Results for "Louis Jordan"

Louis Jordan

At the height of his career, in the 1940s, bandleader and alto saxophonist Louis Jordan scored 18 Number One hit records. Jordan exhibited a brilliant sense of showmanship that brought audiences first-rate entertainment without any loss of musical integrity. He performed songs that appealed to millions of black and white listeners. Able to communicate between these two audiences, Jordan emerged as one of the first successful crossover artists of American popular music. Born on July 8, 1908, in Brinkley, Arkansas, Jordan was the son of Jim Jordan, a bandleader and music teacher. Under the tutelage of his father, Jordan began studying clarinet at age seven, then saxophone

Back At The Chicken Shack

By THOMAS FLETCHER

Back At The Chicken Shack celebrates 60 years since its recording date at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs. The same session produced Midnight Special (Blue Note, 1961), though Back At The Chicken Shack would have to wait three years for its release. The label's co-founder, Alfred Lion, later revealed that the healthy sales of ...

Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman Records: Ten High Altitude Albums

By CHRIS MAY

Bob Thiele is best remembered for his years as the artistic director and house producer of Impulse!. He took over from founder producer Creed Taylor in 1961 and stayed with the label until 1969, when he left to run his own Flying Dutchman Records. Thiele's tenure at Impulse! was its most glorious period, when Thiele curated ...

Jonathan Goldman: Bump and Let It Slide

By CHRIS M. SLAWECKI

On Saturday February 29, Spanglish Fly will celebrate completing their tenth full year as America's leading producer and exporter of the wicked hot musical sauce known as Latin boogaloo with a special anniversary performance hosted by the legendary Brooklyn hotspot Barbes. The quintessential musical melting pot Spanglish Fly features musicians with roots in Puerto ...

This Will Make You Laugh - Famous Jazz Fathers and Their Children

By MARY FOSTER CONKLIN

The Fathers Day broadcast included new releases from Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Roxy Coss, Anat Cohen and Camila Meza, with birthday shout outs to the songwriters Irene Higgenbotham, Ivan Lins and Cy Coleman, pianists Geri Allen, Monika Herzig and Daryl Sherman, vocalists Nancy King, Alicia Olatuja, and harpist Carol Robbins, among others. Plus we hear from some ...

Monty Alexander: Still Rolling

By GENO THACKARA

If there's one defining quality to Monty Alexander's music, it's joy. An unmistakable undercurrent of happiness has been constant across several decades, dozens of recordings and countless performances all over the world. He could be honoring classic jazz balladeers, exploring the danceable “riddims" of his native Jamaica or anything in between, and you can always hear ...

Charles McPherson: The Man and His Muse

By JOAN GANNIJ

Acclaimed alto saxophone wizard Charles McPherson has a new muse: his 25-year-old daughter Camille, a premier dancer with the San Diego Ballet, where he also serves as composer-in-residence these days. McPherson was a young father in his twenties, with three children from a first marriage. Thirty years up the road, after marrying the lovely Lynn, a ...

Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival 2017

By MARK HOLSTON

Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival Buenos Aires, Argentina November 15-20, 2017 Mid November in Buenos Aires is a special time of the year. True to the meaning of the city's name, the air is crisp and fresh and blossoming jacaranda trees bathe the greater metropolitan area in a dazzling shower of purple ...

Hugh Masekela: Strength in Music and Character

By R.J. DELUKE

This article was first published at All About Jazz in May 2009. “I think it is incumbent, not just on every artist, but every person who has as their source communities that are disadvantaged, to give back," says Hugh Masekela, antiapartheid champion, friend of the downtrodden and musician extraordinaire who is still going strong ...