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Playboy Swings: How Hugh Hefner And Playboy Changed The Face Of Music
Since the launch of Playboy magazine in 1953, two elements have been remarkably consistent: the first is the celebration of the world’s most beautiful & desirable women and the second is its involvement with music. The Playboy experience was never just about sex—it was about lifestyle. And music—particularly the finest jazz, a personal passion of Hefner’s—has ...
North Sea Jazz Festival Recap: A Moveable, Musical Feast
by Joan Gannij
North Sea Jazz Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands July 10-12, 2015 Three days immersed in sounds and sensations. Followed by two days at home in zombie mode, zen silence. Rather than do an exhausting commute from Amsterdam to Rotterdam each day (by train or auto (50 miles / 75 kilometers each way), I ...
Michael Dees: The Dream I Dreamed
by Nicholas F. Mondello
In describing his perspective of the state of certain vocal efforts existing today, a wag, respected for his pungent commentary, once said: “There's no substitute for crass." Yet, there are singers who dwell in more refined melodic places--environs of elegance and refinement--"musical champagne," if you will, who preach using melody, lyric and rhythmic subtleties. They are ...
Steve Smith: Drummer For All Seasons
by R.J. DeLuke
Drummer Steve Smith has traced the history of jazz drumming--pretty much most of American music drumming--in his storied career that has seen him drive big bands, small jazz combos, and fiery fusion groups, including tenures with Jean Luc Ponty and the rock band Journey. Though sometimes--as in the case of jazz-rock fusion--he was thrown ...
Howard Rumsey: The Lighthouse All Star
by Rex Butters
Reprinted from August 2007. With the release of Ken Koenig's exhaustive, enlightening, and entertaining DVD history of a SoCal treasure, Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse (RoseKing Productions, 2005), 89 year-old Howard Rumsey returns to the spotlight. Bassist, booker, and raconteur extraordinaire, Rumsey presented the best jazz shows in Los Angeles for ...
Howard Rumsey (1917-2015)
Howard Rumsey, a West Coast jazz bassist who began his recording career in Stan Kenton's orchestra in 1941 and managed the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, Calif., a club that became ground zero for the West Coast jazz sound starting in the early 1950s, died July 15 in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 97. When I interviewed ...
Jazz Guitar Icon Larry Coryell Shows His Multifaceted Talents On A New 3-CD Box Of Live Recordings
One of the most respected and celebrated jazz fusion guitarists of his generation, Larry Coryell presents a brand new triple disc box set of unreleased live performances. Titled Aurora Coryellis, this captivating collection highlights Coryell’s prodigious talents in a multitude of settings, from a full band performance in 1972 at the Jazz Wokshop in Boston to ...
Elio Villafranca Quartet All-Star Lineup! August 22 At Ginny's Supper Club
Elio Villafranca brings an all-star band with special guest Eric Alexander to Ginny's Supper Club in New York City on August 22. The Elio Villafranca Quartet All-Star Lineup includes Villafranca (piano) Alexander (tenor saxophone), Matt Wilson (drums) and Peter Slavov (bass) with Arturo Stable (percussion). Ginny's Supper Club at Red Rooster 310 Lenox Ave. ...
Jon Armstrong Jazz Orchestra, An Ensemble Linked To LA’s Burgeoning Jazz Scene, Are Set To Release A Cinematic Music Video
Twenty two piece ensemble, Jon Armstrong Jazz Orchestra will release their first music video. “The gifted Los Angeles tenor saxophonist,” (The Sydney Morning Herald) teamed up with Los Angeles based multimedia company Producciones Con Sal to produce and direct the music video for “Dream Has No Friend” off their debut album Farewell. The cinematic Jazz music ...
Michael Vlatkovich: Mortality
by Dave Wayne
Wow. Where to start? Apropos of its title, Mortality is huge. Vast. Complex. Quixotic. Musically, it's a mega-ambitious work that fuses operatic vocals, several styles of jazz, heavily-scored contemporary classical music and flat-out improvisational wailing in the most appealing ways possible. Interestingly, Michael Vlatkovich, a West Coast trombone virtuoso and composer / improvisor of considerable merit, ...
