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A Swell Double-Date with John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey
They're sort of the George Burns-Gracie Allen of music, but with a gender switch from that late, revered comedy couple. Guitarist and crooner John Pizzarelli is the zany Gracie of this pair. And his singer-actress wife, Jessica Molaskey, plays the calm, droll George Burns role to perfection in their act. Together, they make a charming twosome, ...
Billy Taylor Said It
Today is Billy Taylor's 88th birthday. Happy birthday, Billy! In 1982, the pianist who was mentored by Art Tatum, wrote a book called Billy Taylor: Jazz Piano in Jazz History. When I saw him several months ago, he graciously gave me a copy. Beautifully written, it's an authoritative historical analysis of the jazz piano from the ...
Billy Taylor is 88
Today is Billy Taylor's 88th birthday. It has not gone unnoticed by his publicists that, coincidentally, the piano has 88 keys. Appropriately, they have posted on his web site 88 videos of Taylor playing in a variety of contexts; speaking informatively on CBS Sunday Morning, where for years he did commentary; and being interviewed by Charles ...
Singer Splices Tunes for Hybrid Jazz Sound
Some jazz singers forge a distinctive identity by finding overlooked tunes, while others put an indelible stamp on familiar standards through the force of their personality. And then there are the rarefied few who weave a new repertoire out of whole cloth, outfitting their book with material transformed by a bracing new concept. Jacqui Naylor, a ...
Hefti, Quincy and Vocalese
With the enormous success of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross' Sing a Song of Basie in 1958, copycat groups were quickly formed to duplicate the swinging vocalese and rake in some of the dough. Though none could compare with the magical vocal harmonies and lyric treatments of Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross, two attempts you ...
Russ Freeman in Canada
To those who who knew Russ Freeman or his work it was a source of frustration that he elected during his final years not to play the piano. Freeman died in 2002 at the age of 76. He was part of the west coast jazz scene before it was called that. He worked in Los Angeles ...
Interview: Dick Katz
It's hard to peg Dick Katz. The pianist was on the New York jazz scene starting in the early 1950s. He has played with virtually all of the greats, including Oscar Pettiford, Coleman Hawkins, J.J. Johnson and others. He has recorded on quite a few significant albums, including Benny Carter's masterpiece Further Definitions. He has arranged ...
Chantale Gagne: Silent Strength
I came upon Chantale Gagne's Silent Strength completely by accident. The French-Canadian jazz pianist recorded this album in 2007, but I only discovered it last weekend while searching to see who had recorded Bill Evans' Peri's Scope. After sampling the Evans track and then others, I had to get hold of the CD. And ask Chantale ...
Jymie Merritt: Dedication Personified
by Victor L. Schermer
Jymie Merritt came up in Philadelphia during the evolution of bebop and hard bop, when the town was a hotbed of musical activity. Players like John Coltrane, Benny Golson, and Philly Joe Jones were getting started there, and musicians like Charlie Parker, J.J. Johnson, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis would come to the city to perform ...
George Wein: Back to Doing His Thing
by R.J. DeLuke
Not many people stand in shoes similar to the ones in which jazz impresario George Wein now finds himself. Having invented the jazz festival more than half a century ago, his name is synonymous with the Newport Jazz Festival, his first and most well-known child of that genus. He led a company that expanded on the ...
