Results for "Louis Armstrong"

Louis Armstrong

By virtue of the role he played in its evolution during the first quarter of the 20th century, Louis Armstrong is regarded as the most influential jazz musician in history. This distinction is coupled with his stewardship of jazz around the world over the next five decades as the earliest and greatest ambassador of America's first true musical art form. With the liberating effects of the Jazz Age reverberating on world culture since the 1930s, Satchmo's contributions to society are now measured alongside those of the greatest artists, philosophers and statesmen of the modern era. In the year 2000, we celebrate the centennial of his birth on August 4, 1901—a date that Louis took with him throughout his life

Death Is Not The End and the Law of Periodical Repetition

By SKIP HELLER

"Will this wonderful civilization of today perish? Yes, everything perishes. Will it rise and exist again? It will--for nothing can happen that will not happen again. And again, and still again, forever. It took more than eight centuries to prepare this civilization-- then it suddenly began to grow, and in less than a century it is ...

Billie

By IAN PATTERSON

Billie New Black Films 96 minutes 2020 A victim of her own self-destructive excesses is a common trope when assessing Billie Holiday. Yet James Erskine's handsome documentary Billie makes a convincing case for Holiday—arguably the greatest of all jazz singers—as more a victim of poverty, racism, manipulation and brutal misogyny. ...

Eivind Austad: That Feeling

By FRIEDRICH KUNZMANN

Presenting an equal amount of originals and covers/standards, Norwegian pianist Eivind Austad's New Orleans Trio channels The Big Easy's musical spirit through gospel-tinged ruminations, extended blues forms and a healthy portion of New Orleans shuffle on the collaboration's debut effort. Following only a year after Austad's sophomore outing Northbound (Losen Records, 2019) saw the light of ...

Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker

By MARK CORROTO

Universal Tonality: The Life And Music Of William Parker Cisco Bradley 384 Pages ISBN: # 978147801014 Duke University Press 2021 Who is William Parker? He is a jazz bassist, yes. But he is also a band leader, composer, writer & poet, community organizer, peace activist, and cultural anthropologist. Cisco ...

This Is Bop: Jon Hendricks And The Art Of Vocal Jazz

By IAN PATTERSON

This Is Bop: Jon Hendricks And The Art Of Vocal Jazz Peter Jones 263 Pages ISBN: 978 1 78179 874 4 Equinox Publishing 2020 Few are the jazz singers accorded the fanfare usually reserved for the music's great instrumentalists. Jon Hendricks was one, taking scat and vocalese to unprecedented ...

Alex Clarke: She Does It Her Way

By CHRIS MAY

Coming up fast behind the school of British saxophonists who emerged around 2015 is a younger group of players who are just beginning to get noticed. Among them is Alex Clarke, who was a finalist in Britain's public service broadcaster, the BBC's biannual Young Jazz Musician competition in 2020. In the televised final in November, Clarke ...

Nancy Kelly: A Dynamic And Determined Voice

By SCOTT GUDELL

Nancy Kelly has been singin,' swingin' and scattin' for a long time. Her first musical path took her into the world of classical music when she started playing by ear at age three and her mother guided her to piano lessons by age four. The Beatles arrived a decade later and she abruptly shifted her allegiance ...

Elina Duni & Rob Luft: Songs Of Love And Exile

By CHRIS MAY

The British guitarist Rob Luft has already released one of the great albums of 2020 with Life Is The Dancer (Edition), which came out back in the spring. Now Luft notches up another 2020 highlight with the collaborative Lost Ships (ECM), jointly conceived and co-led with the Albanian-Swiss singer Elina Duni. By turns passionate and grave, ...