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Results for "Mel Lewis"
Bruce Jones: Growing Up With Jazz
by La-Faithia White
The impact of living in a musical household, witnessing your dad and your uncles jamming in the basement can definitely create a positive and meaningful outlook for a young kid. Stories of growing up jazz come to mind for Bruce Jones, the eldest son of trumpeter, composer, and band leader Thad Jones. Bruce is also the ...
Darek Oleszkiewicz: Rolls-Royce Groovin'
by Jim Worsley
Inspiring greatness has long been the two-word association with the grand luxury of Rolls-Royce. Britain's entry into automobile finery has thus become benchmark terminology. To hear bassist Darek Oleszkiewicz interact, navigate, and improvise with today's finest jazz musicians is to understand why he has been deemed the Rolls-Royce of the modern day upright. Carrying the torch ...
Michael Weiss: Soul Journey
by Luke Seabright
Bebop is a complex craft, and like all crafts the only way to get any good at it is by learning from those who mastered it before you. Jamming through the night, getting on to that bandstand and firing away your best improvised lines, jousting with your partners (be they friends or strangers) like in the ...
Bob Sheppard: The Clark Kent of Jazz
by Jim Worsley
An unassuming bespectacled man in his mid-sixties walks on to the stage. In a band with stellar, famous, and maybe flashier musicians, one could be forgiven if they didn't even notice him right away. But as soon as Bob Sheppard presses a saxophone, clarinet, or flute onto his lips, he is super, man! An incredible musician ...
Rick Lawn: The Evolution of Big Band Sounds in America
by Victor L. Schermer
From the latter part of the Jazz Age through the Swing Era, big bands dominated the jazz scene and a large part of the entertainment industry. After World War II, their fortunes declined, but their music soared to new heights, spurred on by innovative leaders, instrumentalists, and very importantly, the composers/arrangers who worked behind the scenes ...
Terraza Big Band: One Day Wonder
by Angelo Leonardi
Dopo tre anni di esibizioni mensili al club Terraza 7 nel Queens (NY), quest'orchestra di 18 elementi debutta con un CD di nove composizioni originali arrangiate dal sassofonista Michael Thomas. Questi è il co-leader della band assieme al contrabbassista Edward Perez, che è anche autore di molti brani. Conosciutisi a Boston quand'erano studenti di musica, i ...
Harold Danko: His Own Sound, His Own Time
by Jakob Baekgaard
The famous sculptor, Henry Moore, hit the nail on the head when he said: “there's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it." This statement certainly rings true in the case of pianist and composer, Harold Danko. Even though he has retired from a long and distinguished career ...
Ted Rosenthal: Dear Erich, A Jazz Opera
by Ken Dryden
Ted Rosenthal is one of the most renowned pianists of his generation. He won first prize at the second Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and has been awarded several NEA grants as a composer. Well known as the pianist in Gerry Mulligan's final quartet, Rosenthal has recorded or performed with many other artists, including Bob ...
Jerry Vivino, Ken Burns Jazz, Quincy Jones and More
by Joe Dimino
The long-time member of Conan O'Brien's Basic Cable Band Mr. Jerry Vivino kicks off this week's episode with music from his latest album Coast to Coast recorded with his good friend and legendary jazz cat Bucky Pizzarelli. From there, we move into another great album by the Organ Jazz Trio, a Kansas City institution led by ...
Big in Japan: A History of Jazz in the Land of the Rising Sun, Part 1
by Karl Ackermann
Part 1 | Part 2The music market in Japan--second only to the U.S. in terms of revenue--generates more than two-billion dollars in sales annually. Enthusiasts and collectors of jazz recordings had long ago discovered that Japan's robust music scene, and the now virtual accessibility to products have made the country a go-to resource for ...
