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About John Graas

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Musician

John Graas was an American jazz French horn player, composer and arranger from the 1940s through 1962. He had a short but busy career on the West Coast, and became known as a pioneer of the French horn in jazz.

Article: Radio & Podcasts

Glenn Makos, Serge Chaloff, and Tord Gustavsen

by Jerome Wilson
March 18, 2026

This show features recent music by Glenn Makos and Gregory Groover Jr. along with older releases by Serge Chaloff and Tord Gustavsen. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Alex Coke & Carl Michel Sextet “After ...

Article: Jazz West Coast

The Jazz West Coast Style of Music: An Introduction

by Steven Cerra
May 23, 2025

I know it's hard to imagine with today's governmental overreach telling people what cars to drive, what bathrooms to use, and the highest personal, property and commercial taxes of any state in the nation, but California in the 1950s was a place of opportunities and possibilities. It's why my dad relocated the family from ...

Article: Radio & Podcasts

Charles Mingus, Victor Feldman, and Chris McGregor

by Jerome Wilson
February 19, 2025

I was not able to do a live show last week so here is an old show from December 2020 that featured Charles Mingus, Brian Lynch, Gary Burton, Victor Feldman, and Chris McGregor. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill ...

News: Video / DVD

John Graas: French Horn Jazz

April 24, 2019

According to Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, the French horn in jazz dates back to 1921. By the 1930s, the instrument was popping up on recordings by Bing Crosby and Woody Herman. In the 1940s, Artie Shaw, Claude Thornhill, Harry James and other bandleaders included the horn when they added strings. Neal Hefti used Vincent Jacobs on ...

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Article: Extended Analysis

Shorty Rogers: Four Classic Albums

by David Rickert
December 28, 2011

Shorty RogersFour Classic AlbumsAvid Group 2011 Trumpeter Shorty Rogers was one of the few jazz musicians to embrace the big band sound long after the commercial appeal for the genre was over, and despite the lack of commercial viability, he produced a series of terrific albums in ...

190

Article: Big Band Report

"Modern Sounds," or: Running a Marathon in Full Body Armor

by Jack Bowers
November 8, 2011

From October 19-25 Betty and I were at the Los Angeles Marriott Airport Hotel to attend Modern Sounds, the L.A. Jazz Institute's four-day salute to West Coast jazz, followed by a day-long tribute to Stan Kenton on the hundredth anniversary of the legendary bandleader's birth. We arrived a day early to be primed and ready for ...

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Article: Big Band Report

BuJazzO: That's German for Swinging Big Band Jazz

by Jack Bowers
September 4, 2011

On August 8, my friend Wes Pfarner and I drove to Santa Fe for a once-in-a lifetime event: a performance by the German Federal Youth Jazz Orchestra, better known to big band enthusiasts by its more condensed and colorful name, BuJazzO. The twenty-piece ensemble, directed by Jiggs Whigham, an American trombonist and educator from Cleveland, Ohio, ...

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News: Recording

John Graas: Complete '50s Sessions

August 22, 2011

What's surprising about the French horn isn't that it became a jazz instrument but that there were so many fine jazz players in the late 1940s and '50s. Among the best were Junior Collins, Julius Watkins, David Amram, John Cave, Willie Ruff, Tony Miranda, Jimmy Buffington and Gunther Schuller. But perhaps the finest of them all ...

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Article: Big Band Report

Big Band Jazz: It's Not Just for Guys Anymore

by Jack Bowers
August 4, 2011

Back in the early '90s, Stanley Kay, one-time back-up drummer for the incomparable Buddy Rich, later a manager of such artists as Maurice Hines, Michelle Lee and Paul Burke and the entertainment director for the New York Yankees, had a good idea: the time had come, he reasoned, to assemble an all-woman big band that would ...