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Time Check: A Paucity of Riches?
by Jack Bowers
On May 18, Betty and I flew to Los Angeles to attend Time Check: A Buddy Rich Alumni Reunion, a four-day panorama sponsored by the L.A. Jazz Institute and held at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, about a stone's throw or two from the LAX airport. We arrived early afternoon so we could also be present for ...
Count Basie Orchestra at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts
by Patricia Myers
Count Basie Orchestra Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Scottsdale, Arizona December 19, 2015 The Count Basie Orchestra solidified its 80-year reputation for strong swingability, inventive solo segments and supreme section cohesion during two back-to-back concerts on a tour in support of the band's first-ever Christmas-theme album. But those seasonal charts ...
Buddy Rich Rides Again
by Jack Bowers
Those who believe that Buddy Rich is the greatest big-band drummer who ever lived (yes, I'm one of them) can look forward to a marvelous treat this spring when Ken Poston and the Los Angeles Jazz Institute present Time Check: A Buddy Rich Alumni Reunion May 19-22 at the Sheraton Gateway / LAX Hotel. The four-day ...
Clark Gibson + Orchestra: Bird with Strings: The Lost Arrangements
by Jack Bowers
The story behind Bird with Strings: The Lost Arrangements is a long one and far too elaborate to dwell on here. Suffice to say that a handful of these arrangements for alto saxophone and small string orchestra, written originally for the incomparable Charlie Parker, have been heard before (albeit by rather small audiences) while most of ...
Patrick Williams: Home Suite Home
by Edward Blanco
Composer, arranger and band leader Patrick Williams leads some of the finest jazz musicians in L.A. on another exciting portrait of big band swing on Home Suite Home, an album that's far more personal than all of his previous works. Documenting a personal homage to his family and his first musical love, Williams pays tribute to ...
Neal Hefti: The Band Years
Hearing Neal Hefti: Forever in Time, a newly released double-CD from the U.K.'s Jasmine label, reminded me how superb Hefti was in the 1950s as a composer, arranger and conductor of his own studio orchestras. Most of these dates were of the jazz-pop, dance-band ilk, with an emphasis on clever melodic hooks, patient swing and sectional ...
John Clark: The Odd Couple Quintet +1
by Budd Kopman
Yes, it is true that French horn and bassoon are not commonplace instruments in jazz. Attempts have been made to use them, of course, most recently by Julian Schneemann on Roundabout, but in that work, they were used more as colors in the mix.What is unusual is for these instruments to be in the ...
Interview: Mrs. Shelly Manne
Flip Manne, Shelly Manne's wife, was born in 1921 in Vermont, rode horses and took dance lessons from an early age. In 1939, she moved to New York and eventually took a job dancing at the Roxy Theatre. She soon auditioned at Radio City Music Hall and won a position in the fabled Rockettes, who back ...
Jive-Colored Glasses
by John Goodman
The following is an excerpt from “Chapter 4: Chicago" of Jive-Colored Glasses by John F Goodman (jg publications, 2015). Growing up in and around Chicago in the 1950s brought me to all kinds and flavors of jazz. Between the house parties, clubs and concerts, there was a menu to please everyone. The Rush Street ...
Glenn Zottola: A Jazz Life - Hollywood, the World and the Stars
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 World-renown trumpeter, saxophonist, musical director, producer and entrepreneur. These are but a mere handful of words that describe the vast talent in Glenn Zottola's bag of musical marvels. There are others: child prodigy, creative genius, “musical natural" and aural savant also percolate rapidly to mind. Now ...
