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News: Video / DVD

Hubert Fol: Bebop Minstrels

January 23, 2019

French musicians in Paris were among the first in Europe to catch on to bebop's nuances in the mid-1940s. Which is somewhat remarkable, considering what France went through during World War II. Among the Parisian musicians first to pioneer bebop was Hubert Fol, an alto saxophonist and bandleader. Now, a collection of Fol's leadership sides for ...

News: Video / DVD

On the Air: Jazz and Beer

January 22, 2019

Before beer became the beverage of televised college and professional sports in the U.S., it was most often linked with jazz. For TV and radio advertisers in the 1950s, '60s and the '70s, jazz meant good times, letting go and dancing. Perfect for a few cold ones. After my post yesterday on the late Urbie Green ...

News: Obituary

Urbie Green (1926-2018)

January 21, 2019

Urbie Green, one of jazz's smoothest and most polished trombonists who recorded more often than virtually any other post-war player, including Frank Rosolino, J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding, died on December 18, 2018. He was 92. Green's soft, yearning trombone on albums was unmistakable. His sound came off as a perfect high-register sigh, more akin to ...

News: TV / Film

Documentary: Jackie McLean

January 18, 2019

For New Yorkers of a certain age, Gil Noble is a familiar name. Noble died in 2012, but from 1968 to 1986, he was seen often as an anchor on WABC-TV's Eyewitness News and as host of Like It Is, a long-running WABC documentary series on black artists. On July 28, 1983, Noble interviewed alto saxophonist ...

News: Video / DVD

Perfect Album: Pettiford in Hi-Fi

January 18, 2019

Back in the 1940s and '50s, Oscar Pettiford was one of the finest jazz bassists and cellists in New York. In the mid-1950s, he formed a big band with top musicians and arrangers and recorded two albums for Creed Taylor's ABC-Paramount label. The albums were Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi, Vol 1. and Vol. 2. The ...

News: Video / DVD

Anita O'Day: August 1960

January 16, 2019

In 1952, Norman Granz signed singer Anita O'Day to his Clef label. Clef became Norgran in 1954 and then Verve in 1955. Throughout the 1950s, O'Day recorded more than 20 albums for Granz's labels. Most of the recordings are quite good, but only a few are excellent. Two that stand out are Waiter, Make Mine Blues, ...

News: Video / DVD

The Sammy Nestico Sessions

January 15, 2019

The swingin'est arranger around today is Sammy Nestico. In fact, Sammy probably has held that title since the late 1960s, when he first arranged Count Basie's album Straight Ahead. My first encounter with Sammy's finger-snapping scores was in the early 1970s, when I was in high school. As member of the school's dance band, I recall ...

News: Video / DVD

Alice Darr and Kevin Gavin

January 14, 2019

Guitarist Mundell Lowe was a wonderful arranger with impeccable taste and intimate elegance. This was true of his big-band writing and those for small groups. Recently I posted on his Columbia albums for Joe Mooney (1963), his TV Action Jazz albums (1959), the score for Satan in High Heels (1961), Jerri Winters Again (1962) and J.J. ...

News: Interview

Interview: Miles Davis, 1984

January 11, 2019

While Miles Davis was on tour in Baltimore in 1984, he agreed to appear on a daytime cable talk show called Cityline. For whatever reason, the hosts didn't bother to do a stitch of research and admitted as much to Davis. One of the hosts even asks Davis if he played with Charlie Parker. Astonished by ...

News: Video / DVD

Perfect Album: Something Else

January 10, 2019

I was going to post today about a “Hot Track" but decided instead to simply start a new feature called “Perfect Album." Yesterday I was listening to Johnny Richards' Something Else, one of my absolute favorite big-band albums. Something Else was recorded for Bethlehem in Hollywood on August 2 and 3, 1956. What made Richards (above) ...