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Mills Brothers: Birth of R&B
Vocal harmony groups seemed to be everywhere in the 1930s and 1940s. The Depression played a role, of course, since entertainment was the only way out of harrowing poverty for most people and singing meant you didn't need to buy an instrument. The demand for vocal harmony groups surged during this period, primarily because they were ...
Big Bands: Direct to Disc
If you remember the 1970s, you probably recall a time when audio equipment mattered. In fact, many of us still call our iTunes systems “stereos." I grew up in the 1960s, when 45s ruled. By the late 1960s, with the release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper and rise of FM radio, albums were more engaging because ...
Bucky Pizzarelli + Pearl Django
Sometimes, a YouTube clip says it all. This one's precious: Here's Bucky Pizzarelli visiting NPR station KPLU-FM in Seattle recently to play I'll See You in My Dreams with Pearl Django, a Northwest gypsy jazz band. The result is pure magic. A special thanks to JazzWax reader Duane Peirick. And guys, how about an album?... ...
Pete Jolly: Early Piano
Much has been written about Lester Young's influence on West Coast jazz saxophonists. Much less has been written about Bud Powell's impact on West Coast jazz pianists. In the early 1950s, many California pianists from Claude Williamson and Carl Perkins to Hampton Hawes and Russ Freeman were enthralled by Powell's bop attack and ability to storm ...
Toshiko Akiyoshi: Early Piano
Toshiko Akiyoshi, 84, is best known today as the long-time leader of a big band. During the latter half of her career, that band has been co-led by Lew Tabackin, whom she married in 1969. She also formed several bands with her previous husband—alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano, whom she married in 1959 and divorced in 1967. ...
Jack Teagarden: Stars of Jazz
In 1956, pianist and singer-songwriter Bobby Troup began hosting a Los Angeles TV show for ABC called Stars of Jazz. On one of the shows (sponsored by Budweiser), Troup featured trombonist Jack Teagarden and other legends of Chicago jazz, including Matty Matlock's Rampart Street Paraders: Matty Matlock (cl), Eddie Miller (ts), Abe Lincoln (tb), Clyde Hurley ...
Warne Marsh: Music for Prancing
In the 1950s, tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh sounded like Stan Getz with parts missing. A pioneer of the Lennie Tristano-influenced cool jazz movement of the late 1940s and early '50s, Marsh was born in Los Angeles and gigged and recorded there as a leader between 1952 and 1957 before shifting to New York for a few ...
Chris Connor: Gershwin Almanac
The late Chris Connor remains one of my favorite singers. Unfairly likened to June Christy, Chris had a lower, huskier sound and greater vocal control. Both sang with Stan Kenton, Christy was West Coast and Chris was East Coast and both had a bruised, slick-chick sound—the ache of being jilted. Chris was a songsmith. She told ...
5 CD Discoveries of the Week
This week, I recommend a pair of superb jazz orchestral CDs, new music from a cutting-edge Blue Note artist, and two terrific rock sets... Dig arrangers Gil Evans and Thad Jones? Then you're going to love the Bill Kirchner Nonet's Lifeline (Jazzheads). Recorded live in 2001, Bill's arranging style is just as multilayered and brooding as ...
Terry Teachout On 'Satchmo'
As Terry Teachout was finishing Pops: A Life, his 2009 biography of Louis Armstrong, he had an idea. Realizing that Armstrong's final performance at the Waldorf in 1971 was an operatic moment—a meet-your-maker crescendo in the life of a great artist—Terry wrote a theatrical work where the trumpeter reflects on his life, and his white manager, ...
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