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Backgrounder: Oscar Pettiford Orchestra (1956-57)

In February 1943, bassist Oscar Pettiford joined Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in a Chicago hotel room and jammed on Sweet Georgia Brown, which was captured on a private recording. This was before bebop was codified, and Parker and Gillespie were virtually unknown outside of the big bands they were in. By the end of 1943, ...
Perfection: Gerry Mulligan - Night Lights (1963)

If all Gerry Mulligan had composed and recorded was the song Night Lights, he'd be extraordinary. The impossibly beautiful and hypnotic ballad appeared on his 1963 album of the same name. To make the track even more compelling, Mulligan plays piano, not baritone saxophone, and he was accompanied by Art Farmer (flhrn), Bob Brookmeyer (v-tb), Jim ...
Backgrounder: Georgie Auld Plays the Winners, 1963

Tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld led many terrific groups. Ten years ago, I posted about his 1940s and early '50s ensembles (go here). Today, a 12-inch gem: Georgie Auld Quintet Plays the Winners. Recorded for Philips in Hollywood in April 1963, Auld's quintet featured Frank Rosolino (tb), Georgie Auld (ts), Lou Levy (p). Leroy Vinnegar (b) and ...
Perfection: Teddy Charles - Borodin Bossa Nova (1963)

In April and May of 1963, Teddy Charles, accompanied by an all-start group of musicians, recorded Russia Goes Jazz: Swinging Themes From the Great Russian Composers (United Artists). The point of the LP, conceived by Teddy, was to record Russian classical works that influenced American popular songs. One of them was Borodin Bossa Nova, recorded in ...
Backgrounder: Remo Rau - Evening at Cafe Africana

Zurich's Club Africana was a stronghold of modern Swiss jazz in the early 1960s, featuring musicians such as Abdullah Ibrahim, Chris McGregor and Dudu Pukwana. The club's program director, Remo Rau, a vibraphonist, also led a house-band quartet that consisted of Remo Rau (vib), Renato Anselmi (p), Roger Dannhauer (b) and Alex Bally (d). In May ...
Bob Florence Limited Edition: Tribute

Bob Florence was a monster arranger, composer and pianist whose big bands were on par with the best of them in the late 1950s and beyond. Unfortunately, he didn't have a high enough profile for household recognition. Nevertheless, Florence's charts had the kick of a mule and plenty of swing. On June 15, 2008, a month ...
Woody Herman: Thundering Herd, 1977

Last week, I heard from Peter Coppock, who came across a newly posted concert by Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd in 1977. As Peter rightly noted, The late '70s Herds get overlooked. Woody is in a groovy mood here and using a cane because he had just survived a near fatal car accident. I met ...
Perfection: Lennie Tristano - Wow (1949)

Between bebop in the midand late 1940s and hard bop in the mid-1950s and beyond, an exciting but short-lived jazz style surfaced known as cool. The movement was a product of formally educated jazz musicians who, at the tail end of the '40s integrated classical and jazz. The artists were had started out in bop but ...
Joe Pass: Virtuoso (1973)

One of the best-selling jazz guitar albums up to 1973 was Joe Pass's Virtuoso. The jet black LP with Pass on the cover in shadow came out ahead of the December holidays and gave Norman Granz's Pablo label massive visibility. It also motivated a generation of listeners to take up the jazz guitar. Now Craft Recordings ...
Horace Silver: North Sea Jazz Festival, 1994

My apologies. TypePad, the platform on which JazzWax sits, experienced server problems and was down yesterday and this morning, keeping me from posting. Hey, it happens. [Photo above of Horace Silver in a publicity still] Now that it's back up, I'm serving up an hour of Horace Silver and his band at the North Sea Jazz ...