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Jymie Merritt: Dedication Personified
by Victor L. Schermer
Jymie Merritt came up in Philadelphia during the evolution of bebop and hard bop, when the town was a hotbed of musical activity. Players like John Coltrane, Benny Golson, and Philly Joe Jones were getting started there, and musicians like Charlie Parker, J.J. Johnson, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis would come to the city to perform ...
Billie Holiday Fifty Years Later: A Tribute and Reassessment
by Victor L. Schermer
Fifty years ago, on July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday died an untimely death at age 44 in a New York hospital from complications of drug and alcohol dependency. Now, half a century after her passing, it is an appropriate hommage to reflect once again on her legacy as a singer, an African American woman, a victim-- ...
Peter Nero: Fabled Pianist and Philly POPS Maestro
by Victor L. Schermer
Living legend Peter Nero is that rare musician equally at home with classical music, jazz, the American Songbook, the Broadway musical, movie themes and popular songs. Moreover, he is a masterful pianist, seasoned conductor, composer and arranger in all these genres. Just as exceptionally, he has become a cultural emblem, known to statesmen, entertainers, students, housewives ...
Two by Tessa Souter: Listen Love and Nights Of Key Largo
by Victor L. Schermer
There are two types of fine jazz singers. On the one hand, there are those who take a tune, swing it and play with it in various ways, whether with scat, shifts in accent and harmony, or even with deconstructions that re-interpret the song entirely. The man who started all that was, of course, Louis Armstrong. ...
Deborah Brown: Jazz Diva Extraordinaire
by Victor L. Schermer
Deborah Brown is one of the finest jazz vocalists in the business, a “singer's singer" with a magnificent voice and mind-boggling technique. Vocalist J.D. Walter mentioned her as an inspirational teacher and mentor in a recent AAJ interview but, despite being very possibly one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, due to her own ...
Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra: Live at the Jazz Standard
by Victor L. Schermer
This unique album stands in a class all by itself: an artful and artsy set of original compositions by pianist Fred Hersch evoking musical images of an America gone by, perhaps from the early 1900s to the 1950s, when life was more innocent than it is today. Distinctly jazz, it incorporates classical and other musical structures ...
J.D. Walter: Being a Verb
by Victor L. Schermer
J.D. Walter is a jazz singers' singer--a purist and an innovator. Although his style has been compared to many vocal titans, it is in the same breath, uniquely his own, and he has become a singular phenomenon on the music scene. Respected and lauded by the great musicians of the contemporary circuit, ...
Diane Schuur with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops at Kimmel Center
by Victor L. Schermer
"88 Keys, a Big Band, and a Voice"Celebrating 30 years of Peter Nero with the Philly PopsThe Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Philadelphia, PA April 24, 2009 On this night, one of five performances of the same concert event, conductor-pianist Peter Nero welcomed Diane Schuur to the stage as ...
Tom Warner: Honoring the Legacy
by Victor L. Schermer
Tom Warner recently replaced Mervon Mehta as vice-president of programming for the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, when the latter took the head position at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Among his eclectic musical tastes, the accessible, warm and articulate Warner has a strong interest in jazz.
Venissa Santi: Reflections on the Cuban Roots of Bienvenida
by Victor L. Schermer
Singer Venissa Santi's debut, Bienvenida (Sunnyside, 2009) offers a satisfying hybrid of straight-ahead jazz with rhythms from her family's homeland, Cuba. The music is highly listenable and, in many ways, speaks for itself--even to an English-speaking audience. However, the ethnic flavorings may stimulate for some a desire to grasp the meaning of the Spanish lyrics and ...
