BrothersJudd Blog (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
The Death of the Cool : Cool was once associated with reticence, savoir-faire, and irony, none of which is much practiced or regarded these days. (Robert McHenry, November 20, 2009, American) Who and what was cool? Cary Grant was cool, and of course Steve McQueen . Thelonious S. Monk (anybody remember when Time captioned a picture of him “Melodious Thunk”?) and Horace Silver, Fairfield...
Wolfgangs Vault (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
Download for $9.98. Listen to Horace Silver Quintet performed at Newport Jazz Festival on July 3, 1959
Wolfgangs Vault (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
Download for $6.98. Listen to The Mastersounds performed at Newport Jazz Festival on July 3, 1959
Wolfgangs Vault (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
Download for $9.98. Listen to The Modern Jazz Quartet performed at Newport Jazz Festival on July 3, 1959
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 11/14/2009
The Scarlatti Jazz Suite Project commences with a short aria in G minor by Domenico Scarlatti, the famed baroque composer of over 550 sonatas for harpsichord. Pianist Donal Fox evinces an elegant pianissimo touch, setting the stage for the title composition, which refracts another Scarlatti theme into a 3/4 romp, with repeating motifs that build tension...
Jazz & Blues Music Reviews (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Bassoonist Smith takes a clutch of bebop, post-bop and blues standards and play them in a solid and accomplished nature. The unusual tone of the bassoon (for jazz anyway) makes for an interesting spin on this familiar material, holding listeners attention on what might otherwise run the risk of being a routine run through of well known songs. The buzzing sound of the instrument adds a different ambiance...
The Hits Just Keep On Comin' (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
At this blog, I pride myself on offering not merely entertainment, but anything else you, the esteemed blog reader, might need. I have limits, however. Here’s a short list of six things I’ll do, and four things I won’t. “I’ll Make Love to You Anytime”/Eric Clapton. From Backless, an album that many critics consider lifeless to [...]
Resource Shelf (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
From the Article: It’s a complicated story. But if you want to know why the Newport Jazz Festival has been so important to American music, it’s easy: you just have to hear the recorded evidence. Bits and pieces have emerged over the years, in live recordings by Ellington, Coltrane and others. Now Wolfgang’s Vault, the online [...]
Fido the Yak (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
If you dig "Peace" you'll probably dig "Shirl," a Horace Silver ballad with a couple of rhythmic quirks and a handful of far out harmonic ideas. James Mahone has provided a transcription of the head. I'm trying to spell out the chords (or implications of chords, you know) and either make a usable lead sheet or just learn the tune so I don't need one. At this point it seems rather...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
Three forces transformed Latin music in the fall of 1962. First, the grittier, slinky funk of Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons and Art Blakey had a big impact on artists, shifting Latin music away from popular Cuban dances. Second, waves of Puerto Rican immigrants to New York in the 1950s had created a new youth market for rhythms emerging from the city's Hispanic neighborhoods, particularly East Harlem....
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
The Legendary Drummer Billy Cobham's new CD Palindrome is set to be released at the beginning of 2010. About Billy Cobham The legendary Billy Cobham, with his matchless, dazzling, ambidextrous skills as a drummer, has applied the same insistent fervor to his long list of monumental achievements. Hes an accomplished composer and record producer...
Rifftides (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
Reviewing the Art Farmer Jazz Icons DVD the other day stimulated thoughts of his unique place in the pantheon of major jazz soloists. I started to write them, then realized that I already had. Here is an excerpt from the...
greenliving (Free subscription) | 10/19/2009
Here's a Top 10 made up of music old and new. New is Natural Self, old is Horace Silver from 1964! 1 Marvin Gaye / What's Going On / Motown 2 Natural Self / My Heart Beats Like A Drum / Tru Thoughts 3 Horace Silver / Song For My Father / Blue Note 4 Jeb Loy Nichols / Strange Faith And Practise / Impossible Ark 5 Quantic Soul Orchestra / Tropidelico / Tru Thoughts 6 Lizzy Parks / Raise The Roof / Tru...
DCist (Free subscription) | 10/14/2009
The Stanley Clarke Trio (l-r): Hiromi, Clarke, Lenny White Bassist Stanley Clarke was not long out of high school in 1971, when he moved to New York from his native Philadelphia. In the Big Apple, his virtuosic talent made an immediate splash and landed him stints with jazz legends such as Horace Silver and Joe Henderson . But it wasn't until the following year that Clarke's career really took off....
Cameron K's Blog (Free subscription) | 10/05/2009
Curtis Ousley was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1934. He learned to play the saxophone and was influenced by alto sax players; Earl Bostic and Louis Jordan; and tenor sax players; Illinois Jacquet, and Arnett Cobb. He started his professional career playing sax with Lionel Hampton before moving to New York City in 1953. Curtis worked under his own name and played tenor sax with Horace Silver’s...
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