Home » Search Center » Results: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Results for "JazzWax by Marc Myers"

News: Recording

Marty Sheller and Joe Magnarelli

January 11, 2011

The history of the jazz trumpet backed by strings probably dates back to Louis Armstrong and the Song of the Islands in 1930. But in those days, strings meant a clutch of violins that sounded more like fiddles than an orchestral backdrop. Harry James began including a full string section starting in 1941, but the effect ...

News: Interview

Interview: Junior Mance (Part 2)

January 8, 2011

Many great jazz pianists of the '40s started out as accompanists. The process of backing a singer or instrumentalist forces you to anticipate space, experiment with harmony and keep swinging time. As a young, confident, sensitive pianist, Junior Mance understood this supporting role perfectly. After he left the Army in 1953, Junior was the house pianist ...

100

News: Interview

Interview: Junior Mance (Part 3)

January 8, 2011

Pianist Junior Mance has a lot of church in his playing. But it's not purely the church of stomping gospel or frenzied revivals. Rather, Junior's playing channels both urban gospel and rural spirituals and hymns. What interesting about his quiet soul is that it garners both a physical reaction in listeners as well as self-reflection. Junior's ...

News: Interview

Interview: Junior Mance (Part 1)

January 6, 2011

Pianist Junior Mance has always been a natural. While still in his teens, he played and recorded with some of the most exceptional jazz stars of the late 1940s. What jazz greats admired most about Junior was his fearless confidence and fast hands. Back then, jazz pianists had to do triple duty. They had to be ...

News: Interview

Alvino Rey: Studio Band, 1946

January 5, 2011

It's tough to get a fix on Alvino Rey. Many people who are remotely familiar with the big bands of the 1940s think of the steel-guitar playing Rey as a novelty act. He wasn't. Given the enormous size of his orchestras, many assume Rey led a Mickey Mouse band. He didn't. His name wasn't even Alvino ...

News: Music Industry

Rock and Roll (1949-2011)

January 4, 2011

It's hard to spot a cultural shift. The start of one movement and the end of another isn't easy to identify because most people don't care much for change and prefer that the world they know remain constant. It's a comfort thing mixed with denial, and such feelings grow stronger as we age. Besides, change never ...

News: Award / Grant

Mindblowers (Vol. 12)

January 1, 2011

As we swing out the year today, it's time for another installment of Mindblowers. For those new to JazzWax, at the end of each quarter I provide a roundup of my favorite quotes from interviews I conducted with legends over the past three months. For the other 11 volumes in this quarterly series dating back to ...

News: Obituary

Billy Taylor (1921-2010)

December 31, 2010

Billy Taylor, a pianist mentored by Art Tatum who could play any jazz style flawlessly and whose graceful keyboard choices were matched only by his ability to communicate the joys of jazz on TV and radio, and in books and classrooms, died in New York on December 28 of a heart attack. He was 89. [Photo ...

107

News: Recording

Gene Estes: Westful

December 30, 2010

Don't feel bad if the name Gene Estes doesn't ring a bell. Most jazz listeners aren't familiar with him. Though Estes started his recording career in the mid-'50s bands of Harry James, Billy May, Shorty Rogers and Henry Mancini, he also was an in-demand studio percussionist who wound up on studio recordings by the Monkees (Theme), ...

302

News: Recording

Bud Shank: Windmills of Your Mind

December 29, 2010

In the mid-'60s, Bud Shank recorded a string of albums in Los Angeles for World Pacific Jazz that were West Coast attempts to capitalize on rock, pop and the new movie music. These recordings included Michelle, A Spoonful of Jazz, California Dreamin,' Light My Fire, Music from Today's Movies, Magical Mystery and Let It Be. One ...