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News: Interview

Interview: Arno Marsh (Part 1)

January 26, 2012

If you were a superb musician back in the 1940s and lived in a city or moved to one, you were likely going to find yourself auditioning for a name band pretty quickly. But for every great musician who wound up in a major orchestra, there were hundreds of others who remained in their smaller home ...

News: Recording

JazzSnaps: Randy Brooks (1946)

January 25, 2012

Randy Brooks played trumpet like Harry James. Lots of pep and power with plenty of bent notes. Brooks recorded with Hal Kemp in the late 1930s, Claude Thornhill in '42 and Les Brown in '43 and '44. In 1945, Brooks formed a band that included tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and Getz's vocalist wife Beverly Byrne. The ...

News: Recording

Al Hibbler: Holding a Thrill

January 24, 2012

Before Sam Cooke, before Clyde McPhatter, before Ray Charles and before Earl Coleman there was Al Hibbler. Blind from birth, Hibbler began his recording career in 1942 with Jay McShann's band, when Charlie Parker was in the reed section. Then in 1943, he joined Duke Ellington, a tenure that lasted until 1950. A dispute with Ellington ...

News: Obituary

John Levy (1912-2012)

January 23, 2012

John Levy, a jazz bassist and original member of the Stuff Smith Trio and George Shearing Quintet whose deal-making skills, insider's knowledge and warm personality enabled him to become jazz and pop's first successful black personal manager, died on January 20. He was 99. Starting in the early 1950s, John managed George Shearing not just as an ...

News: Obituary

Johnny Otis (1921-2012)

January 21, 2012

Johnny Otis, an R&B renaissance man and visionary whose passion for the blues, the back beat and racial equality helped ignite a West Coast music style in the late-1940s that made rock and roll possible in the 1950s and beyond, died January 17. He was 90. Otis' contribution to American music and his ability to unite teens ...

News: Interview

Interview: Geri Allen (Part 3)

January 20, 2012

If you were to guess what pianist Geri Allen is like to talk to on the phone based solely on her music, you might say, “stormy," “short on patience" and “booming." Actually, the opposite is true on all counts. Geri is gentle, patient and embracing. In conversation, you hear the lyrical voice of a kind, caring ...

News: Interview

Interview: Geri Allen (Part 2)

January 19, 2012

Pianist Geri Allen loves drama. Whenever she opens a song, she sets the mood with dynamic intrigue. Whether the song is an original ballad like Flying Toward the Sound or the churning Soul Heir, Geri splashes the ear with sparkling beauty—instinctively knowing that to win audiences' hearts, you have to engage their ears fast with colorful ...

News: Interview

Interview: Geri Allen (Part 1)

January 18, 2012

Too many jazz fans are unfamiliar with pianist Geri Allen. Though not yet a household name, Geri will be soon. Her recordings and live performances make her one of jazz's most vibrant and dynamic musicians. Geri has been categorized as avant-garde, but that term seems ironically passe. Geri's free approach and warmth transcends “avant-garde," placing her at ...

News: Interview

Two Hollywood Songbirds

January 17, 2012

I wasn't around in Los Angeles in the '50s and early '60s, but from what I hear, it was quite a place. Actually, you kind of sense that the city was overflowing with musical talent. Anyone who loves rare jazz albums by little-known singers knows that there were a lot of superb vocalists on the scene ...

News: Recording

Jazzwax List: Martin Luther King

January 16, 2012

Jazz in the 1960s and beyond routinely paid tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King. On what would have been the civil rights leader's 83d birthday, here's a list of worthy jazz paens: John Coltrane—Alabama (1964). This composition was written in honor of the six black girls killed by the 16th St. BaptistChurch bombing in Birmingham, Ala., ...