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Alex Hendriksen: / Fabian Gisler: The Song Is You
by Mark Corroto
Try as you might, you can't help but sing along, I got to get my old tuxedo pressed/I got to sew a button on my vest/'Cause tonight I gotta look my best, yeah/Lulu's back in town. Saxophonist Alex Hendriksen and bassist Fabian Gisler's rendition of “Lulu's Back in Town" may take you back to Leon Redbone's ...
August Birthdays, including the George Shearing Centennial
by Marc Cohn
August jazz birthdays this week on Gifts and Messages. We feature pianist George Shearing for his 100th birthday, along with Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker (2020 is the Bird centennial. Are you ready?), Count Basie and Lester Young. Among the living we give thanks for Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Cecile McLorin-Salvant and Branford Marsalis. And there are ...
Jazz Musician of the Day: Lester Young
All About Jazz is celebrating Lester Young's birthday today! Lester “Prez" Young was one of the giants of the tenor saxophone. He was the greatest improviser between Coleman Hawkins and Louis Armstrong of the 1920s and Charlie Parker in the 1940s. From the beginning, he set out to be different: He had his own lingo; In ...
Steve Lehman Trio + Craig Taborn: The People I Love
by Mark Corroto
It is easy think about the shock of the new that was bebop when listening to The People I Love by alto saxophonist Steve Lehman's trio. Not that Lehman plays bebop as it was in the 1940s. It took mammals millions of years of evolution to climb down out of trees and fashion tools, but it ...
Richie Beirach: Indelible Memories and Thought-Provoking Reflections on a Life in Jazz, Part 1
by Victor L. Schermer
Part 1 | Part 2 Richie Beirach hovers somewhat mysteriously in the pantheon of the great modern jazz pianists. Some of the others in that category from his generation (coming up in the 1960s/'70s), like Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, and Kenny Barron have greater celebrity, but Beirach easily qualifies alongside them as ...
Norman Granz and Verve Records (1944 - 1962)
by Russell Perry
In July 2, 1944, Norman Granz, a jazz fan and small-time LA promoter staged a concert in the Philharmonic Auditorium with $300 of borrowed money. His “Jazz at the Philharmonic" concerts were hugely successful and became tours that ran until 1957. These tours and the record labels they spawned—Clef, Norgran and especially Verve—became home to many ...
Caetano Veloso, James Carter, Hamza Akram, Eyal Vilner and David Grollman
by Martin Longley
Caetano Veloso Brooklyn Academy Of Music April 12, 2019 Always essential for the local Brazilian community, but also far beyond, into the general music enthusiast zone, singer and songwriter Caetano Veloso made one of his occasional visits to NYC, presenting the Ofertório show. Essentially, this involved his three musical sons, ...
Rick Lawn: The Evolution of Big Band Sounds in America
by Victor L. Schermer
From the latter part of the Jazz Age through the Swing Era, big bands dominated the jazz scene and a large part of the entertainment industry. After World War II, their fortunes declined, but their music soared to new heights, spurred on by innovative leaders, instrumentalists, and very importantly, the composers/arrangers who worked behind the scenes ...
New Music in an Anxious Time: Teis Semey, Peggy Lee and Philipp Gropper
by Mark Werlin
Historians of jazz identify the African-American civil rights struggle circa 1945-1965 as the locus for the most active involvement of jazz music in expressions of social and political protest. One of the earliest recorded instances of explicit political protest in jazz, “Strange Fruit," was refused by Decca, singer Billie Holiday's record label, for fear of reprisals ...
Nichols, Newk with Kenny/Elmo, Prez & More
by Marc Cohn
We're rotating through our 2019 centenarians--this week Herbie Nichols with tracks from his first Blue Note LP. Our artist log tells me it's time for another deep dive into the vault, including another piano faceoff (because you loved the last one): this time Fats Waller versus Teddy Wilson & Art Tatum. There's more Newk too, recordings ...
