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Basie All Stars: Live at Fabrik, Vol 1
Unwell in 1981 after a European tour the year before, Count Basie decided to sit out a series of booked engagements abroad. Instead, he dispatched nine members of his band to fulfill the obligations. They called themselves the Basie All Stars. Mind you, I'm not a big fan of leaderless pocket bands, which never stack up ...
Lou Mecca: Knockout Guitar
In my post yesterday, I told you about Walt Namuth, a superb jazz guitarist from the Baltimore area whose finest playing wasn't recorded commercially. He hated the road. Another spectacular jazz guitarist who detested touring and made only a handful of recordings was Lou Mecca, a towering talent who gave up the guitar for a chiropractic ...
Walt Namuth: Lost Guitarist
All of the jazz musicians you know are familiar because they recorded and toured. Underneath these high-profile artists were thousands who never bothered to record because they weren't asked, couldn't cut it or weren't willing to tour to promote LPs. Each city had these undocumented jazz legends who today are known only by name and reputation ...
Celebrating Sarah Vaughan at 99
Today is the 99th anniversary of Sarah Vaughan's birth—March 27, 1924. She was the first post war female vocalist shaped by the bebop movement of the mid-1940s, not the swing era of the 1930s and early 1940s. And her stylistic phrasing probably had a greater influence on female vocalists who followed her than any other singer ...
Backgrounder: Chet Baker - Pretty/Groovy
In 1958, Dick Bock of World Pacific Records decided to release a 12-inch compilation combining previously issued material by Chet Baker tracks that hadn't been released before. What they all had in common was beauty and a groove. This little-known album was called Pretty/Groovy. The songs on the album are... Look for the Silver Lining Time ...
Interview: Bill Crow, Part 4
Most non-musicians think all jazz bass players are fundamentally alike. They believe they aren't there for us but simply to keep time for the band, the way a transmission is for a car. As one person who isn't a bass fan told me some years ago, “There's a reason they stand in the back, behind the ...
Interview: Bill Crow, Part 3
In the ealry 1950s, Bill became exquisite on the bass while playing and recording with some of the era's finest collaborative jazz musicians. Yesterday, Bill and I covered his year with Stan Getz. Today, Bill talks about working with a growing number of leading artists in tjhe 1950s, including Al Haig, Jimmy Raney, Marian McPartland, Jackie ...
Interview: Bill Crow, Part 2
Bill Crow came to the bass accidentally in 1950. But he was ready for the challenge. Within two years, he was recording with Claude Thornhill and then Stan Getz. But Bill was no ordinary bassist. Listening to the Stan Getz recordings today. he's the second loudest instrument after Getz, his right hand driving the band with ...
Interview: Bill Crow, Part 1
About 10 years ago, I interviewed legendary bassist Bill Crow at length for JazzWax Then the tapes went missing. Naturally, I was mortified and depressed. It was a great interview and sadly, our conversation seemed to be lost to history. My workload steadily increased and I forgot about the interview and the mishap. [Photo above of ...
Backgrounder: Shorty Rogers Plays Richard Rodgers
With spring less than a week away, it's time for upbeat West Coast jazz. The last time I posted on Shorty Rogers was over the holidays when I highlighted The Swingin' Nutcracker. Before that, I featured Chances Are It Swings as a Backgrounder. This week, it's the finger-snapping Shorty Rogers Plays Richard Rodgers, as suggested by ...
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