Results for "JazzWax by Marc Myers"

Gil Mellé: Blue Note Years

May 2, 2019

Gil Mellé was a fascinating saxophonist and composer. Not widely known today, Mellé [pronounced MELL-ay] was a renaissance man. He played tenor and baritone saxophone, he was a painter, an inventor, he wrote film scores and he led groups. Jazz was a passion, and he worked hard to develop a sound—not an overarching one that identified ...

Carlos Lyra: Além da Bossa

April 30, 2019

In the late 1950s, Rio de Janeiro experienced enormous optimism. North American trade was on the rise, and the advent of jet travel between Brazil, France and the U.S. boosted tourism. Business at the city's hotels, lounges and restaurants soared. Throughout Rio, a new form of music was stirring. It was more jazz-romantic and folk-centric than ...

John Coltrane in 1958

April 29, 2019

John Coltrane in 1958 was unnerving. If you were a tenor saxophonist back then, Coltrane's playing in clubs and on albums was dazzling and daunting. A year earlier, Coltrane was largely a sideman, most notably with pianists Thelonious Monk, Red Garland, Sonny Clark and Tadd Dameron as well as with a batch of trumpeters. There were ...

Quincy Jones in Paris, 1960

April 26, 2019

In 1957, Quincy Jones moved to Paris. There, he studied with Nadia Boulanger, a French composer who educated numerous expatiate American composers and bandleaders. As Boulanger told Jones, “Your music can never be more or less than you are as a human being." To pay the bills, Jones took a job with Barclay, the French record ...

Documenary: Ira Gitler Lives!

April 25, 2019

The late Ira Gitler was the delicatessen of jazz writers. While most jazz scribes of the 1950s and beyond had a fork-and-knife feel to their prose, Ira's liner notes on the backs of albums and his books were meant to be eaten with both hands. He was the New York cabbie, the cop on the beat, ...

John Graas: French Horn Jazz

April 24, 2019

According to Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, the French horn in jazz dates back to 1921. By the 1930s, the instrument was popping up on recordings by Bing Crosby and Woody Herman. In the 1940s, Artie Shaw, Claude Thornhill, Harry James and other bandleaders included the horn when they added strings. Neal Hefti used Vincent Jacobs on ...

Bill Evans in England, 1969

April 23, 2019

The year 1969 was a busy one for pianist Bill Evans. In January and March, Evans with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell recorded What's New with flutist Jeremy Steig. In February, the trio was recorded furtively at New York's Village Vanguard (The Secret Sessions). Then they moved on to Holland in March (Live In ...

Wes Montgomery: Back on Indy

April 22, 2019

Back in 2012, Resonance producer Zev Feldman was contacted by Brook Reindollar, who worked with Carroll DeCamp, an Indianapolis pianist and self-taught arranger. Reindollar said he had digital audio tapes (DAT) of guitarist Wes Montgomery recorded in Indianapolis. Reindollar was passed along to Zev by Lewis Porter, a jazzz historian, professor of music at Rutgers University ...

Count Basie Videos: 1959-1961

April 19, 2019

Johnny Mandel at the Movies

April 18, 2019

Another jazz artist who became a spectacular composer, arranger and conductor for the movies starting in the late 1950s is Johnny Mandel. His haunting love themes, sweeping strings and nocturnal horns were more brooding and jazz influenced than any other Hollywood arranger. Here are 10 of my favorite Johnny Mandel scores: Here's the main theme from ...