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Eight New Stan Getz Video Clips

When Stan Getz plays his tenor saxophone, he awakens in you the same feeling of relaxation you get from a tropical breeze or a hot shower. His high, smooth tone instantly soothes your soul and clears your head. A stark and forever-puzzling contrast with Getz's erratic and sometimes cruel personality that left most musicians and singers ...
MLK Day: Eight for Freedom

Today in the U.S., it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday since 1986 to honor the slain civil rights leader and a holiday recognized by all 50 states since 1999. To remember Dr. King, I chose seven great jazz albums that express what King was fighting for. Let freedom ring: Here's Sonny Rollins's Freedom ...
Sonny Rollins: Bret Primack and Aidan Levy

In December, Aidan Levy published Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins (Hachette), a 784-page biography of the tenor saxophonist. Recently, Bret Primack, who interviewed Sonny on camera at length over the years, interviewed Levy on a range of Sonny-related topics: Here's Bret and Aidan on Coleman Hawkins... Here's Bret and Aidan on Don ...
Video: Ella Fitzgerald at the BBC, 1965

On May 8, 1965, the BBC broadcast a taped TV concert that Ella Fitzgerald had recorded earlier that year in front of a studio audience. She was joined on songs by her trio—Tommy Flanagan on piano, Keter Betts on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums. There were no musician solos, other than during the intro and ...
Backgrounder: Dodo Marmarosa — Dodo's Back!

Yesterday, I posted about pianist Craig Davis's new trio tribute to Dodo Marmarosa. I also promised you a fabulous Backgrounder album this week by Marmarosa. Well, why not today, since you probably still have Dodo on your in mind. Dodo's Back! is one of my favorites. It's elegant and pushy, with touches of George Shearing in ...
Craig Davis: Music of Dodo Marmarosa

Michael Dodo" Marmarosa was a fascinating jazz pianist. Among the first pianists to master bebop in the mid-1940s, he had an accomplished, plush touch. As I wrote back in 2008, Dodo was less aggressive than Bud Powell and more expressive and complex than Al Haig. He preferred a punctuating, full keyboard approach, developing ideas in the ...
Mose Allison: Live 1978

There are plenty of post-war jazz songwriter-pianists who work overtime to be with-it. Some come off as Beat poets and cool daddy-o's while others strain to be clever phrase-turners and honky-tonk players. For me, there are only two truly hip originals—Thelonious Monk and Mose Allison. Monk and Mose each had a distinct sound that was both ...
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

Directed by Robert Wise and produced by HarBel, Harry Belafone's production company, Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) starred Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, Ed Begley, Gloria Grahame and famed dancer Carmen De Lavallade as Kitty. The score is by composer, arranger and Modern Jazz Quartet pianist John Lewis. The soundtrack orchestra included Lewis (arr,cond); Bernie Glow, Joe ...
Julie London's Holiday Album, 2022

Once again, it's time for Julie London's Christmas album that never was. I started this tradition eight years ago because, for whatever reason, the singer never recorded an album of holiday favorites, just one side of a Liberty 45 in 1957. Why she'd release a single side but not a full-blown LP remains puzzling, to say ...
Thom Bell (1943-2022)

Thom Bell, a producer, arranger and songwriter who was one of the architects of the Philly Sound in the late 1960s and early 1970s and had hits with soft soul vocal groups backed by his engaging orchestrations, died on December 22. He was 79. Thom pioneered a movement that ushered in a new soul style that ...