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Results for "JazzWax by Marc Myers"

News: Recording

Frank Strazzeri: Taurus

March 23, 2016

I knew Frank Strazzeri could play tasty piano, but I didn't know he could play really tasty Fender Rhodes electric piano. Yesterday, I was listening to Taurus, an album Strazzeri recorded in January 1973 with Conte Candoli (tp), Frank Rosolino (tb), Don Menza (ts,fl), Gene Cherico (b) and Dick Berk (d). Interestingly, Strazzeri's piano style—which was ...

News: TV / Film

Doc: History of Swing

March 22, 2016

Yesterday, I came across this gem, a BBC documentary that serves up a smart history of swing. It rightly dates the music's start to 1924, when Louis Armstrong joined Fletcher Henderson's band. The documentary isn't perfect—Fats Waller is missing as is Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, Harry James, Stan Kenton, Charlie Barnet and others. Perhaps the biggest ...

News: Recording

Buddy Arnold: Wailing

March 21, 2016

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, tenor saxophonist Buddy Arnold played in a wide variety of New York big bands. These included the orchestras of Joe Marsala, Georgie Auld, Herbie Fields, George Williams, Tex Beneke, Claude Thornhill, Buddy DeFranco and Jerry Wald. In January 1956, he recorded his first and only leadership album called Wailing ...

News: TV / Film

Documentary: Jazz Organ

March 18, 2016

Yesterday, I found a soulful documentary at YouTube from 2007 on the jazz organ directed by Jesse Fankushen. A lot of Hammond B3 cats are here—some I've never seen before on film, including Leon Spencer Jr. The documentary is a tad wordy and could have used a richer history approach, but it's wonderful just the same. ...

News: Video / DVD

Clip History of Latin Boogaloo

March 16, 2016

Today I thought I'd do things a little different. Rather than write at length about the history of a sexy Latin music in the mid-1960s that you might not know much about, I figured I'd illustrate its evolution through a series of YouTube clips. First, some context. In today's Wall Street Journal, I've written an essay ...

News: Recording

Teddy Charles: New Directions

March 15, 2016

Vibraphonist Teddy Charles was playing free jazz nearly as early as Lee Konitz, Lennie Tristano, Billy Bauer and Gil Melle. In 1951, '52 and '53, Teddy recorded a series of three 10-inch LPs for Prestige in the trio, quartet and quintet formats. I was thinking of Teddy yesterday and gave them a listen, finding the material ...

News: Recording

Larry Young: 1964-65

March 14, 2016

By now, fans of Larry Young have worn out their copies of the organist's Blue Note leadership albums, including the masterpieces Into Somethin' (1964) and Unity (1965). You also probably have exhausted his hypnotizing albums with Grant Green—Talkin' About (1964), Street of Dreams (1964), I Want to Hold Your Hand (1965) and His Majesty King Funk ...

News: Video / DVD

The George Martin Touch

March 11, 2016

Yesterday I posted a remembrance and appreciation of the late producer George Martin, along with recollections from the time I spent with him at his summer estate in the English countryside in August 2012 for the Wall Street Journal. Let's end the week with 12 of my favorite songs produced by Sir George. Be sure to ...

News: Obituary

George Martin (1926-2016)

March 10, 2016

For producer George Martin, who died on March 8 at age 90, the first notes of a pop song were everything. In those early make-or-break moments, a song's success depended on its opening hook. The music had to crash out of jukebox speakers and compel teens to spend money they didn’t have on records they couldn’t ...

News: Video / DVD

Last Message of Pres: 1959

March 9, 2016

Last week I received an email from filmmaker Henry Ferrini, who is busy making a documentary on Lester Young. He sent along a clip in which he features Young playing I Can't Get Started from March 1959 and the tenor saxophonist being interviewed by jazz journalist François Postif. The music is beautiful and Young's words about ...