Interviews with David Murray, Ornette Coleman, Chuck D - Public Enemy, Yusef Lateef, Stanley Clarke, Melvin Gibbs, Liu Fang, Malika Zarra, Zap Mama, Les Nubians, Esperanza Spalding, Lydia Lunch, Lee “Scratch" Perry, ...
Interview: Herb Geller (Part 5)
For years, the events surrounding pianist Lorraine Geller's sudden death at age 30 in October 1958 have been shrouded in mystery. Depending on what you've read or who you've listened to, rumored causes have ranged from a weak heart to a drug overdose, with plenty of other reasons in between. For the sake of setting the ...
Interview: Herb Geller (Part 4)
Starting in the mid-1950s, Los Angeles became a boomtown for many trained jazz musicians. With the rise of the 12-inch LP and expansion of the movie studios, the demand for gifted musicians who could read music and record perfectly spiked. Many of the musicians who had relocated to the area were in the right place at ...
Interview: Herb Geller (Part 3)
By the early 1950s, the number of big bands that traveled the country's roads to perform was dwindling. The reasons were a matter of economics and fizzling demand. Transporting, housing and feeding upward of 18 musicians required solid money, and with married couples going out less often to dance and preferring to stay home and play ...
King Britt Interview
It may be hard to believe but the legendary Philadelphia DJ/Producer King Britt has been in the music game for twenty years now. Beginning his career in 1990 as E-Culture on the Strictly Rhythm label, Britt quickly became the DJ for the Grammy winning hip-hop group Digable Planets. Segueing into production work, hes remixed tracks for ...
Artie Shaw: Swing and Loathing
Artie Shaw, the swing era's other great clarinetist, knew just about every romantic self-immolator in the history of jazz. He roomed with both Bix Beiderbecke and Bunny Berigan, he hired Billie Holiday to sing with his band and--at least by his own account--he turned down Charlie Parker's bid to join his saxophone section. ("I said, 'Bird, ...
Diana Krall, Sellout?
A few years ago, Gene Lees and I fell into serious agreement. It happened in one of our long talks over a glass of wine, or two, at the big table just off the kitchen in his and Janet's house in Ojai. We were kicking around the peculiar effect that popular acceptance of an artist often ...
Sonnenberg Sings Lees
A man named Paul Sonnenberg has posted a medley of songs with Gene Lees' lyrics. If you go here, you'll learn as much about Mr. Sonnenberg as I know. If you watch the video below, you'll see and hear him sing the songs, largely in tune, with a feel for the Brazilian samba idiom and with, ...
Teachout on Lees
Tributes to Gene Lees continue, for good reason. A line from Longfellow applies: “Dead he is not, but departed - for the artist never dies." Terry Teachout remembers Gene in today's Wall Street Journal: Had Gene been born sooner, he would surely have been as famous and successful as the top songwriters of the '30s and ...
Jeff Sultanof on Gene Lees
Since the Rifftides entry about Gene Lees' death on April 22, we have received a flood of comments. They are posted in the comments section at the end of that piece. A couple of days later, Gene's friend Jeff Sultanof sent me a message that he intended as a private communique. I was moved by it ...
