Rifftides (Free subscription) | 01/15/2010
James Moody is in Detroit this week. Mark Stryker, the music critic of The Detroit Free Press, heralded the event with a column that begins: James Moody is my hero, and he should be yours. At 84, the irrepressible saxophonist...
Opelika-Auburn News (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Every time I go to see and hear the Chuck Wagon Gang, as I do whenever they’re in the vicinity, I go with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Will it be the real Chuck Wagon Gang or will they have messed with it, tried to “modernize” it or something?
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
Najee grew up in Jamaica, Queens, and he recently released Mind Over Matter on Heads Up International. Like his two previous recordings, Najee's new CD went straight to the top of Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Chart (and it's still there). On Monday, November 16, Najee returns to his old neighborhood in Jamaica to present a jazz workshop/performance at York College for the youth about following one's...
New York Times (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
Fans make their way steadily to Celia Cruz’s mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, where photographs of the Queen of Salsa change regularly and the space is kept clean.
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) | 09/23/2009
This Sunday, September 27, join the Friends of Woodlawn for a walking tour of the final resting places of the Jazz Greats of Woodlawn Cemetery. Among the notable musicians buried at the historic cemetery are: {{Duke Ellington = 6521}}, {{Lionel Hampton = 7376}}, {{Miles Davis = 6144}}, {{Coleman Hawkins = 7500}}, Bricktop, William Sonny Greer, {{W.C. Handy = 7388}}, Charles "Cootie" Williams,...
the sad red earth (Free subscription) | 09/12/2009
from Jammin’ the Blues Directed by Gjon Mili Sax: Lester Young & Illinois Jacquet Trumpet: Harry “Sweets” Edison Piano: Marlowe Morris Drums: Philly Joe Jones & “Big Sid” Catlett Guitar: Barney Kessell Bass: Red Callender Dancers: Lindy Hop legends Archie Savage and Marie Bryant Full ten minute short film available at Daily Motion.
Bemsha Swing (Free subscription) | 08/25/2009
From the mid thirties, with the rise of Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, to the death of Coltrane in 1967--a thirty year stretch more or less--is what I could call the golden age of the saxophone. Dominant swing era sax players, aside from Bean and Pres, include Ben Webster, Chu Berry, Johnny Hodges, and Benny Carter. Charlie Parker revolutionizes jazz and the 50s show a plethora of postbop players:...
BLUES TOWN (The City Of Blues) (Free subscription) | 08/22/2009
This contemporary swing project is a half-dozen musicians here augmented with piano and trumpet. They are hip, jumpers and swingers that have the chops, talent and delivery that made Mighty Blue Kings such darlings of the swing set. Lead vocalist Eldridge Taylor does much to define the band with his Louis Armstrong inflected tenor voice. This band has roots and experience, too. Recording sessions with...
Undercover Black Man (Free subscription) | 08/13/2009
The music world is in mourning. Guitarist and guitar designer Les Paul died today at the age of 94. The Los Angeles Times obituary is here . In the early 1950s, the Gibson Les Paul, an electric guitar designed with input from Mr. Paul himself, came on the market. It would have a huge impact on rock ’n ’ roll. (Les Paul had designed one of the first solid-body electric guitars back in the...
The New York Observer (Free subscription) | 08/13/2009
Donny McCaslin is a roof-raising tenor saxophonist. He uses the same effects that such tenor players have employed since the Swing Era: the rude honks at the bottom of his horn, the menacing middle register growls and the ecstatic squeals at the peak. If Illinois Jacquet, Lionel Hampton’s famously exuberant tenor star, were still alive, he would recognize a kindred spirit. But Mr. McCaslin is...
composite drawlings (Free subscription) | 07/22/2009
Go away. Why are you still here? What is it that keeps you from going, when there is a perfectly good gate, and a lovely path beyond? Are you mad? Are you sad? Are you gathering moss? Oh, you just want a reading. Well, I think I can accommodate you, today. As long as you promise that, once I give it to you, you will leave me alone again. Naturally. Well, here you are, anyway: You have a blithe disposition,...
Lerterland (Free subscription) | 07/08/2009
In the current Philadelphia Weekly : Edgar Bateman-Julian Pressley Duo Fri., July 10, 9pm. $10. With Yolanda Wisher & Mark Palacio. Moonstone Arts Center, 110 S. 13th St. 215.735.9600 www.moonstoneartscenter.org Philly has its historic jazz titans, but let’s not forget workhorses like drummer Edgar Bateman and saxophonist Julian Pressley, who still exert a subterranean influence, setting...
UPTOWNflavor (Free subscription) | 06/22/2009
What does a former CIA agent have to do with Harlem jazz musicians? You’d be surprised how easy it was for a former spy to coax old memories out of 42 musicians over the course of 20 years. Music producer, author, photographer and former CIA agent, Hank O’Neal documented the lives of Harlem jazz musicians [...]
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 12/19/2008
It had to happen, and when it did, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. After President Clinton gave his final remarks at the White House jazz festival, the saxophonist Illinois Jacquet handed him a saxophone, and off the band went into Miles Davis's blues waltz, "All Blues." Happy to say, the President (who in his early career as a saxophonist had committed Mr. Jacquet's landmark...
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