Results for "JazzWax by Marc Myers"

Video: Sonny Rollins, 1968

January 5, 2018

Authorship of the jazz standard Four has always been in question. Miles Davis was the first to record the song in 1954 and has the sole writing credit. But it has long been argued by jazz writers that Eddie “Cleanhead" Vinson wrote the song, along with Tune Up, and loaned them to Davis to record. Somehow ...

Videos: Freewheeling Peggy Lee

January 4, 2018

When Peggy Lee wasn't stuffed into elaborate ball gowns with cinched waists and forced to appear on TV with a glazed, ice- queen expression, she could be downright soulful and bluesy. Personally, I never cared much for Fever or any of the other hyper-stylized slow-burn songs that turned Lee into an emotionless caricature of herself. I ...

Sonny Rollins: Koenig's Leaders

January 3, 2018

Yesterday afternoon I spoke at length with Sonny Rollins. We talk fairly regularly by phone, and this time we spoke about a wide range of career topics, from his time in India to his visits to the West Coast, where he recorded two remarkable albums for Contemporary Records in 1957 and '58. On his first trip ...

Donald Byrd: Fuego

January 3, 2018

Trumpeter Donald Byrd first came to New York from Detroit in 1955, when he was 22. While studying for a master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music, Byrd played in pianist George Wallington's quintet at the Cafe Bohemia. In the late 1950s, Byrd recorded five hard-bop albums with alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce before signing with ...

Teddy Wilson: Jan. 1, 1955

January 1, 2018

Sixty-three years ago, on New Year's Day in 1955, pianist Teddy Wilson, bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Jo Jones went into a studio for Norgran Records and recorded The Creative Teddy Wilson, a 7-inch 45-rpm set. The tracks were soon reissued on Verve as a 12-inch LP called Teddy Wilson: For Quiet Lovers. You'll find it ...

Video: Cannonball in 1958

December 28, 2017

On May 7, 1958, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley appeared on an NBC-TV broadcast called The Subject Is Bop. He was part of the Billy Taylor All-Stars. The show was hosted by Gilbert Seldes, a music writer and critic who each week showcased a different jazz style illustrated by different guests. In the case of Adderley, he's ...

Video: Oscar and Ella, 1961

December 27, 2017

James Moody: Overbrook

December 26, 2017

James Moody remains one of jazz's most soulful saxophonists and flutists. He had a huge, friendly personality and an ear for taking standards and re-inventing original melodies as a much brighter and hipper renditions. He also was a dynamic songwriter in his own right. But in 1957, at age 32, he enduring a near-catastrophic life-changing turning ...

12 Videos of Christmas

December 22, 2017

Television has always done a blissful job of capturing the warm, kind spirit of the holiday season. Over the decades, twinkly TV specials with popular singers and sugary sets have showered viewers with music and post-card imagery. No matter your background or religion, these shows had a way of reminding everyone that goodness was a universal ...

Michel Sardaby: Gail

December 21, 2017

One of France's best kept secrets is pianist Michel Sardaby. Born in Martinique in 1935, Sardaby moved to Paris in the early 1960s and has recorded there as well as in New York and Tokyo with a range of leading American and French jazz artists. A bluesy, soulful player, Sardaby gently coaxes all of the feeling ...