Results for "Music Industry"

Recent CDs: John Ellis

April 22, 2008

John Ellis, Dance Like There's No Tomorrow (Hyena). Ellis's quartet makes party music infected with parade beats, gospel, tango ("Three Legged Tango In Jackson Square"), comedy ("Zydeco Clowns On The Lam") sentiment worn up, rather than on, the sleeve ("I Miss You Molly") and assorted other ingredients. Think of gumbo. Ellis plays soprano saxophone and bass ...

Marsalis Mass Honors Harlem Church

April 21, 2008

A young institution pays tribute to a venerable one with Wynton Marsalis's “Abyssinian 200: A Celebration." It was written for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, founded in 1988, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, a bulwark of African-American New York City. The orchestra introduced the work last week at its ...

Soulful Days: The Cal Massey Songbook

April 21, 2008

Trumpeter Cal Massey was an African-American jazz composer, little-known now and in his lifetime, but whose work was recorded by musicians such as John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Charlie Parker, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, McCoy Tyner, and Archie Shepp. In the 1960s Massey made his Brooklyn home into a kind of community center for jazz artists and ...

The Jazz Session #36: Chico Hamilton

April 21, 2008

Jason Crane interviews drummer, composer, arranger, educator and NEA Jazz Master Chico Hamilton. The 86-year-old Hamilton released four albums (!) in 2006, and then collected tracks from the four albums on 2007's Hamiltonia (Joyous Shout, 2007). This year will see the release of two more recordings -- a remix album featuring new takes on classic [...] ...

Memories of Carmen McRae

April 19, 2008

Carol Sloane's individualism as a singer grows, in part, out of her adoration of Carmen McRae. In the confusion of the past week, I overlooked Sloane's tribute to McRae on what would have been Carmen's eighty-eighth birthday. Here is some of what she wrote: When she laughed, the room vibrated; when she spewed venom, ...

Whatever Happened to Cultural Diplomacy?

April 19, 2008

In his eighty-eighth year, Dave Brubeck is going to have to add another shelf to his trophy room--or another trophy room. His most recent honor came yesterday from the US State Department. Here's a paragraph from the Reuters report in The New York Times. “As a little girl I grew up on the sounds ...

Frishberg: A Net Gain

April 19, 2008

Have I mentioned that Dave Frishberg has a web site? He has. I am putting a link to it high on the Other Places list in the center column. The site has a discography, lots of photographs and a catalog of the songs he's written, from “Wallflower Lonely, Cornflower Blue" (1963) to “Who Do You Think ...

Cohn with Stewart: Lovely, Lovely

April 19, 2008

After he saw the Al and Zoot post (two exhibits down the page), the fine singer Bob Stewart suggested that we watch another video of Al Cohn performing with him. It captures a moment of spontaneity that creates a surprise and a big smile from Cohn. The rhythm section is Hank Jones, George Mraz and Ronnie Bedford. ...

Compatible Quotes: Billie Holiday

April 19, 2008

Weekend Extra: Zoot 'n Al

April 19, 2008

Paul Desmond was fond of saying that an evening listening to Zoot Sims and Al Cohn at the old Half Note in downtown Manhattan was “like going to get your back scratched." There is a piece of video that helps explain what he meant. It's not from the Half Note, but from a 1968 British television ...