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Denny Melle on Husband Gil
Back in January, I posted about baritone saxophonist Gil Melle and his Blue Note and Prestige sessions. For the post, I spoke with Hal McKusick, who played with him, and Raymond De Felitta, who grew up down the block from the Melle house in Hollywood. Both Hal and Raymond shed light on the visionary saxophonist, composer, ...
Herman Leonard (1923-2010)
Herman Leonard, a photographer with a commanding mastery of light whose dramatic and expressive nightclub portraits of jazz artists starting in the 1940s helped shape and promote jazz's nocturnal image and mystique, died on August 14 in Los Angeles. He was 87. [Photo by Herman Leonard / CTSImages.com] In the years before the Internet, television and ...
JazzWax List: Giants of Jazz
Extra-large jazz artists typically wound up with colorful nicknames that suited their silhouettes. But what if we were to assemble an ensemble of musicians whose names fit the bill, forgetting about whether or not they were contemporaries or even that portly? Here's my list of entries for our playful Giants of Jazz sextet, complete with a ...
Mundell Lowe: TV Action Jazz
Among Mundell Lowe's finest albums (and there are many) are the two TV Action Jazz LPs he recorded in 1959 and 1960. Most jazz fans think of Mundell solely as a polished guitarist in both club and studio settings. In fact, Mundell also is a terrific swinging arranger, and the TV Action Jazz albums bear this ...
Horace Silver: Ecaroh
One of pianist Horace Silver's most haunting and sophisticated compositions is Ecaroh, a song that defied convention and gravity, for that matter. The song packs an eclectic punch, shifting restlessly between major and minor keys and employing several brooding rhythms that build with drama and mystery. There's the mildly Latin introduction, which halts abruptly and springs ...
Interview: Little Richard
My conversation with Little Richard in today's Wall Street Journal (go here or pick up a copy) was a mind-opener. This is the guy who started rock 'n' roll as we know it, for goodness sake. With his first hit Tutti Frutti in 1955, Little Richard single-handedly unleashed a new form of music that to this ...
Rene Thomas: Meeting Mr. Thomas
Like many of his Belgian jazz-musician peers in the early 1950s, guitarist Rene Thomas had a swinging lyricism that was distinctly European and infectious. With the rise of the LP in Europe and post-war rebound of the French economy, Thomas, Bobby Jaspar, Francy Boland, Christian Kellens, Jacques Pelzer and other Belgians migrated south to Paris. Nearly ...
Mitch Miller: Jazz Friend or Foe?
Few figures in jazz history were more enigmatic than Mitch Miller. While news of his passing on July 31 in New York at age 99 marked the end of an era, the coverage served as a reminder of just how baffling many of his decisions were in the 1950s and how jazz fared in their wake. ...
Ahmad Jamal: Argo Sessions
Jazz piano in the seven years immediately after World War II took several major twists and turns in its development. Art Tatum was the dominant force through the 1940s and into the 1950s. Like Tatum, Erroll Garner and Nat Cole were entertainers and showmen, bringing polish, wit and vibrancy to the instrument. Then came the brooders—Bud Powell, ...
Jazzwax List: 8 Hip Rockers
Jazz versions of rock hits usually bomb. In most cases, the results sound like music played at a wedding reception, convention center or worse. But in a handful of cases, the union worked, especially when the rock tune, the arrangement and the instrumentalist's feel came together. Readers certainly have favorites of their own. Please add them ...
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