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Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae Music
You're in for a pre-Thanksgiving treat. Yesterday, I posted on a 1964 Jamaican mini documentary on ska, the island's dominant dance music of the early 1960s. Today. I found a high-resolution print of Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae Music (2009). It followed ska by slowing ska down and adding a soulful groove in the mid-1960s, setting ...
Documentary: This Is Ska
In Jamaica, before reggae and rocksteady, there was ska. Emerging in the late 1950s, ska was a combination of calypso, American jazz and R&B. Ska evolved as Jamaican singers and musicians put their own spin on the sound of American pop records that were played on large sound systems built for neighborhood parties. As ska grew ...
Johnny O'Neal: Keyboard Giant
Pianist Johnny O'Neal is extraordinary, even if he isn't as well known as other pianists around today. Influenced by Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson, O'Neal began as a gospel pianist in his home town of Detroit and spent the 1970s in Birmingham, Ala., working with local jazz musicians. In 1981, he relocated to New York to ...
Shirley Bassey: History Repeating
In 1997, the British electronic duo The Propellerheads recorded and performed History Repeating with Shirley Bassey. The single reached #1 hit on the U.K. Indie Chart and #10 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart, Dame Shirley's first top-10 hit on any U.S. chart since 1973's Never Never Never. According to Bassey, Alex Gifford, half the ...
Meet Sweden's The Real Group
Formed in 1984, the Real Group is a Swedish vocal harmony ensemble that specializes in jazz. The group has taken on other types of music, including Scandinavian folk and classical. And over the years, the group has seen many different members pass through its ranks. The Real Group is still going strong today, touring in Sweden ...
Jan Lundgren: In New York
On May 31 and June 1, 2005, Swedish jazz pianist Jan Lundgren was in New York to record In New York for Marshmallow Records, an independent Japanese label founded in 1978. Backing Jan were bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington. The recording session took place at Nola's Penthouse Studio on 57th St., above the Steinway ...
Art Blakey: Flight to Tokyo
In January 1961, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers were on their first tour of Japan. That year, the Messengers consisted of a tough bunch of signature players—Lee Morgan (tp), Wayne Shorter (ts), Bobby Timmons (p), Jymie Merritt (b) and Blakey (d). This particular line-up of Messengers had been together since early 1960, when they recorded ...
Joe Henderson: Mosaic Box
In the 1960s, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson recorded on close to 30 Blue Note albums, only five of which were under his name. But most of those sideman sessions were just as significant, since Henderson was a powerful ingredient on anyone's recording date. For example, he is a dominant soloist on Kenny Dorham's Una Mas, Lee ...
Documentary: Dame Shirley Bassey
Most Americans know Shirley Bassey only from her three brassy James Bond film themes—Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker. In the U.K., Dame Shirley was enormously popular from the late 1950s on. She delivered on stage the way Judy Garland did, belted songs out the way Barbra Streisand did and was as coy and as intriguing ...
Interview: Joe La Barbera on Bill Evans
There's much to say about the final Bill Evans Trio. Formed in early 1979, with Marc Johnson on bass and Joe La Barbera on drums, the trio was at times stormy, brooding and always deeply passionate. Many of their live recordings were strong and revealing, particularly performances in Buenos Aires and Paris and at Iowa's Maintenance ...
