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The Swinging Shepherds
In the final installment of my three-part series on off-the-radar jazz supergroups of the 1950s, I'm turning today to Buddy Collette and His Swinging Shepherds—a West Coast quartet of superb flutists that regrettably recorded only two albums for Mercury. Both albums were arranged by Pete Rugolo, who pulled out all the stops in terms of writing ...
Watkins and Rouse's Jazz Modes
Yesterday I posted about the Jazz Lab, a little-known, short-lived East Coast jazz quintet co-led by Gigi Gryce and Donald Byrd in 1957. Today, continuing with my series on jazz supergroups of the mid-1950s, I'm turning to Les Jazz Modes, a little known quintet co-led by French hornist Julius Watkins and tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse that ...
Gryce and Byrd's Jazz Lab
In the early 1950s, as the 10-inch LP began rolling out, leaders of jazz recording sessions were given top billing followed by the size of their ensemble. Hence the Miles Davis Quintet, the Thelonious Monk Quartet and the Sonny Clark Trio. As the decade continued, jazz supergroups formed with multiple star soloists. Names were either created ...
Charlie Shavers: Blue Stompin'
I like measuring jazz trumpeters on the heat scale. Imagine Chet Baker and Bix Beiderbecke all the way over on the cool left end and guys like Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw on the other end. You can almost plot all trumpeters along this line. In the case of Charlie Shavers, I'd probably put him to ...
June Christy: Stars of Jazz, '58
In 1958, June Christy was one of the West Coast's best-known jazz-pop recording artists. At Capitol Records, where Pete Rugolo arranged many of her albums, Christy delivered songs with a sunny melancholy and breathy coolness that perfectly reflected the sighing resignation of bluesy middle-age suburbanites in Southern California. In March '58, Christy appeared on Stars of ...
Yves Montand: C'est Si Bon
Fans of Man Men have been emailing to ask me about the closing song on Sunday night's episode. As viewers of the series know, Matthew Weiner, the show's creator, writer and producer, is crazy about music and loves springing off-beat songs as a closing theme. This past Sunday, Weiner went with a cool, suave C'est Si ...
Rare Photos: Joe Graves, 1947
Betty fell in love with jazz in the 1940s. Armed with her trusted camera, she took as many photos as she could of the musicians she adored. Last week, Betty sent along a bunch of snapshots through her friend Chris, so I could share them with you. Both are avid JazzWax readers. Today, three photos of ...
Max Roach Meets the Backbeat
Modern jazz survived and flourished in the 1950s largely because many gifted artists didn't sell out. Imagine what would have happened if Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Bill Evans decided to open music stores or take jobs at universities rather than tour and record? Or if artists like Max Roach, Jimmy Cleveland, ...
Ed Bickert: Canada's Secret
Canadian jazz artists don't get enough respect. American fans swoon over Belgians (Bobby Jaspar), French (Martial Solal), British (Tubby Hayes) and even Argentines (Gato Barbieri). But when it comes to Canada, many jazz fans yawn, viewing them as doppelgängers at best, or pale comparisons to U.S. jazz musicians. The problem has always been that Canadian jazz never ...
10 CD Discoveries of the Month
Great jazz albums remain hard to come by, but an increasing number are leaving me impressed. It seems more care is going into their production with the explicit purpose of hooking and holding listeners. Wow, what a novel concept. Here are 10 albums that caught my ear... Charles McPherson: The Journey (Capri). The alto saxophone legend ...


