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Irene Kral: Second Chance
I first was introduced to Irene Kral's voice at a friend's house in the mid-1970s. After high school each day, my friend and I used to spend a few hours listening to his father's record collection from the 1950s. Among the many LPs was a copy of Maynard Ferguson's Boy With Lots of Brass (1957). My ...
Gary Burton on John Gray
Yesterday, in my post on trombonist Bob Flanigan and guitarist John Gray, I wondered what became of Gray. A large gap exists in his discography between 1947 and 1956, and his recording career ends abruptly in 1968. Curious, I reached out to vibraphonist Gary Burton [pictured], who played with Gray in George Shearing's quintet in the ...
Bob Flanigan and John Gray
Most fans of Four Freshmen recordings know Bob Flanigan as one of the group's founding members. Formed at Butler University in Indianapolis in early 1948, the singing quartet began as Hal's Harmonizers and was initially comprised of Hal Kratzsch, Marvin Pruitt and brothers Don and Ross Barbour. When Pruitt left, the Barbour brothers' cousin Bob Flanigan ...
Rita Reys and the Jazz Messengers
As far as I can tell, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers recorded behind a singer only once. That session took place in May and June 1956 in New York and was released on Columbia and the Netherlands' Philips label, which makes perfect sense since the vocalist was Rita Reys, a Dutch jazz singer. Interestingly, the ...
"Giving Frank Foster a Hand"
Tenor saxophonist Frank Foster is best known for his monumental work in the reed section of Count Basie's New Testament" band starting in 1953. Over the decades that followed, Foster composed and arranged many songs for the Basie orchestra, including Shiny Stockings. Today, Foster, 82, lives with his wife Cecilia in Virginia. Brian Grady is a ...
Interview: Clark Terry (Part 2)
What makes Clark Terry more special than dozens of other trumpet and flugelhorn players? Many newcomers to jazz ask that question when listening to Clark's recordings. Rather than provide the answer, I decided to call saxophone legend Hal McKusick last evening for an insider's perspective. Hal first recorded with Clark in 1956 in a big band ...
Interview: Clark Terry (Part 1)
Clark Terry is one of the most prolific living jazz musicians, having appeared on a staggering 905 known recording sessions. On trumpet, he probably is the most recorded in history. To give you a sense of how many sessions 905 is, Ernie Royal appeared on 661, Louis Armstrong on 629 sessions, Harry Sweets" Edison on 563, ...
A Tale of Two CTIs (Part 2)
Yesterday I posted about Sony's upcoming four-CD box set of remastered CTI tracks and the 20 CTI albums from King (Japan) newly remastered by original producer Creed Taylor and engineer Rudy Van Gelder. As I noted yesterday, there's really no comparison between the two different efforts: The King releases are way more spectacular on every level. ...
A Tale of Two CTI's (Part 1)
Thirty-two years ago, Creed Taylor lost control of his CTI record label. Overly ambitious international expansion plans in the late 1970s put enormous strain on CTI's revenue. A protracted legal battle with Warner Brothers over guitarist George Benson, a CTI artist, didn't help. [Photo of Creed Taylor in the 1970s by Chuck Stewart] To sustain the ...
Nat Hentoff on Dizzy Gillespie
"In the 1980s, there was to be a concert at Lincoln Center honoring [trumpeter] Dizzy Gillespie. He and a big band were, of course, to be at the center of the celebration. A few days before, I went to a rehearsal. Everyone was there except Dizzy. [Photo of Dizzy Gillespie in 1963] No music was played. ...


