Results for "Russ Freeman"

Russ Freeman

Born: May 28, 1926

Jazz pianist Russ Freeman, was a key figure in the career of Chet Baker in the 1950s, when the trumpeter was making some of his most distinctive music. Though his contribution was eclipsed by Baker's relationship with the charismatic Gerry Mulligan, he was an ideal collaborator, imparting focus and narrative shape to Baker's sound. Born in Chicago, Freeman studied classical piano in Los Angeles. By the 1940s, when bebop was taking over New York's hip clubs, there were few west coast pianists who understood its harmonic complexities - and pianists, with their more sophisticated theoretical awareness, were often crucial to helping other instrumentalists get to grips with how the new idiom worked. With his training, and a spare but flexible technique, Freeman grasped bebop's mechanics fast

The Rippingtons

Active since: 1985

The Rippingtons are a Grammy-nominated contemporary jazz group, founded by guitarist and composer Russ Freeman in 1985. Their debut album, "Moonlighting", was hailed by Jazziz magazine as the "the number one most influential contemporary jazz album of all time."

The group has passed the thirty year mark, and continues to innovate. Their influences are wide-ranging, from instrumental pop, to rock, to world music, to EDM, to R&B. Some artists having recorded with the Rippingtons include Arturo Sandoval, Jeffrey Osbourne, Kirk Whalum, Kenny G, Dave Grusin, the late Joe Sample, Dave Koz, David Benoit, Patti Austin, Peter White, Rick Braun, Zak Wylde, and many more.

Josh Nelson / Kevin Van Den Elzen: West Coast Echoes

by Jack Bowers
December 3, 2025

Pianist Josh Nelson and drummer Kevin Van Den Elzen (with bassist Eric Sittner) revisit the glory days of West Coast jazz in the 1950s and '60s on West Coast Echoes, a generally smooth and pleasing glance backward at the “cool" school of jazz championed by such legendary artists as Shorty Rogers, Art Pepper, Stan Getz, Shelly ...

Jazz from the Pacific Northwest

By Shelly Manne

Label: Reel to Real
Released: 2024
Track listing:
Side A:
Stop, Look and Listen; The Vamp's Blues.
Side B:
Quartet (Suite in Four Movements).
Side C:
Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise; Summertime; Dearly Beloved.
Side D:
Funny; Secret Love; Surrey with the Fringe on Top.

Fred Hersch at the Barcelona Jazz Festival

by Artur Moral
November 17, 2024

Fred HerschConservatori del Liceu56 Festival de Jazz de BarcelonaBarcelona, Spain October 29, 2024 The 56th Barcelona Jazz Festival boasted one of the most complete and balanced line-ups in recent years. Fred Hersch's solo piano concert was, without a doubt, one of its greatest nights, a performance characterized by tributes, admiration ...

Cedar Walton One Flight Down

by Thomas Conrad
September 1, 2024

They are thinning out: the ranks of pianists who can trace their lineage directly back to primary sources like J.J. Johnson, the early Jazz Messengers of Art Blakey, and the Jazztet of Art Farmer and Benny Golson. In the last few years, we have lost Tommy Flanagan, Mal Waldron, Roland Hanna, Dodo Marmarosa, Russ Freeman, Frank ...

Shelly Manne & His Men: Jazz From The Pacific Northwest

by Pierre Giroux
April 11, 2024

Shelly Manne & His Men are presented in two iterations in never-before-released live recordings from the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival and from a 1966 date at The Penthouse in Seattle entitled Jazz From The Pacific Northwest. In this deluxe limited edition 180-gram 2LP set, co-produced for release by the estimable Zev Feldman and Cory Weeds, the ...

Record Store Day 2024 Jazz Releases

by Kyle Simpler
April 11, 2024

Every year, Record Store Day (RSD) promises limited edition vinyl releases for all tastes in music. From the latest popular artists to the most obscure archival releases, RSD drops try to cover a lot of musical territory. Practically all genres of music are represented and, of course, jazz is no exception. Fortunately, the April 2024 drop ...

Late-Period Art Pepper Box Sets

by C. Michael Bailey
March 15, 2024

In his essay, “Endgame," which opens the liner notes to Art Pepper: The Complete Galaxy Recordings (Galaxy, 1989), music critic Gary Giddens said of Art Pepper's professional comeback: “Pepper's sudden reappearance in 1975 was something of a second coming in musical circles. For the next seven years, his frequent recordings and tours, and ...

The Pacific Jazz Group: Pacific Jazz Group

by Jack Bowers
June 25, 2023

West Coast jazz from the mid-twentieth century makes a comeback on this earnest album by the Pacific Jazz Group, whose music owes its genesis to the Pacific Jazz label, which recorded many of the Coast's best and brightest stars during that historic and bounteous era. The idea was set in motion by pianist Dred Scott, one ...