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Bobby Shew on Buddy Rich (Part 3)
Bobby Shew turns up on the tastiest recordings. A long-time jazz trumpeter and studio musician, Bobby has a warm, solid tone and gracefully hits all the right notes with understated clarity and confidence. In the 1970s and 1980s, Bobby recorded extensively with the bands of Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin and Louie Bellson. More recently he has recorded ...
Bobby Shew on Buddy Rich (Part 2)
As big bands go, the orchestra Buddy Rich founded in 1966 holds a special place in the hearts of many jazz fans. The band had a quirky hipness and energy, mostly because Rich was early to dig the youth scene, Nehru jacket and all. The band was made up mostly of young musicians, and the book ...
Bobby Shew on Buddy Rich (Part 1)
In the spring of 1966, Timothy Leary praised the virtues of LSD, an H-bomb was lost at sea in Europe and Gemini 9's two-man crew began the first of its 47 orbits of Earth. And if these events weren't spacey enough, Buddy Rich, at age 48, decided to start a big band. Not a trendy rock ...
The Making of "Alfie" (Part 2)
Soon after English pop star Cilla Black and Burt Bacharach recorded Alfie in London in late 1965, the single was released by Parlophone in Britain in January 1966. Paramount's English marketers intended for the single to stir up interest for the movie prior to the film's release in London in March. But Black's single exceeded expectations, ...
The Making of "Alfie" (Part 1)
If the arrival of the Beatles in February 1964 marked a turning point in jazz's commercial viability, then the recording of Alfie by Cilla Black in 1965 was the sound of the door slamming shut. Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the U.S. release of the English film starring Michael Caine, the song went ...
Interview: John Levy (Part 5)
Bassist John Levy spent the first half of his career as a jazz musician. Then, in 1951, he changed jobs and became a personal manager of jazz musicians. He had long yearned to be on the business side, and the surging popularity of the George Shearing Quintet gave him the opportunity. At first John represented only ...
Interview: John Levy (Part 4)
In May 1947, Billie Holiday was arrested in New York for drug possession. After her conviction, she was sentenced to a year and a day at a West Virginia prison. She served 10 months. Upon her release in early March 1948, Holiday returned to the New York area. Upon her arrival, Holiday learned that her manager ...
Interview: John Levy (Part 3)
When John Levy arrived in New York in 1944, the bassist couldn't believe his good fortune. As a member of the Stuff Smith Trio, John and his white bass stood out and there was plenty of work. The union-enforced recording ban had just ended, and many small labels were surfacing to capture small-group jazz. While playing ...
Interview: John Levy (Part 2)
John Levy came late to the bass after high school in the mid-1930s. A teenage Milt Hinton agreed to teach him the basics, and John worked hard over the years that followed, practicing and playing locally in Chicago. Back in the days before bebop, the bass was the backbone of small swing groups, serving as time-keeper ...
Interview: John Levy (Part 1)
Bassist John Levy will turn 98 years old on April 11th, but he sounds half his age on the phone, and his memory is rock solid. For those unfamiliar with the name, John played bass in the Stuff Smith Trio in 1943 and 1944 and recorded with Don Byas and Erroll Garner in 1945. John was ...


