Album review: Johnny Hodges Quintet
Scotsman.com Living - Books (Free subscription) | 02/02/2010
JOHNNY HODGES QUINTET Buenos Aires Blues ***** Lonehill Jazz LHJ10373 £9.99
Johnny Hodges
3Vote!
3Vote!
John Maddocks Jazzmen at the St Leonards Hotel
Isomatic UK Weblog (Free subscription) | 02/01/2010
This evening we went to the St Leonards Hotel , Dorset, to see John Maddocks Jazzmen for only the second time. This traditional jazz band comprises John Maddocks (clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax, vocals), Peter Wilkinson (trumpet, vocals), Tony Farr (trombone), Chris Satterley (keyboard, vocals, pictured), Peter McCurry (string bass, tuba), Dave Broomfield, (banjo, guitar) and Brian Barker (drums). Our...
Videos
7Vote!
Late Nite at the PB Pub Presents: Duke Ellington
Political Byline (Free subscription) | 01/23/2010
Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing this awesome tune in 1943. “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” is a 1931 composition by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Irving Mills, now accepted as a jazz standard. The music was written and arranged by Ellington in August 1931 during intermissions at Chicago’s Lincoln [...]
4Vote!
EVENT: Three Nights of Darius Jones @ Roulette!
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 01/21/2010
PointofDeparture.org's Ed Hazell writes, "alto saxophonist Darius Jones delivers one of the most impressive debuts in recent memory, displaying a remarkably well-developed concept and individual sound. Jones has a big, fleshy, lived-in tone, with a vibrato that owes as much to Johnny Hodges as it does to Albert Ayler. It's defiant, vulnerable, proud, and weary; there is laughter and sobbing in...
5Vote!
OBITUARY: Ed Thigpen Jazz Drummer Legend Dies Aged 79
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 01/15/2010
Ed Thigpen, Chicago-born drummer with the Oscar Peterson Trio during the famed jazz pianist's popular early-'60s period, died on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at the age of seventy-nine in Kingdom Hospital in Copenhagen after being ill for a long period of time.Besides appearing on dozens of albums with Oscar Peterson, Thigpen recorded and performed with many other jazz greats, such as Ella Fitzgerald,...
3Vote!
RVAJazz 2009 Year in Review: November & December
RVAjazz (Free subscription) | 12/30/2009
In November, Fight the Big Bull kicked off their new gig at Balliceaux. Lucas Fritz launched the VCU Jazz @ The Camel series that takes place every month and features student-run ensembles. The VCU Jazz Orchestra I put on a concert complete with Johnny Hodges impressions and on-stage sight reading, and it was at this [...]
4Vote!
Han Bennink Trio - Parken (ILK Music, 2009)
Jazz & Blues Music Reviews (Free subscription) | 12/14/2009
Drummer and percussionist Han Bennink is best known as a free jazz drummer, but he has played in a great variety of settings and is ready for any situation. This album of witty, thoughtful and exciting improvisation moves from free jazz to melodic versions of Duke Ellington standards without missing a beat. Bennink is joined on this album by Simon Toldman on piano and Joachim Badenhorst on clarinet...
4Vote!
Duke Ellington-"Isfahan"
Rene's Apple (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
Gorgeous Ellington/Strayhorn ballad-"Isfahan"- must've been brand new at this point (1965), because there's Duke holding the music for the amazing Johnny Hodges on alto sax! This was recorded on one of Ellington's best late in the game albums- The Far East Suite. H/t-About Last Night.
4Vote!
The Story Of Jazz Saxophone
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/09/2009
For some, the saxophone is the sound of jazz. The unique fusion of brass and woodwind that is the sax found an electrifying vibrato in the hands of jazzmen that truly changed the world. The pale "pure" tone of the instrument, as first used in classical compositions, vanished in a musical blast of slurs ( {{Coleman Hawkins = 7500}} and {{Johnny Hodges = 7665}}, occasional exciting "false-fingering"...
4Vote!
Sharel Cassity - Relentless (Jazz Legacy Productions, 2009)
Jazz & Blues Music Reviews (Free subscription) | 10/04/2009
Saxophonist Sharel Cassity began to play jazz as a teenager growing up in Iowa City, before moving to New York to further her education and take a shot at the big time. She sounds remarkably composed on her first recording recording for the new label JLC, playing up-tempo post bop with a quicksilver flair and ballads with a gentle and confident poise. On this album she plays alto and soprano saxophones...
4Vote!
Duke Ellington London and New York 1963-1964 The Great Concerts, The Duke of Elegant - Gems From the Duke Ellington Songbook
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/03/2009
Duke Ellington The Great Concerts (London and New York 1963-1964) Musicmasters-Nimbus 2009 Various Artists The Duke of Elegant HighNote 2009 "First of all the kids in the band want you to know they love you madly" are debonair {{Duke Ellington = 6521}}'s playful opening remarks on this live concert set. Those "kids" he refers to are an incredible array of virtuoso sidemen, among...
5Vote!
Weekend Extra: The Art Of The Held Note
Rifftides (Free subscription) | 10/03/2009
From the Wikipedia entry about the saxophonist known as Kenny G: In 1997, Kenny G earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for playing the longest note ever recorded on a saxophone. Kenny G held an E-flat...
3Vote!
Keith Nichols' Blue Devils with Jeff Barnhart @ The Saville, North Shields.
bebop spoken here (Free subscription) | 09/12/2009
Enrico Tomasso, Ben Cummings (tpt/vcl), Keith Nichols (tmb/pno/vcl), Mark Foulkes (alt/clt), David Hornblower (alt/bar/sop/clt), Johnny Boston (ten/clt), Jeff Barnhart (pno/vcl), Martin Wheatley (bjo/gtr), Jerome ? (bs), Richard Pite (dms). An hour and a half later I'm beginning to get my breath back - talk about exhilaration! Keith Nichol's Blue Devils gave a very well attended Saville Exchange audience...
Click here to see all comments
Hi bass was Jerome Davies, Saxes Mark Crooks and David Horniblow
4Vote!
(104) Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster Mulligan...
Bemsha Swing (Free subscription) | 09/02/2009
(104) Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster Mulligan liked to do these "meets" albums. He did an excellent one with another Ellington sideman, Johnny Hodges, and with Monk--among others. Mel Lewis plays drums. The combination of two distinctive sounds is what makes this album great. Mulligan's joyful, bouncy, and exuberant lilt, played with that baritone fullness, and Webster's whispery wistful...
4Vote!
The Streets Are Alive With the Sound of Music
bebop spoken here (Free subscription) | 08/29/2009
Strolling down Northumberland street in Newcastle I was delighted to hear some small band swing filling the air - Radio 2 should have been recording it! I don't know the 4 guys but they could play and it was very enjoyable. If any of you read this tell me about yourselves. I must also commend them on their business acumen - set up next to a cash machine. No excuse folks! Further down the street some...