bebop spoken here (Free subscription) | yesterday
Maureen Hall (vocals), Mac Smith (piano), Barry Soulsby (clarinet & vocals), Iain MacAulay (trombone, bagpipes & vocals), Alan Smith (trumpet & flugelhorn), John Robinson (double bass) & Jim McKeown (drums) + second set Liz Bacon (clarinet), Doris Fenn (banjo). Saturday night was Christmas party night at the Piper. I arrived in Cullercoats just in time for rain clouds over the North...
Jazz & Blues Music Reviews (Free subscription) | 10/14/2009
I had been curious about this disc for a while, since I read that this was the only Hawkins disc that had been rated “core collection” by the latest edition of the Penguin Guide to Jazz. Dance was a British jazz writer and in the late 1950’s he came to the United States to make a series of jazz LP’s one of which, The High and Mighty Hawk , is the cornerstone of this disc. The...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 09/29/2009
You may not recognize Al Stewart's name. But back in the late 1940s and 1950s he was one of the most in-demand East Coast trumpeters in the big-band business. Over the past 55 years, Al has played trumpet along side the biggest names in post-War jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bobby Hackett, Lee Morgan, Charlie Shavers, Buck Clayton, Conrad Gozzo, Maynard...
LondonJazz (Free subscription) | 08/08/2009
The winner of Brecon's (Kind of) Blue plaque is..... the fifty-two year old Concorde Club in Eastleigh . Band On The Wall in Manchester came second, and Ronnie Scott's third. First with the news were BBC Wales, and here's the link to their story. The Concorde Club began as a one night a week venture at the Bassett Hotel in Eastleigh. . Ronnie Scott played at the club the night before he opened his...
Rhapsodyinbooks's Weblog (Free subscription) | 04/07/2009
Billie Holiday was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Clarence Holiday, a musician, and Sadie Fagan, on April 7, 1915. Her father left soon after her birth, and her mother moved her to Baltimore. Sadie worked long hours, and often left Billie with neighbors. In 1925 Billie, age ten, was ordered by [...]
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 02/18/2009
This tribute album by baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan features his bebop-based nonet pulling inspiration from a 1956 album by pop singer Frankie Laine (1913-2007) and trumpeter Buck Clayton. As Laine's foray into jazz's '50s mainstream, Jazz Spectacular (Columbia) represented a piece of the singer's repertoire not as well-known as his pop music. It allowed him to interact with instrumentalists of...
New York Times (Free subscription) | 11/28/2008
The pop and jazz critics of The New York Times review boxed sets and other notable collections released in 2008.
motel de moka (Free subscription) | 10/04/2008
Billie Holiday & Lester Young - When You’re Smiling Billie Holiday and Lester Young Complete recordings 1937-1946 If I had to choose only one Billie Holiday song, without question it would be “When You’re Smiling.” Everyone plays like a genius on this one. Benny Morton’s gutsy and smooth trombone to kick it off, Buck Clayton’s impeccable [...]
Sisyphus (Free subscription) | 06/12/2008
This is Ben Webster (1909-1973) and Billy Taylor (born 1921) performing "Flying Home" on "The Subject is Jazz," a 1958 television series. The band consists of Ben Webster on tenor saxophone, Buck Clayton on trumpet, Benny Morton on trombone, Billy Taylor on piano, Eddie Safranski on bass, Ed Thigpen on drums, and Mundell Lowe on guitar. You can see and hear Ben Webster perform “Somewhere...
Honey, Where You Been So Long? (Free subscription) | 04/02/2008
Okay here is the list as of 3/29. the years are marked where noted - i need help with dates (It’s hard on some discs to determine when the actual recording took place, those i’ve marked with the release date of the disc and a ?) and of course more songs. Big thanks to everyone [...]
wordsandmusic (Free subscription) | 03/14/2008
Pee Wee Russell playing 'Minglewood,' a relaxed 12 bar blues. Opens on a hoarse chorus from clarinet – choked right back – over old school skittering brushes from Osie Johnson. Buck delivers some elegant trumpet over a clarinet obligato. Pee Wee returns, higher and less granular yet no less angular -a diagonal querulousness that ends on a breathy deep goodbye. Buck back, subtley placed...
PR News Wire (Free subscription) | 01/23/2008
The Inaugural BET HONORS, ground-breaking documentary series HISTORY MAKERS, and The Premiere of Two DAVID E. TALBERT STAGE PLAYS Are Featured During February WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- This February, BET Networks and BET J will feature a spectacular lineup of programming that highlights the amazing accomplishments of modern-day history makers, chronicles the influence and contributions...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 09/02/2007
Assuming that these were new albums from the busy Nagel Heyer assembly line, I asked for review copies, only to find that they are in fact a€oeold wine in new bottles.a€ Both were previously released in 1999--Turnstile as Music Of The Trumpet Kings, and Buck Clayton Swings The Village as Live Fom Greenwich Village, NYC. As nothing has changed save the album titles and cover photos (the liner...
Bagatellen (Free subscription) | 06/29/2007
hatOLOGY 637 Big Four borrows its name and basic structure for a somewhat counter-intuitive antiquated source. In March of 1940, Sidney Bechet and Mugsy Spanier entered a studio with a guitarist and bassist as conscripts, cutting eight seminal sides...
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