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Jim Rotondi (1962-2024)
Jim Rotondi, a prolific hard-bop jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, arranger, educator and conductor whose horn appears on more than 80 recordings as well as 15 leadership albums, died on July 8 in Le Crest, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. He was 61. Born in Butte, Montana, in 1962, Rotondi was the youngest of five siblings. All were given piano ...
The Mellow Scene of Early Autumn
Though the calendar says summer, our souls tell us it's early autumn. So in the spirit of the shifting sunlight, darker mornings and cooler air, here's the story behind the jazz standard Early Autumn followed by 10 sterling instrumental versions. The story... In 1946, the classically inclined arranger Ralph Burns brought a three-part neo-Impressionist suite to ...
Dinah Washington Centenary: 'Evil Gal Blues'
The women's movement began with Dinah Washington's voice. If Billie Holiday sang about mistreatment and the blues, Ella Fitzgerald sang youthful swing and Sarah Vaughan elegantly covered jazz-pop, Washington captured the sound of women demanding to be heard and treated well—or else. Her voice in the 1950s was sharp and powerful, like a trumpet or a ...
Kenny Dorham's Centenary
August 30 will mark the 100th anniversary of Kenny Dorham's birth. The trumpeter and singer was born in Texas in 1924 and always seemed to be at the right place at the right time. Early on, he played in the bop bands of Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie and jump blues band of Lionel Hampton. From ...
Russell Malone (1963-2024)
Russell Malone, a jazz guitarist and composer who could play with a brash attack and lightening-fast fingers as a soloist and with a powdery, gentle feel and sturdy rhythm as a sideman, died of a heart attack on August 23 while on tour in Tokyo with bassist Ron Carter and pianist Donald Vega. He was 60. ...
Backgrounder: The Strolling Mr. Eldridge, 1953
In December 1953, trumpeter Roy “Little Jazz" Eldridge recorded The Strolling Mr. Eldridge for Norman Granz's Clef label. Eldridge was a member of Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic tour and recording group of all stars. The album was released during the “speed wars," when Columbia's 33 1/3 and RCA's 45 rpm formats were in fierce competition. ...
Perfection: Barney Kessel - Like Someone in Love
Soaring is one of Barney Kessel's finest albums of the 1970s. Recorded in August 1976 for Concord, the guitarist was backed by Monty Budwig on bass and Jake Hanna on drums. The entire record is perfect in every way. What I like most is how Kessel is isolated, allowing us to hear how gifted he was ...
Gene Ammons: The All-Star Sessions
Like many musicians who performed in Billy Eckstine's big band between 1944 and '46, tenor saxophonist Gene “Jug" Ammons went on to jazz fame in the independent record label era of the late 1940s. He also did well in the blues 78 market (he was the first artist to record for Chess in Chicago) and the ...
Backgrounder: Gene Ammons - Boss Tenor, 1960
During the second half of the 1950s, tenor saxophonist recorded mostly jam session albums for Prestige. In June 1960, the label's founder and producer, Bob Weinstock, figured out that Ammons could also record with just a rhythm section behind him. The result was one of Ammons's finest albums—Boss Tenor. The LP featured Gene Ammons (ts), Tommy ...
Perfection: Dexter Gordon's Society Red, 1961
In her memoir, Sophisticated Giant, Maxine Gordon writes this about her late husband, tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon: “Dexter Gordon was known as 'Society Red.' He got this name when he was with the Lionel Hampton band as a 17-year-old in 1940—just about the same time Malcolm X (then Malcolm Little) was being called Detroit Red. Dexter ...
