Results for "Pete LaRoca"
George Coleman: An Alternative Top Ten Albums
by Chris May
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, saxophonist George Coleman cut his teeth in local rhythm and blues bands and made his first recording, aged twenty, with B.B. King in 1955. That year he switched from alto to tenor, because King already had an alto player; but Coleman has continued to play the alto from time to time and, ...
Hard Bop: Ten Essential Live Albums
by Chris May
"Fire! That's what people want. Music is supposed to wash away the dust of everyday life. You're supposed to make them turn around, pat their feet. That's what jazz is about. Play with fire. Play from the heart, not from your brain. You got to know how to make the two meet." So ...
Why Jazz?
by Dom Minasi
This is my first All About Jazz article since 2015. So much has happened to the world around us. I've been thinking a lot lately about my career choice and why I chose jazz and I wanted to hear why some of the best chose to devote themselves to a career in jazz. Here are their ...
Marcin Wasilewski Trio: En Attendant
by Chris May
The Marcin Wasilewski Trio's seventh ECM album traverses material by such disparate composers as J.S. Bach, Carla Bley and The Doors and brings it all together in a seamless package which also includes three spontaneously created group improvisations. It is a beauty. Pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz have ...
The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions Now Available on Mosaic Records
When you get your copy of Mosaic’s new five-CD collector’s set, The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions, you’ll be holding a master key to unlocking 1960s jazz. That’s a big statement. But when you consider how much was happening from 1963 to 1966, the years covered by this collection, and contemplate how many different ...
Charles Lloyd: Tone Poem
by Eric Gudas
Charles Lloyd and The Marvels' April 2017 performance at UCLA's Royce Hall, with guest vocalist Lucinda Williams, was nothing but highlights--from Lloyd's dance moves across the stage as one or other of his bandmates soloed, to Williams' impassioned performances on such songs as Bob Dylan's “Masters of War" and Jimi Hendrix's “Angel." They also played a ...
Muse Records: Ten Smoking Hot Albums
by Chris May
Alone among the other great jazz labels of the 1960s and 1970s—Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, Impulse!, Strata-East and Atlantic—Joe Fields' Muse is rarely anthologised, written about or otherwise celebrated. Yet like its peers, Muse was prolific, releasing over 200 premium-grade albums during the 1970s, its most active decade, alone. This relative obscurity is ...
Richie Beirach: Indelible Memories and Thought-Provoking Reflections on a Life in Jazz, Part 1
by Victor L. Schermer
Part 1 | Part 2 Richie Beirach hovers somewhat mysteriously in the pantheon of the great modern jazz pianists. Some of the others in that category from his generation (coming up in the 1960s/'70s), like Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, and Kenny Barron have greater celebrity, but Beirach easily qualifies alongside them as ...
Paul Bley: When Will The Blues Leave
by John Ephland
Ornette Coleman recorded “When Will The Blues Leave" in early 1958, released the next year on Something Else!!!! (Contemporary). Paul Bley played Coleman's blues four years later on The Floater Syndrome (Savoy Records), a trio recording with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Pete La Roca. Both versions--Coleman's in a quintet with trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Don ...
Dave Liebman: Archives and Improvisations - The Past and the Now of a Life in Jazz
by Victor L. Schermer
Prolific saxophonist, composer, band leader, and educator Dave Liebman is a living legend, an NEA Jazz Master who has been making waves since the 1970s and never stops growing, learning, and discovering. His autobiography, What It Is (Scarecrow Press, 2012, with Lewis Porter) is an honest probing of his more than half century experience as a ...
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