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The Story Of Jazz Saxophone
by AAJ Staff
For some, the saxophone is the sound of jazz. The unique fusion of brass and woodwind that is the sax found an electrifying vibrato in the hands of jazzmen that truly changed the world. The pale “pure" tone of the instrument, as first used in classical compositions, vanished in a musical blast of slurs ( Coleman ...
Chris Byars: Studying Unsung Heroes
by Ludwig vanTrikt
[Introduction by Teddy Charles] It's not easy to be Chris Byars. With an incredible array of talents brought to bear on his composition, arrangements, and cooking jazz performances, it's no wonder he's worked his way to the forefront of the myriad of jazz players overwhelming the scene. For me, our felicitous association led to multiple gigs ...
Summertime Jazz: Still Alive and Swingin' in Los Angeles
by Chuck Koton
When the news hit that the Jazz Bakery's last shows (at least at its Culver City location) would take place at the end of May, I feared that a bleak summer lay ahead for Angeleno jazz lovers. Even the reassurances and optimism of the Bakery's long-time director, Ruth Price, about reopening at a new site, did ...
Ron Horton/Tim Horner Little Big Band Plays the Music of Andrew Hill in Teaneck, N. J.
by Ralph A. Miriello
The Ron Horton/Tim Horner Little Big BandPlay the Music of Andrew HillThe Puffin Cultural ForumTeaneck, New JerseyAugust 29, 2009 It was a warm, overcast evening, within a few short miles of the George Washington Bridge, in suburban Teaneck, that offered the rare opportunity to make the trek to the Puffin Cultural ...
A Question of Time
by Alan Bryson
Imagine you were given the chance to go back in time and witness four musical events (one each from jazz, blues, classical, and rock history.) What would they be? That's an after-dinner topic friends might discuss by candlelight. If your inner-child has completely matured, perhaps you could approach it as a potential film: if you were ...
A Bit of This and That
The Firehouse 12 Fall 2009 Concert Series opens its 13-week run on Friday September 18 (alas, the first night of Rosh Hashanah) with Brandon Ross & Blazing Beauty for 2 shows (8:30 and 10 p.m.) You can purchase tickets for individual shows or the entire season by going to the venue's website (firehouse12.com). Speaking ...
Lester Leaps In... To His 100th Birthday
by David Amram
For Lester Young on his 100th birthdayI just went to a birthday celebration I will never forget. Maybe some in America have forgotten Lester Young, known as Prez (i.e., the president of the tenor saxophone), but people all over the world are still moved every time they hear the classic recordings of ...
Red Mitchell / Warne Marsh: Big Two
by Chris Mosey
In the 1950s, critics talked of East and West coast jazz. It was a way of playing the racial card, with East coast representing black, played from the gut; while West was white, played from the mind. As far as the dogmatists were concerned: East good, West bad. The word “cerebral" became a term of abuse. ...
Prez, Continued
If I had known of Ethan Iverson's conversation with Lee Konitz about Lester Young, I would have included a link to it in the previous exhibit. On his blog, Do The Math, Iverson, the pianist and polymath of The Bad Plus, posts what amounts to a Prez master class with Konitz. The alto saxophonist has been ...
The Prez Centennial
Lester Young was born 100 years ago today and died in his 49th year in March, 1959. Billie Holiday called him the president of the tenor saxophonists. His nickname became Prez, and he called nearly everyone else Prez. There is an endless list of musicians who played as they did mostly because of Young. It includes ...
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