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Results for "JazzWax by Marc Myers"
Doc: Dinah Washingon - Evil Gal Blues
Back in 2010, the BBC aired Evil Gal Blues, Jill Nichols's wonderful documentary on Dinah Washington. As we wait until TypePad's finishes revamping its functionality so I can resume posting with images, here's the film on the singer known as the “Queen of the Blues." At the end, catch a rare and exceptional video clip of ...
The Beatles: 'Revolver' Reissue
Revolver was recorded between April and June in 1966 and released that August 5th. I was 9 when Revolver came out but the album never wound up in my hands. I'm not sure why. The omission might have had to do with my gift-giving extended family's disapproval of an album named for a gun. Or maybe ...
Backgrounder: Milt Bucker's 'Block Chords Parade'
What are block chords? That's when a pianist (or guitarist) plays a melody with chords rather than individual notes. This is done with the top note of the chord playing the melody line with chord notes below creating the harmony. Block chords are often played on piano with a “locked hands" technique, when both hands play ...
Interview: Stefi Schmitt of the Django All-Stars
If you're in New York next week, you have a rare opportunity to see a jazz first. Producer Pat Philips is presenting the Django Festival All-Stars at Birdland from November 1st to the 6th, which she has done for more than 20 years. What makes next week special is that vocalist Stefi Schmitt, the 17-year-old daughter ...
Joe Harriott Quintet: At the BBC
Given up for adoption in Kingston, Jamaica, soon after he was born in 1928, Joe Harriott learned to play the clarinet, starting at age 10, while attending the city's Alpha Boys School. In 1951, when Harriott turned 23, he toured in the U.K. as a member of Ossie DaCosta's band. After the tour, Harriott decided to ...
Doc: Art Pepper - Notes From a Jazz Survivor
Loneliness on the road and the dread of performing live in the early 1950s drove Art Pepper to snort heroin. What followed was a lifelong addiction. As he said regarding his stage anxiety, “I'd get sick to my stomach, and the only way I could handle it was getting loaded." It's hard to believe when you ...
Backgrounder: Dave Pell Octet 'Plays Rodgers & Hart'
I received so much email yesterday about the octet format that I figured I'd end the week with a Backgrounder by the Dave Pell Octet. The octet's arrangements in the 1950s were designed to give the eight musicians a West Coast big band sound—a miniaturized Les Brown Orchestra if you will. Prior to Dave Pell, there ...
Florian Ross Octet: Tunes & Explorations
I love jazz octets. More than any other ensemble configuration, an octet shows off an arranger's stuff. Unlike a big band, an octet is fully exposed, with individual instruments coming and going rather than full sections broken into chords. In many ways, octets are little big bands—the skeletal version. As a listener, you get to hear ...
Doc: Shirley Horn Sings & Plays 'Here's to Life'
Vocalist Shirley Horn's 1992 album Here's to Life (Verve) is a jazz masterpiece. The album has long been considered Horn's most emotionally penetrating album and Johnny Mandel's greatest triumph as a string arranger and orchestra conductor. He won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) for the album. Unfortunately, Horn lost in the Best Jazz ...
Mouse Bonati: Portrait of a Jazz Hero
Joe “The Mouse" Bonati isn't widely known among most jazz fans. The saxophonist died in 1983 at age 53 after spending his latter years playing in Las Vegas. Born in 1930 in Buffalo, N.Y., Bonati had a less-than-desirable childhood and found solace in the alto saxophone at age 14. Two years later he was playing locally ...
