Results for "Zoot Sims"
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims was born in Inglewood, California. Growing up in a vaudeville family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age. His father was a vaudeville hoofer, and Sims prided himself on remembering many of the steps his father taught him. Following in the footsteps of Lester Young, Sims developed into an innovative tenor saxophonist. Throughout his career, he played with renowned bands, including Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Stan Kenton, and Buddy Rich. Sims was also one of Woody Herman's "Four Brothers", and he was known among his peers as one of the strongest swingers in the field. Sims frequently led his own combos and sometimes toured with his friend Gerry Mulligan's sextet, and later with Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band
read moreFrank Tiberi: The Thundering is Still Heard
The term “ninety-two years young" is a bit cliché, but if the shoe fits (oops, another cliché). Saxophonist Frank Tiberi (pictured above playing with saxophonist and long time friend George Garzone to the left) spoke with the verve and energy of a much younger man. He got excited, as if being back in the moment, when ...
read moreLive in Schauburg, Bremen, Germany, 1983
The history of jazz is not only a story of great individuals, but also a narrative of partnerships that have shaped the development of the music. Just think of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines and Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. There's also a proud tradition of combining saxophone and piano with ...
read moreJeff Rupert/George Garzone: The Ripple
The Ripple refers to the infectious, warm, intimate, yet big sound developed by the great Lester Young, starting in the late 1930s. While Young pioneered improvisational creativity, Stan Getz later took the baton (well, it was actually a saxophone) and further expanded his idol's stylish approach with new and creatively open-ended visions. Young and Getz collectively ...
read moreZoot Sims: Sweden, 1984
In November 1984, four months before tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims died at age 60, he performed at the library in the Sonet Records building in Lidingö, Sweden. Sims was backed by bassist Red Mitchell and guitarist Rune Gustafsson. They performed for nearly an hour, playing In a Sentimental Mood, Gone With the Wind, Castle Blues, Sweet ...
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Chuck Redd: 40 Years On the Road
Chuck Redd is a busy, busy man. This interview took place after one of his many sets during the North Carolina Jazz Festival, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary at the beginning of 2020. Coincidently, Redd is also celebrating his 40th anniversary of being on the road as one of the most versatile and in-demand drummers and ...
read moreTwo Twin-Tenor Duos
The idea of two tenor saxophonists playing together has a long, storied history in jazz through pairings like Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, and Zoot Sims and Al Cohn. Such duos have become harder to find in recent years but here are two newer examples. Jeff Rupert / ...
read moreCraft Recording's "Chet" is a Rare Win for Baker
"There's a little white cat out here who's going to eat you up." —Charlie Parker (to Miles Davis) Chet Baker and Miles Davis. Two trumpet players born three years apart. Both unusually handsome and slight of build. Both lacking, as trumpeters, the qualities most often associated with those brass alphas of the jazz ...
read moreA Story About Zoot And Hawk
Here’s an item purloined (with his permission) from bassist Bill Crow’s column “The Band Room” in Allegro, the publication of New York Local 802 of the American Federation Of Musicians. Zoot Sims was one of the many tenor saxophonists who took Lester Young’s style as a starting point for their own development. But Zoot also idolized ...
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Chet Baker: Chet
In the early 1950s, the rural Oklahoman Chet Baker established prominent connections in the jazz world; gigs with Charlie Parker and Stan Getz led to his first recordings. The trappings of both musicians' circles were dusted with heroin and Baker's career breaks coincided with his introduction to the disease that would stifle his musical development and ...
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Jumpin Jive: Cab Calloway and the Nicholas BrothersFeaturing the music of Cab Calloway
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