Results for "Pearl Bailey"

Pearl Bailey

Never formally trained in music, Pearl Bailey credited her love of music to growing up in a "Holy Roller" evangelical church where her father was the minister. In her early career in amateur shows and nightclubs she developed her throaty style, embellished with asides and ad libs. Pearl Bailey sang with bands, later on stage and in films. The all-black version of Hello, Dolly! is one of her best-known roles; she played that role from 1967 to 1969 and in a later revival. Pearl Bailey was a frequent guest on television variety shows and had her own show on ABC in 1970-71. At age 67, Pearl Bailey graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor's degree in theology

Celebrating Sarah Vaughan And A New Betty Carter Recording

By MARY FOSTER CONKLIN

The final Sunday of Womens History Month includes new releases from Bob Dorough, Gabrielle Stravelli, Patricia Barber plus a first listen to Betty Carter's first posthumous recording of a live 1992 concert in the early days of Jazz at Lincoln Center, with birthday shout outs to legendary vocalists Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, Astrud Gilberto, and Pearl ...

Melissa Morgan Quartet at the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society

By BILL LEIKAM

Melissa Morgan Quartet Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society Half Moon Bay, Ca. May 11, 2014As is often customary, vocalist Melissa Morgan did not immediately appear on stage while her trio of Los Angeles based musicians, pianist Sam Hirsh,bassist Katie Thiroux, and Matt Witek on drums, opened the show with an old ...

Geri Allen: Apollo's Muse

By BOB KENSELAAR

Pianist/composer Geri Allen is gearing up for her role as artistic director for an especially ambitious production of the 2013 Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival at the Apollo Theater. Presented as “Geri Allen & Friends Celebrate the Great Jazz Women of the Apollo," the program will offer two shows on May 11, 2013 that explore the legacy ...

Dick Hyman: The Beat Goes On

By CHRIS M. SLAWECKI

Composer, arranger, bandleader, pianist, soloist and accompanist Dick Hyman has already lived several jazz lifetimes, and as he contemplates his 86th birthday in March 2013, his career shows no sign of slowing down.A New York City native, Hyman served as pianist with a Dixieland band and with Lester Young at the December 1949 opening ...

Don Redman: Setting the Template

By JIM GERARD

As someone who came to jazz as a young man in the 1970s, I can attest that subsequent generations of both its chroniclers and, even sadder, its practitioners, have succumbed to the peculiarly and regrettable American disease of a-historicism. They've shoved jazz history through a sieve, reducing it from an epic tale of heroic ...

Soul And The Abstract Proof: Searching For Soul And Its Meaning In Jazz

By DAN BILAWSKY

What, exactly, is “soul?" This word is used so often in discussions and writings about music, but I wonder if anybody can actually define its very essence and place in the musical universe? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary lists no less than eight different definitions for soul and, while some of them have a decent grasp on what ...

Take Five With Amy Barlow Liberatore

By AAJ STAFF

Meet Amy Barlow Liberatore: Born in Binghamton, raised among jazz musicians who mentored her from her first club appearance at 17, Amy Barlow Liberatore began her vocal/piano career (New York, Los Angeles, Bermuda, Puerto Rico) playing jazz standards. A lucky break put her on the road with Rickie Lee Jones' first national tour. She later began ...

Louie Bellson: Tasteful Drummer, Sweeter Guy

By JACK BOWERS

To say that drummer extraordinaire Louie Bellson, who left us on February 14, 2009 at age eighty-four, had a remarkable career would be to explicitly understate the record. Bellson's success at age 17 in a nationwide contest sponsored by one of his idols, Gene Krupa, and Slingerland Drums set the talented wunderkind on a path that ...