Results for "JazzWax by Marc Myers"

Interview: Dick Hafer (Part 1)

November 15, 2011

Starting in the late 1940s, Dick Hafer (pronounced HAY-fer)was one of the finest big-band tenor saxophonists and soloists. Dick's sound rested somewhere between Lester Young's smooth linear delivery and Wardell Gray's eely bop attack. [Pictured: Dick Hafer in Woody Herman's 1952 band] As a result, Dick wound up in the sax sections of some of the finest ...

Roy Ayers: Soul Vibes

November 14, 2011

Back in the early 1970s, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Tony Williams and John McLaughlin leveraged Miles Davis' new electric approach to jazz and created different streams of  jazz-rock fusion. At the same time, vibraphonist Roy Ayers went off in a separate direction—pioneering electronic jazz-funk, which Herbie Hancock would build on with Headhunters in 1973. This Thursday, ...

Neal Hefti: The Movie Years

November 11, 2011

Even among the giants of the orchestra business, Neal Hefti was special. Over just three decades, the composer-arrangerturned out masterful bop, swing and film charts with a distinctly jaunty and jovial feel. In the 1940s, his Repetition (1947) for Norman Granz and his bop charts for Harry James' band in 1949 are perfect examples. In the ...

Gerry Mulligan: Mosaic Select

November 10, 2011

Gerry Mulligan is easily one of jazz's most underrated artists and composer-arrangers. The word “underrated" may seem strange when applied to an established monster like Mulligan, but think about it: Here's a guy who arranged for Gene Krupa, Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis and Elliot Lawrence before heading West in 1952 and starting the piano-less quartet with ...

Miles Davis at Montreux: 1973-91

November 9, 2011

It's impossible to overstate the importance of Miles Davis—although lately it has been a lot easier to do so. In recent years, the market has been inundated with Davis recordings in the form of double-CDs, box sets and steamer trunks of calbums. All have forced jazz consumers to discriminate between what they purchase and what they ...

Interview: Jordi Pujol

November 8, 2011

Don't recognize the name? Jordi Pujol is the owner of Spain's Fresh Sound label. Since the 1990s, Fresh Sound has specialized in releasing American jazz albums from the 1950s that U.S. labels have all but ignored, overlooked or forgotten. In this regard, Fresh Sound has performed a heroic task, rescuing jazz's greatest decade from the dumb ...

Backtrack: Nostalgia

November 6, 2011

On this date in 1956, Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley drove over New York's George Washington Bridge on their way to Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, N.J., to finish work on Introducing Lee Morgan for Savoy. Joining them on the session were pianist Hank Jones, bassist Doug Watkins and drummer Art Taylor. One of the ...

Sinatra: Moonlight in Vermont

November 4, 2011

Interview: Chick Corea (Part 3)

November 3, 2011

Jazz-rock fusion isn't easy music. For one, there isn't much space for your ear to catch its breath. For another, unless you were in your teens in the late '60s and early '70s, the music will likely sound like noise. But for those who heard this music with peers just as their sensibilities were being formed ...

Interview: Chick Corea (Part 2)

November 2, 2011

When acoustic jazz began to fall on hard times in the 1970s and early 1980s, many fans blamed Chick Corea. After years spent pioneering a successful form of psychedelic jazz-rock fusion with his group Return to Forever, Chick became a lightning rod of sorts for complaints and dismay. Disgruntled jazz fans blamed Chick as well as ...