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...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/03/2009
Cyrus Chestnut Spirit Jazz Legacy Productions 2009 John Hicks I Remember You HighNote 2009 Ray Bryant In The Back Room Evening Star 2009 Playing solo piano requires, among other things, a distinctive style and enough musical ideas to hold a listener's interest over a period of time. Three new releases feature players amply endowed with both...
Jazz & Blues Music Reviews (Free subscription) | 09/28/2009
Poncho Sánchez, a giant on the Latin jazz scene, has developed into something of an elder statesman on that scene, and this is his 24th album for the Concord label. Melding Latin music, jazz, salsa and a host of other influences, Sanchez plays congas with Andrew Synowiec on guitar, David Torres on keyboards; Javíer Vergara on saxophones, Ron Blake on trumpet and flugelhorn, Francisco...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
SOUL JAZZ OF THE 60s Music of Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver Featuring: Kenny Washington, Wess Warmdaddy Anderson, Nnenna Freelon, Louis Hayes, Nicholas Payton, Terell Stafford and More! Who/What: Jazz at Lincoln Center offers the soulful and swingin sounds of an explosive era in music with Soul Jazz of the 60s. Small bands like Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and the Cannonball...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 09/05/2009
In the compressed, sometimes circular history of jazz, the freshest ideas often come from the past. Many young musicians, looking to push their music forward, are now mining the music of the late 1950s and '60s, the birth of what we think of as modern jazz. A quintet led by trumpeter Thomas Marriott, 33, will attempt to re-create and reinterpret that sound Sunday in a show at the New Orleans Creole...
Seattle Times (Free subscription) | 09/04/2009
Seattle trumpeter Thomas Marriott leads a jazz quintet paying tribute to hard-bop pianist and composer Horace Silver.
Celebrity VIP Lounge (Free subscription) | 09/02/2009
Actress Salma Hayek is 43. Actor Meinhardt Raabe (Munchkin coroner in “The Wizard of Oz”) is 94. Dancer-actress Marge Champion is 90. Jazz pianist Horace Silver is 81. Singer Sam Gooden of The Impressions is 70. Singer Jimmy Clanton is 69. Singer-turned-minister Joe Simon is 66. Singer Rosalind Ashford of Martha and the Vandellas is [...]
Miami Herald (Free subscription) | 08/27/2009
Celebrity birthdays for the week of Aug. 30-Sept. 5:
4488: A Ridge Blog (Free subscription) | 08/21/2009
Ok, I’ll disclaim right from the start that I’m indulging in a bit of a stretch here, but let’s see if you’re willing to follow me … Today is August 21st. Two legendary jazz musicians were born on this date, Art Farmer, and Count Basie. Count Basie, the legendary swing-master, band leader, and composer with that Kansas [...]
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