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Get Happy: The Music of Harold Arlen’s Great American Songbook
by David Brown
Harold Arlen was a singer, pianist, arranger, and, most importantly, a composer of iconic popular songs in the 20th century. A highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook, Arlen wrote over 500 songs, with his most famous being “Over the Rainbow." Born 120 years ago in 1905, Arlen's music--primarily composed for Broadway shows and films--has ...
Gravity and Resurgence: The Many Dimensions of Dexter Gordon
by Arthur R George
Long Tall Dexter; swinger, bebopper, saxophone balladeer; acting the dissipated genius expatriate who was not unlike himself in the movie Round Midnight; his dressed-up persona “Society Red;" the laconic elder statesman of his later years. Dexter Gordon is all those things, but more than a kaleidoscope of caricatures. Those who trace their lineages through ...
Noah Preminger: Ballads
by Jack Kenny
Noah Preminger is a philosophical, thought-through artist who can gauge the impact of his playing and his thinking on his intended audience. It is interesting to compare Preminger's Ballads to John Coltrane's Ballads (Impulse!, 1963), an illuminating set of familiar tunes that was reputedly instigated after his quartet's first tour of Europe, with Eric Dolphy in ...
Max Roach: Deeds, Not Words
by Richard J Salvucci
Sometimes, someone listens to a recording mostly for one track. This is such a recording. Quite naturally, it involves drummer Max Roach. If he had to stake his reputation on one extended solo, some might say Roach on “Conversation" is the one. Not all drummers, suffice it to say, are melodic. But a first-time listener can ...
Lou Donaldson, Roy Haynes RIP + New Releases
by David Brown
This week, we are celebrating two legends of the music who both recently passed. The soulful, bluesy saxophonist Mr. Lou Donaldson left us on November 9th at the age of 98, and one of the most recorded drummers in jazz history, Mr. Roy Haynes who passed on November 12 at the age of 99. Both of ...
Remembering Roy Haynes: Modern Jazz Giant
by Ian Patterson
When Roy Haynes sat down at the tiny kit on the stage of the Everyman Theatre, during the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival in 2005, he shook his head ruefully and said, “Man, I feel like a midget!" Rising above the audience laughter, somewhere in the depths of the theatre, a voice replied, “Roy, you're a giant!" ...
Roy Haynes: Still Lighting It Up
by Chris M. Slawecki
This article was first published on All About Jazz in June 1997. Drummer Roy Haynes isn't just cool--he's cooooolllll. In conversation, Roy Haynes is languid and relaxed yet full of fire, yet playful, mysterious and serious. Similarly, his music--and he's played alongside the best--is simultaneously passionate and precise, free-swinging and loose, but ...
Roy Haynes Revisited
by AAJ Staff
This article was first published on All About Jazz in January 1999. Roy Haynes is one of the few living legends remaining in jazz. He has been awarded the Danish Jazzpar prize, Grammys, and numerous other awards and polls. Haynes is the most versatile drummer in jazz history, do in most part to his ...
Keith Jarrett: The Old Country: More from the Deer Head Inn
by Jack Kenny
Keith Jarrett remarked as he listened to a tape of the session: “I think that you can hear on this tape, what jazz is all about." What did he mean? Was he reacting to criticisms of his long-form improvisations? Was it because he was in a small venue that prioritized jazz? Of course, you ...
Quincy Jones: An Evening With A Legend
by Solomon J. LeFlore
This article was first published on All About Jazz on October 31, 2014. I love jazz! I love everything about it... the improvisation, syncopation, the forceful rhythm, and the fact that it is truly America's original art form. Its unique and innovative use of brass and woodwind instruments and the piano is jazz. And, ...
