News Scotsman (Free subscription) | 05/25/2008
SCOTT HAMILTON & FRIENDS Across The Tracks ***** Concord 07230388, £9.99
South Dakota Politics (Free subscription) | 05/19/2008
I spent the last several days discussing bioethics in New Orleans. That, and eating crawfish etouffee. I managed to catch some 'Nawlins style jazz at a small club that I won't name because it was hard enough to get a...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 04/14/2008
A good month for tenor saxophone connoisseurs, April 2008, with a second Rudy Van Gelder re-master released alongside Ike Quebec's signature Blue and Sentimental (Blue Note, 2008). The Soothsayer may be comparably less of a benchmark in Wayne Shorter's discography, and remains to some extent overshadowed by its close contemporary Speak No Evil (Blue Note, 1964), but it's a solid and enduring album--despite...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 04/12/2008
Ill health and "personal problems" prevented Ike Quebec (1918-63) from becoming the star he could otherwise have been. The tenor saxophonist straddled 1940s swing-to-bop with as much style as his near contemporary, Dexter Gordon. His warm, weighty, approximately out-of-Coleman Hawkins playing was tailor-made for the hard bop era which followed--but he spent most of the 1950s silent, with a gorilla...
Scotsman.com (Free subscription) | 04/06/2008
Blue & Sentimental *****Blue Note Records: RVG Edition 0946 39318421, £7.99After spending much of the Fifties out of the public eye, the popular Forties tenor saxophonist, Ike Quebec, made a terrific, but all too brief, comeback in 1959 (he died in 1963) with a series of Blue Note releases. This album, recorded in 1961 and augmented here by a couple of bonus tracks, is a classic – a perfect showcase...
Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show (Free subscription) | 03/20/2008
It's cloudy and chilly here in Springfield, Massachusetts. However, it's the first day of Spring, the first day of "March Madness", and therefore all is right with the world. Let's put Old Man Winter away for now and celebrate with a podcast of tunes with Spring in their title. Click here to enjoy: Ike Quebec - Title Track from It Might as Well Be Spring . For my money, THE most underrated saxophonist...
Cloudland Blue - A Diary (Free subscription) | 03/04/2008
Playlist Cloudland Blue Quartet – Souvenir XVI Freddie Redd - Music from "The Connection” Lee Morgan - Leeway Art Blakey - Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World Vol 1 Art Blakey - Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World Vol 2 Hank Mobley - Roll Call Freddie Hubbard - Hub Cap Donald Byrd - Royal Flush Ike Quebec - Blue and Sentimental Various – Blue Note Playlist on Shuffleplay Mondays always seem...
Havering On (Free subscription) | 01/26/2008
The label began life in 1939, founded by two men in their early thirties, both born in Germany, Alfred Lion who had moved to New York City in 1938 and Francis Wolff who made the move as World War 2 began. The name derives from the emblematic ‘blue note’ of jazz and the blues. The first Blue Note recording session, was supervised by Lion, was at WMGM Studio in New York City on Friday 6th January 1939...
The Independent (Free subscription) | 12/30/2007
While jazz singers who aren't really jazz at all continued to prosper, Chicago vocalist Kurt Elling's magisterial new album Nightmoves proved that genuine creativity could co-exist within a smoochy, Sinatra-esque soundtrack to flatter sex and soft furnishings. The album's closing version of Ellington's "I Like the Sunrise" remains the most moving performance of the year.
The Third Bit (Free subscription) | 12/17/2007
The solstice is approaching, so it's time to count ‘em. Do you remember how it felt the first time you: implemented a for loop to find the length of a string, in assembly, and finally understood how computers actually worked? read Software Tools in Pascal, and discovered that there was more to programming than writing legal code? realized [...]
icWales (Free subscription) | 12/05/2007
IKE QUEBEC is fancied to supplement a recent success at Lingfield with another triumph in the digibet.com Claiming Stakes at Kempton.
icWales (Free subscription) | 12/05/2007
IKE QUEBEC is fancied to supplement a recent success at Lingfield with another triumph in the digibet.com Claiming Stakes at Kempton.
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/04/2007
This is quite a painful disc to listen to. Not because of the music--which is beautiful--but because of the events surrounding it. Recorded in October 1962, it was to be tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec's final album. Less than four months later he died of lung cancer. This fact rather sticks in the mind like a house guest who has outstayed his or her welcome...
wordsandmusic (Free subscription) | 08/13/2007
A quick post - Zao (and here ) sent me a request for a re-up of Ike Quebec's 'Blue and Sentimental.' So here it is... Plus another track from the same 1961 album, 'That old black magic.' He does so well – some straight-up tenor juju here. Ike Quebec is a very appealing old school swinger – backed by crisp guitar from Grant Green and the old Miles bass and drum team of Philly Joe and Paul Chambers,...
wordsandmusic (Free subscription) | 07/20/2007
Something to ease into the day with as the monsoon returns to God's Little Acre – Ike Quebec from 1961, a stone classic session. This is 'Blue and Sentimental.' Led in by Grant Green's chording, a big-hearted tenor saxophone slow-dance through the old Basie tune. Quebec was not a big name as such, but a very appealing and thoughtful player with buckets of soul and a strong melodic conception. Green...
